"A Manifesto in Question Form": The Liminal Relationship between Book and Body

Hope Austin '25 is conducting summer research on Performance at Muhlenberg College

Allentown, PA (10/07/2022) — By researching the creative artist Lin Hixson (and Goat Island, one of her former performance groups) through an in-depth study of her academic literature and devised performances, Hope Austin '25 will apply theoretical aspects of her process to my own work as a devising artist. Through this application, I will devise performance experiments that explore the relationship between human beings and books, compiling images, movement sequences, gestures, and texts which will be used in the creation of a performance. The performance surrounds the relationship between books and bodies and seeks to pose a series of ever-evolving questions such as these: (1) How do we invite books into our lives and in what ways do they enter our lives? (2) Why is it that we so often use book-related vocabulary when talking about human bodies (ex: reading someone's body language or scars/tattoos serving as stories written upon our physical self)? (3) What does it feel like to read the same thing as someone else?

"My research this summer has confirmed my passion for the intersection of performance theory and artistic practice. This research has been a significant and formative moment in my journey as a creative artist, as I have begun to develop my own artistic theory and process. Not only am I continuing to grow as an artist through the devising process, but I am also continuing to prove to myself that I am capable of creating and revising compelling performance material. I would like to thank Dr. Matthew Moore and my artistic collaborator who worked with me in the studio, Layla Siahatgar. This research has flourished as a result of such wonderful and productive collaboration. I would also like to thank Muhlenberg College and the Dean of Academic Life's Office for funding this project. I am still developing this project and performance, and I plan to continue to question the ways in which human beings connect with and through books."