When the audience does the work, do they get paid?
What is it about?
Delegated performance is a performance in which spectators play a role in shaping the performance, often guided by an artist's instructions. This paper considers the ethics of this practice. What might those who work and research in these fields consider as issues surrounding the delegating performance? Of what value is this notion in assisting in thinking about practice?
Why is it important?
Art historian and critic Claire Bishop and theatre/performance scholar Jen Harvie have each written about a relatively new form of socially engaged participatory performance art that Bishop calls ‘delegated performance’. Delegated performance differs from earlier forms of performance art in that the performance is delegated to other people (hired or volunteer), including (at times) spectators, who enact the piece, rather than the piece being carried out by the artist herself. In light of this investigation, drama educators and applied theatre facilitators are recommended to consider how much and in what ways they are delegating performance with students/participants, and to what effect.