Mars ain't the kinda place to raise your kids : a performance installation

Abstract

This paper is in support of my MFA thesis Mars ain’t the kinda place to raise your kids, a performance installation that explores the intersection of installation art and postdramatic theatre practice. Taking place in a gallery, this performance includes elements of recorded sound, projected video, object installation, and live performance. Created with five actors, a sound and video designer and a small technical crew, Mars examines the real-life race to colonize the red planet. Rooted in theories and practices stretching from the Dadaists to the postdramatic thinkers of the 2000s, Mars attempts to erase the divide between the audience and the performer, the real and the fictional, the performance and the installation. This paper examines the theoretical and artistic influences of the work, as well as its process of creation, and offers a reflection on the reception of the work as both a performance and as an installation.