Richard Allen is Research Assistant to Professor Adrian Kear at the Department Of Theatre, Film and Television at Aberystwyth University where he is undertaking a PhD in Object Theatre. His blog can be found at richobject.wordpress.com

In science fiction a ‘big dumb object’ is any unknown entity that has extreme power or unknown properties that becomes a focus of the narrative or the protagonist's interest and intent. Similar to Hitchcock’s famous MacGuffin, the ‘big dumb object’ is a plot device that appears to be driving the action and yet deliberately remains ambiguous, undefined or generic. By the end of the story it is ultimately unimportant as the struggle of the characters are played out. Think of the ghost ship in Event Horizon (1997) or Unicron in Transformers: The Movie (1986). I would like to propose an informal breakfast ‘roundtable’ in which we can openly debate, over coffee and cake, the provocation that the current trend for a discourse of participation has the risk of becoming our own metaphoric ‘big dumb object’ in the narratives we follow in performance studies and practice. As the discourse around participation grows in power and intoxicating draw, perhaps the thing we seek becomes further away? 

As a performance artist, my work explores ideas of interactivity and participation and has a focus in the performativity and social restrictions of gender and femininity. This work has been part of an ongoing research project, which is now being explored through my PhD at the University of Bristol. 
My Practice as Research PhD explores Participation and Interaction within Performance and Live Art, examining different types of participation and the impact on the audience. It aims to explore issues of impact and empowerment, the relationship with the audience and set up methodologies for research into audience experience.

Within participatory work, which expects or even enforces physical involvement, the relation between performer and the participant/spectator changes from active artist and passive spectator to mutual interaction and co-responsibility in the creation of the artwork. Often such work is described as empowering, either through some type of catharsis or assigning the participant the role of equal collaborator. But within art works, the limits of interaction are described by the artist beforehand (in setting out the work, with some more controlling than others), even when it is stated that the participant becomes the artist. In other words the audience’s artistic activities, and their status as artists is still defined by the original artist. So wherein lies the empowerment? 

Within this paper, I will employ a theoretical framework drawn from Bourriaud, Bishop and Ranciere in a discussion of 3 participatory works (2 of my performances and a project with Manuel Vason) in order to explore the ethics of the relation between performer and the spectator/participant. The paper will include a short practical element.