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My practice as research defines and implements Applied Live Art as an effective tool for community development, a method of intercultural communication, and a valuable critical aesthetic that influences the public sphere.
The research is investigated through a series of case studies undertaken in four culturally and geographically diverse locations. Each case study contributes to a developing methodology that deciphers our contemporary hybrid mythologies and defines them as global archetypes. This methodology manifests itself in the creation of participatory and socially engaging live art performances. Interviews with participants demonstrate how the defining of archetype within each culture led to a greater level of self-awareness as well as global awareness.
By situating specific regional myths within a greater collective language the investigation recognises the whole of communities as larger than the sum of their parts. This work is an important addition to the field of applied arts practice, as it seeks to bridge the gap between the performing and visual arts, build intercultural connections in an age of globalisation and give voice to communities’ local customs. Finally this research provides a framework for subsequent applied live art practitioners working as agents of change both within and outside their native culture.
Based at Brunel University with Fiona Templeton and Barry Edwards.
Conferences:
Title: Naples Flayed, Revealing the Layers in Performance and Community
Conference on Modern/Contemporary Italian Theatre 2009
Italian Theatre Season / Italian Institute of Culture / University of Central London.
Title: Aesthetics and Applied Live Art
Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) 2008, Leeds University
(AestheticsandAppliedLiveArt.pdf)
Workshop Presentation: Assumed Identities, Invented History. Invented Histories, Assumed Identity.
Objects of Engagement Conference, Royal Holloway - University of London 2008
Teaching:
Buckinghampshire New University - High Wycombe 2008-current
Lecturer: Theatre Events and Audiences.
Royal Holloway, University of London - Egham 2008
Lecturer: Devising Practice.
Brunel University - London 2008
Lecturer: Devising Practice.
Brunel University - London 2007
Lecturer: 20th & 21st Century Performance Practitioners.
Boricua College - Brooklyn, New York 2001-2005
Associate Professor: Cultural and Theoretical Studies in Visual Arts.
