I Have Disappeared To You: Live and Mediated Presence in Performance

The aim of this thesis is to examine performance through my personal experience as a dancer who has incorporated video technology into my movement practice. To place these ideas in a wider context, I look at the intersection of visual art and dance performance, drawing on a range of theorists from both traditions. This discussion is divided into two groupings of ideas. First, I examine empathy and embodiment through the work of Susan Foster and Amelia Jones. Secondly, I consider media and memory through the work of Peggy Phelan, Philip Auslander and Andr� Lepecki. In I Will Disappear to You, I intertwined live and mediated presence through a constructed space that alternated between being a container for individual performances and an installation presenting the video documentation of these encounters. I constructed this space as an ideal place to develop a life and embodied presence that connects with others and subsequently presents the incomplete memory of those encounters through video. I examine where this artwork fits in within an art historical context by presenting a personal narrative of experiences with works that address embodiment as the site of artistic creation and perception. And finally, I conclude with a reflection on performance re-appearing as rumor and a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for visual artists and dance artists to learn from each other