Authenticity

This is a mini-ethnography project for IARTS 751 (Ethnography of performance) on another class THRA 473/573 (Ethnography) developed for Ohio University in the Spring Quarter of 2010.Monica Gontovnik
Professor Marina Peterson
IARTS 751
2 June 2010
ADRESSING ETHNOGRAPHY OF PERFORMANCE
Through my case study, a Theater class given by Dr. Robert Sember under the title of Authenticity, I think I have learned mainly, to think about ethnography itself and how doing ethnography is part of my future research projects. I see this particular case study and the final project I developed about it for this class, as only the beginning of a subject I now understand I wont be able to grasp completely, as ethnography's postulates keep changing in accordance with the way people practice it.
The project I present here today is a 7-minute video that intends to address two questions. One is the question I had when entering the ethnographic project: how does this class work? This is obviously a very wide question that somehow is unanswerable. "Working" here can mean too many things. But this question has allowed me to observe how the class performs itself in the doing. I think it is quite superficial to intend an explanation of how any class works, let alone this particular one, due to the fact that many factors affect its fulfillment, specially when the subject matter is as complicated as that of thinking about "authenticity" at the same time that it tries to deconstruct its grasp on theater students.
The second question is that of the commitment I entered when given permission by the professor and the group to attend their class sessions in order to observe its doing. The commitment was to present my results to the class at the end of the semester. Since the class THAR 473/573 provides an opportunity to practice theory through performance, I consider that my participant-observation skills as an ethnographer of performance, has compelled me to perform my ethnographic project in a way that makes me as vulnerable as the rest of the class is at the last day of class, when their final performances are shown.
My intention in not to try to explain "scientifically" any findings about my first question, but to allow both theoretical frameworks presented by both courses (IARTS 751 and THAR 473/573) to inform in a creative way a presentation that is fair for both questions as related in the above paragraphs: How did this class work is a question that I intend to answer in the same way the students in the class are doing, by performing. The question of how ethnography is a research method I intend to answer by the process that should be evident to me and others when watching the video I present here today as my performance and my mini ethnography project. Consider this a work in progress.
As you finish watching it, do you have questions I can answer?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Authenticity
• Performance
• Performance Studies
• Ethnography
• MArina Peterson
• Robert Sember
• Monica Gontovnik
• Simone Forti
• Ohio University