Philip Lee

In March 2013, Philip Lee co-convened with Michael Mazière the University of Westminster annual three-day CREAM conference, which brought together performers and academics to discuss Exhibiting Performance.

The programme for the three days included the following introduction:

"The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) of the University of Westminster is pleased to announce Exhibiting Performance, a three-day event considering contemporary issues central to the display of performance art. Following on from the Exhibiting Photography (2011) and Exhibiting Video (2012) International Conferences, this event will bring together notable artists, curators and writers, and provide a forum for a number of inter-related questions:

- On what terms has the rise of Performance in contemporary arts taken place?
- How do our museums and galleries disseminate and exhibit Performance?
- How does the live act of Performance inform questions around the body and the 
audience?
- How is Performance documented, archived and transacted?
- How does technology contribute to the development of Performance?

The conference will be framed by Indeterminacy, a John Cage performance by Stewart Lee, Tania Chen and Steve Beresford in the Old Lumiere Cinema, Regent Street and the exhibition of work by artists and writers responding to a live performance by Philip Lee and Cally Trench, Do you remember it - or weren't you there? at London Gallery West.

There will be four half-day themes:

Curating: 
With Tate Modern opening the Tanks for performance events and Marina Abramović's major exhibition at New York's MoMA in 2010, is performance art now mainstream, and on what terms? How do museums and galleries understand performance art?

Dissemination and Documentation: 
How is performance documented ? If you missed the performance is that it? What value does an art work in a different medium which gives a memory of a performance have?

The Body and Audiences: 
What is the role of the body in performance today ? Why do so many performance artists perform naked ? Is the naked body a sign of authenticity or does the taboo distract from meaning ? How is the relationship between artist and audience different from or similar to other areas of art?

Performance and Media: 
How does technology mediate performance ? What are the ontologies of networked, mediated and recorded performance practices ? How is videoperformance 'live'? How do different technologies of camera (webcam, surveillance, etc) and screens (CRT, flat, projection, mobile phone, computer, etc) change our concept of performance?"