In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork Sebastian Sommer (Berlin) The following text is based on the practical experiences of researching the PEGIDA demonstrations in Dresden with the instrument of performance analysis. Based on the observation and examination of specific protest phenomena, the application of a performance studies perspective thus permits an alternative approach to the political performativity of (farright) populism. The transfer of the method to socio-cultural performances outside the sphere of performing arts is accompanied by various methodological and ethical challenges. These include questions of positionality, the constant risk of (unwillingly) amplifying far-right ideologies, or concerns about the analytical effects of contrasting worldviews. In this way, field-specific demands led to the need for constant adaptation of practical approaches. As a contribution to ongoing methodological debates, it is proposed to implement this practical reflexiveness in the research process by rethinking performance analysis from the perspective of (ethnographical) fieldwork. Over the past decade, the socio-political developments in Germany and other European countries have demonstrated that the rise of far-right populism as a political movement cannot be explained only by looking at the electoral gains of parties with an authoritarian and nationalist or even nativist orientation (e. g., the AfD in Germany). The (far-right) populist project has an undeniable socio-political or sociocultural dimension. It consists of an attempt to implement an alternative style of thinking and “ doing politics ” 1 in order to transform the political culture in general. From this perspective, (far-right) populism can be analysed as a political style with a specific performativity 2 through which populist identities are (affectively) constructed and enacted as a “ way of living ” 3 . Protest movements play a central role in this process as they enable participation in populist politics outside established political institutions. These forms of “ bottom-up populism ” 4 have had a significant influence on far-right populist politics. The importance of embodied politics and sensorial experiences as part of political action has been a prominent topic in strategic debates within the contemporary New Right and far-right populist movements, for example in the form of concepts like “ metapolitics ” . 5 In Germany alone, there have been various subsequent waves of political mobilisation with ideological and structural ties to this political spectrum since 2014 which have had a massive impact on the socio-political climate. The following article outlines the practical experiences of approaching the performative dimension of far-right populism by analysing protest events of PEGIDA and anti-lockdown protests (see section 2) as collective practices from the perspective of theatre and performance studies (TaPS). Transferring the method of performance analysis to these contexts provided new practical insights into the political aesthetics of (far-right populist) protest. However, the specific conditions in the field had a significant impact on the research, compared to Forum Modernes Theater, 36/ 1-2, 141 - 154. Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ FMTh-36-0011 work in the performing arts. This article discusses how these challenges can contribute to recent methodological discussions about rethinking performance analysis. To highlight the analytical potential of performance analysis in the context of far-right populist protest, the first part provides an overview of the theoretical concepts of performativity in different disciplines researching far-right populism and how these concepts influence the respective analytical perspectives. The following sections summarise the major challenges of the practical research work at the PEGIDA rallies in Dresden, as well as the methodological modifications made to address field-specific demands. This includes the influence of the researcher ’ s positionality and questions of research ethics (in participatory approaches). To increase the intersubjective verifiability of the method, alternative forms of material were added to the database and a relational phenomenological perspective was adopted for the observations. The final section of the article discusses how the challenges of performance analysis differ in various protest settings, and how these challenges could be overcome by treating the method as a type of fieldwork within transdisciplinary research contexts. 1 Researching Political Performativity - An Overview The number of publications on protest events as expressions of far-right populist performativity has increased rapidly across various academic disciplines. Nevertheless, there are significant differences in the underlying concepts that affect the various research perspectives. For example, in populism studies as well as in protest and movement studies, the increased use of ethnographic approaches, 6 such as participant observation, has led to a growing interest in analysing protest events as collective practices with specific aesthetics. However, empirical research in these fields predominantly focuses on the dramaturgy of events or on discursive-performative aspects, 7 for example by analysing protest events as enactments of narratives. 8 The character of protest as a social practice of collectively embodying far-right populist politics is rarely addressed. 9 At this point, TaPS's theoretical and methodological perspectives could offer alternative approaches to researching the political performativity of protest. In this sense, Judith Butler shifted the focus away from written or spoken discourse, emphasising instead the character of protest events, such as Occupy, as practices in-between bodies that affect how participants temporarily perceive their presence in a shared space: “ Showing up, standing, breathing, moving, standing still, speech, and silence are all aspects of a sudden assembly, an unforeseen form of political performativity [. . .]