| Title | 9. Creating Art Ecologies through Contextual Analysis |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0469.09 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0469/chapters/10.11647/obp.0469.09 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-10-24 |
| Long abstract | This chapter introduces the method of contextual analysis and describes how working with contextual analysis, either discursively or in practice, produces art ecologies. In a contextual analysis, performances or performative events are examined comparatively, with the help of a theoretical concept, and in connection to a larger field of practice. At its core, contextual analysis is concerned with drawing out relations between performances and/or other artworks—through comparing topics, styles or artistic strategies—while exploring how these artworks jointly address and examine wider societal phenomena or developments within a cultural or artistic field. In that act, these intersections produce art ecologies, understood here as supportive, open-ended networks with many spheres of influence, in which artworks and performances enter into dialogue with one another. This method is first demonstrated by comparing the body politics in stage works of Marcelo Evelin, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Ho Rui An, pivoting around the concept of ‘politics of perception’ to organise the analysis, and then extended to the identification of ‘mycelium thinking’ across artistic research, fashion and anthropology. |
| Page range | pp. 187–208 |
| Print length | 22 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink is an Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the Media and Culture Studies Department of Utrecht University. She was the programme coordinator of the Master’s programme in Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy (2014-2024) and teaches in various BA and MA programmes. Her research interests include the intersection of dramaturgy and scenography, performance philosophy, ecology and new materialism. She is the author of Nomadic Theatre: Mobilizing Theory and Practice on the European Stage (Bloomsbury 2019) and has contributed to (among others) The Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance (2023), Rancière and Performance (Rowman & Littlefield 2021) and Thinking Through Theatre and Performance (Bloomsbury 2019) and Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere (Routledge 2018). She currently works on a book on simulation, speculation and futurity in contemporary European dramaturgy (with Sigrid Merx). She is a co-founder of Platform-Scenography and incidentally works as an artistic coach and dramaturgy adviser.