Performative (Wordhole)
Definition from Sources
- relating to or marked by public, often artistic performance
- disapproving: made or done for show (as to bolster one's own image or make a positive impression on others)
- determined and reinforced by the repeated performance of socially prescribed acts and behaviors rather than by biological factors
- grammar: being or relating to an expression (such as a word or statement) that performs the act it specifies or that effects a transaction
Application (as used by us)
Application (In other contexts)
In How to do Things With Words. John Langshaw Austin introduces the idea of performative speech acts. Austin argues that to deliver a 'performative utterance' is to 'do something' rather than simply to report or 'state something' (Austin, 1975). Saying "I do" in the context of a wedding ceremony is an example of performative utterance given by Austin.
In Context
- 'Truly performative, [the artwork] simultaneously does something (it runs and produces output) and it states something (through both its output and its code)' (Ledesma, 2015, p.93).
- 'Codeworks can potentially be executed and thus become performative' (Arns, 2005, p.8).
Citation: Mentioned in:
- Austin, J.L. (1975) How to Do Things with Words: Second Edition. 2nd edition. Edited by J.O. Urmson and M. Sbisà. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
- Arns, I. (2005) ‘Code as performative speech act’, Artnodes, 0(4). Available at: https://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i4.727.
- Butler, J. (2006) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge (Routledge classics).
- Culler, J: Philosophy and Literature: The Fortunes of the Performative (2000) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240740399_Philosophy_and_Literature_The_Fortunes_of_the_Performative
- Galloway, J. Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralisation (2004) https://www.asounder.org/resources/galloway_protocol.pdf
- Ledesma, E. (2015) ‘The Poetics and Politics of Computer Code in Latin America: Codework, Code Art, and Live Coding’, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 49(1), pp. 91–120. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/rvs.2015.0016.
See also
Live Coding | Performance