Archaeologies of Presence

Archaeologies of Presence is a brilliant exploration of how the performance of presence can be understood through the relationships between performance theory and archaeological thinking. Drawing together carefully commissioned contributions by leading international scholars and artists, this radical new work poses a number of essential questions: What are the principle signifiers of theatrical presence? How is presence achieved through theatrical performance? What makes a memory come alive and live again? How is presence connected with identity? Is presence synonymous with 'being in the moment'? What is the nature of the 'co-presence' of audience and performer? Where does performance practice end and its documentation begin? Co-edited by performance specialists Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye, and archaeologist Michael Shanks, Archaeologies of Presence represents an innovative and rewarding feat of interdisciplinary scholarship.

1 Gabriella Giannachi, Nick Kaye and Michael Shanks Introduction: Archaeologies of Presence

Being Here: place and time

2 Josette Feral,
How to Define Presence Effects: the Work of Janet Cardiff
3 Gabriella Giannachi Environmental Presence
4 Rebecca Schneider Performance Remains Again
5 Jon Erickson Tension/Release and the Production of Time in Performance

Being Before: stage and gaze

6 Erika Fischer-Lichte
Appearing As Embodied Mind -- Defining a weak, a strong and a radical concept of presence
7 Phillip Zarrilli '!presence!' as a question and emergent possibility: a case study from the performer's perspective
8 Simon Jones Out-Standing Standing-Within: being alone together in the work of Bodies in Flight
9 Nicholas Ridout Mis-spectatorship, or, 'redistributing the sensible'
10 Tim Etchells, Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye Looking Back: a conversation about presence, 2006

Traces: after presence

11 Amelia Jones Temporal Anxiety/'Presence' in absentia: experiencing performance as documentation
12 Lynn Hershman Leeson and Michael Shanks Here and Now
13 Nick Kaye Photographic presence: time and the image
14 Mike Pearson Neither Here nor There!.