Work Quickly but Think Slowly

Brian Quirt reviews the history, impact, and current activities related to Nightswimming’s Pure Research program in the context of his own creative practice. The article examines the program’s impact in light of current partnerships with four Nordic theatre research organizations, relating performance lab work conducted in 2016 in Reykjavik, Iceland, to Quirt’s own practice as a dramaturg and theatremaker. The article assesses Nightswimming’s ongoing efforts to archive past research projects, disseminate the results, and by examining the impact of those projects on participating artists, strategize about future Pure Research iterations. Most importantly, the article explores the relationship between Pure Research’s commitment to ‘pure’ performance research, and how its activities and discoveries have had significant impact on how Nightswimming initiates new creative projects and designs the creation process for those works in development. The article refers to a previous CTR article devoted to Pure Research, published in CTR 119 (Summer 2004) also written by Quirt.