Dialogic Evidence: Documentation of Ephemeral Events
The Dialogic Evidence project aimed to explore the possibility of a productive co-existence between performance and documentation practices.
An article on this project in the online Body, Space and Technology Journal is now available here.
This 10-month project (mid September 2006 through mid July 2007) was directed by Dr Paul Stapleton and supported by a Small Grant in The Creative and Performing Arts from The Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK).
Brief Project Summary:
Historically, performance documentation has commonly been characterised as an unfaithful representation of the ephemeral art experience. However, in recent years the relationship between documentation and live performance practices has moved towards reconciliation. The reasons for such a shift are many, possibly including the validation of practice-led research, the use of new technologies within performance, anxieties over disappearing legacies, and/or the wider acceptance of the value of mediated memories. Yet not all are encouraged by the promises of digital technologies, or the increasing demands for reproducible evidence by funding bodies and archive-oriented institutions. The role that documentation plays in the recording of performance continues to be described as negative or destructive towards the knowledges embodied in live events. It may be that this oppositional view is largely a reaction to economic values that emphasise the need for reproducible products. Such values are evident in forms of academic assessment and validation that privilege documents of performance over performance per se.
In response to this current climate, the Dialogic Evidence project has aimed to explore the possibility (and the limits) of a productive co-existence between performance and documentation practices. Furthermore, the project aims to discover ways in which documentation practices can remain sensitive to the (often undervalued) temporary nature of performance. Such an endeavour remains a significant challenge in the move towards the wider acceptance of performative knowledge by the academy. With this aim in mind, I have been engaging in the collection, production, and analysis of multiple case studies that explore the diverse ways in which performance and documentation attempt (for better or worse) to work together. To aid in the process of gathering diverse perspectives on this relationship I have found it necessary to adopt a mixed-mode methodology, making use of various ‘knowledge-gathering’ and ‘knowledge-generating’ activities including: a one-day symposium; a 4-day workshop; a peer-reviewed journal article; an audio-visual documentation case study on DVD, which will be accessible through relevant libraries and archives; and a web-based collaboratively authored performance archive and discussion forum. Through these publications the project aims to contribute towards an improved framework for assessing performance research, and provide clearer guidance for PhD students engaged in the documentation of live performance. Several aspects of this research project may also be of interests to professional practitioners and members of institutions who are concerned with the preservation, representation, and reconstruction of live arts practices.