Old and New Materials: Wood, Paper, Metal, Plastic, Bone

  • John Bell
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History book series (PSTPH)

Abstract

Having looked at some aspects of American puppet modernism in terms of the way objects in motion have helped define U.S. culture in the past 150 years, I would like to focus in particular on the materials used in such performances, in order to think about how the identity of those materials has helped define the ways in which modernist performance has developed. Specifically, I want to consider the shifts in object performance from traditional materials such as wood, leather, paper, and bone; to such “modern” materials as metal, plastic, glass, and rubber, and how the identities of these materials influence the performances created with them.

Keywords

Live Performance Hybrid Culture Live Theatre Street Demonstration Puppet Show 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. 1.
    Oskar Schlemmer, The Letters and Diaries of Oskar Schlemmer, ed. Tut Schlemmer (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1971) 243.Google Scholar
  2. 2.
    Alfred Jarry, “Ubu sur la Butte,” in Tout Ubu (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1962) 455–456.Google Scholar
  3. 4.
    Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (Detroit, MI: Black & Red, 1977).Google Scholar
  4. 5.
    Simon Watney, “The Spectacle of AIDS,” AIDS: Cultural Analysis Cultural Activism, ed. Douglas Crimp (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989) 80.Google Scholar
  5. 7.
    Larry Kramer, Reports fom the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist (New York: St. Martins Press, 1981) 138.Google Scholar
  6. 10.
    See Douglas Crimp and Adam Rolston, AIDS Demo Graphics (Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1990) for an examination of ACT-UP graphic designs used in demonstrations.Google Scholar
  7. 13.
    For an account of the puppet activism connected to the Seattle protests and other events, see Morgan F. P. Andrews, “When Magic Confronts Authority: The Rise of Protest Puppetry in N. America,” Realizing the Impossible: Art against Authority (Oakland, CA: A. K. Press, 2007) 180–209.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© John Bell 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • John Bell

There are no affiliations available

Personalised recommendations