ABSTRACT

This ground-breaking anthology is the first to be dedicated to assessing critically the role of the human sensorium in performance.

Senses in Performance presents a multifaceted approach to the methodological, theoretical, practical and historical challenges facing the scholar and the artist. This volume examines the subtle actions of the human senses including taste, touch, smell and vision in all sorts of performances in Western and non-Western traditions, from ritual to theatre, from dance to interactive architecture, from performance art to historical opera.

With eighteen original essays brought together by an international ensemble of leading scholars and artists including Richard Schechner and Philip Zarrilli. This covers a variety of disciplinary fields from critical studies to performance studies, from food studies to ethnography from drama to architecture.

Written in an accessible way this volume will appeal to scholars and non-scholars interested in Performance/Theatre Studies and Cultural Studies.

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction

The Performance of the Senses

part 1|29 pages

Theory and Practice

chapter 2|19 pages

Rasaesthetics

chapter 3|9 pages

Olfactory Performances 1

chapter 4|9 pages

Unearthing Kinesthesia

Groping Among Cross-Cultural Models of the Senses in Performance

chapter 6|19 pages

Making Sense of Food in Performance

The Table and the Stage 1

part 2|32 pages

History

chapter 7|13 pages

Edible Performance

Feasting and Festivity in Early Tudor Entertainment

chapter 8|10 pages

Incense & Decadents

Symbolist Theatre's Use of Scent

chapter 9|8 pages

Sensing Realism

Illusionism, Actuality, and the Theatrical Sensorium

part 3|56 pages

Contemporary Performance

chapter 10|11 pages

Guiding Somatic Responses within Performative Structures

Contemporary Live Art and Sensorial Perception

chapter 11|11 pages

Containment + Contamination

A Performance Landscape for the Senses at PQ03

chapter 12|10 pages

Seeing Nothing

Now Hear This.…

chapter 13|10 pages

A Doubly “Environmental” Sensorium

Omaha Magic Theatre's Sea of Forms

chapter 14|13 pages

Tangible Acts

Touch Performances

part 4|30 pages

Case Studies

chapter 15|11 pages

Performers, Spectators, Cannibals

Making Sense of Theatrical Consumption

chapter 16|9 pages

Indonesian Theatre and Its Double

Putu Wijaya Paints a Theatre of Mental Terror 1

chapter 17|9 pages

Artaud's Anatomy