Professor Adrian Heathfield

 

Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3297 Email Address: A.Heathfield@roehampton.ac.uk

Academic Activities and Interests

Adrian is Professor of Performance and Visual Culture. He was a lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick (1994-2003) and Principal Research Fellow in the College of Art, Design and the Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University (2004-2007).

He has taught performance practice and theory in Holland, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Austria, Norway and Finland, and in America as a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at New York University, at Stanford University, and at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has given papers extensively in Europe and America and has received research, arts and publication awards from the AHRC, the British Academy, the Arts Council of England, the Millennium Commission, arts trusts and regional arts boards. He was President of Performance Studies international (2004-2007).

He recently curated The Frequently Asked with Tim Etchells, a durational chain dialogue commissioned by Tanzquartier Vienna. He recently published a monograph Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh with MIT Press and the Live Art Development Agency. He is co-editing Perform, Repeat, Record: A Critical Anthology of Live Art in History with Amelia Jones.

Adrian is co-director, with Gavin Butt and Lois Keidan, of Performance Matters, a three-year creative research project on the cultural value of performance.

Adrian's research on live art and performance spans critical theory, creative and curatorial practice. His work questions the ethics of the encounter between the spectator and the artwork, elaborating its significance through debates on the status of sensory experience within cultural knowledge, the politics of commemoration and shifts in the perception and presentation of mortality.

Research Supervision

Adrian has successfully supervised numerous research degrees, with PhD and MA students completing theses in areas as diverse as: the clown and laughter, feminist performance and catharsis, space and dance-theatre, the relations between photography and performance, medical discourse and the performing body, masochism and performance, and national identity in post-colonial theatre. He is currently supervising theses on dramaturgy and surprise, trauma and testimony in art practice, performance and the life of objects, and the emotions in performance. He welcomes applications from research students wishing to study in any area of contemporary live, performance and interdisciplinary art, particularly projects focused around issues of embodiment, time, performative writing, mortality, and the liminal.

Publications

Books

Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh, LADA and MIT Press, forthcoming January 2009.

Perform, Repeat, Record: A Critical Anthology on Live Art in History, Routledge, forthcoming 2009. Co-edited with Amelia Jones.

Edited Works

2004. Live: Art and Performance, Tate Publishing and Routledge, Editor. Includes a full-length introduction and an interview.

2000. Small Acts: Performance, the Millennium, and the Marking of Time, Black Dog Publishing, London, Editor. Includes a full-length article.

2000. On Memory, Performance Research, Vol. 5 No. 3, Routledge, December. Guest editorship with Andrew Quick of this refereed journal. Includes an introduction.

1997. Shattered Anatomies: Traces of the Body in Performance, Arnolfini Live, Bristol, Numerous loose leaf pages and objects. Editor. Co-editors: Fiona Templeton and Andrew Quick. A limited edition publication containing critical theory and performance documents from a large international set of contributors. Includes an introduction and a full-length article.

Catalogue

2003. Live Culture. Editor, catalogue to accompany the Live Culture event at Tate Modern. Includes introduction and short essay.

Articles

2006. ‘Writing of Performance’, A Performance Cosmology, Eds. Richard Gough, Daniel Watt, Judie Christie, Routledge.

2006. ‘After the Fall: Dance-Theatre and Dance-Performance’, Contemporary Theatres in Europe: A Critical Companion, Eds. Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout, Routledge.

2004. ‘End Time Now’, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vol. 3 No. 4, Winter, Art & Collection Group Ltd.

2004. ‘Alive’, Live: Art and Performance, Tate Publishing and Routledge. Introduction to edited book.

2004. ‘Elevating the Public: Marina Abramovic in conversation with Adrian Heathfield’, Live: Art and Performance, Tate Publishing and Routledge.

2004. ‘In Memory of Little Things’, La Ribot, Merz and Centre National De La Danse (published in English and French).

