The importance in documentation of live art.

For myself and to gain relevance to other post I thought I would shove the questions for my critical study proposal up here.

The importance in documentation of live art.

Is the documentation of live art important? Can we ever get the same experience from documentation? Is documentation subverting the intention of a live art model? Thorough this subversion I intend to question the importance aura in relation to live art. With links to Walter Benjamin is modernity affecting the need for documentation? In turn this questions the materiality of performance. Surely the beauty of performance art is in its ephemeral nature but with constant emphasise on art as a commodity we need to question its Value? Furthermore this questions the value of an action and whether documentation of such an action has more or less value than the original.

In particular I wish to launch an inquiry into documentation of durational art. I will question the importance of the witness/ audience within a piece of work and there necessity within a documentation process. With reference to Teching Hsieh I will question there value within the piece as well as there gain from it in the way of necessity of the performance actually happening.

In favour of documentation and relation to Marina Abramovic I will look at documentation through preservation in terms of Re-enactment of a performance. In this sense I will take into account the importance of process and whether or not the documentation can stand alone as a piece of work.

Overall I wish to question the necessity of documentation within a performance art model and whether or not in doing so the ‘liveness’ is lost.