Performing Arts

In a discussion of three kinds of performing art—performance art, music, and theatre—this chapter explores three topics: (1) The performer’s moral responsibility to her- or himself. When this topic is broached in the criticism of an artwork, it is often because a performer has done something that raises the question of whether he or she should treat him- or herself in that way—often, but not always, in a way that involves bodily harm. (2) The ethical dimension of the relationship between performers. In cases of collaboration, the creation of such performances necessarily involves an interpersonal dynamic, which, in turn, has an essential ethical dimension. It also considers the additional complication of performances in which audience members contribute to the performance in a sufficiently robust way as to be regarded as co-performers or co-creators. (3) The ethical dimension established by the relationship between the performer(s) and the (non-interactive) audience, rather than performers and other performers.