Experiments in Care as a Reciprocal Act

Abstract

Care is complex: something that must be thoughtfully evoked; that is not necessarily comfortable; that is humbling, vulnerable, and negotiated. Examining the stakes of care in participatory performance, this article traces lines of inquiry around care as labour, as duty, as risk, as choice, as participation, and as an exchange of power requiring consent. Reflecting on the precarity and interdependence of participatory performance, I argue this genre is not only uniquely positioned to foster reciprocal care—it requires it. I outline a model of reciprocal care, defining it as the act of all participants attending to something together—in this case the performance—and collectively creating the conditions of coexistence necessary for this tending. To make these ideas tangible, I refer to two participatory performances I directed. Trophy is a performance installation featuring local community members sharing personal stories of change, housed in glowing tents that transform over the course of the performance. The second, Remixed, is a hybrid deep listening experience, accessed via a progressive web app, that contemplates how we instigate change in our lives, communities, and world. Both productions are tentative experiments in reciprocal care, extending its duty beyond the artist and exploring the conditions through which it is sustained by all participants. I conclude by envisioning the possibilities of reciprocal care as a vital way to operate in the uneven precarity that is our standard collective condition and to be in the unknown together.