Provocation in Popular Culture

<P>What role can provocation play in the process of renewal, both of individuals and of societies? <EM>Provocation in Popular Culture</EM> is an investigation into the practice of specific provocateurs and the wider nature of cultural provocation, examining, among others:</P><UL><P><LI>Banksy</LI><P></P><P><LI>Sacha Baron Cohen</LI><P></P><P><LI>Leo Bassi</LI><P></P><P><LI>Pussy Riot</LI><P></P><P><LI>Philippe Petit</LI><P></P><P><LI>Archaos.</LI><P></P></UL><P>Drawing on Bim Mason’s own twenty-five year career as performer, teacher and creative director, this book explores the power negotiations involved in the relationship between provocateur and provoked, and the implications of maintaining a position on the ‘edge’.</P><P></P><P>Using neuroscience as a bridge, it proposes a similarity between complexity theory and cultural theories of play and risk. Three inter-related analogies for the ‘edge’ on which these performers operate – the fulcrum, the blade and the border – reveal the shifts between structure and fluidity, and the ways in which these can combine in a single moment.</P>