Performing for the Self
104A (4 units)
Tues. and Thrus. 12:30 - 3:50 MANDE 219
Professor: Ricardo Dominguez
Email: rrdominguez@ucsd.edu
Office Hours: 1pm to 2pm Mondays (CAL IT2 2nd fl - 2555)
Since the 1970's, performances in with which performers perform
themselves, through performing stories from their lives, have been
ubiquitous. This is particularly so within the 'performance art' arena,
with performers ranging from Rachel Rosenthal to Annie Sprinkle to
Spalding Gray to Ron Athey. We will also watch post-contemporary,
contemporary and classic work about the "self" by Nikki Lee, Nam
June Paik, Chris Burden, Ulay and Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Faith
Wilding, William Pope L., Maria Teresa Hincapie, Nao Bustamante, Ana
Mendieta, Cindy Sherman, Adrian Piper, Sophie Calle, Patty Chang, James
Luna and beyond. Each student in the class will be expected to
participate in class dialogue, critiques and most importantly the
presentation of new gestures. Each gesture
should be no-longer than 5 minutes and any media can be used to
presented to the class (from video to live).
Attendance:
You will be expected to attend every class. If you have more than 2
unexcused absences, your final grade will drop 1/2 a letter for every
additional unexcused absence. Two unexcused lateness will be
considered an absence.
CATALOGUES AND BOOKS THAT ARE RECOMMENDED:
CATALOGUES:
Out of Actions (LA MoCA)
Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object (Cleveland Center
for Contemporary Art)
Performance Art (edited by Roselee Goldberg)
Body and the East: Form the 60s to the Present, (Museum of Modern
Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia)
BOOKS:
Art Works: Perform, Jens Hoffmann and Joan Jonas
The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, eds. Michael Huley and
Noel Witts
Performance, Marvin Carlson
Contract with the Skin, Kathy Odell
Performing the Body, Amelia Jones
The Explicit Body of Performance, Rebecca Schneider
Performance Art from Futurism to the Present, Roselee Goldberg
Happenings and Other Arts, ed Mary Ellen Sandford
Unmarked, Peggy Phelan
Acting Act: Feminist Performances, eds. Lynda Hart and Peggy
Phelan
Let’s Get it On: The Politics of Black Performance, ed. Catherine
Ugwu
Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, ed. Coco Fusco
Greenwich Village 1963, Sally Banes
The Blurring of Art and Life, Alan Kaprow
Imaging Her Erotics, Carolee Schneeman
The Citizen Artist: An Anthology from High Performance Magazine
Liveness, Philip Auslander
CLASSES
Introduction to the Self(s):
A dialogue on the histories in Western Culture of the Selve(s) and the
trajectories that potential gestures can follow during
the class.
(FIRST GESTURE): (Bit's & Pieces).
Select a body part that you feel best represents your "self." Create a
performance
based on the selected body part. This first gesture will be presented
to the class the following week.
Confessions of the Self.
Read: Confessions of the Self. The Confessions of St. Augustine
Bishop of Hippo
http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/augconfessions/bk2.html#BOOKIICHAPI
BRING (FIRST GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will
review and discuss everyone’s documentation.
(SECOND GESTURE): Confession.
Select a something that happened in your life that you felt or feel bad
about and create
gesture that can frame it or amplify the gesture.
Oct 9 - Everyday Me.
DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
Oct 11th - (THIRD GESTURE): Everyday Me
The banality of the everyday often offers a space for the "self." The
"self" who fills out forms, rides elevators and pays bills.
Use an aspect of your "everyday self" to create a gesture.
Not I/Almost I/Another I
Read:
"Look At Me: Self-Portrait Photography After Cindy Sherman"
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ucsd/lookatme.pdf
and
The Guise of Disguise
http://nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2744&Itemid=214
BRING ( THIRD GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
(FORTH GESTURE): Someone Almost Like Me or Not
Me.
Create a gesture that is a "mask" or a "disguise" that allows you to do
or say things that you would never do as "you."
Skinning the Self
Read:Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art and the 1970s
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_3_87/ai_54099515
An esthetics of masochism?
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_4_92/ai_114924480
BRING (FOURTH GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
(FIFTH GESTURE): Cutting the Self
Open a segment of skin (in whatever way you read this) or use your skin
as a microscope to your self.
Try to get as deep or beneath the skin as is possible. (YOU WILL TWO
CLASS SESSIONS TO DEVELOP THIS
GESTURE)
CONTINUE (FIFTH GESTURE) DEVELOPMENT
Objects Over Me
Read: "Miniature awakenings"
BRING (FIFTH GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
SIXTH GESTURE): Object(s) as Self.
Create an object or objects that represent your "self."
M/F as a self.
Gender as Performance
http://www.theory.org.uk/but-int1.htm
Mathew Barney and KIein Bottle of Vaseline
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ucsd/barney.pdf
BRING (FIFTH GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
(SEVENTH GESTURE): Gender as Self.
Create a gesture that traces the condition of your "self" as gender.
Erotic Self
Some of my performances in retrospect
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_n4_v56/ai_20544730
BRING (SEVENTH GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will review
and discuss everyone’s documentation.
(EIGHTH GESTURE) Erotic Self(s)
Create a gesture that traces, outlines or speaks about your "erotic
self(s)."
(CONTINUE EIGHTH GESTURE)
(FINAL CLASS).
BRING (EIGHTH GESTURE) DOCUMENTATION TO CLASS. In class we will
review and discuss everyone’s documentation.