Performance Research is an independent journal/book series championing artistic-led research at the interface between the academy and the profession.
Submitting Institution
Falmouth UniversityUnit of Assessment
Music, Drama, Dance and Performing ArtsSummary Impact Type
CulturalResearch Subject Area(s)
Information and Computing Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
Summary of the impact
Performance Research is an independent journal/book series championing
artistic-led research at the interface between the academy and
the profession. Published by Routledge for ARC a division of the Centre
for Performance Research (CPR)[1]. Founded as a cultural
and publishing partnership (1995) with Dartington it has developed an
identity and frame of intellectual/artistic reference distinct from CPR,
forging many developments with partners outwith the academy. CPR's
relocation to Falmouth enables both to extend this relationship. PR
provides print and on-line platforms for practitioners, arts organisations
and researchers. Interdisciplinary in vision, international in scope; it
emphasises contemporary performance arts within changing cultures.
Underpinning research
Rather than adopting a standard journal format, PR has created an
open publishing context for practical and theoretical research in the
field of contemporary performance that is produced by art and performance
practitioners and academic researchers. The interchange of performance
research between arts practice and academic sphere is at its core and
exemplified in the collaborations that run through its pages; e.g. (9:4,
2004) 'On Civility' (Desperate Optimists, Sociétas Raffaello Sanzio, Stut
Theatre); or (6:3, 2001) 'Navigations' (tgSTAN, Kevin Mount, Bruce
Gilchrist, Molly Davies, Gary Hill and Lone Twin). Promoting this dynamic
interchange, the journal has (over the 18 years and 66 issues) mapped
thematics, tendencies, and discourses in practice, research and theory, as
well as engaging creatively with the implications for critical reflection,
documentation and publication that are suggested by the ephemeral event of
performance.
Our research has turned attention to the possibilities for performance of
a relation between print and digital media and established a platform that
can reflect the complexity and range of contemporary performance
practices. Working closely with designers, artists, academics, theorists,
and writers the journal has developed as a dynamic space that produces a
complex network of conversations, connections and possibilities for
further exploration, e.g. its role in the emergence of performance writing
as a set of practices that has now established international currency.
PR has taken three primary approaches to impact: editorial — underpinning the thematics of a particular issue; design — underpinning
the material form of the journal as object; and media — specifically
relations between print and screen-based media, e.g. the use of artists'
pages in 'Committed to Paper: Curating the Page' (4:3, 1999) and 'On
Silence', where text and graphics are a means of providing access to
knowledges arising from performance practice. [2]
In the period 2000-2006 PR curated and published four interactive
multimedia CDs and DVDs for 'Navigations' (6:3, 2001); 'On The Page' (9:2:
2004); 'On Civility' (9:4, 2004); and 'Digital Resources' (11:4, 2006),
and a digital print for 'On Fluxus' (7:3, 2002) [3] as
e-publication supplements, in collaboration with the Institute for Digital
Art & Technology (iDAT) which begin to explore ways live performance
can be documented, analysed and represented across integrated media
through the development of the software application Liquid Reader®. [4]
More recently PR has initiated as a long-term project a book
series 'Inside Performance Practice' starting with Lone Twin: Goodluck
Everybody (2011) and Back-to-Back Theatre: Performance Politics
Visibility (2013). Books on the work of BADco, Ong Ken Seng, and
Alicia Rios are forthcoming. A parallel series 'Thinking Through
Performance' starts with Valentina Valentini's Worlds, Bodies, Matters
(2013). [5]
Since 1996 PR has set a standard across other journals in this
field for thematic and cross-disciplinary ways of curating the varied
materials of artistic and theoretical research. Its output comprises a
unique resource for practitioners and researchers: articles, interviews,
artists' pages, and performances, seeking to represent, interrogate and
reflect upon forms of live and mediated performance arts practice and
their discourses. [6]
References to the research
[6] Abstracting & Indexing: ARTbibliographies Modern; British
Humanities Index; Current Abstracts; Humanities International Index;
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance; International Index to
the Performing Arts; SCOPUS; Thomson Reuters Arts & Humanities
Citation Index.
Details of the impact
The impact of PR is measured both by its sustainability and the
network of associations, collaboration, readership and supplementary
projects that it has been able to develop as a result of its editorial and
publishing approach since its inception in 1996. [1]
The following reflect some aspects of this.
Data from Taylor & Francis - with an average print-run of
approximately 1000 per issue, PR is distributed and subscribed to
in over 25 countries with full institutional subscriptions sustained at ±
240 since 2007, and Online subscriptions (2012) in excess of 1725; our
full-article downloads on all platforms has increased from 5,800 in 2007
to 23,200 in 2012 increasing by 53% since 2011 with substantial activity
in the UK, USA, Australia, Netherlands, Canada and Turkey and growing
activity in India, Israel and South Africa.
