Writing encounters within performance and pedagogical practice

Abstract

The words in this journal edition are now fixed flat on the page but the worlds of words encountered in this edition are any thing but fixed. In this edition the 'words fly away' (Webb; italics in original). As Claire MacDonald reminds us writing is not transparent -in these articles words work. Words construct meaning. Words are provisional, contested and slippery. The authors craft their texts through and across creative and critical realms. The aesthetic of performance writing is writ large.This edition emerged from an international performance symposium at York St John University entitled 'Writing Encounters' (see details below). The journal edition includes a complex and rich array of encounters with books, domes, animals and formulations of time. As well as this we encounter writing as an encounter in its own terms. Together these articles celebrate the performative possibilities of writing.The symposium hosted by York St John University reflected themes of the international territories of writing in performance. There is a reciprocal relationship between university education and public performance practice where the term 'performance' animates a range of 'art and cultural practices and exists in dialogue with art forms that use live performance as their medium' (MacDonald 2005: 154). Many undergraduate students who study performance practice explore the notion of writing as making, composing, scoring, performing, reflecting and theorizing. In performance departments where students study contemporary theatre, they may often experience performance writing under the title of devising or making practices. This is not to suggest that the term 'devising' is an alternative name for writing; there are complex epistemological and cultural differences between writing and devising, namely the traditional understanding that writing belongs to one specific author whereas the term 'devising' is often experienced as shared or collaborative effort through improvisation, or writing collectively. But there are similarities that are often shared as a language across institutions and within the contemporary culture of performance makers.Perhaps a good example of writing in contemporary performance would be when texts are written in real time throughout the duration of the live event, which may also be accompanied by a visual performance score (variable according to which art form). Three of the articles in this edition (Webb, Wilsmore and Marcalo) explore and problematize notions JWCP_2.1_edt_Claire Hind_5-14.indd 5 JWCP_2.1_edt_Claire Hind_5-14.indd 5 7/20/09 11:41:43 AM 7/20/09 11:41:43 AM

Writing purposefully in art and design

“…We have also chosen to spread responsibility for the content to our Writing-PAD centres and co-founders. Our first volume was aimed at giving an overview of the Writing-PAD effect across the sector and was co-edited by Lockheart and Wood, but since then the first two issues of volume 2 have been guest edited by Susan Orr and Claire Hind as a companion to their symposium, Writing Encounters within Performance and Pedagogical Practice, at York St John University (Hind and Orr, 2009; Orr and Hind, 2009). The articles reflect on how performance and writing can interact.…”