Relational Performence

In the words of Grant Kester, relational artists "define themselves as artists through their ability to catalyze understanding, to mediate exchange, and to sustain an ongoing process of empathetic identification and critical analysis."

 

We are now experiencing what has been called “the social turn” in contemporary art and theatre. While all performance is in some sense about relations among performers and viewers, what we could call “Relational Performance” explicitly constructs social interaction as the very medium--and often the subject--of the work. This class in participatory artmaking includes theoretical readings from Bourriaud, Kester, Bishop, Hyde, Jackson and others, along with practical projects driven by the students’ own creative interests.

 

This course explores theories of relationality and “relational aesthetics,” the growing body of relational work in contemporary arts, and the practicalities of making relational performance. Students do theoretical and critical reading and writing while producing a structured series of creative projects both in and out of the classroom.