Instant architecture: A socio-political history of performance in 1960s Los Angeles

Dodds, Joshua Christopher (2020) Instant architecture: A socio-political history of performance in 1960s Los Angeles. MRes thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Instant Architecture is an attempt to re-examine the socio-political climate of nineteen-sixties Los Angeles through performance and performative art practices. Comprising two interrelated parts, this dissertation and a music-theatre performance which took place on May 31st, 2019 at the James Arnott Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, my research project explores how the art of sixties L.A. employed political ambiguity as a response to the pop culture capital’s class divides, the ostensible freedom of its vast highways and the populist fascism that coalesced around Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential run. Investigating the relationship between political dissensus, radical forms of collectivity and L.A.’s sub/urban structure through the work of Claes Oldenburg, Niki de Saint Phalle, Ed Ruscha, Barbara T. Smith, Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Noah Purifoy and the Underground Musicians Association, Instant Architecture aims towards an understanding of how art can serve as an archive of its time, an archive that is indelibly theatrical, divergent and turned towards the future, and how my re-performance of this archive might offer novel modes of re-evaluating, re-contextualising and re-invigorating sixties L.A.

• Item Type: Thesis (MRes)
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Due to copyright issues this thesis is not available for viewing.
• Keywords: Los Angeles, 1960s, sixties, archive, instant architecture, performance, dissensus, political ambiguity, freedom, fascism, Watts riots, Reagan, Goldwater, Claes Oldenburg, Niki de Saint Phalle, Barbara T. Smith, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Watts Riots, Noah Purifoy, UGMA, Underground Musicians Association
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Lavery, Prof. Carl
• Date of Award: 2020
• Depositing User: Mr Joshua Dodds
• Unique ID: glathesis:2020-79007
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 07 Aug 2020 10:19
• Last Modified: 06 Sep 2022 08:35
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.79007
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/79007