Pain and Communality in Contemporary Performance Art

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370172
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Art at large
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: TONOOKA Naomi 青山学院大学, 文学部, 教授 (10227605)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: パフォーマンス・アート / 演劇 / 苦痛 / 情動 / 共同性 / Marina Abramovic / Ron Athey / Stelarc

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project examined the representation of pain and the body in contemporary performance art and theatre, in order to explore how the body is used in performance to create/re-create a microcosm of community, and how performance art and theatre in general work to transform human perception. Focusing on such important artists as Marina Abramovic, Ron Athey, and Stelarc, this study analyzed theatrical presentations of bodily pain and audience involvement, with a particular view toward affective forces that shift and deconstruct frames of communal understandings among audiences. In particular the examination of theatre pieces and technologically enhanced bodies in performance revealed the haptic change in human perception. The study demonstrated the mediatization of the body itself, against the assumption in previous theatre studies that the body stands in opposition to media.

Free Research Field

演劇学、アメリカ演劇