CPIT research month week 2 day 3 15th August

Managed to get to and attend part of a session revolving around 'performance and politics' presented by our performing arts tutors. Always interesting to attend on topics that I have limited background on.

So notes on two out of the four from today's lunch time presentations.

TonyMcCaffrey on 'Where is disability disabled? Aesthetic, ethical and political implications of  involving intellectual disabilities in contemporary performance'. Used examples from recent plays attended whereby the audience are invited to participate in terms of 'the ethics of participation' and performances, some perhaps controversial with disabled actors / performers. Tony raised some thought provoking concepts around how we see disability, why acceptable performances from 'normal' people are viewed differently when people with disabilities undertake similar performances and how disability and the ethics surrounding disability are 'not contestable' due to society's perspective of disability as being outside the norm.

A change of scene with the next presentation from Richard Marrett on 'I've heard that song before - 100 years of Sammy Cahn. Described how he 'presented' at recent conference. The presentation included 'singing through' the repertoire of Cahn. Instead of just listening to Richard, the audience, mostly vocal teachers or performers, sang their way through songs written or associated with Cahn across each era of his career and important aspects of Cahn's lyric writing.