Live Art: Histories of the Present
Live Art: Histories of the Present explores the complex relationship between live art and the material, historical conditions which have fostered and sometimes constrained the possibilities for experimental and interdisciplinary performance. Through short talks, roundtable discussions and workshops, part of the AHRC-funded Live Art in Scotland project, it engages with the structures that enable and are generated by live art and its communities of practice – the ways in which artists and researchers are engaged in tracing its past to (re)imagine its futures. With contributions from Dominic Johnson, Phoebe Patey Ferguson, Heike Roms, Gavin Butt and Vanessa Macaulay.
Theatre Studies | School of Culture & Creative Arts | College of Arts
Date: Wednesday 06 April 2022 - Thursday 07 April 2022
Time: 10:00
Venue: Gilmorehill Halls
Category: Conferences, Academic events
We are excited to invite you to Live Art: Histories of the Present at the University of Glasgow on Wednesday 6th of April and Thursday 7th of April 2022, with presentations from Dominic Johnson, Phoebe Patey Ferguson, Heike Roms, Gavin Butt and Vanessa Macaulay.
Live Art: Histories of the Present explores the complex relationship between live art and the material, historical conditions which have enabled, fostered, and sometimes constrained the possibilities for experimental and interdisciplinary performance. Taking up Heike Roms and Rebecca Edwards’ invitation to reckon with the tangible outcomes of ephemeral practices—its networks and platforms, festivals, spaces, training programmes, funding schemes, publications, and archives—Live Art: Histories of the Present considers strategies for historicising the curation and development of live art and experimental performance. Drawing on the work and perspectives of leading researchers and practitioners, we’ll explore the conditions in which live art has previously flourished and evolved, and in turn, the possibilities that might shape its future study and existence.
In doing so, this symposium asks:
- How can live art serve as a ‘history of the present’, tracing the contexts, conflicts, and contingencies through which contemporary practices and institutions have emerged? What are the critical, conceptual, and creative strategies prompted or demanded by such an approach to history-making?
- How might we better understand the sustaining ecologies of live art beyond the relationships between artists and institutions? How are different economies of practice reflected in and produced by differing approaches to curation, development, and training?
- How does the intersection of research and practice—whether as practice-led research, research-led practice, or something else again—function as historiography? What perspectives does it invite, uncover, or generate?
Staged over two days of short talks, roundtable discussions and workshops as part of the AHRC-funded Live Art in Scotland project, it engages with the infrastructures of development, support and funding that enable and are generated by live art and its communities of practice – and the ways in which both artists and researchers are engaged in tracing its past to (re)imagine its futures.
To book a space and to find out more about the event, please follow this Eventbrite link:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-art-histories-of-the-present-tickets-274123499767
Organised by Dr Stephen Greer and Dr Bryony White. This event is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (grant number AH/V001728/1) and The University of Glasgow.
