Networked Bodies: The Culture and Ecosystem of Contemporary Performance

"This publication assembling the practices and discourses of 'Asian contemporary performance' is assuredly a statement of 'the world we have made' for the now and the future, as well as a means of connecting TPAC and other 'worlds.' "-Ruo-Yu LIU, Chairwoman of Taipei Performing Arts Center

"While it is now hardly unusual to find choreographers working in an exhibition setting, or visual artists performing on a stage, it is still rare to see practitioners from the different fields working together, as can be found at ADAM."-John Tain, Head of Research at Asia Art Archive

"With various understandings from multiple disciplines, life journeys and international practices, this publication is neither a collected manifesto, nor an imprint of harmony and integration. On the contrary, it is the very embodiment of incarnations and trajectories of the world history and the network of contemporary corporeality."-Chun-Yen WANG, Art Critic

"The anthology sheds light on contemporary, situated approaches to 'the notion of composition,' breaking with linear processes of gathering through decolonial and collective movement-based practices."-Madeleine Planeix-Crocker, Associate Curator at Lafayette Anticipations

Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance (ADAM) was founded by Taipei Performing Arts Center in 2017. Jointly conceived with River Lin, a Taiwanese artist and curator currently living and working between France and Taiwan, the project aims to build a research and exchange platform for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary performance art in the Asia-Pacific region. Different from other similar networks and art markets that focus on transactions, ADAM emphasizes an 'artist-led' concept and practice. It invites artists to disrupt the relationships and dialogues between institutions and artist communities through the ecological processes of conception, research and development, as well as production, and also provides sustenance and companionship to artists while they embark on their journeys in creative research and co-creation. 

This book is based on the exchanges, research and practices undertaken by artists from across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond who have worked with performance as a medium, form and method during the 2017-2021 editions of ADAM (Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance). It proposes or questions work-in-progress modes of knowledge production in the glocal context of contemporary performance. This publication documents the trajectory of ADAM, and further expands the discursive process for the problematique related to issues such as geopolitics, community and social engagement, cross-cultural studies, and interdisciplinary art.