Performance as Research: Knowledge, methods, impact

Performance as Research (PAR) is characterised by an extraordinary elasticity and interdisciplinary drive. Performance as Research: Knowledge, Methods, Impact celebrates this energy, bringing together chapters from a wide range of disciplines and eight different countries. This volume focuses explicitly on three critical, often contentious themes that run through much discussion of PaR as a discipline:

• Knowledge - the areas and manners in which performance can generate knowledge
• Methods - methods and methodologies for approaching performance as research
• Impact - a broad understanding of the impact of this form of research

These themes are framed by four essays from the book's editors, contextualising their interrelated conversations, teasing out common threads, and exploring the new questions that the contributions pose to the field of performance. As both an intervention into and extension of current debates, this is a vital collection for any reader concerned with the value and legitimacy of performance as research.

Annette Arlander is an artist, researcher, and pedagogue. She is currently principal investigator of the research project How to Do Things with Performance? and engaged in the project Performing with Plants.

Bruce Barton is a creator/scholar, Artistic Director of the interdisciplinary performance hub Vertical City, and Director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts, University of Calgary.

Melanie Dreyer-Lude is a director, actor, producer and teacher. She is a resident producing artist at Civic Ensemble, Ithaca, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, Missouri University.

Ben Spatz is author of What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research and editor of the videographic Journal of Embodied Research. They are currently Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance at University of Huddersfield.