Good-Bye Ideology. Hello Performance

Abstract

This article looks at the practice of Fred Newman’s performance-based methodology—informed by the work of Marx, Vygotsky and Wittgenstein—in addressing the assumed gap between thinking and doing, reflection and activity, or to use Marx’s terms, interpretation and change. Changing the world involves mass activity. However, acting en masse has historically generated and depended upon ideology, which tends toward the elimination of reflection and dialogue, thus severely handicapping the development of the activity for change. How do we participate in the human activity of changing the world and simultaneously comprehend/reflect on our practice in such a way that allows for its further development, unencumbered by the dead weight of ideology? Is it possible, as Marx postulated, to bridge the gap between reflecting and doing, between interpreting the world and changing the world? The affirmative answer—“perform”—is presented in historical and philosophical detail.