Joint Ventures & Collaborations - PR has initiated a
number of joint ventures and collaborations with artist-led organisations,
the most significant of which are:
Performance Studies International (PSi) - a creative partnership
with PSi (from 2009) as an organisation that brings together practitioners
and scholars in which PR edits one issue per volume that engages
with the theme of the PSi conference and is published at the beginning of
the following year's conference to 600+ international participants,
providing continuity and resonance for Psi and visibility and
dissemination for PR.
The partnership with the Institute for Digital Arts &
Technologies (iDAT) (2001 - 2011) produced a software interface
'Liquid Reader' (in three beta-versions) enabling integration of video,
audio and text materials on a DVD platform that supplemented and extended
the possibilities of the print journal, and enabled supported commissions
for artists (see above). [3]
Collaborations with Independent NPOs: PR has also had a
long and generative association with the independent art sector in eastern
Europe which has produced two issues: (10:2, 2005) 'On Form' as a
collaboration with two significant European artist-led contemporary
performance journals and non-profit arts organisations, Maska
(Ljubljana) and Frakcija (Zagreb); and the recent (18:3, 2013) 'On
Scenography' in collaboration Sodja Zupanc Lotker, artistic director of
the Prague Quadrennial. [4]
Promoting research/ practice-led educational and international
networks — the wide international networks that PR journal continues
to develop through its approaches to publication and dissemination have
impacted particularly (see above) in fostering productive relationships
between artist-led organisations and researchers. Research in performance
often sits most productively within arts practice itself — a space that
might also be exemplified in the various and increasingly extensive and
connected MA networks in Europe and their interfaces with artistic NPOs,
for example the 2011-13 Erasmus Intensive on Practicing Composition:
Making Practice. [5]
Arts Council UK funding for Artist's Pages' - PR attracted Arts
Council funding for a series of commissions for artist's pages in the
first three volumes (9 issues) from 1996-1998, and for the first CD-rom
supplement (4:2, 1999) 'On Line' . This was an innovative move that
supported our research into using the constraints of print as a medium for
performance. See for example: Alastair MacLennan (1:1, 1996); Lily
Markiewicz (1:1, 1996), Bruce Gilchrist (1:2, 1996); Caroline Bergvall
(1:3, 1996), Michael Vorfeld (2:2, 1997); Brigid McLeer (3:2, 1998) and Xu
Bing (3:3, 1998). In 2001 the journal was highly commended in the ALPSP /
Charlesworth Award for Typographical Excellence in Journal and Serial
Publishing.
Performance Writing — the impact of PR is both described through
its attention to particular innovative areas of performance, e.g. performance
writing, where PR has provided a research context for innovation and
discussion in this emerging practice-e.g. 'Letters from Europe' (2:2,
1997), 'Openings' (5:2, 2000), 'On Editing' (7:1, 2002), 'Translations'
(7:2, 2002); 'On the Page' (9:2, 2004) which involved commissions from
artists and academics - see (9:2, 2004) Section 2 Pageworks pp. 34-91; and
our most recent issue (18:5, 2013) 'On Writing & Digital Media'.
Contributors - PR has attracted 1024 individual
contributors to date including: BADco/ Jean Baudrillard/ Mieke Bal/
Charles Bernstein/ Jean-Luc Nancy/ Blast Theory/ Simon Critchley/ Steven
Connor/ Romeo Castellucci/ Alphonso Lingis/ William Forsythe/ Kirsten
Delholm/ Tim Etchells/ Ken Friedman/ Heiner Goebbels/ Goat Island/
Katherine N. Hayles/ Janez Jansa/ Dragan Klaic/ Carolee Schneeman/ Peggy
Phelan/ Peter Sellars/ Alastair MacLennan/ Wlodzimierz Staniewski/
Marianne van Kerkhoeven/ Krzysztof Wodiczko [6]
Readership — Online access to PR since 2011 has meant that
readership numbers for individual articles are often in excess of 250 and
up to 980 (see Robin Nelson, 11:4, 2006) based on statistics which combine
cumulative total PDF downloads and full-text HTML views from publication
date .[7]
Sources to corroborate the impact
[1] Performance Research website: see links to 'Past Issues' for overview
of contents; -
http//:www.performance-research.org
[2] Secondary Modern — http://www.secmo.dircon.co.uk/portfolio/SecMo.pdf;
Design Stage- http://www.steveallisondesign.co.uk;
[3] Performance Studies International website — http//:www.psi-web.org
[see Conferences 2009 - 2013]; Joint Venture statement: Performance
Research Vol.15, No.2 'MISperformance' (June, 2010) p. 133; i-DAT
website — http://www.i-dat.org/toolbox
[4] Maska (Slovenia) — http://www.maska.si/index.php?id=129&L=1;
Frakcija/ CDU (Croatia) - http://www.cdu.hr/about/index.htm;
Praque Quadrennial (Czech Republic) — http://www.pq.cz;
Documenta (Kassel, DE) — www.documenta.de;
Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt) — www.mousonturm.de.
[5] http://practicing-composition.hzt-berlin.de
[6] Performance Research website -see 'Authors' (1996 - 2013) — http//:www.performance-research.org
[7] Taylor & Francis Online: Readership/ Citations — http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rprs20/current#.UnKT05G8_wI