ANIMATE ENTITIES: OBJECTS IN PERFORMANCE

How do objects move in the space and time of live performance? What is the allure of animating ordinary or extraordinary things? How do performances transform the material world? This two-day festival brings together a group of artists, scholars, curators, poets, and puppeteers, who place the performative lives of objects at the centre of their work. In a range of formats—a talk, an exhibition, a roundtable, a screening, and two evening cabarets—these thinkers and artists reveal how seemingly static things become lively and vibrant. Expect the unexpected in this gathering of humans and other animate entities! All events are free of charge, except where indicated.

Special guests include the curator Claire Tancons (New Orleans), the scholar and filmmaker Allen S. Weiss (NYU), and Clare Dolan, director of The Museum of Everyday Life (Vermont).

Click to see documentation of the event!

Animate Entities: Objects in Performance is sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute's Program for the Arts, with support from the Puppet Slam Network; Great Small Works; the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies; University College; the Department of Art; the Department of Visual Studies (UTM); the Department of English and Drama (UTM); the Cinema Studies Institute; the Centre for Comparative Literature; the Graduate Architecture, Landscape and Design Students Union; and the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.