What is performance?
performance, noun > to perform: to fulfill, to excel, to present, to act, to play, to show off, to point out
As Victor Turner puts it performance “is the basic stuff of social life”, it is “the presentation of self in everyday life”. Humans reveal themselves in performing.
According to Richard Schechner performance is “restored behavior”/ “twice-behaved behavior”, which means an action that does not occur for the first time; an action that one has trained for or prepared – intentionally or not – in order to carry it out. Performance can take place in a multitude of situations: 1. in everyday life, 2. in the arts, 3. in sports and other popular entertainments, 4. in business, 5. in technology, 6. in sex, 7. in ritual – sacred or secular, 8. in play . Any human activity is restored behavior hence a performance. To narrow it down and separate it from “just living” we can say that performance is marked, framed or heightened restored behavior. According to Marvin Carlson all human activity carried out with a consciousness of itself can be considered as performance.
Performance takes place as an action and as an interaction and relation between subjects and/or objects. While it is not for the first time, it is at the same time unique due to its specific conditions of enactment in a certain time-space coincidence.
Any word is given a specific meaning in a particular cultural and historical context. In the 1970’s the term “performance art” appears to encompass art works that wouldn’t fit in any other category. I would say that these artworks investigate body and action from the perspective of restored behavior.
Notes: When we say “a performance by the artist XY” we mean performance as a piece of performance art. When we say “during the performance XY” we mean performance as the time-space-people coincidence within the performance art piece is enacted.
What are performance studies?
Performance studies are an interdisciplinary field that regards a given object of study from the perspective of performance.
Performance has a broad definition, thus performance studies encompass a wide range of performance activities as their objects of study.
Guy McAuley suggests four criteria for the designation of a performative activity as performance belonging to the field of performance studies: 1. live presence of performer and witness 2. intentionality 3. necessity to analyze the space and temporality that enables live presence 4. performance contract between performer and witnesses.
Richard Schechner’s definition of performance studies is to try “to understand the world of performance and the world as performance”. His performance continuum, where performance genres, performative behavior and performance activities are blending into one another and interacting, can enlighten us about the broad field of performance studies:
a ) PLAY-GAMES-SPORTS-POP ENTERTAINMENTS-PERFORMING ARTS-DAILY LIFE-RITUAL
b) GAMES-SPORTS-POP ENTERTAINMENTS-PERFORMING ARTS-DAILY LIFE-IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION PLAY AND RITUAL
These straight lines are best depicted as a 3D network of interconnected spheres. In a) play and ritual are at opposite ends, in b) we can see that they are linked to each other and they are displayed as pillars of the continuum.
performance practices_divergent temporalities 