. ” 10 Despite the broader theoretical concept of political performativity, research on protest phenomena in TaPS predominantly focuses on self-proclaimed progressive and socially engaged movements or explicitly activist forms of art. Far-right protest has rarely been studied outside of historiographical works and the few existing performance analysis approaches in the field of far-right populism have examined (mediatised) performances of political leaders such as Donald Trump. 11 Against this backdrop, the following article attempts to combine a TaPS research perspectives with those of protest and movement studies, in order to present an integrated approach to the political performativity of far-right populism. Apart from simply broadening the respective theoretical conceptions, such a step fundamentally changes the way research is conceptualised in practice. For anthropological research, Jonas Tinius developed the 142 Sebastian Sommer idea of “ fieldwork as method ” in order to “ [shift] the conversation away from a quest for ready-made toolkits and towards reflexive conversations on the ethics and affordances of fields, from which we develop ways of assembling methods. ” 12 In other words, the characteristics of the field define the ways in which research can be realised as a combination of different methods. This call for a continuous reflexiveness towards the methodological approaches shows many parallels to the challenges of applying performance analysis to the PEGIDA rallies. The constant methodological (re)adaptations that had to be made in response to field-specific demands did not transform performance analysis into ethnographic fieldwork. However, they offer an alternative perspective on the method, presenting it as a form of fieldwork in its own right, which may help to enter performances in different social fields with a greater methodological open-mindedness. Another point that needs to be addressed before I reflect on the practical experiences is the theoretical scope of performance analysis to approach (political) performativity analytically. Drawing on Butler's theories, Diana Taylor argues that performativity should not be understood as a single act, but as an iterative and referential practice situated within and related to other (hegemonic) forms of social or cultural behaviour. 13 Therefore, Taylor refers to the single performance as a “ performatic ” act 14 that has the potential to become performative by (affectively) animating people to become physically involved in the process of collectively embodying different forms of social behaviour. 15 Butler puts forward a similar argument when conceptualising the individual protest as a “ social form ” which ideally “ begins to enact the social order it seeks to bring about ” 16 . Therefore, performance analysis as a method only allows (political) performativity to be approached indirectly by examining how performatic acts embody certain forms of social order. 2 Research Ethics - Approaching Far-Right Populist Protests In Germany, the emergence of far-right populism as a political movement is inextricably linked to the rallies of the selfproclaimed “ Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident ” ( “ Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes ” , PEGIDA) in Dresden. 17 When the openly anti-Muslim protests first took to the streets in October 2014, only a few hundred people participated. Within a few months, the number had risen to (tens of) thousands. The demonstrations were a striking example of the appeal of far-right populism as a political project and became a driving force behind the emerging movement. From 2017 onwards, PEGIDA gradually lost its political relevance until it eventually disbanded in October 2024. Generally, close research on “ distasteful groups ” 18 puts the scientific observer in multiple sociopolitical conflict zones and thus differs fundamentally from fieldwork in the sphere of performing arts. To research the political performativity of PEGIDA based on its protest events, I attended a total of six rallies in Dresden. Between October 2015 and October 2016, I gathered material for a performance analysis of each of them. To prepare for my initial observation, I read various firsthand accounts from other external participant observers (e. g., journalists or fellow researchers). They unanimously reported various incidents of verbal and physical assaults which created the impression of a field prone to violence (against alleged ‘ outsiders ’ ). Consequently, questions of personal security became more important in the preparation process. Additionally, feelings of anxiety and fear began 143 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork to affect my personal position towards the field and shaped my (inter-)actions as a researcher. When approaching the far-right (from an outside position), such concerns are not uncommon. Based on experiences in (ethnographic) research on far-right groups in the US, Kathleen Blee argues that fear may substitute rapport and trust as the guiding affective dynamic of fieldwork in this political spectrum. 19 The first measure to increase my personal safety was changing my appearance to prevent me from being recognised as a researcher. To participate inconspicuously in a regular PEGIDA event, it was sufficient to wear standard outdoor clothing. Additionally, I changed my glasses and wore hiking shoes instead of sneakers. Apart from those changes, my general phenotypical appearance allowed me to pass as a white (Eastern-)German cis-male and thus as a ‘ regular ’ participant in the eyes of other protestors or the police. Until recent years, questions of how the (projected) positionality and (self-)ascribed or performed identity of the researcher influences and shapes the access to the field and the research process as a whole had played only a marginal role in the methodological debates in TaPS. 20 In protest environments, the practical impacts of these aspects are immense. This is especially true for the analysis of movements that are based on ideologies of inequality and therefore enact mechanisms of categorial differentiation mainly based on phenotypical categories. As for PEGIDA, various accounts from the field have reported significant differences depending on how researchers were perceived by participants - especially in relation to gender and (East-)German (family) background. In the context of artistic performances, the decision to refrain from explicitly identifying oneself as a researcher is typically of lesser methodological relevance. However, this approach raises substantial (ethical) questions in fieldwork that are connected to general considerations about the relation of proximity and distance in the research process. 