2004. ‘as if things got more real’,Not Even A Game Anymore: The Theatre of Forced Entertainment, Eds. Judith Helmer and Florian Malzacher, Alexander Verlag. Dialogue with Tim Etchells (in English & German).

2004. ‘Last Laughs’, On Correspondence, Performance Research, Vol. 9 No. 2.

2002. ‘Drawing In Thin Air’, Frakcija, Vol. 24/25, dialogue with Graeme Miller (published in English & Croatian).

2001. ‘Coming Undone’, It’s an Earthquake in My Heart: A Reading Companion, Goat Island.

2001. ‘Facing the Other: The Performance Encounter and Death’, Assemblages/Love and Mourning/Dialogues, Space and Culture, No. 7/8/9.

2001. ‘Archived Presence’, Connect 2: Technology, New York.

2001. ‘Blood Math’, The Performance of Love, Cultural Studies, Vol. 15. No. 2. April. A joint article with Peggy Phelan.

2000. ‘Out of Sight: Forced Entertainment and the Limits of Vision’, Void Spaces, Site Gallery, Sheffield.

2000. ‘End Time Now’, Small Acts: Performance, the Millennium, and the Marking of Time, Black Dog Publishing, London.

1997. ‘Sexual Subjects’, Do the Wild Thing!, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham.

1997. ‘Facing the Other: The Performance Encounter and Death’, Shattered Anatomies: Traces of the Body in Performance, Arnolfini Live, Bristol.

DVD

2006. Somewhere Near Variety, dialogue with Tim Etchells, Live Art Development Agency in collaboration with Forced Entertainment.

Papers

Adrian has given papers and critical dialogues at academic conferences and in arts contexts nationally and internationally in Holland, Turkey, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Egypt, Australia and in a number of cities in the USA.

2007. ‘Walking Out of Life’, The Event of Movement: Walking and the Open, panel with Andre Lepecki and Carol Becker, Happening, Performance, Event, PSi 13, New York University, 8th –11th November.

2007. ‘The Art of Time’, UKS, Black Box Teatre, Oslo, Norway, October.

2007. ‘Walking Out of Life’, iDANS Festival Conference and Performative Lecture Series, Istanbul, Turkey, 6th - 7th October.

2007. ‘Enduring Time’, Keynote Speech at Repeat, Repeat, Centre for Practice as Research, Chester University, 19th April.

2007. ‘Impress of Time’, Keynote Speech at Openport: Real-Time Performance, Sound and Language, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 22nd February.

2006. ‘Temporal Aesthetics of Performance’, Literature and Documents on Experimental Theatre, Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt, 13th September.

2006. ‘Performing Rights’, Opening Address with Lois Weaver, Performing Rights, Performance Studies international #12, Department of Drama, Queen Mary University of London, London, 15th June.

2005. ‘Love’s Lost Call’, Keynote Paper, The Rules of the Game, Riverside Studios, London, 5th November.

2005. ‘The Event of Performance’, Keynote Paper, Space and Composition, NordScen, Copenhagen, 11th August.

2005. ‘Supplemental Life’, Performance and the Archive research seminar as part of the theme Duration, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 6th May.

2005. ‘Traces of Events’, Document, European Media Art Festival (EMAF), Osnabrueck, 23rd April.

2005. ‘After the Fall: Dance Theatre and Dance Performance’, Force of Movement panel with Andre Lepecki, and Heidi Gilpin and Rebecca Schneider as respondents, at Becoming Uncomfortable, PSi#11, Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, April.

2005. ‘Time Wounds’, Department of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, March.

2005. ‘Time Wounds’, Department of Drama, Roehampton University, London, March.

2005. ‘Live: Elements and Movements’, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, February.

2005. ‘Three Falls’, Transformes, Centre National de la Danse, Paris, France, January.

2004. ‘Writing Performance’, Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, December.

2004. ‘Hearing Others’, Group Dynamics Symposium, CDU, Zagreb, May.

