Performance, Transparency, and the Cultures of Surveillance

Harding, James M

ISBN 10: 0472037099 / ISBN 13: 9780472037094

Published by University of Michigan Press, 2018

About this Item

Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 326 p. Audience: General/trade.

Seller Inventory # MBU0000702

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Performance, Transparency, and the Cultures of Surveillance
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472037099
• ISBN 13: 9780472037094
• Binding: Trade paperback
• Condition: Fine.

About this title

Synopsis

Placing the disciplines of performance studies and surveillance studies in a timely critical dialogue, Performance, Transparency, and the Cultures of Surveillance not only theorizes how surveillance performs but also how the technologies and corresponding cultures of surveillance alter the performance of everyday life. This exploration draws upon a rich array of examples from theatre, performance, and the arts, all of which provide vivid illustration of the book’s central argument: that the rise of the surveillance society coincides with a profound collapse of democratic oversight and transparency—a collapse that, in turn, demands a radical rethinking of how performance practitioners conceptualize art and its political efficacy. The book thus makes the case that artists and critics must reexamine—indeed, must radically redefine—their notions of performance if they are to mount any meaningful counter to the increasingly invasive surveillance society.

About the Author

James M. Harding is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Performance, Transparency and the Cultures of Surveillance; The Ghosts of the Avant- Garde(s): Exorcising Experimental Theater and Performance; and Cutting Performances: Collage Events, Feminist Artists, and the American Avant-Garde, among other books.