21 For example, protests demand a relatively high level of active involvement from participants, such as walking along a certain route or shouting slogans. Therefore, it is important to assess the extent to which participation or interaction is possible, necessary, and ethically justifiable. In protest and movement studies, there are significant differences between the accepted research attitudes in different fields. When researching self-proclaimed progressive movements, close interaction is rarely considered problematic, and is sometimes even recommended. 22 In contrast, most of the methodological approaches to the far-right practice different forms of (self-)distancing in order to avoid a (discursive) “ contagion of stigma ” 23 - whereby the (public) condemnation (of the field) becomes attached to the research or researchers are confronted with associations of guilt for being (too) close to the field. Additionally, research on the farright runs the constant risk of (unwillingly) amplifying discriminatory ideologies or expanding their visibility in public discourse. Recent debates in protest and movement studies have raised the question of whether unmarked ethnographic research is an adequate approach to the far right. 24 Despite many different positions on these issues, it has generally been undisputed that approaches with fewer political consequences have to be considered thoroughly before the use of interactional methods in this political field. 3 How to Approach the Performative Aesthetics of Protest? The use of performance analysis as a form of close-up research on far-right populism allows protest events to be observed as performances in action in order to gain 144 Sebastian Sommer specific insights into the collective aesthetics which other methods cannot provide to the same extent. However, the proximity to the field creates various ethical challenges. From the methodological viewpoint of TaPS, collective performances are relational and thus produced intersubjectively. Since the analysis is grounded in the aesthetic experience of the performatic process, the researcher needs to be part of the observed event as it unfolds at the specific moment. Proximity to the event cannot be compensated for by analysing audiovisual material alone or by observing from the sidelines at the margins of protest events as a bystander. 25 At the same time, practical measures of (self-)distancing during observation might produce different problems. For example, a visible labelling of the research position (e. g., with a safety vest), draws the other participants ’ attention to the ‘ outsider ’ . Explicit awareness of the observer can both lead to significant changes in their behaviour and affect the personal safety of the researcher up to the point where open participation might become impossible (see section 2). Therefore, participant research is necessary for a profound analysis of far-right protest events as collective performances. That is why unmarked observation can be ethically justified. Nevertheless, such a ‘ blending-in ’ of the researcher also affects the visibility from the outside. Thus, the individual presence of the researcher in far-right protests without being recognisable as an observer contributes involuntarily to the dissemination of hatred in public. It is hard to give normative answers to the challenges arising from the entanglement of the researching position in the field. Instead, there needs to be an honest evaluation of the specific potential of participatory approaches and the ethical and political implications based on every research case in particular. The decision to conduct the observation as a non-marked researcher also led to practical problems. At PEGIDA, there are relatively large areas with a high degree of individual participation where any inactivity would have raised suspicion. For me, this created a significant feeling of pressure to participate. Therefore, I decided to join in some activities at the rallies to uphold my cover and increase the feeling of safety. I clapped after certain passages of the speeches and from time to time I moved my lips when (non-discriminatory) slogans were being shouted. In general, the deliberate interactions were limited to a minimum. Nonetheless, this decision remains controversial. It was only ethically justifiable within the specific research context at PEGIDA: Among (tens of) thousands of other participants, my actions were insignificant in terms of the overall performance of the rally. In contrast, active participation - on a limited scale - provides alternative approaches to the aesthetics of protest as performance by means of an intensified sensorial experience and physical immersion in the events. The affective power of collectively performed actions became evident to me in a later observation at a protest of the pandemic-sceptical “ Querdenken ” movement in November 2021 (see section 6). While tens of thousands of protestors gathered peacefully in the government district of Berlin, several hundred of them tried to break through police barriers. Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a chaotic mob with people pushing forward and yelling angrily. At this point, the police started to use water cannons against the protestors who answered by shouting “ Get lost! ” ( “ Haut ab! ” ). Within seconds, the slogan was picked up by most of the people around me and was repeated over and over again. In this emotionally tense situation, I joined in the shouting for two or three rounds without having thought about doing so beforehand. The unplanned participation was the effect of being drawn into the 145 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork collective action. This temporary loss of distance as a researcher is ethically problematic. But it is also epistemologically significant as an insight into the affective dynamics of the protest event. The spreading of the slogans in connection with other reactions of the protestors initiated multiple dynamics of “ synchronisation ” 26 which affected the physical experience on a subconscious level. At the same time, the stressful character of the overall situation made it briefly harder to uphold the mental capacities of an analytical distancing in the field. This experience made processes of performative immersion into collective action accessible to research. Apart from questions of how to approach protest events as collective performances analytically, this episode points to a conceptual core difference between participatory research in TaPS and ethnographical methods like participant observation. In anthropological fieldwork, participation as an unmarked observer in the field is mostly rejected for ethical reasons as it creates a dishonest and potentially exploitative relation to the observed actors. This perspective is based on a conception of the field as a network of (personal) interactions between individual social actors to which the researcher has to relate. During the performance analysis at PEGIDA, the focus shifts towards the protest performance as a product of collective action. Therefore, participants, who are not public persons, are not analysed as private individuals. They are observed as voluntary attendants of a public event. Additionally, the observation also includes the researcher ’ s experiences as a (distanced) participant. This creates a more equal relationship between the researcher and the field as the researcher becomes a part of it. Therefore, approaching protest events from the perspective of TaPS is not only a question of what to analyse but also of how the field is conceptualised. 4 Remembering, Recording, Analysing - Integrating Additional Data The practical considerations of applying performance analysis in the sense of fieldwork to research protest as collective action also affect the options of capturing and recording the events. In artistic contexts, it is usually unproblematic to take notes during a performance. While observing PEGIDA, I refrained from writing down my observations because such unusual behaviour might have revealed my research position. Instead, I recorded my memories shortly after each assembly (ideally only a few hours later) in a written transcript. Such a (re-)collection of experiences is often the main point of reference for performance analysis as “ remembrance work ” ( “ Erinnerungsarbeit ” ). 27 For artistic performances, secondary sources like press reviews are predominantly used only to a limited extent as additional material. In contrast, the amount of publicly available data on each PEGIDA rally was enormous. This included media reports (press and TV), livestreams or posts on social media platforms. This data could hardly be omitted in the research process. However, the analytical process was heavily influenced by the quantity of additional sources when it came to how to select or interpret each single bit of secondary information in contrast to the first-hand transcript. Generally, the data added to the written transcript were highlighted to prevent them from overwriting the initial memories in the ongoing reflection process. The extensive use of complementary sources also constitutes a difference to fieldwork in anthropological contexts which mainly relies on the researcher ’ s field notes in the process of observation. But for the performance analysis of PEGIDA, this extension of the database provided insights into various aspects of the protest performances that were impossible to cover as a single research- 146 Sebastian Sommer er with limited personal (memory) capacities. First, some of these sources were primarily used as reminders. For example, official PEGIDA livestreams on YouTube helped to reconstruct the overall structure of each event. The material used during such a live video analysis enabled significant moments from the hour-long protest that were not included in the initial transcript to be recalled. However, the official livestreams focused on the onstage speeches and provided little insight into the crowd in front of them. Therefore, other secondary sources, such as local newspapers reports and selected YouTube videos were used to include more perspectives on the events. However, an addition to the database was user comments from the official PEGIDA Facebook page(s). For each rally, dozens of posts related directly to the events by highlighting, for example, the number of participants. Usually, each post had several hundred comments that I filtered for (alleged) personal reports of firsthand experiences. Afterwards, I integrated the comments in a special section of the transcript. Even though the user-generated material consisted mostly of short thoughts, the collection as whole produced a vast database of different viewpoints on each protest performance. 5 Relational Phenomenology In general, questions of intersubjective verifiability have become an important subject in recent methodological debates in TaPS. They targeted performance analysis in particular because it is constructed dominantly from the individual experiences of the researcher. This creates a “ problem of subjectivism ” ( “ Subjektivismusproblem ” ) 28 - or rather multiple problems - as the single analysis represents only one perspective on the performance as an intersubjectively produced event. These inherent limitations of the method have become more relevant in performance settings where the spectators, their experiences and identities are addressed individually or where each member of the audience can create an individual (ised) experience - for example in productions of post-dramatic or immersive theatre. Similar challenges arise when analysing protest events as collective performances. There, individual experiences also depend on a variety of specific factors such as the number of participants, the participant ’ s position in the rallies or the behaviour of other protestors. Nevertheless, the influence of these