(Syn)aesthetics: Redefining Visceral Performance

by J. Machon

Overview

A timely book that identifies the practice of '(syn)aesthetics' in artistic style and audience response, which helps to articulate the power of experiential practice in the arts. This exciting new approach includes interviews with leading practitioners in of theatre, dance, site-specific work, live art and technological performance practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230336902
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/28/2009
Edition description:	2009
Pages:	221
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

List of interviewees: LINDA BASSETT is an internationally renowned actress. BODIES IN FLIGHT was formed in 1990 by choreographer Sara Giddens and writer Simon Jones, and makes interdisciplinary performance work. GLYN CANNON is a British playwright. MARISA CARNESKY is an Olivier award winning performance artist and show-woman who has presented performance events internationally. CURIOUS was formed in 1996 by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, and has produced many projects in a range of disciplines including performance, installation, publication and film. AKRAM KHAN is an acclaimed choreographer and artistic director of Akram Khan Dance Company, set up in 2000. KWAME KWEI-ARMAH is a British actor, broadcaster, columnist, director and playwright. JO MCINNES has performed in theatre, film and television and currently runs her own production company. PUNCHDRUNK is the UK's leading exponent of immersive theatre, and produces original works of installation performance on an epic scale. JENNY SEALEY is Artistic Director of Graeae, a disabled-led theatre company that profiles the skills of actors, writers and directors with physical and sensory impairments. SHUNT is a collective of ten artists creating large-scale performance events in unexpected, abandoned or derelict buildings throughout London. NAOMI WALLACE is a playwright, screenwriter and poet.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Interview Contributors Introduction: Redefining Visceral Performance PART I Defining (Syn)aesthetics Connecting Theories (Syn)aesthetics in Practice PART II Introduction – A (Syn)aesthetic Exchange Felix Barrett& Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk: In the P rae-sens of Body and Space - the (syn)aesthetics of Site-sympathetic Work Lizzie Clachan& David Rosenberg of Shunt Theatre Collective: A Door into Another World - The Audience and Hybridity Akram Khan: The Mathematics of Sensation - The Body as Site/Sight/Cite and Source Marisa Carnesky: Trapping the Audience in the Fantasy – Instinct, the Body& the Magic of the Experiential Naomi Wallace& Kwame Kwei-Armah: Desire, the Body and Transgressive Acts of Playwriting – on Writing and Directing Things of Dry Hours Linda Bassett: Bypassing the Logical – Performing Churchill's Far Away Jo McInnes: A Text That Demands to be Played With – Performing Kane's 4.48 Psychosis Graeae's Jenny Sealey& Playwright Glyn Cannon: Seeing Words and (Dis)comfort Zones – the Fusion of Bodies, Text and Technology in On Blindness Sara Giddens& Simon Jones of Bodies In Flight: The In-betweens, Where Flesh Utters and Words Move – On Flesh, Text, Space and Technologies Leslie Hill& Helen Paris of Curious: Embodied Intimacies - On (the) Scent, Memory and the Visceral-Virtual Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'The diversity of voices [in part 2 of the book] is a real strength...[and] provides a rich array of primary source material for all readers from undergraduates to professors...' - Patrick Duggan, New Theatre Quarterly

From the Publisher