DOCUMENTING PERFORMANCE: PERFORMING DOCUMENTS

Artists, entrepreneurs, theatre managements, scholars and teachers are now routinely involved in the production, collection and active use of recordings of performance yet there has still been little formal discussion amongst and between these groups concerning the extensive range of philosophical, legal, methodological, technical and ethical issues raised by these common practices. There is also little agreement as to who should be taking responsibility for making and preserving collections, nor on policies concerning intellectual property rights and conditions of access. Current practices in relation to documentary theatre (verbatim, mockumentary, reality genres) pose an interesting convergence of questions and issues.

The Conveners hope that, among other things, the deliberations of this Working Group can lay the groundwork for a charter or code of conduct that would provide guidelines for both makers and users of performance documentation and that following the next PSi conference, discussion can be carried on via internet and email links.

Gay McAuley, who convened the Documentation of Performance Interest Group at PSi#10, is joined by Rachel Fensham as co-conveners of a Working Group that sets out to extend the discussions begun in Singapore and to explore the interface between creating documentary records of performance and creating performances based on documentary material.

Please contact the Conveners (Gay McAuley and Rachel Fensham ) if you would like to participate in this Working Group. Give your name and institutional affiliation (if any), email address and short statement about your interest in performance documentation. You are welcome to suggest names of people who we could invite as speakers in our coming fora, and to suggest yourself as a speaker if appropriate. Also, please forward this notice to other people you know who may be interested in participating.