aspects on the PEGIDA rallies is limited, as the staging of each event follows a theatrical setting in order to create a consistent experience for all participants. The main element of the setup at each rally is an improvised stage on the loading space of a truck which is parked at the side of the protest area. The participants assemble in front of the vehicle and focus their attention on the stage. Nearly all individual actions like clapping or cheering refer directly to the speeches onstage. Nevertheless, there are noticeable variations concerning the degree of individual participation, for example, in the volume or duration of chanting resulting from different degrees of (affective) involvement. These (minor) differences in the behaviour of ‘ regular ’ participants can become analytical problems when the positionality of the researcher in (populist) far-right protests is taken into account. Even while standing in the middle of a rally, the perspective of the observer can vary significantly from other protesters due to different worldviews. In combination with the analytical distance of the observant position, this leads to significantly less immersion in the collective performances compared to other participants. These differences in personal involvement produce methodological chal- 147 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork lenges - in the practical fieldwork as well as in the subsequent analysis. One way to counterbalance these processes is to adopt a specific research attitude in the form of a (more) “ relational phenomenology ” 29 . Whereas phenomenological approaches in performance analysis focus predominantly on the experience of the analysing spectator as the starting point of a reflection process, 30 a relational approach explicitly includes the observation of other participants and their actions. So far, this perspective has only been marginally addressed in methodological debates. 31 But in recent years, for example, Matthias Warstat proposed a conceptualisation of performances as relational constellations rather than centring the analysis on subjective experiences. 32 One practical example from the analysis of PEGIDA demonstrates the potential of such an approach in the context of far-right populist protest. On 18 January 2016, the weekly rally took place at the Neumarkt in Dresden. About 8,000 participants almost completely filled the historic square in front of the Frauenkirche. The physical density of the assembly was intensified by the architecture of the Neumarkt which is surrounded on three sides by buildings. This created a panorama-like atmosphere 33 that shielded the protest on the inside from (sensorial) influences from the outside. In my personal transcript of memories from the event, I described the aesthetic consequences of the specific spatial setting on the collective chants: “ [T]he echo of thousands of voices created a very dense atmosphere. ” (Re-)reading this first note, the affective intensity of this key situation came back to me. During one speech, the chant “ Widerstand ” ( “ Resistance ” ) emerged. After a few repetitions in different parts of the rally, most of the participants (around me) had joined in the shouting. Adding to the collectively amplified voices, the chants were reflected from the surrounding buildings and their echoes mixed with the sustained shouting. This created the impression of a “ real-life echo chamber ” and caused an intense affective reaction that crept through my whole body. In the first seconds, I feared the excessive commitment of the other participants around me expressing their collective will to resist current politics. This determination even affected their bodies. As the protestors continued to shout at high volume, some even started waving their clenched fists in the air. While I was feeling rather small and helpless, the observation of the other participants ’ actions suggested an empowering effect on them, which was later confirmed in numerous comments on Facebook. More users than normal described a strong feeling of collectivity: “ This feeling of fighting together again and again, and in the meantime clearly successfully, is super good. You [. . .] can join in and feel this great feeling amid thousands of people. ” 34 The experiences of this evening demonstrate how the same (protest) performance can evoke different and even opposing affects in its participants based on the individual positionality. The perspective of a relational phenomenology helps to relate the individual experiences to others as mutual parts of a shared performance (space). 6 Methodological Challenges: Analysing “ Querdenken ” The previous examples of the practical adjustments that were made to adapt performance analysis to the field-specific demands at PEGIDA constitute a step towards a new methodological reflexivity, implementing a logic of fieldwork into the research process. The requirement for constant analytical open-mindedness became apparent when the experiences at Dresden were tested in a different protest context, while observing events of the “ Querdenken ” 148 Sebastian Sommer movement in Berlin in 2020 and 2021. The political network of “ Querdenken ” was the biggest driving force behind the pandemicsceptical protests in Germany in 2020 - 2023. 