Performance As Social Practice

4 credits · Undergraduate

Artists across discipline turn to social practice modes as a way to democratize the creative process and to engage with new friends about everyday or pressing topics. This course will explore creative methodologies for making socially-engaged performances for and with specific communities. We will consider how creative output broadens aesthetic and formal possibilities in our art-making while also amplifying the interests and desires of collaborating communities. We will study creative mutual aid projects that came out of select, significant historic and cultural events, and consider how art-making is a form of gift-giving. Employing the tools and techniques of performance-making, we will generate blueprints for participatory works as social events that bring diverse people together for shared reflection.