Private matters, Public Spaces

This performance-based class takes on the task of creating and documenting performances that bring private experiences into the public gaze and discourse. Together we survey different tactics available to index ephemeral gestures, bodily experiences, interpersonal relationships, and processes of maintenance and entropy. We explore the political potential of transforming public audiences into coconspirators and the ways artists solicit involvement from viewers & collaborators. Students will workshop performance concepts and experiment with tactics artists have used to encapsulate and circulate performance work through photography, video, text, and narrative. Students will be expected to collaborate with one another for in-class exercises, help document one another's work, and provide critical feedback for in-progress projects. This course will culminate in a final project that will be publicly performed/exhibited.