Studies in Performing Arts & Media

Startpagina
België
Ghent
Studies in Performing Arts & Media

These two disciplines have moved towards one another, but still one cannot deny that they emerged from a different tradition.

S:PAM - Studies in Performing Arts & Media is the research unit of the Theatre, Performance and Media Studies team of Ghent University, led by professors Christel Stalpaert and Katharina Pewny. S:PAM deliberately includes Theatre Studies and Performance Studies as dialoguing entities in the disciplinary, methodological and political/ethical questions it poses. Since the sixties, vigorous debate ex

isted between continental European Theatre Studies on the one hand and American Performance Studies on the other hand. Performance Studies claimed to challenge the institutional norms of higher education with research-through-practice and reproached Theatre Studies for not doing so. Performance Studies is said to be transnational whereas Theatre Studies is seen as conducting rather national research. Theatre Studies is said to study the drama text in the process of theatrical production, while Performance Studies is said to study performativity in a broader cultural analysis. It has become clear, however, that a strict division between the two fields and the two paradigms is no longer possible. Continental poststructuralist philosophers have strongly influenced the political questions tackled in Performance Studies and with Hans-Thies Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre it has become clear that Theatre Studies also includes the study of the performance text. Theatre Studies has a rich tradition of historical research. S:PAM has these methodological issues dialogue with the concept of performativity. Dealing with the aesthetic implications of the performing body in historical and contemporary performing arts is a particular challenge for S:PAM. A transdisciplinary approach hence gears S:PAM research. Drama texts, theatre performances, music theatre, dance theatre, opera, ballet, modern and new media, popular theatre forms like variety theatre and music hall, and even broader cultural manifestations like fireworks, public ceremonies, royal entries, etc, are the topics of research. The relation of the “own” and the “other” in performance, the issues of subjectivity, as well as racial and gender identity, are important issues in S:PAM research practice, which is clustered around five main focuses: Technologies; Memories, Traumata & Conflicts; Histories; Dramaturgies and Practices.

12/12/2025

Don't miss it!

Arkadi Zaides Christel Stalpaert

17/04/2025

Another symposium announcement!

On April 28, 29, and 30 at Beursschouwburg, Les Grands Carmes and KVS Brussels in Brussels, we will host a three-day symposium, gathering practitioners, scholars, and activists to explore the multifaceted meanings of documentary choreography. This symposium is part of S:PAM researcher Arkadi Zaides' artistic research trajectory and organised in collaboration with Cultural Studies Leuven, Visual Poetics and CoDa / Cultures of Dance - Research Network for Dance Studies

At the heart of this symposium is the body — as a site of knowledge, memory, and agency. Through conversation, performance, and shared inquiry, we will consider how gestures, movements, and embodied acts become living documents, reflecting and responding to urgent sociopolitical realities.
We look forward to welcoming you into this space of critical reflection, collaboration, and embodied thought.

The program is out now and you can register for each intervention via the website of Beursschouwburg: https://www.beursschouwburg.be/en/events/towards-documentary-choreography-encounter-2/

Kamal Aljafari, A Fidai Film (2024), film still TOWARDS DOCUMENTARY CHOREOGRAPHY ENCOUNTER #2 - ATTENDING TO BODIES 28-30 April 2025 Beursschouwburg, 20/28 Rue Auguste Orts, 1000, Brussels Les Grands Carmes, 20/22 Rue des Grands Carmes, 1000, Brussels KVS BOL, 146 Rue de Laeken, 1000, Bruss...

29/10/2024

rekto:verso zoekt bestuurders en leden voor de algemene vergadering!

Hou je graag de vinger aan de pols in de culturele sector? Bouw dan met ons mee aan een spannende toekomst voor rekto:verso als vrijwillig bestuurder of lid van de algemene vergadering!

08/10/2024

A brand new symposium with lots of interventions in Charleroi on the (new) dance epidemics!