35 This political movement developed around an authoritarian critique of the German government ’ s anti-COVID measures and organised massive protest mobilisations with open links to (often antisemitic) conspiracy myths and the (populist) far-right spectrum. In this specific context, the methodological adaptations that had worked well with PEGIDA were insufficient to analyse the protest performances of the pandemic-sceptical movement. This experience of failure marked the beginning of a theoretical (re)consideration of further changes to performance analysis that could also be useful in areas beyond political protests. The first observation of “ Querdenken ” took place at the aforementioned rally against the amendment of the federal infection protection law by the German Bundestag on 18 th November 2020. By noon, (tens of) thousands of protestors had assembled along the Straße des 17. Juni in central Berlin. The protests stretched to vast areas of the Tiergarten on both sides of the road. The Reichstag building itself, the seat of parliament, was heavily guarded by police forces. In comparison to PEGIDA, the protest did not have an identifiable centre. Although there was a main stage on Straße des 17. Juni, it did not attract the same amount of attention as the PEGIDA truck did, because of the variety of other activities around it. In the middle of the crowd, people were delivering individual speeches via megaphone, musicians played on the streets and even small stalls with food and drink had been set up. In effect, most of the participants were more or less wandering around the urban space occupied by the protest, stopping only briefly at the different ‘ attractions ’ . In combination with the open consumption of alcohol, the variety of parallel activities evoked a festival-like feeling. Apart from recurring confrontations between protestors and the police in different parts of the rally (see section 3), the overall atmosphere resembled the numerous street parades that normally take place in Berlin. This specific form of protest event created several new challenges for performance analysis compared to PEGIDA. Above all, the numerous activities in the vast protest spaces emphasised the difficulties of analysing “ poly-perspective ” ( “ poly-perspektivische ” ) 36 events as a single observer. Similar problems arise when working on performance productions with an immersive character. Doris Kolesch and Theresa Schütz suggest including qualitative interviews in the performance analysis to address these issues. This approach has proven to be unpromising in the context of far-right (populist) protests. Widespread hostility in the field and a significant unwillingness of the participants to cooperate posed enormous challenges to qualitative research. Nevertheless, alternative reference points for methodological innovations in TaPS could be found in the methods of participant observation employed in protest and social movement studies in this complex political field. a) Observation in teams In protest and social movement studies, observation by teams is a common approach when analysing mass mobilisations. 37 Usually, each group focuses on a different aspect of the protest, such as speeches or the structure of the event space. All these different perspectives are later (re)assembled in an overarching analysis. However, such an analytical specialisation fails to capture the character of the collective performance as a relational and multidimensional event that 149 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork is experienced on different levels with all senses. In contrast to these approaches, a collective performance analysis would instead combine single reports on the aesthetic experience in different parts of the protest. Afterwards, the various observational accounts can be compared in order to find recurring structures or underlying performative dynamics. The product of such an approach would be an analytical assemblage of individual impressions representing different (and sometimes even contradictory) perspectives on the same event that map the heterogeneity of the collective performance. On top of that, the inand intergroup discussions of the individual observations constitute a genuine qualitative method in the research process. From the perspective of TaPS, working in different teams emphasises the collective character of performance analysis which always relies on (implicit) processes of intersubjective exchange (with others who have experienced the same production). b) Smartphones and documentation My performance analysis on PEGIDA was still based on written forms of documentation, such as transcripts of memories. But parallel to the establishment of the protests in Dresden, the use of smartphones inside of demonstrations became more and more common in different movements, especially in the (populist) far-right. This development significantly changes the possibilities of recording and remembering (public) performances. Smartphones can be easily used to document different aspects of protest events. They allow uncomplicated multimedia recordings to capture significant moments without interrupting the participation process of the researchers. In addition, short notes can be typed discreetly while in the field and even (short) audio memos can be recorded. Such on-the-spot recordings are more than reminders. They constitute valuable sources on their own, since for example, the style of personal speech caught in the recordings hints at the affective involvement of the researcher in the moment of documentation. c) Multimedia performance analysis with online data In addition to extending the possibilities of first-hand documentation in the research process, smartphones are also widely used by ‘ regular ’ protest participants. The (online) publication of their photos or videos provides a growing pool of multimedia resources on various platforms. In my research, the integration of user-generated content in the performance analysis was still very limited. In comparison to the shaky videos of PEGIDA and user comments on a single platform, the amount of publicly available material has exploded. For example, livestreaming of protest has become a common practice which produces numerous and often hourlong videos from each event. But at the moment, the analytical potential of these streams (or online material in general) is not fully used because approaches of live video analysis or video ethnographies are not yet common in movement studies. In this respect, the long tradition of using videos of artistic performances as analytical resources in TaPS could help to bridge this methodological gap and open new perspectives for interdisciplinary research designs. Another area of digital data that is currently attracting increasing attention in research on the (populist) far-right and its protest events is user-generated content on messaging apps. Especially Telegram has become an important platform for social and political movements worldwide to uni- 150 Sebastian Sommer directionally spread information and to offer easy-to-use opportunities for (manyto-many-)communication. Nowadays at large scale protest events (from different political spectrums), there are often newsgroups with a constant stream of messages from people sharing their personal live experiences or discussing where to go or what to do next. If treated with analytical caution, these messages could be considered first-hand accounts, which might help to increase the intersubjective verifiability of research on protest performances by integrating a broader range of perspectives. The use of (mostly asynchronously generated) Facebook comments in the performance analysis on PEGIDA has shown the potential of user-generated content as part of the database. 