Body and Presence
Body and presence concern the performer's living body, the co-presence of performers and spectators, and the disputed value of 'liveness' in an age of recording and mediation.
Definition
The study of the performer's body, bodily co-presence, and the concept of liveness in performance.
Scope
This topic examines embodiment in performance: the performer's physical body as the medium of theatre and performance art, the bodily co-presence of performers and audience and its claimed transformative power, the ephemerality of live performance and its resistance to documentation, and the debate over whether liveness retains a distinct value in a culture saturated by recording and media. It draws on phenomenology, performance art, and media theory.
Core questions
- What is the role of the living body in performance?
- What is created by the co-presence of performers and spectators?
- Why is live performance said to be ephemeral and non-reproducible?
- Does liveness retain distinct value in a mediatized culture?
Key concepts
- embodiment
- co-presence
- liveness
- ephemerality
- the autopoietic feedback loop
- mediatization
Key theories
- Ontology of performance as disappearance
- Peggy Phelan's claim that performance's being lies in its disappearance—it becomes itself through its present and vanishing, resisting reproduction, circulation, and the economy of the copy.
- Bodily co-presence and the feedback loop
- Erika Fischer-Lichte's theory that the physical co-presence of performers and spectators generates an autopoietic feedback loop, the source of performance's transformative force.
History
Attention to the body and presence intensified with mid- and late-twentieth-century performance art and the rise of performance studies; Phelan's 1993 argument for performance's ontological ephemerality was sharply contested by Philip Auslander's claim that liveness is itself a product of media culture, framing an ongoing debate about embodiment and reproduction.
Debates
- The value and status of liveness
- Peggy Phelan's insistence on the non-reproducible ontology of live performance is challenged by Philip Auslander, who argues that liveness is historically produced by and dependent on mediatization.
Key figures
- Peggy Phelan
- Erika Fischer-Lichte
- Philip Auslander
Related topics
Seminal works
- phelan1993
- fischerlichte2008
- auslander1999
Frequently asked questions
- Why is live performance called ephemeral?
- Because, as Peggy Phelan argues, a live performance exists only in its present moment and disappears as it happens; any recording becomes a different object rather than the performance itself.
- Is recorded performance still 'live'?
- This is contested: Phelan distinguishes the live from its reproductions, while Philip Auslander argues that the very category of liveness is shaped by and entangled with recording and media technologies.