DIFFUSION is a new publishing series which aims to utilise the specific advantages of digital media to create a new means of combining critical thinking and creativity. We were interested in finding ways in which we could commission original writing on the intersections between live or performance art and film, video and new media technologies. Over the years the boundaries between these formerly separate areas of practice have become blurred as artists, thinkers, writers and film and video makers have collaborated and drifted across modes of practice. We sought to find a way to both critically explore this cross-fertilisation and at the same time to re-present and embody these ideas as creative practices in themselves.

The selection of contributors for this first series, PERFORMANCE NOTATIONS, is an eclectic and disparate cross-section of the many hues and shades that performance comprises: from architects to filmmakers, philosophers to poets, all are artists in one way or another, all have an intimate relationship to performance in their work.

These writings are not meant to be read simply as academic exegeses of how performance artists use new media, but as attempts to slip under its skin. To this end we have devised the downloadable books which are designed to be printed out and made into books by the readers, inculpating them into the production of performance and the work through their own act of making.

Thanks are due to the contributors and the two designers who have made this project possible, particularly Aaron Williamson for permission to use his title for the series. We are also grateful to the Arts Council of England for funding this initial selection, and to CRD RESEARCH at the Royal College of Art, who have provided technical support, tools and production space.

Giles Lane & Catherine Williams
August 2000

Publisher: Proboscis
Publication Date: 19th September 2001
Series Editors: Catherine Williams & Giles Lane
Design: Paul Farrington & Nima Falatoori
PERFORMANCE NOTATIONS supported by an Arts Council of England Live Arts publishing Award.

Contributors:
Rob Gawthrop, Marcelyn Gow, Johnny de Philo (Sue Golding), Anne Tallentire & Monica Ross, Yve Lomax & Vit Hopley, Marina Grzinic, Aaron Williamson, Declan Sheehan, Kevin Henderson and Katherine Meynell.