Agitainment

“Agitainment" is a portmanteau or morpheme of the words agitation and entertainment that is used to describe certain kinds of Performance Art, experimental theatre, Music or Art .
Although not yet a term in popular usage or yet to be featured in the dictionary agitainment is often used anecdotally to describe art forms that delibertly or wilfully aim to provoke, annoy or agitate the audience
Take, for example this quote regarding the band Vortis:

“”agitainment”-celebrating life via the raucous energy of its genre-defying rock 'n' roll, while simultaneously challenging listeners and provoking thought.”

The purpose of this is usually to illicit a reaction, be it positive or negative. Agitainment has its roots in and takes its lead from the ideas of Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty , carried through into the happenings and interventions of the 1960’s and 1970’s and the situationists international to punk and alternative comedy.There are also elements of guerrilla art and the ideas of spectacle, the aim is often to “shake up”” audiences out of a perceived lethargy by breaking the usual rules of performer/audience interaction. This can often involve innovative use of space, direct communication with the audience, challenging perceptions of the genre (be it music, theatre or art) or simply trying out something new
Definitions
More of an attitude than a unified or defined manifesto practitioners of agitainment would probably reject the label itself as too narrow and missing much of the point of their art. It is often a label applied by people to art forms they do not like or understand, which paradoxically can be one of the aims of the practitioners themselves, to make the audience dislike them
Agitainment is a term that is usually used to describe current or modern work but it can be applied retrospectively. Take for example The Sex Pistols, they could be descried as agitainment because they purposefully provoked a response with their music, clothing and attitude and yet were highly entertaining with it. The Sex Pistols did not care what kind of response they provoked, positive or negative, as long as they weren’t met with apathy they were happy: This lies at the heart of agitainment.
Much of the discussion surrounding agitainment concerns genre and the blurring of it. Many practitioners believe that conventional terms do not apply and that labeling yourself a “Musician”, “Performer” or “Artist” is too limiting and that in fact the task of definition lies with the audience. Challenging of preconceived ideas and definitions allows artists to create their own genre, their own scene and to play around with structures, forms and processes. Some of the main (often contradictory) aims of agitainment are:
* Not to have any definite aims
* Explore/explode definitions
* To create
In this way they follow many previous movements that have sought to challenge the status quo.

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