Perform Design Act: Performance Design Provocations

Perform Design Act is a groundbreaking reflection on two decades of Performance Design as a transformative interdisciplinary field, challenging conventional approaches to creative practice and event-making.

This illuminating collection examines the evolution and impact of Performance Design since its establishment as a university subject twenty years ago. The authors, pioneers in this interdisciplinary domain, present provocative insights gained through extensive collaboration with thinkers, artists, and institutions across music, theatre, dance, architecture, and design. Employing critical analysis and innovative expressions, the book explores how Performance Design has developed its theoretical foundations while emerging as a significant art form in its own right. Readers will discover how this field has reshaped approaches to event creation, spatial relationships, and worldbuilding through its unique integration of diverse creative disciplines.

This book will appeal to artists, researchers, educators, and students in spatial, visual, and performing arts programs, as well as those engaged with social and cultural humanities who seek to understand how creative practices intersect with broader societal contexts.

Dorita Hannah is a New Zealand-based performance architect, independent academic, visual artist, and designer.

Olav Harsløf is a former principal of the Danish National Theatre School & School of Modern Dance, the Danish National Conversatory of Rhythmic Music, and Performance Design professor at Roskilde University.

Jon McKenzie is a performance theorist, media maker, and transdisciplinary researcher and teacher at Cornell University.