The Impact of Performance As Research Proceedings of Carpa3 — Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts Editor Annette Arlander
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THE IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE AS RESEARCH PROCEEDINGS OF CARPA3 — COLLOQUIUM ON ARTISTIC RESEARCH IN PERFORMING ARTS EDITOR ANNETTE ARLANDER Theatre Academy Helsinki 28th February to 2nd March 2013 Publisher University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy © 2014 University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy, The Performing Arts Research Centre, TUTKE, Editor & Writers Web design Sari Koskinen & Outi Mansikkamäki, wrkshp.fi ISSN 2341-9679 ISBN 978-952-6670-36-2 NIVEL02 The Publication series of the Theatre Academy Helsinki Nivel 2014 CARPA3 PROCEEDINGS CARPA3 PROCEEDINGS THE IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE AS RESEARCH Introduction Annette Arlander FACEtoFACE Emilyn Claid Making and Knowing Art from The Heart Antti Nykyri & Leena Rouhiainen Viewing and Reviewing a Performance Situation Per Roar Dear Institution Rebecca Collins Happy Incidents and Unexpected Encounters in the Academia, or Be(coming) (a) Present(ation) Eeva Anttila, Hanna Guttorm, Teija Löytönen & Anita Valkeemäki MAKING MATTER: A Dialogue about Brief Encounters and Enduring Impressions Katja Hilevaara & Emily Orley Artistic Interventions as a Strand of Artistic Research Kai Lehikoinen Sensory Digital Intonation Åsa UnanderScharin & Carl UnanderScharin Into the Good Night (go) Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley & Lee Miller Etudes on Silence – Researching the Performative and Performing Research Cecilia Lagerström Musical Improvisation as the Performance of Embodied Knowledge: Embodied Narrativity in Musical Performance Vincent Meelberg Embodied Knowing – Performativity as Research in the UK June BoyceTillman Life in Bytom: The Actual Forms of Plasticity Tero Nauha Rewriting Distance. Some Reflections on the Impact of Performance as Research. Guy Cools Project Barca: New Architectures of Memory and Identity – A Case Study on the Impact of Performance as Research Henry Daniel & Rakel Marín Ezpeleta Electrovocal Performance as/in Research: Notes for a Performance Gretchen Jude Initiating an Improvised Dance/Music Performance through Movement Imagery and Performance Analysis Paula Salosaari INTRODUCTION ANNETTE ARLANDER The third Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts, CARPA 3, took place at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki between 28th February and 2nd March 2013. The purpose of the biannual CARPA colloquia is to contribute to the development of artistic research practices in the field of the performing arts and to foster their social, pedagogical and ecological connections. For the third time The Performing Arts Research Centre (Tutke) invited researchers at doctoral and postdoctoral levels to share their work and participate in the colloquium, which this time focused on the impact of performance as research. CARPA 3 took as its starting point the increasing demands on impact placed on all forms of research today. We sent out a call explaining our interest in the performance of artistic research and the various forms of effects, affects and sideeffects produced by artistic research projects. We posed some very broad and general questions like: How do expectations on efficacy relate to the so called performative turn in social sciences? What is the relationship between artistic research and performance studies? What forms of shared authorship and collaboration does performance as research support? What are the results of our research projects? And to our great delight many researchers and artists responded to the call, both those who had participated in the previous colloquia and wanted to continue discussions related to artistic research in performing arts as well as those who were attracted by the theme. While deciding on the theme we did not fully realize how acutely relevant the topic of impact was for many scholars and artists, grappling with the privatization of universities. Our first keynote speaker, professor Heike Roms from Aberystwyth University made this clear in her lecture The Impact of “Impact” – Performing Artistic Research in the Ruins of the University? Roms explained how “Impact” has in the UK established itself as a new operative term that determines much of what happens in the name of research. In assessments of research quality and in applying for research grants, every researcher has to prove that their work has “impact” on the scholarly community as well as on nonscholarly publics. Roms discussed the impact this demand for “impact” has had on the field of artistic research, or “practiceas research” as it is called in the UK. She noted that a shift has been taking place in the debate on practicebased research in the UK, from a focus on its epistemological dimension associated with alternative forms of knowledge to the fact that artistic practice can help open research toward new, nonscholarly audiences. For instance the use of models and techniques from relational strategies in contemporary art have assisted in achieving “impactful” research. Although it is important to ask whom our research is for and how others may participate in it, Roms pointed out, the problem is that attention on “impact” is in agreement with the current policy of the conservativeliberal government in the UK and its move toward a greater privatisation of the University. She maintained that at a time when the teaching of art in British universities is no longer publicly funded, a call for the public impact of artistic research is used to further such privatisation. Referring to Bill Readings’ The University in Ruins (Reading 1996), Roms asked whether artistic research may inadvertently collude in such neoliberal politics, and, moreover, whether artistic research ever was as challenging to the University system as it thought itself to be. For CARPA 3 we invited proposals of presentations (demonstrations, workshops, papers) related to three broad concerns. First of all we were interested in the relationship between performance studies and artistic research. Performance studies and the expanded field of performance acknowledge performance practices extending outside the realm of art into the everyday; artistic research and practice extend the academic traditions of performance studies, “doing” what performance studies have propagated but not always realized (Mckenzie, Roms and Lee 2010). Personally I find this relationship challenging and important, although in my experience it is in no way selfevident. While performance studies, and cultural studies in general, have insisted on trying to let all the various voices of knowledge producers be heard, and thus made room for artists’ voices as well, many artists and representatives of higher arts education insist on the special freedom and status of art as a field of critical practice. The relationship between performance studies and artistic research was addressed by our keynote speaker Marin Blažević, who pointed out the relative mutual ignorance of performance studies and European postdramatic dramaturgical practices, while arguing for their close correspondence. In his lecture From Shifts to Shifting Dramaturgy he pointed out how the interplay of performative practice and theory or criticism of performance has been one of the distinctive factors in professing performance studies. According to him one of the main challenges has been to make the interaction and mutual reflection between (artistic) performance practice and theory of (artistic) performance more creative and complex. The shifts, introduced at the PSi#15 conference in Zagreb (2009), and later adopted by the PSi annual conferences, were thus conceived as collaborative crossover formats inviting both artists and scholars to experiment with the protocols of various intersected forms of performance and its research, whether in the framework of artistic practice, academic discourse and teaching, or social activism. Secondly CARPA 3 focused on performanceasresearch, using the international term, although the term practiceasresearch in performing arts could have been used equally well. We wanted to focus on a whole set of themes like the performer as researcher, performer as author, authorship and performance, shared authorship, participatory strategies in performance related to the “transformative power of performance” and the performative turn in the arts (FischerLichte 2008), and on participation as a key strategy in contemporary art (Bishop 2006). Humanistic research mostly consists of individual undertakings, while artistic practice in performing arts is often collaborative. Is it politically correct to work alone today? What does collaboration mean in artistic research? Collaborating and performing with what or whom? What are the limits and problems of collaboration? This cluster of themes turned out to be the most popular among presenters, perhaps not surprisingly, since the question of the performer as researcher or issues of collaboration concern most artistresearchers in the field in one way or another. These topics are also relevant for the professors, scholars and students at the Performing Arts Research Centre, many of who joined the colloquium. Thirdly, CARPA 3 brought up the question of the performativity of artistic research, which relates to the main theme, the impact of artistic research. Performative research, however, can also be understood as a methodology. And then we can ask whether it should be understood as an extension of qualitative research or a distinct paradigm, as research producing what it names (Haseman 2006). Artistic research can be regarded as something performative, producing effects in the world,