7 Outlook The examples from the research on PEGIDA and “ Querdenken ” demonstrate how performance analysis can be used to describe the aesthetic dimension of far-right (populist) protest events as collective performances in greater detail, as the method especially facilitates the examination of affective dynamics and micro-interactions. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of multiple single events enables an alternative approach to the political performativity of (far-right) populism. Therefore, the methodological perspective presented in this article complements existing research in populism studies. Nevertheless, applying performance analysis to social phenomena outside the field of performing arts creates specific challenges, which can, in turn, drive a further development of the method itself. The specific (and changing) demands in the respective fields produced the need for an ongoing methodological reflexiveness as well as continuous adaptions of the practical approaches. The result was a non-linear work process that moved the research altogether closer to (anthropological) fieldwork. The practical challenges began with the question of how to enter a politically controversial and even stigmatised field and how to act responsibly as a participant researcher within the social situation. Direct confrontation with discriminatory worldviews in farright (populist) protest creates ethically and emotionally complex situations that influence the individual experience of the observed events. These potentially strong effects of the individual positionality highlight the inherent “ problem of subjectivism ” in performance analysis. One counterstrategy used in the presented research is to modify the analytical attitude in the field, adopting a relational phenomenology that incorporates the observation of other participants to integrate descriptions of diverging experiences within the same performance. In protest contexts, the task of increasing the intersubjective verifiability of research is particularly significant, as events such as “ Querdenken ” constitute poly-perspective environments that do not follow a linear structure and can therefore be experienced in multiple ways. In order for additional perspectives to be integrated into the presented research, the database of performance analysis was extended to include publicly available material like videos, livestreams or Facebook comments. These expansions of the method, developed in response to the specific demands of far-right (populist) protest events, can serve as a starting point for rethinking performance analysis as a form of fieldwork by adopting a new methodological openmindedness in TaPS. Instead of looking for readymade tools (from other disciplines), such as qualitative interviews, to solve methodological shortcomings, practical approaches should be tailored to the specific requirements and opportunities of the individual field. Such an expansion of the 151 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork methodological conception of performance analysis facilitates the application of the method in transdisciplinary research environments, such as protest and movement studies, where there is a growing need for instruments to analyse the performativity of political action. Notes 1 Pierre Ostiguy, “ Populism. A Socio-Cultural Approach ” , in: Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Paul Taggart, Paulina Ochoa Espejo and Pierre Ostiguy (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Populism, Oxford 2017, pp. 73 - 98, here: p. 74. 2 Benjamin Moffitt, The Global Rise of Populism. Performance, Political Style, and Representation, Stanford, California 2016. 3 Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, London / New York 2005, p. 169. 4 Paris Aslanidis, “ Populism and Social Movements ” , in: Kaltwasser, Taggart, Espejo and Ostiguy (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Populism, pp. 305 - 325, here: p. 305. 5 Thor von Waldstein, Metapolitik. Theorie - Lage - Aktion, Schnellroda 2019. 6 Two examples are the ethnographic study of the “ English Defence League ” by Hilary Pilkington (Hilary Pilkington, Loud and Proud. Passion and Politics in the English Defence League, Manchester 2016) and the participant observation of a pandemic-sceptical rally in Konstanz by the research group led by Nadine Frei (Nadine Frei et al., Liebe, Freiheit, Frieden. Ethnographische Beobachtung des Corona-Protests in Konstanz, Basel 2021). 7 A profound discussion on the shortcomings of ethnographic approaches to the performativity of far-right protest can be found in: Sebastian Sommer, “ Doing Protest. Die Analyse der performativen Dimension von Protesthandeln am Beispiel rechter Mobilisierungen ” , Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 37 (2024), pp. 286 - 300, here: pp. 291 - 293. 8 Sabine Volk applies this approach to the PEGIDA rallies in Dresden: Sabine Volk, “ Resisting ‘ Leftist Dictatorship ’ ? Memory Politics and Collective Action Framing in Populist Far-Right Street Protest ” , in: European Politics and Society 24 (2023), pp. 535 - 551, here: p. 537. 9 “ Further research is needed on the process of ‘ making of the people ’ , where citizens are not only passive receivers of populist messages, but help to shape them. “ (Giorgia Bulli, “ Ethnographic Methods in Populism Research. Towards a Multidimensional Approach ” , in: Polity 54 (2022), pp. 538 - 546, here: p. 546. 