ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the documentation of sound in performance art and with sound as a means through which performance art has been documented. It takes the form of a draft outline for a future research inquiry into an “aural history of performance art.” An Aural History of Performance Art proposes to focus on the rarely considered sonic archive of performance art with the intent to explore how sound documents can supplement, enhance, or challenge the visual record. Positing that debates about the nature of performance documentation are always in essence debates about the nature of performance, the chapter suggests that listening to the Aural History of Performance Art offers the potential for a rethinking of performance itself and the manner in which it remains.