2004. Introduction and Panel Chair, We Love You, Goethe Institute, London, April.

2004. ‘Writing Performance’, Visual and Historical Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London, March.

2004. ‘Writing Performance’, Department of Drama, Stanford University, March.

2004. ‘Imaginative Communion’, and Chair of the Panel ‘Pleasure’ at The Treason of Images, Tate Modern, February.

2004. ‘In Memory of Little Things’, Department of Drama, Royal Holloway, University of London, March.

2003. ‘Animal Imperatives’, Artists and Social Change workshop, Institute for International Studies (IIS), University of Technology Sydney, July.

2003. ‘Three Fragments for Alphonso Lingis’, response to Alphonso Lingis’ ‘Love Junkies’, panel members: Steven Connor, Irit Rogoff and David Williams, Civic Centre, Natural History Museum, London, April.

2003. ‘Last Laughs’, Department of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, February.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, Summer Academy of the Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, November.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, Creative Re-use: The Body of Knowledge Symposium, University of Bristol, August.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, Creative Re-use: The Body of Knowledge Symposium, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July.

2002. ‘First Falls’, a joint paper with Prof. Alan Read, Creative Re-use: The Body of Knowledge Symposium, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, Capitals, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna, Lisbon, July.

2002. ‘Performance, Trauma and Sensory Memory’, Theatre and Cultural Memory, Federation of International Theatre Research, Amsterdam, July.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, ‘Dead or Alive’ Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia, June.

2002. ‘Last Laughs’, Performance Studies International, New York University, New York, April.

2001. ‘Launch of the Institute for Failure Studies’, Bastard Television, Sheffield, November.

2001. ‘I Feel My Life A Movie I Never Saw II’, Bodies of Knowledge, University of Bristol, August.

2001. ‘I Feel My Life A Movie I Never Saw’, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July.

2001. ‘Performance and the Traumatic’, Culture and Post-Authoritarian Societies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, April.

2001. ‘On Coolness’, Visual Culture Series, University of Wisconsin, Madison, April.

2000. ‘End Time Now’, Heart Murmur: Collaborations, Bodies, Words (Low), University of Bristol, August.

2000. ‘End Time Now’, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July.

2000. ‘Intangible Gifts’, Performance/Play Seminar Series, Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey, May.

Practice as Research

Adrian’s practice-based research has spanned the curation of national and publicly funded performance event-series, the writing of dialogues and curation of symposia with renowned artists and thinkers, and the creation of performance pieces in professional contexts.

Performance Curation

• Co-curator, nine-hour durational chain dialogue, The Frequently Asked, with Tim Etchells, commissioned and premiered by Tanzquartier Vienna, 23rd-25th November 2007.

• Co-curator, Marathon Lexicon, premiered at Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, with Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment, November 2003. Also exhibited at LIFT 2004 (see below), the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin, January 2005, Kampnagel Hamburg May 2005 and Kaaitheater, Brussels, Autumn 2005. An eight to twelve-hour performance-lecture.

• Co-curator, Live Culture, Tate Modern, London, with Lois Keidan and Daniel Brine of the Live Art Development Agency, March 2003. A four day series of durational performances, screenings, talks and a two day international symposium on the culture of liveness. Contributors: Marina Abramovic, RoseLee Goldberg, Yu Yeon Kim, Franko B, Forced Entertainment, La Ribot, Guillermo Gomez Pena, Oleg Kulik, Hayley Newman, Peggy Phelan, William Pope.L, Andre Lepecki, Leslie Hill, Tim Etchells, Alastair MacLennan, Amelia Jones, Ron Athey, Lin Hixson, Henry M Sayre, Carol Becker, Alan Read, Jean Fisher, Matthew Goulish.

• Co-curator, Small Acts at the Millennium, with Tim Etchells and Lois Keidan, a nationwide performance commission of 14 UK-based artists across the year 2000.

Public Dialogues and Symposia

• Co-author: In So Many Words, with Tim Etchells, Tanzquartier Vienna, as part of Education Acts, June 2006 and as part of the Dialogues season, November 2007. A written dialogue.

