When is a Performance?: Temporality in the social turn

Abstract

The ‘social turn’ in performance, in which social and aesthetic ends are increasingly conceived in tandem, turns creative processes into fields of artistic potential. In these performances, the socio-aesthetic gestures of rehearsal and writing processes may be as important as the moment of encounter between performer and spectator, and the question ‘When is a performance?’ acquires a new complexity. Schechner has differentiated performances from the ‘proto-performances’ that precede them: training, workshop and rehearsal. This temporal map of performance processes, and the marked separateness of public performance, is increasingly challenged by the engaged collaborative processes of social performance. In crowdsourced performances such as the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, constructed from panels submitted by friends and families of AIDS victims, and the film Life in a Day, compiled by director Kevin Macdonald from YouTube videos submitted by thousands of users, the creative process is, in many ways, as performative as what might qualify as ‘public performance’ under Schechner's model. On the other hand, where participative performance is concerned, for example in the ‘autoteatro’ of Ant Hampton, or in the performative installations of London's Hayward Gallery exhibit ‘Move: Choreographing You’, the performance moment is entirely the point. The creative process of the artist may not be highlighted particularly, yet the public performance, which is largely executed by the spectator, becomes a sort of creative process itself; proto-performance and performance again become enmeshed, albeit differently. In the social turn, process becomes performance and performance becomes process. The social function of these performance processes can be exaggerated, but as process and public performance become more tightly interwoven, lengthier and potentially deeper affective engagements do become possible for both participants and publics.