Performing a Document

Performance has always been a source of expression throughout the years. The addition of technology, and applying it graciously, performance entered a new realm. The documentation of performance in conjunction with the audiences experience is argued to be documentary or theatrical. There is a general acceptance of ontological relationship between the documentation and the performance; in which the performance happens first, and the documentation is merely a captured framed moment of this timely event. I feel that how and where the audience interacts with the performance is more important that for the ‘authenticity’ of the document. If there is any sort of obstruction of the performance, or if the audiences experienced is bargained because of the documentation; then there is a question of purity. When audiences find themselves contributors, then perhaps the document that is later reviewed and/or edited is not just to the original. I found in the reading that there was no audience for Chris Burden’s Shoot. In this 1971 performance, Burden had a friend shoot him in the arm inside of an emptied gallery. Going back to the idea of theatrics, some performances are meant to be staged in which the performance itself is the document. The reading talked briefly about music production and specifically the Beatles. An album simply signifies the bands best take at each song, compiled together. The same cut is heard by everyone that buys the album; even in fact that ‘performance’ only happened once.