Queer, crip live art in the post 'trans tipping point' era: an archive of affect

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Combining social science and performance methods and theory, this interdisciplinary research centres ongenerating new methods of historicisation and theorisation of spectatorship through an intersectionalcritical queer, trans- and disability-inclusive conceptual lens. This project applies affect theory and sensoryethnography to analyse live art by disabled, queer, trans- or gender-non conforming (DQTGNC) artists inthe United Kingdom, documenting live art in the post 'trans-tipping point' era.TIME magazine's 2014 heralding of a 'tipping point' for transgender civil rights exposed trans and gender non-conforming lives to unprecedented public visibility, legal scrutiny and debate. While equality, inclusivity,diversity and accessibility appear in mainstream discourse, the UK's Equality Act (2010) paradoxicallypreceded a year-on-year increase in recorded cases of hate crime based on protected characteristics suchas gender identity, sexuality and disability (ONS 2017). This suggests that visibility is no panacea fordiscrimination. In this context, in/visibility and accessibility will underpin this critical analysis of how live artcan address and counter the historical invisibility of DQTGNC people and their ongoing marginalisation.Tracing intersections of critical 'crip' and queer theoretical stances in inclusive, accessible live art by queerand disability-led research partners Culture Device, Vital xposure, Raze Collective and Southbank CentreUnlimited Festival, this ethnographic research will provide a basis to investigate normative notions ofembodiment and to theorise the roles of affect and activism in contemporary live art. The overall objectiveis to unpack how and why disidentified live art, which neither assimilates nor strictly opposes dominantcultures (Muñoz 1999) can operate as an oppositional gaze (hooks 2003), as provocations, acts of resistanceand of survival. The resultant archive of live art performances by disabled, queer performers in the UK,centred on the affective, sensory crip-identified experience of the spectator will propose new praxis toinfluence the future of live art production.