What Exactly Is Performance?

Abstract

This chapter begins with a brief overview of the major ways in which performance theories and practices have been used in the HCI literature. It then describes two performances drawn from the Live Art canon: Kitchen Show (1991) by Bobby Baker and Bubbling Tom (2000) by Mike Pearson. These intimate, low-tech performances might seem odd choices for a book for HCI researchers and designers, but they serve to indicate exactly the kinds of experiences that are so difficult to articulate within HCI paradigms. They anchor the subsequent discussions of the key theoretical perspectives, topics, and methodologies in performance studies as they relate to PED: postdramatic and presentational theatre, performance art and Live Art, aesthetics and liminality, autobiographical performance, storytelling, devising, participatory performance, reflexivity, unpredictability, applied theatre, and making strange. Having established important insights into how performance can shape and illuminate interactions among human beings, the chapter presents ‘intermediality’ as an appropriate and generative way of understanding digital technologies within performance. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how these performance concepts integrate with concerns in HCI and design, all under the umbrella of PED.