About

This practice-based PhD proposes ‘implication’ as a critical variation on methods of ‘participation’ found in contemporary art which have been instrumentalised as public engagement opportunities for cultural institutions. ‘Participation’ as an artistic method situates audiences as co-producers of artworks through explicit engagement including dialogue, collaboration and direct instruction. With a focus on performance, my research will interrogate how participatory practices often carry with them neoliberal logics, felt through the voice of the performer, the public engagement officer and cooptation by the language of internal communications and marketing.

‘Implication’ can be defined as that which is inferred or insinuated, a state of involvement or a question of complicity. Applying this definition to practice-based research, I will investigate vocal and embodied forms of address, drawing on methodologies found in institutional critique, comedic crowd work and postdramatic theatre to explore the structures and ideologies which underpin public engagement activities. This is done with the view that a practical analysis of the embodied materiality of the voice and its play with language (through, for example, the use of rhetoric or irony) will support my understanding of implication as a mode of inferred engagement or provoked complicity.

My research will contribute to fields of contemporary art and performance studies through a series of solo and ensemble performances supported by a programme of public workshops. By articulating through practice the problematics of participation in artistic work and broader cultural production, my research aims to reclaim erstwhile participatory practices as exploratory modes of embodied critique. Informed by live practice outputs and fieldworks, I will publish a series of texts which together articulate a critical vocabulary for ‘implication’. This research will impact the ongoing work of artists, cultural workers and arts educators and provide vital understandings for organisations aiming to support performance and socially engaged arts in particular.