ABSTRACT

Archaeologies of Presence is a brilliant exploration of how the performance of presence can be understood through the relationships between performance theory and archaeological thinking. Drawing together carefully commissioned contributions by leading international scholars and artists, this radical new work poses a number of essential questions:

  • What are the principle signifiers of theatrical presence?
  • How is presence achieved through theatrical performance?
  • What makes a memory come alive and live again?
  • How is presence connected with identity?
  • Is presence synonymous with 'being in the moment'?
  • What is the nature of the ‘co-presence’ of audience and performer?
  • Where does performance practice end and its documentation begin?


Co-edited by performance specialists Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye, and archaeologist Michael Shanks, Archaeologies of Presence represents an innovative and rewarding feat of interdisciplinary scholarship.

chapter 1|25 pages

Introduction

Archaeologies of presence

part I|73 pages

Being here

chapter 2|21 pages

How to define presence effects

The work of Janet Cardiff 1

chapter 3|14 pages

Environmental presence

chapter 4|18 pages

Performance remains again

part II|94 pages

Being before

chapter 7|34 pages

‘…Presence …' as a question and emergent possibility

A case study from the performer's perspective 1

chapter 8|19 pages

Out-standing standing-within

Being alone together in the work of Bodies of Flight

chapter 10|12 pages

Looking back

A conversation about presence, 2006

part III|78 pages

Traces

chapter 11|25 pages

Temporal anxiety/‘Presence' in Absentia

Experiencing performance as documentation

chapter 12|13 pages

Here and now

chapter 13|22 pages

Photographic presence

Time and the image

chapter 14|16 pages

Neither here nor there …

Let's talk about adult matters …