2. Postmodern
Postmodernity
The historical, social, cultural, political position and
condition
Postmodernism
the aesthetic, cultural products and practices of this
condition.
After-Modernism (or parasitically attached to it)
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3. What does it feel like?
In a postmodern world, truth and reality are
understood to be individually shaped by personal
history, social class, gender, culture, and religion.
Moral/cultural relativism
Post-truth politics
Individualism
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4. How has the
postmodern condition
been theorised?
Week 3Analysing Performance
Roland Barthes
French Philosopher
“[The text is a] multidimensional
space in which a variety of writings
none of them original, blend and
clash.The text is a tissue of
quotations drawn from the
innumerable centres of culture.”
Image-Music-Text (1977)
5. Originality
Nothing new
Culture of quotations
Other histories
Other cultures (cultural appropriation)
Other forms of art/media
Quoting without reference (stealing)
The Death of the Author
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6. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
INTERTEXTUALITY – the meaning of cultural texts produced by the
reader as mosaics or pieces of other pre-existing cultural texts
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7. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
PASTICHE – a composition made up of bits of other works or styles, it
celebrates the other styles
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8. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
PARODY -work that imitates another work in order to critically comment
on the work itself or the subject of the work.
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9. Postmodernism in Dance
Judson Dance Theatre
A dance collective that was historically based at Judson Memorial
Church in Greenwich Village, New York during the sixties.
The Judson Dance Theatre stemmed from a series of ‘Composition
workshops’ run by Robert Dunn (musician and dancer) who was inspired
by the ‘chance methods’ of Merce Cunningham and John Cage in the
late 1950’s . The results of these workshops culminated in A Concert of
Dance #1 (1962) held at the Judson Church.
Artists including;
Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, David Gordon, James Waring, Trisha Brown,
Fred Herko, Simone Forti, Lucinda Childs and Robert Morris.
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10. Trisha Brown (1936-2017)
Developed accumulation techniques
Trisha Brown’s solo piece Accumulation with
Talking plus Watermotor exemplifies the
accumulation of movement material,
through repetition of small units in
mathematical sequence – sometimes
known in minimalist art or music as ‘serial
form’
An example of ‘serial form’ – an
accumulating, mathematical sequence
dictating the order of the material. Each
number would represent either a ‘motif’ or
‘phrase’ of movement
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12. DV8 Physical Theatre
Formed in 1986
Lloyd Newson – born in Australia
Extemporary Dance Theatre – Emilyn Claid
Physical Theatre – “DV8 Physical Theatre was set up and named in 1986
(before physical theatre was labeled for academic study). The name was
chosen as a result of the dissatisfaction felt by Lloyd about what was
happening in contemporary dance at the time.”
DV8 Physical Theatre Website (2010) FAQS
The company is formed of dancers actors, singers and circus performers.
Each new work is cast according to its content, although some performers
have worked on more than one production. The company does not have
a permanent group of performers.
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14. Postmodernism in Theatre
Post-dramatic theatre
Lehmann defines this new genre as theatre beyond
drama – encompassing experimental, avant-garde,
subversive, radical, risk-taking and postmodern
strategies – or ‘theatre after theatre’ which seeks to
overrule social norms, conventional notions of
character, theatrical space, time and storyline.
Eva Brenner in Citron, Aronson-Lehavi and Zerbib
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15. Forced Entertainment
Creative Team
Robin Arthur, Tim Etchells (Artistic Director), Richard Lowdon (Designer), Claire
Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor.
Tim Etchells (born 1962) is a British artist and writer based in Sheffield and
London
His work spans performance, video, photography, text projects, installation
and fiction. He is currently Professor of Performance & Writing at Lancaster
University.
The dominant aesthetic in Bloody Mess is one of confusion, collision and
disconnection, in which the “characters and strands in the work [are] there to
collide with each other, rather than all become the same thing” (Etchells 2005)
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17. The Wooster Group
A New York theatre collective that evolved in 1980 out of The
Performance Group.
Director – Elizabeth LeCompte
“…the Group has taken modern classics (The Cocktail Party, Long Day’s
Journey into Night, Our Town and The Crucible) as raw material upon
which to construct theatre pieces. Out of these sources come fragments
of scenes, characters, dialog, and thematic material which are explored,
reworked, echoed, quoted, blended and juxtaposed with fragments
from popular, cultural and social history as well as events, ideas and
situations that emerge from the personal and collective experiences of
members of the Group.” (Aronson, A. 1985, p. 65-67)
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19. Bibiography
Elam, K. (2002) The semiotics of theatre and drama. London: Routledge.
Pavis, P. (2003) Analyzing performance: theater, dance, and film. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
Preson-Dunlop,V. & Sanchez-Colberg, A. (2010) Dance and the performative: a
choreological perspective: Laban and beyond. London: Dance Books.
Storey, J. (2006) Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Harlow: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
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