Perform or Else

From Discipline to Performance
2. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-20380-3
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 452 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This 25th anniversary edition of Perform of Else contains the original text which brings together discourses of performance studies, performance management, and technology, and provides new contextual material for contemporary readers.

In this updated edition, Jon McKenzie’s groundbreaking work is revisited with fresh perspectives and additional materials that deepen its relevance for today’s audience. The book explores the interconnected paradigms of cultural, organisational, and technological performance, demonstrating how they collectively exert powerful and often contradictory pressures to "perform.or else." Alongside the original text, this book provides new contextual materials to update and extend the book's relevance for contemporary readers, including:

- Timothy Edkins’ ‘User Guide to Perform or Else,’ offering readers a highly detailed and nuanced guide to reading the book;

- Edkins’ interview with the author, ‘Making Perform or Else,’ which focuses on the origins and development of the book within the context of experimental theory and transmedia arts and activism of the 1980s and 90s

- “The Revelations of Dr. Kx4l3ndj3r” – a short sequel to the original text.

Offering an invaluable and unique contribution to the field of performance studies, this makes for essential reading for both academics and students on Performance Studies and Performance Design courses. It would also be of interest to those in the fields of Organisational Psychology, Science and Technology Studies and Media Studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

McKenzie, Jon

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments; Orientations; Preface to 25th Anniversary Edition -Jon McKenzie; A User’s Guide to Perform or Else - Tim Edkins; The Making of Perform or Else - Tim Edkins and Jon McKenzie; Introduction: Challenges; PART I. PERFORMANCE PARADIGMS; 1. The Efficacy of Cultural Performance; 2. The Efficiency of Organizational Performance; 3. The Effectiveness of Technological Performance; PART II. THE AGE OF GLOBAL PERFORMANCE; 4. Challenger Lecture Machine; 5. Challenging Forth: The Power of Performance; 6. Professor Challenger and the Performance Stratum; PART III. PERFUMANCE; 7. Professor Challenger and the Disintegration Machine; 8. The Catachristening of HMS Challenger; 9. Professor Rutherford and Gay Sci Fi; 10. Jane Challenger, Disastronaut; 11. Sequel: The Revelations of Dr. Kx4l3dj3r; Bibliography; Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jon McKenzie is Professor of Practice at Cornell University, USA, and Director of StudioLab. StudioLab collaborates with community organizations, non-profit and non-governmental organizations in both the US and abroad. Jon is also Faculty Affiliate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.

Timothy Edkins is a Senior Lecturer (Teaching and Scholarship) in Politics and International Politics in the Department of Sociology, Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, UK. He completed his PhD at Queen Mary’s Department of Drama, with secondary supervision in the School of Business and Management.