Engaging Performance

Tutor(s): various
Assessment: presentation [45%], essay [45%], participation [10%]

The module is designed as an introduction to the field of Performance Studies, and engages critically with a wide range of artistic, cultural and social phenomena. The module develops student confidence and competence with regard to independent and collaborative study. Students will explore the ways in which performance, in both its theatrical and non-theatrical forms, is bound up with issues of ideology and representation. The module investigates performance and ethics as core dimensions of the public sphere both within and beyond the contexts of art, examining a range of forms and spaces, for example theatrical events, museum and gallery institutions, political activism, processes of governance and law-making, social media, and the creation and management of public space. Case studies will be related as far as possible to current sites and events in London, as a means of expanding students’ familiarity with the city’s broad cultural scene.