Since the early part of the 20th century performance artist have used language, breath and silence to create work. Performance artist ranging from the Dadaist to Karen Finley have created ruptures via the question of the verbal. We will look at the of many artist from Rachel Rosenthal to Annie Sprinkle to Spalding Gray to Ron Athey, Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Faith Wilding, William Pope L., Maria Teresa Hincapie, Nao Bustamante, Ana Mendieta and beyond. Each student in the class will be expected to participate in class dialogue, critiques and most importantly the presentation of new gestures. Each gesture should be no-longer than 10 minutes and any media can be used to presented to the class (from video to live).Attendance:
You will be expected to attend every class. If you have more than 2 unexcused absences, your final grade will drop 1/2 a letter for every additional unexcused absence. Two unexcused lateness will be considered an absence.
CATALOGUES AND BOOKS THAT ARE RECOMMENDED:
The Aesthetics of Disengagement: Contemporary Art and Depression (Paperback) by Christine Ross (Author)
Subjective Made Object: Pain in Contemporary Art
Colin Fernandes, MD
http://www.ampainsoc.org/pub/bulletin/jul04/path1.htm
CATALOGUES:
Out of Actions (LA MoCA)
Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object (Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art)
Performance Art (edited by Roselee Goldberg)
Body and the East: Form the 60s to the Present, (Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia)
BOOKS:
Art Works: Perform, Jens Hoffmann and Joan Jonas
The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, eds. Michael Huley and Noel Witts
Performance, Marvin Carlson
Contract with the Skin, Kathy Odell
Performing the Body, Amelia Jones
The Explicit Body of Performance, Rebecca Schneider
Performance Art from Futurism to the Present, Roselee Goldberg
Happenings and Other Arts, ed Mary Ellen Sandford
Unmarked, Peggy Phelan
Acting Act: Feminist Performances, eds. Lynda Hart and Peggy Phelan
Let's Get it On: The Politics of Black Performance, ed. Catherine Ugwu
Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, ed. Coco Fusco
Greenwich Village 1963, Sally Banes
The Blurring of Art and Life, Alan Kaprow
Imaging Her Erotics, Carolee Schneeman
The Citizen Artist: An Anthology from High Performance Magazine
Liveness, Philip Auslander
CLASSES
Class 1 - Sept. 25th - NO CLASS
Class 2 - Sept. 30th - Introduction to the question of the Verbal: sound, silence and breath
A dialogue about the trajectories that potential gestures can follow during
the class.
The ABC's of DADA (1 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkIJ0odFxA
Dada Sounds http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Dada-Sounds.html
Christian Bok http://www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html
Sylvia Plath
http://www.youtube.com/v/6hHjctqSBwM&rel=1
Karen Finley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck89kh2vht8
(FIRST GESTURE - use five words in repitation to tell us the Story of your Life.) to be presented Class 3.
Class 3 - Oct. 2nd - Confessions of the Body
(Present First Gesture to class) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(SECOND GESTURE): Select a part or bit of your body and let it speak, let it confess.
Class 4 - Oct. 7th - Everyday Me.
Class 4B - Oct. 9th
(Present Second Gesture) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(THIRD GESTURE) find a banal aspect of yourself - filling forms, standing in line etc,. and tell us about that you.
Class 5 - Oct. 14th - Commands
Class 5B - Oct. 16th
(THIRD GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(FORTH GESTURE) Give yourself commands and follow them (like Simon's Says!)
Class 6 - Oct. 14th - Not I/Almost I/Another I
Class 6B - Oct. 16th:
(FORTH GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(FIFTH GESTURE) Create a monologue as someone who is not you, about something you have never done.
CLass 7 - Oct. 21th - Truth or Dare
Class 7 - Oct. 23rd
(FIFTH GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(SIXTH GESTURE) we will play spin-the-bottle and you will have to tell us a "truth" or do a dare in CLASS.
(SEVENTH GESTURE) Find something as you are walking to class that you find on the
floor, grass etc., then improvise a story about it for us
Class 8 - Oct. 16th - Improvising words
(SEVENTH GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(EIGHTH GESTURE) Tell us about the most intimate moment of you life.
Class 9 - Oct. 21st - Intimate words, sounds, memories
(EIGHTH GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(NINTH GESTURE) Tell us how you would like life to be after you pass away, could be the
afterlife, reincarnation or a tale about those left behind.
Class 10 - Oct. 23rd - Last Will and Testament
(NINTH GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
(TENTH GESTURE) Create an on-line Avatar and give it a voice about leaving your "real" body behind and imagine becoming something else that is completely virtual on Second Life.
Class 11 - Oct. 28th - NO CLASS - Becoming Virtual Voices(TENTH GESTURE) to be presented in Second Life. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
Class 12 - Oct. 30th - NO CLASS
Class 13 - Nov. 6th - The BIG RANT
(ELEVENTH GESTURE) Give a us a BIG RANT about something you do you not LIKE or Want to CHANGE or you are just VERY ANGRY ABOUT!
Class 14 - Nov. 11th - OPEN GESTURE
(TWELFE GESTURE) to be presented to the class. In class we will review and discuss everyone's performance.
Class 15 - Nov. 13th - OPEN GESTURE
Class 16 - Nov. 18th - GROUP GESTURE
Class 17 - 20 - Nov. 20th - Nov. 25th - Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving) NO CLASSESS.
Class 18 - Dec. 2nd - GROUP GESTURE
Class 19 - Dec. 4th - GROUP REFLECTIONS
Class 20 - Dec 8th- (We will decide on this class).