January 23, 2008

Critical Mass

For its 2007-2008 season, Chez Bushwick has initiated FORCE MAJEURE, an unprecedented artist-in-residence program that brings creative performers from around the world to Brooklyn for two-week residencies, at the end of which, the artists present their work in a performance that is free and open to the public.

These performances have been documented through non-evaluative critical essays written by Ryan Tracy (a co-facilitator of this site, and a familiar voice from Counter Critic). Over the next week, these essays will be posted for you to read.

What is a "non-evaluative critical essay"? Good question.

The literary documentation of live performance has generally been left to the establishment of the critical press. After a performance is given--if it gets attention from the press at all--the review that appears in publication tends to be the only literary account of the event.

With the wealth of new performance going on today, it would be shameful to leave the responsibility of literary documentation to the critical press, and historians. Chez Bushwick aims to compile a body of literature that is as valid a document as any photograph or video, while expanding the idea of a document to include analysis without passing final judgment. These essays are intended to recount, reflect, and communicate - outside of the evaluation systems which exist in printed and online periodicals.

Even blog culture, as much as it may have revolutionized arts coverage, may be just as opinionated and evaluative as the mainstream press. Indeed, the important impetus of blogging is to publicly communicate what one thinks about the world, freely and without restriction, which has the potential for positive impact. But it should be clear that with these essays, Chez Bushwick seeks to provide literary documents of performance without prescriptive taste, and without praising or devaluing the work of the artist: It's a fine line, but we walk it.

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