This book argues that the performance-based work in the featured case studies contributes to the construction of food democracy where the public takes back decision-making in shaping the food system. It explores how contemporary artists translate scientific research about local and global agricultural issues into life stories that inform and engage their audiences and, in so doing, transform passive food consumers into proactive food citizens. The pairing of performing and farmscapes (complex webs of farmlands and storylines) enables artists to use embodied practices to encourage audiences to imagine a just and sustainable agri-food system and to collaborate on making it a reality. The book arranges the case studies on a trajectory that moves from projects that foreground knowledge acquisition to ones that emphasize social engagement by creating conversations and coalitions between farming and nonfarming communities to a final one that pairs protest art and political activism to achieve legally-binding changes in the agricultural landscape.

Auteur

Susan C. Haedicke is Emeritus Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Warwick, UK. She has published extensively on performance in public spaces and democratic participation. Her current work expands this research to look at performance and agriculture where she has published several journal articles and devised Who's Driving the Tractor? (2018), a performance-as-research project on women in UK agriculture.

Contenu

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: FARMSCAPES AND SUBJECTIVITIES.- CHAPTER 2: PERFORMING STORIED FARMSCAPES.- 3. CHAPTER 3: CONVERSATIONS WITH FARMSCAPES: TRACES AND ECHOES.- 4. CHAPTER 4: CULTIVATING DIALOGUES BEYOND THE FARM.- 5. CHAPTER 5: EXPOSING HIDDEN MIGRANT FARMSCAPES.- 6. CHAPTER 6: TRANSFORMING MIGRANT FARMSCAPES: PERFORMATIVE PROTEST ART OF THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS.- 7. CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION: SOWING SEEDS AND CULTIVATING CONVERSATIONS FOR FUTURE HARVESTS.