L. Archer Porter

Publication, communication +1

Porter’s latest article, featured in the Media Aesthetics special issue of communication +1, unpacks the theory of intimaesthetics—the aestheticization of intimacy in self-produced media online. Exploring home dance videos on Instagram, Porter examines how performers navigate digital platforms through choreographies of body, space, and media.

Access the paper here.

Publication, University of Michigan Press

Monograph, Homebodies: Performance and Intimacy in the Age of New Media is now in production. In this book, Porter examines the phenomenon of home dance videos on new media, revealing the simultanous performance of intimacy, and the platform’s control over personal data.

See more here.

Creative Project, UNL

Photo: hdrinc

Archer Porter presents a dancefilm in the Evenings of Dance concert at the Carson Theater (Lied Center for Performing Arts), Lincoln, NE. The piece, entitled Domicile, situates three dancers in Porter’s own home and animates themes of both intimacy and mediatization, privacy and publicity. The screening of the film integrated live performance elements to further complicate the temporality of the work.

Degree Awarded, UCLA

Archer Porter graduates from the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA with a Ph.D. in Culture and Performance. Her dissertation, entitled The Domestic Stage, unpacks the production, circulation, and consumption of home dance videos on Instagram from 2010 to 2020. 

Jul 2021

Publication, IJSD

Porter’s article, “Homebodies In/During Crisis” appears in the International Journal of Screendance. In the paper, Porter theorizes the notion of the homebody as a convergence of the habitus and the habitat, and then situates the homebody in the cultural and  historical moment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Article available here.

Presentation, OSU (Virtual)

Porter virtually presents a paper at This is Where We Dance Now, an international, multidisciplinary symposium hosted by Ohio State University. In her presentation, Porter outlines the theory of the homebody, a figure whose paradoxes are exacerbated through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Feb 2021

Publication, Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy

Joined by theorists in the fields of performance studies, dance studies, and philosophy, Porter contributes a chapter to a Bloomsbury anthology on the intersection of dance and philsophy. Her essay, “mEANING rEMIX: Ambivalent Readings of Marie Chouinard’s bODY rEMIX/gOLDBERG vARIATIONS,” deconstructs two separate readings of a 2005 work by Compagnie Marie Chouinard to highlight the critical potential of ambivalence.

Publication available here.

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Sep 2020

Publication, TDR: The Drama Review

Porter reviewed Isobel Harbison’s book, Performing Image (MIT Press) for the Fall issue of TDR.

Access the review here.

May 2020

Publication, Performance Research 
Journal

Porter’s article, “The Influence of Intimacy: Amateur Performance on New Media’s Neoliberal Stage,” appears in Performance Research Journal. In the article, Porter examines the commercialization of performance, intimacy and domestic authenticity in and through new media. She considers the online productions of one amateur dancer, Donté Colley, who becomes a “micro-celebrity” after posting and uploading to social media a series of self-produced home dance videos.

Article available here.

Oct 2019

Presentation, Fan Studies Network - North America Conference

At a Fan Studies Network conference (DePaul University, Chicago), Porter presents on the phenomenon of mediatized homeage dances, self-produced in the domestic setting, but circulated on social media. 

Aug 2019

Presentation, Dance Studies Association

Porter joins dance studies colleagues at the annual DSA conference in Evanston, IL. Here, she presents a paper on how new media denizens engage in communities of belonging following the death of a beloved icon. These “moving memorials” articulate how, on the other hand, participatory culture is embodied and, on the other hand, grief is algorithmic.

Jul 2019

Presentation, Performance Studies International

Joined by international scholars, Porter ventures to Calgary to present on the overarching theory of her dissertation: intimaesthetics. She developed this theory after studying thousands of home dance videos on Instagram, and analyzing them  according to different orientations toward the camera.

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