Melnikova, Daria, «Body, Camera, Action: Understanding the Metamorphosis of Performance Art in Japan». Ph.D., , Ann Arbor, United States 2018 Abstract This dissertation is a study of the specific medium “performance art” (pafōmansu āto) in Japan, situated in the transnational and comparative context of the 1960s and the 2010s. Extensively drawing on the art criticism of Akiyama Kuniharu, Ishiko Junzō, Sawaragi Noi, Tōno Yoshiaki, Tone Yasunao, and Yoshida Yoshie, this research investigates the discursive space of performance that constructs a multiplicity of historical terms such as happenings, events, festivals, spectacle. In the 1960s, the fashion of happenings (initially coined by American artist Allan Kaprow) spread outside of artistic institutions such…