Performing the Periphery/De-centering Publics The Performance in Public Spaces Working Group invites proposals from researchers and practitioners for the 2022 IFTR World Congress

For our meeting during the 2022 IFTR World Congress, the Performance in Public Spaces Working Group will explore the topic of ‘Performing the Periphery/De-centering Public Space’. Inspired by the main conference topic of ‘Shifting Centres (In the Middle of Nowhere)’, our working group discussion will focus on how performance in public spaces shifts narratives from the centre to the periphery. We ask how performative interventions of public space subvert hegemonic narratives of power, politics, and site in public spaces. How does performance in public sites provide openings of spaces, sites, and stories for the margins, the liminal, and/or the hybrid? What are the performative acts of decentering, decolonizing, and/or destabilizing existing narratives of site, space, and community? 

  

  

Proposals may address (but are not limited to): 

  

• Performance in Public Space and decolonization 
• Decentering landscapes through performance 
• Shifting focus/subverting public spaces through performative interventions 
• Reframing, reclaiming and/or re-purposing of public/political/virtual space 
• Performance in Public Spaces at the Margins/Borders/Periphery 
• Liminal/Hybrid/Virtual Spaces 
• The Politics of Public Space at the Margins 
• stepping aside, moving to the margins, and providing space as acts of decentering 
• Ecological/Environmental Decentering of Public Space 
• Virtual Interventions on Live Spaces/Live interventions on the virtual 
• Decentering/Decolonizing Heritage Sites 
• Subverting Public Spaces 
• Civic Spaces on the Periphery  
• Decentering space through Parades/Protests/Occupations and other Public Interventions 
• Pandemic Decentering 
• Performative Disruptions/Blockades/Ruptures of Public Space 
• Decentering the Body in Public Space 
• Decentering communities 

  

  

We invite proposals for presentations that may take one of the following forms: academic papers (15 minutes), screenings, short workshop demonstrations or performative engagements with the theme. Please be mindful that resources and time for workshops or performative engagements will be restricted. When submitting your proposal please make it clear what form your presentation will take. 

  

About the IFTR Performance and Public Spaces Working Group 

  

The Working Group seeks to address the inherent interdisciplinarity of public, site-situated performance practices. We are interested in the intersections between performance acts, performing bodies, public and semi-public environments, mediated environments, cultural politics, cultural landscapes, and cultural histories. The group explores a broad range of methodological and theoretical perspectives on performances in a variety of public fora, rather than in traditional theatre and performance venues. Our areas of research encompass both digital and physical public spaces, and range from site-based artistic practices to cultural performance phenomena. 

  

We are a welcoming group of established and early career researchers with a broad international base, including members from Australia, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, U.K., and U.S.A. Our members approach performance research through both practice and scholarship. Our sessions centre on traditional research paper presentations but may also include performance presentations or workshops. For further information about the Performance in Public Spaces Working Group please visit:  https://iftr.org/working-groups/performance-in-public-spaces 

  

Abstract Submission 

Please submit abstracts through the Cambridge Core website. In order to make a submission you will need to become a member of IFTR first: https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr. When you submit your abstract please make sure that you indicate that you are submitting to the 'Performance in Public Spaces Working Group'. Please also send a copy of your abstract to the Working Group conveners via email. 

  

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31 January 2022. 

  

IFTR bursary information 

https://www.iftr.org/conference/bursaries 

  

The deadline for bursary applications is 15 December 2021. 

  

Our Process 

We present traditional 15-20 minute papers at our working group sessions or performative presentation to foster debate and discussion. We encourage work presented in process, research in early stages, grant proposals, half-baked ideas, and artistic and research sharings of all kinds in order to foster collegial discussions and feedback on researchers work. We strongly encourage members to attend every session of the Working Group during the conference so as to contribute to discussion throughout. Our sessions also include, wherever possible, a walking tour with a local artist on performance of public spaces in the conference location. 

  

During the IFTR Conference we warmly welcome individuals who wish to take part in the group's discussions, but who do not want to submit a paper. 

  

Working Group Conveners 

Dr. Holly Maples: hm19531@essex.ac.uk 

Dr Ciara L. Murphy: Ciara.murphy@nuigalway.ie