ACADEMIC

​My academic knowledge generally relates to the history of fine art practices and contemporary performance, with a particular interest in early modernism (Futurism - Dada - Surrealism) and postmodern theories of language and representation (Barthes, Foucault, Derrida).

My training is in the areas of overlap between these avant-garde traditions, in Performance Art and the contemporary Devised Theatre practices. The range of territory I have studied and taught includes the work of Artaud, Brecht, Stanislavski, Grotowski, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, The Wooster Group, Spalding Grey, Forced Entertainment, Bobby Baker, and into the more contemporary work of companies like Desperate Optimists, Shunt, Gob Squad and Ridiculusmus.  I have a particular interest in comedy and clown forms, especially as practiced by  contemporary performance artists.

I also have a particular interest in theories of cultural hirerachy and consumption (Pierre Bourdieu, Thorstein Veblen, ),  the relation of evolutionary psychology to aesthetics and cultural consumption, and the study of 'Flow' states primarily associated with the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (see 'Research')

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