Imagination, Body and Performance

Exploring diverse manifestations of creativity and performance in a variety of social arenas in contemporary Britain.

Research

Imagination, Body and Performance explores diverse manifestations of creativity and performance in a variety of social arenas in contemporary Britain. Hosting the Theatre, Performance and Ethnographies of the Imagination Research Group [link], a major strand of the cluster’s research focuses on the creative process in a variety of theatrical forms across Britain, forging interdisciplinary links with the Performance Research Group in King’s College London, as well as with professional theatrical institutions (e.g. the National Theatre Studios, Real Circumstance, Frantic Assembly). Taking a broader view on questions of creativity, imagination, performance and skills, the cluster’s research also explores their social manifestations in practices such as extreme sport such as cliff jumping in Cornwall, management culture in university life and honing of transferrable skills in university outdoors, art festivals in London as well as in forms of visual culture and technology.

Researchers

Selected Publications

  • Kuechler, S., Lo Conte, R (2011) Mapping Festivals in London. In Kuechler, S., Kuerti, L., Elkadi, H. (Eds.). Every Day’s a Festival! ( pp.169-195). Wantage: Sean Kingston Publishing.
  • Allen Abramson and Patrick Laviolette. (2007) “Cliff-Jumping, World-Shifting and Value-Production: The genesis and cultural transformation of a dangerous new game”. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(2) SUMMER, pp. 5-28.
  • Abramson, A. (2006) Worlds of knowledge, cosmologies of skills: ethnography outdoors in a neo-liberal university. LATISS Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences , 3 (1) pp. 5-28. 10.1386/ltss.3.1.5_1.
  • Copyright Notice: Header picture by Juliano Spyer (acquired licence and true copy)