Substitute Objects:performing Witthings

This course focuses on the activation of found
objects in performance. Manipulating the material
world in real time offers limitless possibilities
for artists, designers, and performance makers.
Through a series of short, hands-on projects and
improvisations, students will explore their roles
as generative artists using found objects as
vehicles for creating new forms and generating/
activating content. Responding to a range of
texts (whether from drama, literature, poetry,
news reports, social media /online sources,
original, adapted or collaged texts, students
will challenge their existing ideas of what
performance can be.

Objects carry a wide range of possible
associations that can be investigated, heightened,
subverted, or enhanced through their intentional
live animation. The word animation derives from
the Latin 'anima' meaning "of air, having a
spirit, living"; or "breath of air, air, soul,
life". By animating objects we breathe new life
into them.

Substitute Objects centers on performative work
with objects, with a corollary investigation of
the role of the performer in the process .
Students will explore a myriad of issues
concerning objects in performance, such as scale,
humor, doubling, ambiguity, visibility,
invisibility, and the use of metaphor, while
examining the historical use of the performing
objects as an essential theatrical tool of the
avant-garde.