Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Essay 2000 Words | 50% |
| Semester Exam | Group Performed Essay 30 Minutes | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Essay - to a new topic 2000 Words | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Essay - to a new topic 2000 Words | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Understand the diversity of space, place and landscape performance practices and engage critically with the historical, political and aesthetic reasons for their development.
Work in an interdisciplinary manner and apply spatial theories to contemporary performance practice.
Identify the different ways in which contemporary performance practitioners 'compose' or 'sculpt' dramaturgies of place, space and landscape.
Experiment with ways of merging critical and creative research.
Brief description
This course sets out to explore practices of location in contemporary performance and live art, and considers how and why an important number of contemporary performance makers have abandoned assumptions about the neutrality of the stage and have turned instead to various types of space-based performance. It does so by focusing on 3 key terms: space, place and landscape. The first part of the course introduces important terms, developments, concepts and practitioners, exploring the relationship between contemporary performance practice and recent spatial theory. In the second part, these understandings are explored and expanded through the development and realisation of practical research projects. The overall aim of this interdisciplinary module is to show how performance makers are always engaged in a concrete spatial practice; and how, in turn, this engagement has important aesthetic and political consequences.
Content
- The performed nature of place (Doreen Massey, Henri Lefebvre, Walter Benjamin, Michel de Certeau)
- Recent histories of spatial performance (Installation, Intervention, Land Art, Site-specificity)
- Site oriented practice (in art, in performance, in theatre)
- Performing the private in public (Mike Pearson, Rachel Whiteread, Bobby Baker)
- Daily actions as performance (Richard Long, Townley and Bradby, Francis Alys)
- Performance in and of landscape (Pearson/Brookes, Blast Theory, NVA)
- Location of performance, performance of location (NTW, Rimini Protokoll, Stan's Cafe)
- Expanding forms of public art (Graeme Miller, Mike Brookes and Rosa Casado, Lone Twin)
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Communication | Students' oral and written communication skills will be developed in the lecture/seminars and assignments |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Students will be able to develop their research and communication skills |
| Information Technology | * Students will be given the opportunity to develop their word-processing skills * Students will be given opportunities to develop their skills using the CPR archive's audio-visual resources, electronic databases and retrieval of sources both on the web and on the UWS LIS * Students will develop their skills when referencing from the web and related sources, whilst the ability to evaluate (not describe) and ability to be selective in using these materials are also essential key skills * E-mail and Blackboard will be used as forms of communication and information-sharing. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | * Students will be given the opportunity to evaluate current knowledge and skills and set targets for self-improvement * Students will be encouraged to take increasing responsibility for managing their own learning * Students will be encouraged to build upon the knowledge gained from workshops and develop skills in self study (supported by the general and specific reading lists and other resources distributed throughout the module) * Students will be encouraged to blend critical and creative writing in the portfolio. |
| Problem solving | Problem identification and analysis, particularly when exploring the dramaturgical components of specific performances and their contexts. |
| Research skills | * Information location; creation of bibliographies * Ability to conduct comparative and interdisciplinary textual and performance analysis * Students will develop the ability to analyse, interpret, evaluate and integrate knowledge and understanding gained from interdisciplinary study and then apply that to performance * Autonomous learning opportunites in the portfolio, the subject of which is negotiated with the tutor. |
| Subject Specific Skills | See QAA Dance, Drama and Performance Subject Benchmark Statement (Version 2007). |
| Team work | Group work in the seminars will empower students to develop their team-working and leadership skills |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6