Riikka Niemelä

I am writing my doctoral thesis in art history (University of Turku) on Finnish video performance art. Multimedia performances, monologues and acted roles performed for the camera, dance and poetry videos as well as acts and rituals recorded as pictures have since been joined by more interactive forms of performance art ranging from internet performances to interactive works. My thesis explores the diverse connections between performance art and technology and aims to outline theoretical and conceptual approaches to examining them.

As a physical and corporal action, performance art produces experiences that are hard to assign collective meaning to. For two months at the Saari Residence, I will be working on the manuscript for my doctoral thesis and in formulating its theory, my aim is to outline concepts with which to analyze and understand a performance and its technologically reproduced forms phenomenologically.