Symposium: THIS IS NOT A PERFORMANCE OR A LECTURE!

About

This symposium will explore the porous lines of affinity and bias that connect and separate what are loosely termed visual arts and performing arts. To what degree is the burgeoning use of performance in the visual arts sphere the result of intentional disciplinary distinction, and to what degree is performing arts increasing interest in a spatial practice influence by visual practice. The symposium will bring together artists and curators, who are employing techniques across shifting disciplinary lines, into conversation with academics and a journalist who are critically exploring this area in a lively dialogue, discussing how flexible practices benefit artistic inquiry, challenge institutional approaches and develop spaces for rapport between often segregated worlds. Speakers: Gavin Butt: Gavin Butt is Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He works on issues of performance and performativity in the contemporary visual arts, as well as on queer theory, queer cultures and their histories. Bridget Crone: Bridget Crone is a curator, writer and lecturer based in London and working across the UK and internationally. Most recently, she has been the Artistic Director of Media Art Bath (2006-11) and lecturer on the MA Critical Writing and Curatorial Practice, University of the Arts London (2007-10). Maxie Szalwinska: Maxie Szalwinska is a London-based theatre critic with a special interest in Fringe and leading-edge theatre. She is at shows most nights of the week. She works out of a shoebox in Soho surrounded by theatres. She is also increasingly involved in the search for new playwrights. She regularly writes for the Guardian on theatre/performance Dan Watt: Dr Daniel Watt is a Lecturer in English and Drama at Loughborough University. His research interests include fragmentary writing, ethics and literature and philosophical and literary influences on theatre and performance in the 20th century. He is currently working on a book, The Consciousness of Objects, with Rodopi Press. Janice Kerbel: Janice Kerbel works with a range of materials, including drawing, text, audio and print, to explore the indefinite space between reality and fiction, and between abstraction and representation. Her work frequently involves extensive research, and takes the forms of plans, proposals, scripts or announcements for imaginative scenarios that cannot or will not actually happen. In conveying these imagined events, Kerbel draws upon the potentiality of language and text. The symposium will be followed by a presentation of Janice Kerbel's live work BALLGAME.