ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book features nine interviews with curators, conservators, and archivists from some of the museums and other arts institutions that have been central to the development of a burgeoning performance canon. These institutions operate at disparate scales and are guided by distinct missions and priorities. The book offers historical analyses of various types of performance, as well as methodological reflections on how their approach to documentation produces specific kinds of knowledge. Art historian Katja Kwastek details the difficulties of documenting interactive artworks and offers a history of how investigators have approached those challenges. Finally, the book considers how people experience their world to in turn generate an understanding of the artwork's composition and value by using an ethnographic approach.
