”Dramaturgy, devising and artistic research” by Synne Behrndt and Jon Refsdal Moe

The project investigates the dramaturgy of devising with a view to making a number of proposals about contemporary devising as artistic research. The project does not set out to define artistic research, or oppose the term, rather we intend to document, through conversations and interviews with artists, modes of performance-making which are in themselves research. We propose that devised dramaturgies are ‘outcomes’ of sophisticated research-based processes and the project documents the different ways in which contemporary practices and processes are, by their very nature, research in and through action.

Aim and research questions

Invoking dramaturg David Williams’s statement ‘all devising is fundamentally an exploratory process of elaborating and activating dramaturgies’, the project sets out to collect information about the nature of devising in terms of artistic research. We want to understand how performance making produces thought and how the creative process enables us to understand a topic or idea in ways that other forms of research may not be able to. Key questions:

• How does performance and creative processes produce thought and critical thinking?
• What kind of ‘thinking machine’ is theatre and performance?
• How does the creative process produce critical thought?
• What model of research does performance create?
• What can we learn from making processes where there is no sharp distinction between making art and doing research?

Research implementation and anticipated impact

We are a research group of three dramaturgs and we are conducting our research by: a) documenting a number of creative performance processes where we ourselves are involved as dramaturgs; b) documentating conversations with performance makers, theorists and artists; c) collating relevant theoretical perspectives.

Collaboration

Dr Sodja Lotker (Course Leader of international Master in Directing Devised and Object Theatre at the Prague Performing Arts Academy (DAMU) is a collaborator and member of the research group.

Schedule

2019–2023 (the project has been delayed due to the Covid19 pandemic and travel/contact restrictions).