About ISPS

Welcome to the Institute for the Study of Performance and Spirituality.

The Institute for the Study of Performance and Spirituality (ISPS), which was founded in December 2005, exists to foster a wide range of interdisciplinary research into the relationship between performance and spirituality. The research fostered by ISPS concerns (a) instances in which spirituality and religion have contributed to the development of live and media-based performance and (b) instances when performance has contributed to the practice and development of religion and spirituality. By pursuing these goals, ISPS pursues its mission, which is to:

• Explore the historical and contemporary relationship between performance and spirituality worldwide.
• Promote a deeper understanding of the current relationship between performance and spirituality as it manifests in the world today.

ISPS seeks to accomplish its mission through four activities:

• Performance and Spirituality, an online, peer-reviewed, academic journal.
• The ISPS Digital Archive: an online database containing photographs, text files, and video footage which is available to interested scholars and the general public.
• Hosting live events such as symposia at which scholars respond to talks and presentations by performers (such as the Inaugural ISPS Event that took place at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City).
• Co-producing productions that contribute to the ISPS mission (such as Ectospasms, a multimedia dance piece produced as part of the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival that contemplated the performative functions of spiritualism and mediumistic exhibitions during the Occult Revival of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.)

ISPS conceives of “performance” in broad terms. A few of the forms of artistic and cultural expression that are implied by this term include:

• Theatre
• Dance
• Live musical performance
• Performance/live art
• Urban, rural, and domestic rituals, and ceremonies
• Multi-media performance (such as performances that blend live performers and cinematic projection)
• Media-based performance (such as sound recordings, film, video, digital animation, etc.)

The above list is not exhaustive – it merely offers a few of virtually countless artistic and cultural forms that the term “performance” – as it is understood at ISPS – suggests.