Performance Writing
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Performance Writing was pioneered at
Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...
in Devon, UK as a radical new approach to writing. It is a multi-modal approach which explores through artistic practice how
writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...
interacts with other art forms and practices —
visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...
,
sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...
,
time-based media Time-based media is a term coined by museum conservators for durational works of art that unfold over a period of time. This work often relies on technology, but includes mediums such as performance art and social practice (art) , social practice ...
, installation,
electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or Generative literature, algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature ar ...
, bookworks, and
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
.


History

Performance Writing was inaugurated as a
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
undergraduate course at
Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...
in 1994. The course was written, and the field developed, by a number of self-described Performance Writers and academics including John Hall, Ric Allsopp, Caroline Bergvall, Aaron Williamson, Brigid Mc Leer, Alaric Sumner, Redell Olsen,
cris cheek Cris Cheek (born 1955) is a British-American multimodal poet and scholar. He began his career in the mid 1970s working alongside Bill Griffiths and Bob Cobbing at the Poetry Society printshop in London and with the Writers Forum group, who met ...
, Peter Jaeger, Barbara Bridger, Melanie Thompson, Jerome Fletcher, and many others, and enriched by a program of visiting artists from around the world.John Hall, ''Thirteen Ways of Talking about Performance Writing: a Lecture'', Plymouth, UK: Plymouth College of Art Press, 2007. (A more extensive list of performance writers is given on p.35.) The external examiners for the BA and MA programmes were
Allen Fisher Allen Fisher (born 1944) is a poet, painter, publisher, teacher and performer associated with the British Poetry Revival. Fisher was born in London and started writing poetry in 1962. In the late 1960s, he was involved with Fluxshoe, the Unite ...
, Rod Mengham and
Robert Gavin Hampson Robert Gavin Hampson FEA FRSA (born 1948) is a British poet and academic. Hampson was born and raised in Liverpool, studied in London and Toronto and settled in London. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Royal Holloway. He was Visiting Profess ...
. As a result of the merger of DCA and
University College Falmouth Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...
( now
Falmouth University Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...
in 2010, the undergraduate Performance Writing course was relocated to a new performance centre at Tremough Campus (now Penryn Campus) near
Penryn, Cornwall Penryn (; , meaning 'promontory') is a civil parish and town in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is on the Penryn River about northwest of Falmouth. The population was 7,166 in the 2001 census and had been reduced to 6,812 in the 2 ...
. The course ceased taking applications for new students from 2010 onwards pending a reconfiguration of its Performance Writing courses. Recruitment has not resumed. The
Falmouth University Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...
post-graduate
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
course in Performance Writing led by Associate Professor of Performance Writing Jerome Fletcher ran for two years at the Arnolfini in
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
. Recruitment to the MA Performance Writing was ceased in 2012. Performance Writing continues at the postgraduate and research level at
Falmouth University Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...
. Performance Writing has been adopted and adapted by both independent and academic researchers, practitioners, pedagogs, and institutions in Oakland, California and The Banff Centre in Canada. In the UK, Performance Writing methodologies and sensibilities have spread – primarily through graduates of the program at Dartington – into a rich diversity of artistic forms and institutional formulations.


Development of definition

As an emerging field, its definition and limits are the subject of ongoing debate. John Hall's lecture ''Thirteen Ways of Talking about Performance Writing'' explores
definition A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitio ...
as a process, using playful and precise language to establish the complexity of reflexive descriptions: a performance of writing about writing as such. At the symposium launching the field, Performance Writing was described by Caroline Bergvall as exploring "relationships between textual and text-based work when developed in conjunction with other media and discourses," and opening "the investigation of formal and ideological strategies which writers and artists develop textually in response or in reaction to their own time and their own fields" She also understood it as "not primarily unified academic discipline rone delineated, hybridic artform", but rather as an "area of joint practical and critical investigation of the many uses writing and language are being put to and push themselves into."


Events

Performance Writing events so far include two symposia; one at Dartington College of Arts in 1996 and a second at the Theatre School in Utrecht in 1999. In May 2010 Bristol's Arnolfini, in collaboration with University College Falmouth, held ''PW10'': a weekend of Performance Writing themed talks, readings, and artistic works exploring
interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...
approaches to language and textuality. It was timed to coincide with the exhibition ''Say: "Parsley"'' by Performance Writing co-founder Caroline Bergvall and Ciaran Maher. It included works by
Allen Fisher Allen Fisher (born 1944) is a poet, painter, publisher, teacher and performer associated with the British Poetry Revival. Fisher was born in London and started writing poetry in 1962. In the late 1960s, he was involved with Fluxshoe, the Unite ...
, Drew Milne, David Prior (artist), Jason Nelson, J.R. Carpenter.Arnolfini Programme 2010
In May 2012 PW12 was held at Arnolfini.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Performance Writing Academic disciplines