This class aims to explore the rich interactions that arise from the integration of multimedia (video, sound, film, etc.) with performance as well as performance techniques incorporated into video and sound works. The class will focus on how media can expand the narrative and visual potential of performance and vice-versa, and will include technical instruction on video and sound editing, scripting methodologies, and logistical planning. Students will also learn historical aspects of Performance and Multimedia, as well as related forms such as the circus, opera, and cabaret. Students will take an in depth look at the work of seminal artists who have made defining contributions to the field such as Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, The Wooster Group, Gob Squad, William Kentridge, Liz Magic Laser, Kalup Linzy and many others.

This studio course takes as its starting point Julia Kristeva’s conception of the abject as neither subject nor object, yet constitutive of subjecthood. Moving from psychoanalytic approaches to abjection (repression, perversion, phobia, desire, disgust) to considerations of disability, racialization, and national identity, students will construct live works that lure and repel their viewers. Readings by Kristeva, Karen Shimakawa, and Jennifer Doyle will animate performance assignments. Students will explore bodily abjection, from vomit to the corpse; inhabit cast-off campus sites; and study a number of historic performance works that elicit discomfort and revulsion.