Sue Broadhurst
Professor of Performance and Technology
Brunel University
Uxbridge
UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Summary
Sue is a writer and performance practitioner in the School of Arts, Brunel University, London. She has been at Brunel since 1999 and gained a Chair in 2008. Her original degree (for which she gained First Class Honours) and Doctorate were both in English and Comparative Literature. However, for many years her research has focussed on Experimental Drama. She was a founder of the Body, Space & Technology Research group at Brunel, which has now evolved into the Centre for Contemporary and Digital Performance. She has published two monographs, three edited collections and several papers on Performance, chiefly in relation to live art, dance, music, film, and technology and is co-editor of Body, Space & Technology Journal now in its 11th year of publication. Sue has also created performances which have been realised in art spaces in London.
Sue has been part of various collaborations, internal and external to Brunel, with different interdisciplinary combinations, including: Engineering, Design, Psychology, Biology and Bioengineering; many of these have led to funding submissions. As well as presenting key notes and conference papers at various international events, she has been co-opted as Programme Chair for DRHA, organising conferences at Cambridge (2008), Queen’s University Belfast (2009), and last year was Conference Convenor at Brunel (2010). She helped organise DRHA (2011) at Ningbo, the Shanghai affiliate of Nottingham University and will be making a major contribution to DRHA 2012 to be held at the University of London.
Research and Teaching
Research Overview
Sue’s personal research development entails an interrogation of technologies and the notion of the embodied performer, expressed in my publications, performance practice and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Her research interests include: performance theory, critical and literary theory, continental philosophy, neuroaesthetics and the aesthetic potential of digitized technology for performance (e.g artificial intelligence, motion capture, 3D modelling and animation, and biotechnology) and Ageing and the Arts.
Key Publications
Books
Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity (Forthcoming Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: rgb(0,0,0) 0px solid; Ed Brian Wilson. Performance Studies: Key Words, Concepts, and Theories (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, Forthcoming 2012)
‘Pina’. Eds Susan Broadhurst and Josephine Machon. Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2012).
‘Digital practices: new writings of the body’. Eds Susan Broadhurst and Josephine Machon. Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance pp. 9-22 (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
‘The Virtual Body’ (‘Le Corps Virtuel’). Ed Ghislaine Boddington. Virtual/Physical Bodies (CorpsVirtuel/Physicque). Centres des arts, d’Enghien-les-Bains, 2008.
‘Intelligence, interaction, reaction, and performance’. Eds Susan Broadhurst and Josephine Machon. Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity (London/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). ISBN 1-4039-9907-4.
‘Palindrome: Arbeiten mit interaktiver Technologie’. Globale Medialisierung und integral Hultur. Dresden: Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e.V, 2005 (Commissioned). ISBN 3-9810247-1-0.
‘Liminal Spaces’, Mapping the Threshold: Essays in Liminal Analysis (Studies in Liminality and Literature 4). Ed. Nancy Bredendick, 57-73.Madrid: Gateway Press, 2004 (Commissioned). ISBN 84-931843-2-2.
Articles
‘Merleau-Ponty and Neuroaesthetics: Two Approaches to Performance and Technology’. Digital Creativity ‘Troika Ranch: Making New Connections. A Deleuzian Approach to Performance and Technology.’ Performance Research 13 (3) 2008: 107-115
‘Digital Practices: an Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic approach to Virtuality and Embodiment’. Performance Research 11 (4),2007: 37-47.
‘Interaction, Reaction and Performance: The Jeremiah Project’, The Drama Review, MIT Press 48 (4), 2004: 47-57
Teaching Activity
Sue teaches at undergraduate, postgraduate and Doctoral level. She leads the Practical and Written Dissertation module at Undergraduate level and the Practical and Written Dissertations at Postgraduate Level. She is also teaching a second year undergraduate module centring on ‘Bodies and Performance’ which reflects the focus of her current research with its emphasis on contemporary art practices and the embodied performer.In the past Sue has gained awards for postgraduate teaching excellence and has also received very positive external teaching evaluation. She has planned and developed several undergraduate modules and has led the planning and development for an interdisciplinary Masters Degree that was concerned with innovation and experimentation in Performance. She has also led the development of a new joint degree Performance and Digital Arts.
More about Sue
Sue’s first book, Liminal Acts: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and Theory (London: Cassell/New York: Continuum, 1999) explored and analysed certain experimental performances which prioritised the body and technology.
Her second, a monograph on performance and technology entitled Digital Practices: Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007&2011), offered a description of a range of art practices that involve interaction with new technologies.
