[spectre] STIP: PhD Scholarship Aberdeen

[Andreas Broeckmann]

From: Amy Bryzgel <a.bryzgel at abdn.ac.uk>
Date: Apr 15, 2014
Subject: STIP: PhD Scholarship Aberdeen

Application deadline: Jun 6, 2014

PhD Title: Documenting Performance Art in Central and Eastern Europe, c. 
1960-1989

Elphinstone PhD Scholarship: This scholarship covers the entirety of 
tuition fees for a PhD student of any nationality commencing full-time 
study in October 2014, for the three-year duration of their studies.

This project takes as its focus the documentation and dissemination of 
performance art from the former communist and socialist countries of 
Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, from the period of c. 1960-1989. 
Performance art in the West emerged as a self-conscious genre, and a 
deliberate alternative to the production of painting and sculpture for 
display in the gallery space. However, in Eastern Europe, artists such 
as Jiří Kovanda (Czechoslovakia), Andris Grīnbergs (Latvia), and Ion 
Grigorescu (Romania) often created performance art for a select group of 
friends and colleagues, and even sometimes only for themselves. If in 
the West, documentation was often an essential component of performance 
art, and necessary to exhibit the work in the gallery, in the East, the 
recording of performances, by video or photography, was more haphazard. 
At times, artists were intent on documenting their work for posterity, 
in the hope that someday, somewhere (outside of the totalitarian regime) 
it would have an audience. At others, photographs were taken simply as a 
record, without any thought that they would ever be seen.

While Peggy Phelan (1998) has argued that the documentation of a 
performance can in no way serve as a substitute for having witnessed it, 
this PhD project will seek to challenge that contention by nuancing 
understandings of the documentation of performance art in the Soviet 
bloc during the Cold War era. By examining the function of the recording 
and (after regime change at the end of the 1980s) dissemination of the 
work on the understanding and reception of performance art in the 
region, the study will explore what it means to document these ephemeral 
works merely as evidence that they occurred, instead of as an art object 
in its own right. How does this change the function of the photograph or 
video and its status as an art object? How does it change the 
relationship between performance and audience, and with what 
consequences? Projects that employ a comparative method, engaging 
several countries across Eastern Europe, are particularly welcome.

Supervisor 1 – Dr Amy Bryzgel
Supervisor 2 – Professor Edward Welch

How to Apply:

To apply for an Elphinstone PhD Scholarship, you should apply for a PhD 
place in the normal way: 
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply.php, stating:
- ‘Elphinstone PhD Scholarship’ in the Intended Source of Funding section
- The name of the lead supervisor in the Name of Proposed Supervisor section
- The title of the specific research project in the Outline Summary 
section  Candidates should simultaneously register their desire to be 
considered by emailing the Graduate School Administrator, Ann Marie 
Johnston, at a.m.johnston at abdn.ac.uk.
The date by which the above should be undertaken is Friday 6 June 2014. 
  Selection will be made on the basis of academic merit.

More information on this project:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cass/graduate/history-of-art-338.php

More information on Elphinstone PhD Scholarships: 
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cass/graduate/elphinstone-phd-scholarships-329.php

Reference / Quellennachweis:
STIP: PhD Scholarship Aberdeen. In: H-ArtHist, Apr 15, 2014. 
<http://arthist.net/archive/7463>.

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