21M.703J Media and Methods: Performing | Coco Fusco
This course is an introduction to the history of socially engaged performance art and its strategic uses in public space, both physical and virtual. We will begin by working through some foundational theories of performance, drawing on texts by Richard Schechner, Erving Goffman, Frantz Fanon, Guy Debord, Judith Butler and George Auslander. We will consider theories of performance as explorations of culturally coded behavior; performance as a means of negotiating the demands of the modern workplace; performance as an effect of intercultural projection; performance as a failed enactment of an ideal identity; performance as a strategic disruption of established political discourse; and performance as an essentially mediated mode of communication vs. the traditional view of performance as an essentially live act. Among the artists whose works we will study are: John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Guerilla Art Action Group, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Adrian Piper, Reverend Billy and The Yes Men. Course assignments will consist of weekly readings (50-75 pages per week), four short papers and an oral report.