Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: WA Academy of Performing Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Theory and Practice of Contemporary Performance

• Unit Code

  PAD3103

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

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Description

This unit is an introduction to the theories which underpin the practices, performances and exhibitions of contemporary creative arts. Students will be expected to cultivate a theoretical context for their work and articulate this knowledge through a reflective analytical report on the development of their artistic ideas and processes in relation to the protocols and innovations of their particular discipline/s. In addition this unit will impart the importance of sustainability and issues relating to artform practice. Units, where appropriate, will address social and cultural sustainability in the following ways: the choice of repertoire for certain target audiences in public performances; engagement between the cultural sector and the wider community environment; looking at the building of social and cultural confidence locally, nationally, regionally and internationally.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to explore, select and understand contemporary theoretical issues in a variety of creative arts' contexts.
2. Exhibit a body of knowledge of contemporary practices and related issues which will inform, and be integrated into, their project design.
3. Gain a keen insight into sustainability issues as they relate to the performing arts and associated industries over time.
4. Gain the necessary knowledge for devising and conducting a significant arts project.
5. Place their own art practice within a current international theoretical context.

Unit Content

1. Be provided with new skills in expression and discussion development of contemporary arts practice both oral and written.
2. Examine the changing ideologies associated with prominent arts practices.
3. Examine the major theoretical movements of contemporary arts practices.
4. Examine the skills necessary for artists to contribute to societies of the 21st century.
5. Explore implications arising from globalisation and its impact on the sustainability of creative arts' practices.
6. Question the role/s of spirituality within the creative arts.
7. Undertake analyses and debates of a broad range of issues associated with contemporary and traditional arts, including topics such as the role of creative arts in society, the well being of artists and gender and cultural integrity in the arts.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminars and tutorials.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Albright, A.C. (1997). Choreography difference: The body and identity in contemporary dance. Hanover: University Press of New England.
• Birringer, J. (1991). Theatre, theory, postmodernism. Bloomington:Indiana University Press.
• Weber, C.(1991). AC/TC: Currents of theatrical exchange. Interculturalism and performance: Writings from PAJ. New York: PAJ Publications; 27-37.
• van Erven, E. (2001). Community theatre: Global perspectives. London: Routledge.
• Read, A. (1993). Theatre and everyday life: An ethics of performance. London: Routledge.
• Perry, G.l (1993). Primitivism and the "Modern". In Harrison, Charles, Frascina, Francis and Perry, Gill. Primitivism, cubism, abstraction: The early twentieth century. New Have: Yale University Press; 3-86.
• Pavis, P. (2003). Analyzing performance: Theater, dance and film. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Marranca, B., Robinson, M., & Chaudhari, U. (1991). Criticism, culture and performance: An interview with Edward Said. Interculturalism and performance: Writings from PAJ New York: PAJ Publications; 38-59.
• Lowe, D. M. (1995). The body in late-capitalist USA. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Kaye, N. (1994). Postmodernism and performance. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
• Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
• Collier, P. (1988). Dreams of a revolutionary culture- Gramsci, Trotsky and Breton. In E. Timms & P. Collier eds.: Visions and blueprints: Avant-garde culture and radical politics in early twentieth century Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Deleuze, G. (Ed.). (1989). Cinema two: The time-image. London: The Athlone Press, trans. Hughes Tomlinson & Roberta Galeta.
• Fraser Delgado., Celeste., & Esteban Munoz, Jose. (Eds.). (1997). Everynight life: Culture and dance in Latin/o America. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Grosz, E. (1995). Space, time and perversion. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
• Heck, T. F. (1999). Picturing performance: The iconography of the performing arts in concept and practice. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.

Journal References

• Toepfer, Karl (September 1996) Performing Arts Journal Nudity and Textuality in Postmodern Performance, 54 76-91
• Kealiinohomoku, Joann W (1997), Dance Research Dance, Myth and Ritual in Time and Space, 29.1 65-72
• George, David ER (Spring 1996) Performance Research Performance Epistemology, 11 16-25
• Birringer, Johannes (Spring 1996) Performance Research This is the Theatre that was to be Expected and Foreseen, 1.1 32-45
• Theatre Studies
• Performance Research Journal
• Drama Review
• Costume Research Journal
• Turner, Victor (1982) New York Performing Arts Journal Publications Acting in Everyday Life and Everyday Life in Acting. In V. Turner's From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play 102-123
• Theatre Research International

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