CITY AS STAGE: SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

This course explores the history and practice of Site-Specific Performance in New York City from the 1960’s to the present, focusing on theater, but also touching on the fields of music, dance and interdisciplinary performance. How have artists been inspired by New York City’s architecture, street life, natural environment, and rich cultural history to make performances that reach outside traditional performance venues? What practical, artistic, economic, and social concerns shape this kind of impulse? In what ways have artists repurposed existing spaces for artistic activity, and in some cases, permanently transformed a site? This is a studio course in which students gain inspiration from notable examples of site-specific artworks in New York City, while also engaging in a series of hands-on activities and site-specific performance assignments which will be presented on the Barnard campus. Throughout the six-week session, students will venture off campus to view ongoing site-specific artwork, visit spaces claimed and permanently transformed by artists, and attend a site-specific performance. A secondary, but equally important goal of the course is to give students agency in creating their own performances within limited means, and turning the chronic limitations of space, funds, and personnel into strengths and creative opportunities.