ABSTRACT
Site-specific performance relies on the terms space and place as markers for discussing a performance's engagement with a site. However, practitioners and researchers are often disgruntled by the limitations such terms impose upon site-specific performance. This chapter examines how theorists have defined place and space since the 1970s, and considers how site-specific scholars have taken up these definitions for their own purposes. Delving into the divisions that these scholars have used to categorize site-specific art, it explores how perceptions of space and place have shifted over time. By offering up archaeological examinations, critical commentary, and sensory experiences, and through exposing authors' fascination with travel and consumerism, the chapter considers how site-specific performance fosters scrutiny of and revelations about the human-environment relationship in sites from the sublime to the mundane. Site performances have provoked people to experience sites not only sensually, but also as cultural locations that boast wide-ranging personal histories and interpretations.
