Artists mobility: A Practical Exploration of Residency and Migration Between Taiwan and the UK
Yuan, CP; Yuan, H
Date: 10 June 2024
Thesis or dissertation
Publisher
University of Exeter
Degree Title
PhD Performance Practice (Drama)
Abstract
This research explores the phenomenon of artist mobility in a globalised framework. I examine the social, cultural, political and physical influences between artists, their practices and places. This research aims to expand the scope of cultural mobility to include artists as cultural carriers and embodiers. I implement research questions ...
This research explores the phenomenon of artist mobility in a globalised framework. I examine the social, cultural, political and physical influences between artists, their practices and places. This research aims to expand the scope of cultural mobility to include artists as cultural carriers and embodiers. I implement research questions and arguments by curating, developing, and adapting performance practices. Practices in this research contain curating an artist residency; devising and adapting a performance. Using practice-led research as the methodology, this research aims to propose different theoretical approaches and frameworks for related studies.
The thesis is divided into three chapters, and three practical case studies. The first case study in Chapter 1 focuses on artist residency as a short-term, temporary, creative-oriented form of mobility. By devising and implementing the residency programme Artists Home Swap, I ask why artists make art away from home – furthermore, I argue that artist residency is a space of cultural exchange. The second case study, in Chapter 2, sheds light on the permanent, open-ended, widely participatory form of mobility: migration. Through developing and presenting the performance practice Impossible Homecoming, I argue that migration is an autotopographical journey of homecoming, and staging migration is a way of performing mobility. The third case study, in Chapter 3, takes a step sideward and examines how the notion of artist mobility coordinates in the broader context of cultural production mobility. In this chapter I draw attention to performance adaptation as the form of cultural mobility. By adapting Impossible Homecoming back to Taiwan as was the case, I reflect on how I, as a migrant artist from Taiwan to the UK, consciously adapted the work to deliver the performance precisely. What is the thought process? How does it relate to my mobile journey?
This research aims to provide an overview of artist mobility by practising two of its forms and its relationship with wider cultural flow, examining how the notion of artist mobility positions within broader academic discourses and how it responds to contemporary challenges and interruptions like COVID-19.
Doctoral Theses
Doctoral College
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