She was the co-editor of Performance and Technology: Practices of Technological Embodiment and Interactivity and Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006&2011). This latter work is a collection of writings from international contributors who specialize in digital performance practice. She is now working on a further collection for this important series entitled Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity (Forthcoming 2011/12), which investigates the implications of technology on identity in embodied performance. She has various other publications in this area and is co-editor of Body, Space & Technology, a performing and visual arts on-line journal, which establishes links between academics and practitioners both nationally and internationally.
Regarding practice-led research she has organised ‘Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction and Performance’, a series of performances and installations that analyse and explore the interface between physicality, digital interactivity, AI technology and biotechnology in contemporary art and performance art.
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2013) Broadhurst, S., Merleau-Ponty and neuroaesthetics: Two approaches to performance and technology’, Digital Creativity 24 (1)
(2012) Broadhurst, S., Einstein on the beach: A study in temporality, Performance Research 17 (5)
(2010) Broadhurst, S. and Harvey, N., Natio et gens: Venice biennale 2009, Body, Space and Technology 9 (1)
(2008) Broadhurst, S., Troika Ranch: Making new connections a Deleuzian approach to performance and technology, Performance Research 13 (1) : 109- 117 Download publication
(2006) Broadhurst, S., Digital practices: An aesthetic and neuroesthetic approach to virtuality and embodiment, Performance Research 11 (4) : 137- 147 Download publication
(2004) Broadhurst, S., The Jeremiah project: Interaction, reaction and performance, The Drama Review (TDR) 48 (4) : 47- 57 Download publication
(2002) Broadhurst, S., Blue bloodshot flowers: Interaction, reaction and performance, Digital Creativity 13 (3) : 157- 163
(2001) Broadhurst, S., Interaction, reaction and performance: The human body tracking project, Body, Space and Technology (Online)
(1999) Broadhurst, S., The (im)mediate body: A transvaluation of corporeality, Body & Society 5 (1) : 17- 29
(1998) Broadhurst, S., Einstein on the beach, Creative Arts Research 78- 97
(1998) Broadhurst, S., Tanztheater, Creative Arts Research 1- 27
(1998) Broadhurst, S., Viennese actionism, Creative Arts Research 53- 64
(1996) Broadhurst, S., A dancing across margins, Gender, Body and Performance 228- 253
(1996) Broadhurst, S., Social sculptures: Viennese actionism, Gender, Body and Performance 481- 493
(1996) Broadhurst, S., Theatre of images, Gender, Body and Performance 296- 315
Book Chapters
(2012) Broadhurst, S., 'Becoming other': experimentation, virtuality and alterity in the work of Troika Ranch. In: Reynolds, J., Colman, F. and Frichot, H. eds. Global Arts / Local Knowledge. Maryland, USA : Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield Group (Forthcoming 2012)
(2012) Broadhurst, S., Pina. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of Empowerment, Embodiment and Technicity. Palgrave Macmillan (Forthcoming 2012)
(2012) Broadhurst, S., Sue Broadhurst (Performance, technology, virtuality/embodiment/interactivity). In: Wilson, B. ed. Performance Studies: Key Words, Concepts and Theories. UK : Palgrave Macmillan (Forthcoming 2012)
(2010) Broadhurst, S., Digital Practices: New writings of the body. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance. Palgrave Macmillan
(2010) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Introduction. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance. Basingstoke : Palgrave-Macmillan 1- 6
(2008) Broadhurst, S., The virtual body. In: Boddington, G. ed. Virtual Physical Bodies. Centre des Arts
(2006) Broadhurst, S., Intelligence, interaction, reaction, and performance. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity. Palgrave Macmillan 141- 152
(2005) Broadhurst, S., Palindrome: Arbeiten mit interaktiver Technologie. In: Globale Medialisierung und integral Hultur. Dresden : Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e.V
(2004) Broadhurst, S., Liminal Spaces. In: Bredendick, N. ed. Mapping the threshold: Essays in liminal analysis. Madrid : Gateway Press (4) : 57- 73
Books
(2012) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity. Palgrave Macmillan
(2011) Broadhurst, S., Digital Practices: Aesthetic and neuroesthetic approaches to performance and technology. Palgrave MacMillan
(2010) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the body in 21st century performance. Palgrave MacMillan
(2007) Broadhurst, S., Digital practices: aesthetic and neuroesthetic approaches to performance and technology. Palgrave Macmillan
(2006) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Performance and Technology: Practices of virtual embodiment and interactivity. Palgrave Macmillan
(1999) Broadhurst, S., Liminal acts: A critical overview of contemporary performance and theory. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
