Performance as Research Working group CFP

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Performance as Research Working Group

International Federation for Theatre Research Annual Conference

Our States of Emergency: Theatres and Performances of Tragedy

Manila, Philippines / 15-19 July 2024

 

Since its inception in 2004, the Performance-as-Research Working Group has

positioned artistic practice as a powerful, alternative methodology for conducting

research, continuously provoking discussions around the different epistemic modalities

facilitated by, in and through performance. The 2024 conference’s focus on tragedy,

reflecting the “ongoing wretchedness of the earth” many of us experience, provides an

opportunity to ask how performance practices and the knowledge that emerges from

those practices can offer valuable ways to face and endure our various tragedies. What

new insights from the disciplines embracing performance as research can help us to

“re-think, re-perform, and re-claim” tragedy?

 

The PaR Working Group welcomes those working in multiple and mixed artistic

practices involving dance, theater, performance art, live art and other socially engaged

artistic practices, as well as other types of cultural performances and performative

practices. We encourage returning members and potential new members to consider

their own PaR practices in relation to the following questions that will guide us in our

'participatory laboratory' at the annual conference:

● How does PaR (re)define tragedy with reference to/through Global South

epistemologies or knowledge systems, particularly in ways that problematize and

transcend Aristotelian paradigms?

● Which possible insights can PaR facilitate about the themes of: unjust

socio-political hierarchies among and between humans and non-humans;

decimation of world resources;and the manifestation of various eco-crises?

● What perspective(s) can PaR offer regarding the notion of ‘‘emergency’’ as

applicable to hegemonic notions of knowledge production and dissemination?

● How have PaR approaches curbed or exacerbated the tragic circumstances

resulting from so many artist-researchers and artists finding themselves and their

work suddenly “grinding to a halt” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

● How can PaR-derived knowledges engage currently critical and socio-political

questions pertaining to race, gender, sexuality, indigeneity and disability as

various forms of individual and/or collective tragedies?

This call for proposals seeks to create the necessary space(s) through which PaR can

be realized and articulated from relevant exploratory perspectives. These would include,

but not be limited to, those whose performance-centered manifestations emanate from

particular contexts of personal connection(s) to the Philippines that might illuminate

epistemological concepts outlined in the general IFTR CfP particular to Filipino culture:

“the lack of luck (kamalasan) or the malevolent destiny (masamang kapalaran) of

a person, the severity and enormity of a calamity (sakuna), the weight and impact

of a pitiful phase of being (kalunusan), and the pervasive presence or potentiality

of danger (kapahamakan) and death (kasawian).”

The PaR Working Group functions as a ‘participatory laboratory’ where members

collaborate and interweave aspects of their individual practice/research in sub-groups,

which then organize working group sessions in formats ranging from a series of

performative presentations to performance conversations, from interactive PaR

installations to documented workshops.

We welcome proposals of performance-as-research that respond to the questions

above. Presenters will be expected to share preparatory materials prior to the

conference, which can be in the form of academic article-like papers, PowerPoint

presentations, participatory workshop plans, audio-visual or filmographic

documentation of practice, manifestos etc.

 

SUBMISSION PROCESS

The deadline for submissions is February 2, 2024. All applicants should follow the

instructions on the conference website: https://iftr.org/conference/call-for-papers. Once

you have submitted your proposal via the Cambridge University Press website, please

send a copy to performanceasresearch@gmail.com. Please include a 100-word bio

and full contact information in this email. All questions about the working group, the CfP,

or the conference itself can be sent to the same address.

 

 

PaR Working Group Co-Conveners:

Göze Saner, Kabi Thulo, Laurelann Porter & Mark Tatlow