👉 https://colloque-festival-ned.site.ulb.be

TRANSFO, institut interfacultaire de l'ULB sur le CampusUCharleroi, organise, du 13 au 16 novembre 2024, un colloque / festival international de quatre jours réunissant chercheur·e·s, praticien·ne·s, artistes et amateurs·ices autour de la déhiérarchisation des pratiques de la danse et des ...

13/02/2024

CALL FOR PROPOSALS - APPEL À PROPOSITIONS
Deadline: 25.03.2024

This symposium aims to bring together PhD students, architects, architectural theorists, artists, choreographers, dancers, dance theorists and philosophers to speculate on the opportunities of ecologies of architecture and dance affirming both in their full ontological consistency. How do such ecologies appear in contemporary architecture and dance practices?

Ce symposium vise à rassembler des doctorant.e.s, des architectes, des artistes, des chorégraphes, des danseur.euse.s, des théoricien.ne.s de l'architecture, des théoricien.ne.s de la danse et des philosophes pour spéculer sur les possibilités d'écologies de l'architecture et de la danse affirmant leur pleine consistance ontologique. Comment ces écologies apparaissent-elles dans les pratiques contemporaines de l'architecture et de la danse ?

More info: https://www.ugent.be/lw/kunstwetenschappen/spam/en/activities/ecologiesofarchitectureanddance

17/11/2023

The new Edition of Documenta, now fully online and open-access, edited by Adriana La Selva and Campbell. Enjoy!!!

This Special Edition of Documenta is dedicated to the Parliament of Practices (PoP), a platform for generative knowledge exchange, based on dialogical forms and devised tactics, initiated by Marije Nie and Adriana La Selva in 2020. In many ways, this Special Edition acts as a discursive iteration of PoP: articles have, for the most part, been written dialogically or focus on the ways in which (performative) dialogue generates novel forms of knowledge.

Het nieuwste themanummer: Documenta 41.1 (2023)

We are happy to announce that from now on, Documenta is a fully open-access, online journal, making the research at S:PAM more widely accessible. Enjoy! ✨

We zijn blij te kunnen aankondigen dat Documenta vanaf nu een volledig open-access, online tijdschrift is, waardoor het onderzoek bij S:PAM breder toegankelijk wordt. Veel leesplezier! ✨

This Special Issue of Documenta is dedicated to the Parliament of Practices (PoP), a platform for generative knowledge exchange, based on dialogical forms and devised tactics, initiated by Marije Nie and Adriana La Selva in 2020. Articles have been written dialogically or focus on the ways in which dialogue generates new forms of knowledge.
———
Dit themanummer van Documenta is gewijd aan Parliament of Practices (PoP), een platform voor generatieve kennisuitwisseling, gebaseerd op dialogische vormen en tactieken, geïnitieerd door Marije Nie en Adriana La Selva in 2020. Artikels zijn dialogisch geschreven of richten zich op de manieren waarop dialogen nieuwe vormen van kennis generen.

Met bijdragen van, With contributions by: Adriana La Selva, Patrick Campbell, Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley; Vera Milhailovich-Dickman and William Kentridge; Andrea Maciel and Diana Taylor; Vinicius Torres Machado, Lucas Breda, Verônica Lo Turco Gentlin, Dona Carmen and Dentinho; Marije Nie and Lotte van den Berg; Julia Pond; Leonie Persyn; Miranda Laurence and Sara Živkovič Kranjc; Gustavo Vicente; Elias D’hollander and Paulina Bronfman and Alejandra Zúñiga-Feest.

Guest editors, Gastredactie: Adriana La Selva en Patrick Campbell

Image, Afbeelding: “Doughflesh” (c) Julia Pond, July 2021

https://documenta.ugent.be/issue/25330/info/

Adres

Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41
Ghent
9000

Website

http://s-pam.ugent.be/

Meldingen

Wees de eerste die het weet en laat ons u een e-mail sturen wanneer Studies in Performing Arts & Media nieuws en promoties plaatst. Uw e-mailadres wordt niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt en u kunt zich op elk gewenst moment afmelden.