Performing Science : Blurring the Boundaries Among Art, Research, and Academic Communities

Abstract

When and where does the art performance stop? Are there boundaries? The aesthetics of actions can be viewed as a series of unique artistic and genuine experiences and expressions. Through these aesthetics, a narrative unfolds, action turns to progress, and consciousness expands with each portion of new knowledge. When life and its contents are viewed as a part of this artistic experiential process, it is impossible to disconnect one action from another. After intentionally opening the art performance, there is no way for an artist to consciously determine what this performance includes and, more importantly, what it excludes. This paper discusses a performance project that was initiated in 2004 called The Researcher. The Researcher began as a probe into academia as an institutional system that constitutes and reconstitutes itself through the rigor of categorization, critique, and measurement. Here, science is a performance of simultaneous positivism and constructivism, structuralism and deconstructionism.