10 Judith Butler, Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, Cambridge, Massachusetts / London 2018, p. 18. 11 Théo Aiolfi, The Populist Style. Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right, Edinburgh 2025. 12 Jonas Tinius, “ Fieldwork as Method in Theatre and Performance Studies ” , in: Tracy C. Davis and Paul Rae (eds.), The Cambridge Guide to Mixed Methods Research for Theatre and Performance Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2024, pp. 190 - 212, here: p. 204. 13 Diana Taylor, Performance, Durham, North Carolina 2016, p. 123. 14 ibid., p. 120. 15 ibid, p. 130. 16 Butler, Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, p. 84. 17 More information on the development of PEGIDA and the ideological background of the movement can be found in: Volk, “ Resisting ‘ Leftist Dictatorship ’ ? ” , pp. 538 - 539 and in Bulli, “ Ethnographic Methods in Populism Research ” , pp. 540 - 541. 18 The term is used by Esseveld and Eyerman to describe “ those individuals and groups with whom the researcher shares neither political orientation nor way of life and whose politics and/ or way of life are found objectionable ” (Johanna Esseveld and Ron Eyerman, “ Which Side Are You On? Reflections on Methodological Issues in the Study of ‘ Distasteful ’ Social Movements ” , in: Mario Diani and Ron Eyerman (eds.), Studying Collective 152 Sebastian Sommer Action, London 1992, pp. 217 - 237, here: p. 217. 19 Kathleen M. Blee, Understanding Racist Activism. Theory, Methods, and Research, New York 2017, p. 28. 20 For example, Azadi Sharifi and Lisa Skwirblies draw attention to aspects of the researcher ’ s positionality in post-/ de-colonial performance environments: Azadi Sharifi and Lisa Skwirblies, “ Ist die deutsche Theaterwissenschaft kolonial? ” , in: ibid. (eds.), Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/ dekolonial. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme, Bielefeld 2022, pp. 27 - 59, here: pp. 44 - 46. Furthermore, Jenny Schrödel and Eike Wittrock describe a considerable absence of queer perspectives in the German (speaking) theatre and performing arts scene: Jenny Schrödl and Eike Wittrock, “ Einleitung. Das Theater mit der Identität ” , in: ibid. (eds.), Theater* in queerem Alltag und Aktivismus der 1970er und 1980er Jahre, Berlin 2023, pp. 7 - 22, here: p. 10. 21 Diefenbach, Aletta, Philipp Knopp, Piotr Kocyba and Sebastian Sommer, “ Politische Differenz und Methodische Offenheit. Wie Rechte Bewegungen Erforschen? ” , Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 32 (2019), pp. 458 - 69. 22 One example is Sabrina Zajaks approach of a “ transformative self-experiment ” : Sabrina Zajak, “ Das transformative Selbstexperiment in der Bewegungsforschung ” , https: / / protestinstitut.eu/ transformatives_selbstexperiment [Accessed on 21.06.2024]. 23 Hilary Pilkington, Loud and Proud, pp. 13 - 14. 24 Forschungsnetzwerk Frauen und Rechtsextremismus, “ Warum Liebe kein Zufall ist und Rechtsextremismusforschung einer professionellen Distanz zu ihrem Gegenstand bedarf ” , http: / / frauen-und-rechtsextremismus.de/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2019/ 01/ ethische-rechtsextremismusforschung- 2019 - 02.pdf [Accessed on 21.06.2024]. 25 Fabian Virchow proposes an observation from the margins of far-right protest events: Fabian Virchow, “ Performance, Emotion, and Ideology. On the Creation of ‘ Collectives of Emotion ’ and Worldview in the Contemporary German Far Right ” , in: Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2 (2017), p. 147 - 164, here: pp. 160 - 161. 26 “ The other person is present and their presence contributes to the determination of time. Synchronization takes place. My own body, temporally open, cannot help but process the information about the other body, which disseminates visual, acoustic and tactile signals and also transmits them to its own sensors. ” (own translation): Kai van Eikels, Synchronisieren. Ein Essay zur Materialität des Kollektiven, Berlin 2020, p. 28. 27 Christel Weiler and Jens Roselt, Aufführungsanalyse. Eine Einführung, Stuttgart 2017, pp. 103 - 108. 28 Matthias Warstat, “ Affekttheorie und das Subjektivismusproblem in der Aufführungsanalyse ” , in: Christopher Balme and Berenika Szymanski-Düll (eds.), Methoden der Theaterwissenschaft, Tübingen 2020, pp. 117 - 130, here: 122 - 125. 29 Sebastian Sommer, “ Die theaterwissenschaftliche Analyse von (rechtem) Protest als Phänomen politischer Performativität ” , in: Aletta Diefenbach, Philipp Knopp, Piotr Kocyba and Sebastian Sommer (eds.), Rechte Proteste erforschen. Erfahrungen und Reflexionen aus der qualitativen und quantitativen Forschung, Berlin 2019, pp. 58 - 66, here: pp. 62 - 63. 30 See Weiler and Roselt, Aufführungsanalyse, p. 85. 31 Erika Fischer-Lichte, Theaterwisenschaft. Eine Einführung in die Grundlagen des Fachs, Tübingen 2010, pp. 82 - 83. 32 Warstat, “ Affekttheorie und das Subjektivismusproblem in der Aufführungsanalyse ” , pp. 127-130. 33 “ Panoramas, as etymology suggests, see everything. But they also see nothing since they simply show an image painted (or projected) on the tiny wall of a room fully closed to the outside. [. . .] Full coherence is their forte - and their main frailty. ” , Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social, New York 2005, p. 197. 34 “ Dieses Gefühl, gemeinsam immer auf ’ s neue [sic] und inzwischen deutlich spürbar erfolgreich zu kämpfen, das tut super gut. 153 In the Eye of the Protest. Rethinking Performance Analysis from the Perspective of Fieldwork Schließ auch du (Leser) dich an und spüre dieses großartige Gefühl mitten unter tausenden Menschen. ” (own translation). 35 On the development of the pandemic-sceptical protest in Germany and Austria: Antje Daniel, Anna Schwenck and Fabian Virchow, “ Introduction: Protests of Pandemic Skeptics in Germany and Austria ” , in: German Politics and Society 41 (2023), pp. 1 - 15. 36 Doris Kolesch and Theresa Schütz, “ Polyperspektivische Aufführungs- und Inszenierungsanalyse am Beispiel von SIGNAs Söhne & Söhne ” , in: Benjamin Wihstutz and Benjamin Hoesch (eds.), Neue Methoden der Theaterwissenschaft, Bielefeld 2020, pp. 25 - 46. 37 See Frei et al., Liebe, Freiheit, Frieden, p. 3. 154 Sebastian Sommer