Critical Writing Index

From this Body to Yours: Porn, Affect, and Performance Art Documentation

by Adair Routhwaite

Camera Obscura, 2011, v. 26, no. 3, pp. 63-93

In this article the author argues that there is no essential difference between pornography as document and the documentation of performance art. Both are defined by the specific way they are positioned in relation to the profilmic event which are coded in retrospect as real. It is also suggested that considering porn's production of affect can shed light on the turn towards performance reenactment that has taken place in performance art of the past decade. Thinking about porn in this new way can move it towards a new conversation about how porn records and produces affect rather than prior conversations surrounding feminist academic discourse and questions of censorship, freedom of expression and identity.

ITEM 2011.101 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Deep Inside Annie SprinkleAnnie Sprinkle

Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of OrgasmAnnie Sprinkle

The Sluts and Goddesses Video WorkshopAnnie Sprinkle

Three Performances (after Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovic, and Bonnie Sherk)Borsato