{"id":127,"date":"2026-05-13T20:05:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/liveperformancematters\/?page_id=127"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:14:04","slug":"mission-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/liveperformancematters\/mission-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Live <em>Performance<\/em> Matters (LPM) both describes an area of focus and advocates for the importance of live performance and research into it.\u00a0Performance\u00a0has long been central to how we make\u00a0sense of our experience, nourish our emotional lives,\u00a0build and sustain communities, and imagine otherwise. The category\u00a0of\u00a0liveness has a history\u00a0too, linked to the invention of sound reproduction technologies in the late nineteenth century and the development of broadcasting systems in the 1920s.\u00a0Its\u00a0evolution\u00a0is ongoing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Live performance&nbsp;continues to&nbsp;matter&nbsp;today&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;perhaps&nbsp;more&nbsp;than ever, in an era of accelerating mediatisation, AI, and poly-crisis, when the conditions for live, shared, embodied experience are being altered. We&nbsp;are living at a time&nbsp;in which those conditions are under pressure from multiple directions: the migration of social life onto screens,&nbsp;attention dispersal,&nbsp;challenges&nbsp;to&nbsp;public&nbsp;assembly,&nbsp;the erosion of public funding for the arts,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the existential weight of ecological and political&nbsp;emergency.&nbsp;In the UK, a wellbeing and mental health crisis \u2013 accompanied by high rates of young people not in education, employment, or training \u2013&nbsp;makes&nbsp;engagement with live performance increasingly important as a resource for connection, shared experience,&nbsp;meaning-making,&nbsp;and resistance.&nbsp;That pressure, and that need, make&nbsp;the questions LPM&nbsp;asks&nbsp;both&nbsp;urgent and necessary.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Why does live performance matter now?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How does it matter \u2013 culturally, economically, socially,&nbsp;politically,&nbsp;personally?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How do the histories of live performance shape the present, and what might its futures&nbsp;be?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How does live performance document, resist, and\/or&nbsp;embrace its own disappearance?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>What affordances and complications do hybrid forms of live performance offer, and how do they reframe our understanding of in-person live encounters?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How does live performance build and&nbsp;sustain&nbsp;communities across places, languages, cultures, and contexts?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>What are the ethical responsibilities of live performance&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;to its audiences, its subjects, and the world it inhabits?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How does live performance&nbsp;both shape and reveal what it means to be human and enable&nbsp;us to value that which is&nbsp;imperfect and&nbsp;ephemeral?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>How does it help us to create imaginative experience between us, to share possibilities, to weather the stormy present, to imagine better futures, and to find new ways of being in the same world at the same time?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>LPM pursues these questions through a programme of events, collaborations,&nbsp;research publications,&nbsp;and public engagement. We host talks, performances, and discussions that bring research into dialogue with practice and with wider audiences.&nbsp;We support and&nbsp;showcase&nbsp;the work of researchers within and beyond&nbsp;the University of&nbsp;Exeter who are working on live performance in&nbsp;all&nbsp;its forms.&nbsp;We&nbsp;partner with arts organisations,&nbsp;educational institutions,&nbsp;venues, and communities&nbsp;to&nbsp;connect university research to the broader cultural&nbsp;life&nbsp;of which live performance is a vital part.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Live Performance Matters (LPM) both describes an area of focus and advocates for the importance of live performance and research into it.\u00a0Performance\u00a0has long been central to how we make\u00a0sense of our experience, nourish our emotional lives,\u00a0build and sustain communities, and imagine otherwise. The category\u00a0of\u00a0liveness has a history\u00a0too, linked to the invention of sound reproduction technologies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mission Statement - Live Performance Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/liveperformancematters\/mission-statement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Statement - Live Performance Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Live Performance Matters (LPM) both describes an area of focus and advocates for the importance of live performance and research into it.\u00a0Performance\u00a0has long been central to how we make\u00a0sense of our experience, nourish our emotional lives,\u00a0build and sustain communities, and imagine otherwise. 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