PER-FORM - the performative essay and the essayistic performance
(2017)
author(s): Emily Huurdeman
published in: Research Catalogue
Everyone knows what an essay is, or at least everyone think they know what an essay is. But try to define it and you’re most likely at a loss, because the essay is
notoriously difficult to define. It balances between the artistic and the scientific, the experiential and the intellectual, it is labeled as an undefinable non-genre. The essay is experimental and doesn’t fit neatly in pre-defined boxes of genres, just like performance. Among other things they share a process oriented atitude and
are inherently authorial. Having many characteristics in common, I wondered: can performance be essayistic? This research investigates the essay and its connection to performance theoretically, and investigates the essayistic performance artistically.
I have chosen the workspace of the Research Catalogue to present my research in. This enables spatial freedom of form and content and can accomodate both the textual and artistic side of the research equally in the same space.