Performance in the Field: Interdisciplinary Practice-as-Research

Description

This book makes a compelling case for ‘performance fieldwork’ as a vital new approach to interdisciplinary collaboration. Refocussing the histories and practices of field research, it shows how creative methods and artistic processes can contribute to an embodied and situated knowledge of complex landscapes and environments. The book brings together case studies of innovative research in the fields of ecology, clubbing, heritage, mobility and deep time, which took place in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2021. These accessible and engaging field notes connect to international and intercultural contexts, with attention to alternative experiences and perspectives throughout. Together, they provide a critically informed ‘toolbox’ of playful and exploratory strategies for working with a diverse range of urban and rural sites – including a river, a museum, a nightclub, a motorway and a cave. This is a timely methodology that reaches across disciplines to demonstrate how performance continually plays out ‘in the field’. Acknowledgements Contents About the Author List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Performance and Discipline Performing Fieldwork Histories and Memories Mapping the Field References Chapter 2: Ecology: Patchy Performance at Bamff Beaverlands Fieldwork at the Edges Beaver Believers Staging Beaver Worlds Mapping and Walking Sensing and Swimming Conclusion References Chapter 3: Heritage: Following the Alloway Suffragettes Departures Glasgow to Alloway, July 1914 Glasgow to Ayr, May 2014 Robert Burns Birthplace Museum to Robert Burns Cottage, Alloway, June 2014 Performing Heritage Performances of Mobility Performances of Immobility Conclusion References Chapter 4: Clubbing: Relational Performance at Death Disco Clubbing Collectives Midland Street Clubbing and Performativity Limitations and Antagonism Conclusion References Chapter 5: Mobility: Performative Counterpractice for Regular Routes Commuting, Creativity and COVID-19 Traversing the ‘Mundane Roadscape’ Object Journeys Conclusion References Chapter 6: Deep Time: Future Pasts at Gully Cave Quaternary Drift Deep Time Imaginaries Breathing In Staying with the Detail Conclusion: Breathing Out References Chapter 7: Conclusion: Encounter, Intervention and Co-becoming A Model for Performance Fieldwork: By, for, with/as Field Site (In)conclusion References Index