Beyond embarrassed: encountering the social and the aesthetic in performance

The powerful influence that embarrassment exerts over life and art is increasingly
acknowledged. However, embarrassment is also changing; our departure from ‘live’
conversational environments in favour of online or written alternatives means we are
less ‘literate’ in it, and even when we do carve out moments in which to risk
embarrassment (e.g. going to a bar or doing a performance), it’s a difficult affect to
conjure at random. If it is achieved, it usually fades in time with the experience that
caused it, leaving only a distant discomfort and the feeling that a certain topic of
conversation or mode of making is to be avoided in the future. This ‘embarrassment
illiteracy’ results in us struggling to differentiate between its social function within
everyday life, and its aesthetic function within contemporary art. Therefore, I will seek to
explore how such a literacy could be cultivated through performance frameworks. In
order to gain clarity around the landscape of embarrassment in performance today, I will
experiment with various elements that influence performative environments including
intimacy, formality, improvisation and insight. Furthermore, I will ask what a heightened
awareness of embarrassment can tell us about the overlapping boundaries of social and
aesthetic values that are being expressed.