ARTH 368 Studies in Contemporary Art & Architecture: Event, Encounter, Exchange: On Performance, Participation and Social Practice in Contemporary Art Practices

• Instructor: Dr. Vanessa Parent

This course will examine art practices that dislocate the primacy of the art object to focus on action, encounter, experience and event. Attending to the persistent concern regarding the art/life divide, the course will begin by anchoring performance’s early development in experimental practices of the immediate post-war period which sought to move beyond the limitations imposed by traditional artistic mediums. The course will unpack performance art’s unique capacity to engage directly with social and political realities through action and encounter and will trace the development of socially critical practices that rely on participation. Students can expect a nuanced interrogation of the aesthetic strategies and performative tactics deployed in performance and social practices, questioning their relationship to broader social, political and institutional systems of power, unpacking relevant contextual issues such as globalization and the rise of neoliberalism; migration and displacement; environmental crisis; war and violence; and issues related to race, gender and sexuality.