Tōmei June Bacon
Routledge - The Phenomenology of Blood in Performance Art
Dr Tōmei June Bacon (she/her) publishes as T. J. Bacon and creates artwork under the moniker tjb. She is a leading voice in the study of performance and visual art through queer phenomenological approaches.
From 2009 to 2017, her work established the phenomenology of a multiplicity of self/s, mapping the perception of multiplicity, embodiment, and temporality across experimental, interdisciplinary practices. This foundation was later developed through the application of queer phenomenology and continues to evolve through her groundbreaking developments towards a trans phenomenology.
An internationally exhibited artist since 2001, her practice spans durational and task-based performance, site-responsive installation, environmental intervention, sculpture, oil painting, artefact, and sonic collaboration. Her work has been presented across major galleries, festivals, and experimental platforms in the UK, Europe, and the Americas.
As an independent curator, Tōmei has produced socially engaged programmes in support of organisations such as Amnesty International, Ealing Foodbank, SOS Méditerranée and Mind. Since 2012, she has served as Artistic Director and Lead Curator of Tempting Failure, developing platforms for global radical performance and marginalised voices.
As an educator, she has taught across visual and fine art, experimental theatre, and performance since 2006. Her studio pedagogy centres the body as praxis, drawing on methodologies including task-based action, endurance art, the Abramović Method, site-based intervention, improvisation, and Theatre of the Oppressed. She is also co-originator of the Performance for Futures methodology.
Intellect Books & University of Chicago Press - An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Performance Art SELF/s
She has published two major books to date: An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Performance Art: SELF/s (Intellect/University of Chicago Press, 2022/24) and The Phenomenology of Blood in Performance Art (Routledge, 2025). She is currently researching an expansion of her phenomenological inquiry through trans+ lives, art, and activism.
Tōmei is a sought-after public speaker, with recent presentations including:
– From Section 28 to Institutional Transphobia: Tracing the Evolution of LGBTQ+ Marginalization in the UK – UCL Institute of Advanced Studies
– Towards a Trans Phenomenology – keynote, CHASE Consortium Conference, Birkbeck, University of London
– ResearchWorks on Hidden Disability and Protecting Trauma Narratives – in conversation with Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Her research operates at the intersection of transgender studies, phenomenology, queer theory, crip theory, disaster studies, and speculative futures, with applications in visual arts, experimental performance, and most recently the queering of digital storytelling through XR technologies.
Tōmei has developed programmes in queer aesthetics—including trash, punk, live art, and club performance—as well as environmental response, mixed media sculpture, experimental documentary, performance art and video installation. Her transdisciplinary teaching is grounded in inclusive pedagogies of care and shaped by a decade of training in Butoh, directing, devising, and socially engaged art. In theory seminars and lectures, she contextualises student practice through philosophy, gender studies, disability studies, queer and trans+ theory, decolonial critique, phenomenology, and visual culture.
Tōmei is the founder of the Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence (TVCE)—a global, interdisciplinary network centring Trans+ scholarship, advocacy, and community safety beyond the political and institutional limits of the academy.
Discover more on Tōmei June Bacon’s website
Other links:
https://tjbacon.com
https://pure.gsmd.ac.uk/en/persons/t-j-bacon
https://tvce.cargo.site
https://temptingfailure.com