Short summary: This post summarizes how to document performances that relate to disability in the Emergency Index during the year 2015.
In Emergency Index Vol. 3 (2013) there are five performances indexed under Disability. The index is an ongoing project dedicated to documenting performances annually with both a photographic image and visual description as composed by the artists themselves. This is an index, as Yelena Gluzman (editor) writes where: “each performances receives equal space, and, as editors, we do not distinguish between them.” The non-curatorial approach as taken by the Index team reveals the importance of how performers describe their own work. The performance is thus contextualized by the maker of the piece, who determines the outcome of how a descriptive text is written. This is useful for artists and makers who prioritize visual description as a means of access for their readers.
The five performances indexed under the subheading of disability:
Nevada (k. m. mustatea)
A Fierce Kind of Love (Suli Holum and David Bradley)
Salamander (The Olimpas, Petra Kuppers and Neil Marcus)
Consulado Movil/Mobile Consulate (Omar Pimienta)
Long Departed (Irene Loughlin)
Emergency Index is a compendium of performances that is published once a year. The next volume will index performances made in 2015. If you made a performance in 2015 that you would like to document in this way, see this year’s call here (Deadline January 30th):
Once again the Index team is opening up their call for performances that took place during the year 2015. The non-curatorial approach as taken by the Index team reveals the importance of how performers describe their own work. I invite people to work alongside this team to increase the presence of work produced by disabled artists, and works that are generated around the theme of disability. Please share this opportunity widely to ensure that the Index represents a diverse range of work. The deadline for submissions of performance work is January 15th, 2016.
Further information is stated below:
Emergency INDEX is an annual 500+page volume documenting hundreds of performance works from all over the world and from genres as diverse as dance, game studies, visual art, music, poetry, activism, advertising, medical and scientific research, philosophy, theater, translation, therapy, data visualization, disability studies, community art and many more. Every year, Emergency INDEX invites authors (artists, researchers, advertisers, activists, etc.) to document performances they made in the previous year, and asks them to document the work in their own words. By including performances regardless of their country of origin, their genre, aims, or popularity, INDEX is the only print publication of its kind, revealing a breathtaking variety of practices used in performance as it actually exists today. Submissions are now open for the third volume, documenting works made in 2013. Look at the website for examples from previous volumes and for information on how to submit:
www.emergencyindex.com.