• In Conversation: Why Art? with Tim Etchells and Bazon Brock, The Old Brand New series of lectures, Amsterdam, 21st June 2007.

• Chair and Interlocutor, Performance Panel, Performing Rights, Tanzquartier Vienna, March 8th-10th 2007.

• Dialogue with Jonathan Burrows, Tim Etchells and Kate McIntosh, Siobhan Davies Dance Studios, 1st March 2007.

• In-Conversation, Re-wiring / Re-writing Theatre, dialogue with Richard Maxwell, Phelim McDermott and Tim Etchells, Riverside Studios, 18th November 2006.

• Co-author: Somewhere Near Variety, with Tim Etchells, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, as part of Variety Acts, November 2005. A written dialogue.

• In-Conversation, The Art of Entertainment, with Daria Martin, Gary Stevens and Jonathan Allen, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, as part of Variety Acts, November 2005.

• In-Conversation, Rules of the Game, with Sophie Calle, Riverside Studios, November 2005.

• Co-author: Lax, with Hugo Glendinning, Tate Liverpool; and Tate Modern, as part of the Activations series, October 2004. Also exhibited at Hebbel Theatre Berlin, January 2005, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, April 2005. A performance somewhere between an experimental screening, an art lecture and a written dialogue.

• Curator: Strange Relations: Movement After Dance-Theatre and Dance-Performance, includes the paper ‘Three Falls’ and an in-conversation with La Ribot and Jerome Bel, Transformes, Centre National De La Danse, Paris, January 2005.

• Curator, Dialogues part of the Indoor Fireworks season, Riverside Studios, Forced Entertainment and London International Festival of Theatre, October/November 2004. Dialogues between Tim Etchells and Emma Kay, Jonathan Burrows, Steven Connor and myself. Talk by Peggy Phelan. The event also included Marathon Lexicon, an eight-hour performance-lecture.

• In-Conversation, Talking About Performance, Tate Liverpool, panel as part of the Activations series, October 2004.

• In-Conversation, The Fate of Performance, Tate Modern, in with Amelia Jones as part of the Activations series, October 2004.

• Co-author: June: What Would Your Shadow Do?, with Goat Island, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London as part of the Nightwalking Festival, Rescen, September 2002. Subsequently broadcast by Outer Ear Festival, USA, December 2002.

• Co-author: Drawing in Thin Air, a written dialogue with Graeme Miller, Middlesex University, London, June 2002.

• Co-curator: The Wooster Group Symposium, with Andrew Quick, a two day conference with the company on their work, Cochrane Theatre, London International Festival of Theatre, 14-15 May 2002.

• In-Conversation, with Franko B, Warwick Arts Centre, May 2002.

• Co-author: Blood Math, a written dialogue with Peggy Phelan, LIFT, Riverside Studios, London, June 2001; Virtual and Visceral, Performance Studies international, Phoenix, March 2000; School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, July 1999.

• Conference Organiser: Homo-Spectrality: The Haunting of Culture by Queerness, University of Warwick, 1996.

Teaching Expertise

Adrian’s work as an educator has extended beyond university environments into the cultural sector internationally, where he often creates practice-based workshops involving established and emerging artists. He has worked in numerous institutions and locations including: Vienna, Austria for Impulstanz; Vilnius, Lithuania for NordScen; Danish National Theatre School for NordScen; BIT, Bergen, Norway, also for NordScen; Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt; Goat Island Summer School in Chicago and Bristol; and Tate Modern.

He has also worked extensively in workshop and seminar formats at postgraduate level for academic institutions internationally, including Centre for Dramatic Arts Zagreb summer school, the Imaginary Academy, in Groznjan, Croatia; Stanford University; Das Arts Theatre School in Amsterdam; Department of Performance Studies at New York University; and Performance Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has supervised five doctoral theses to successful completion and currently supervises nine PhD researchers working across practice and theory.