Performance Philosophy (E-Journal)
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Performance Philosophy: audience participation and responsibility
Get PDFThis article critically assesses the position of the spectator in philosophy and (participatory) performances. By means of an in-depth reading of Rancière’s notion of the emancipated spectator, Kester’s theory of dialogical aesthetics and a case study of the performance Order of the Day, an account of the changing position of the audience in contemporary society and in artistic events is established. Research into the responsibility of the spectator in both philosophy and performance can broaden our understanding of the production and perception of knowledge in an age of media omnipresence. The field of Performance Philosophy provides potential for analyzing where performance and philosophy overlap and how this contributes to asking critical questions and generating new perspectives on how we occupy certain positions in society
Rhythm and Structure: Brecht’s Antigone in performance
Get PDFBrecht’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone in 1948 was openly a political gesture that aspired to the complete rationalization of Greek Tragedy. From the beginning, Brecht made it his task to wrench ancient tragic poetry out of its “ideological haze”, and proceeded to dismantle and eliminate what he named the “element of fate”, the crucial substance of tragic myth itself. However, his encounter with Hölderlin\u27s unorthodox translation of Antigone, the main source for his appropriation and rewriting of the play, led him to engage in a radical experiment in theatrical practice. From the isolated first performance of Antigone, a model was created – the Antigonemodell – that demanded a direct confrontation with the many obstacles brought about by the foreign structure of Greek tragedy as a whole. In turn, such difficulties brought to light the problem of rhythm in its relation to Brecht’s own ideas of how to perform ancient poetry in a modern setting, as exemplified by the originally alienating figure of the tragic chorus. More importantly, such obstacles put into question his ideas of performance in general, as well as the way they can still resonate in our own understanding of what performance is or might be in a broader sense
Running, Resistance, and Recollection: A conversation with ourselves through time
Get PDF(to) constantly vent is a performance work by Katye Coe. A solo or group of runners travel in continuous loops, venting through events, exhibitions, meetings, and the surrounding spaces. The work was commissioned for What_Now (2013) in London and re-commissioned for the Dancer As Agent conference (2013) at DOCH in Stockholm where it was a constant or persistent intervention through a conference all about the agency of the dancer. This outing bought with it wider conversations and meetings that have changed its (and Coe’s) practice and thinking. Continuing its journey, the work was then enacted at Performing Process: Sharing Practice symposium (2014) at Coventry University, and was later re-situated in the Hayward Gallery (2014-15), where the work occurred for 12-weeks as part of Volumes Project in the exhibition, MIRRORCITY.Reflecting on the experience of venting in the Hayward Gallery, in this writing Coe and Hetty Blades, who also performed the work, recall their experiences, and respond to their questions about the practice through their fragmented memories and writing from others about running and memory
Nietzsche ein Immanentist?
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Mein Artikel besteht aus drei Abschnitten: Der erste Teil beschäftigt sich mit Nietzsches Gebrauch des Begriffs der „Immanenz“; ich werde diesen Gebrauch nachzeichnen. Mein zweiter Punkt ist ein allgemeinerer: Ich möchte den Fokus auf die Frage legen, ob es für Nietzsche möglich ist, ein starkes Konzept von Immanenz zu vertreten, insbesondere wenn wir uns in Erinnerung rufen, dass Nietzsche eine deutliche Opposition zu allen Vorstellungen von Transzendenz formuliert. Soll hier irgendeine Art von Immanenz bewahrt werden? Der dritte Abschnitt beinhaltet eine eingehendere Untersuchung von zwei Passagen aus Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Abschnitte 2 und 6). Ich denke, dass sich in diesen Passagen wichtige Aspekte aufzeigen lassen, insbesondere mit Hinblick auf die Frage, ob Nietzsche irgendeine Art von Vorstellung oder ein Konzept der Immanenz vertritt.
English:
My paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter deals with the concept of Nietzsche’s usage of “immanence;” I will be tracing his usage of this term. My second point is a more general one. I would like to focus on the question as to whether it is possible for Nietzsche to have a strong concept of immanence, particularly when we recall that Nietzsche clearly formulates his strong opposition to all ideas of transcendence. Might any immanence at all be retained here? The third chapter contains an in-depth examination of two sections of Beyond Good and Evil, Sections 3 and 6. I think we are able to note some important aspects in these passages as we seek to understand whether Nietzsche has any kind of idea or concept of immanence
for colored girls who’ve considered suicide while surviving Post-Traumatic Slavery Syndrome (with acknowledgements to Ntozake Shange and Dr. DeGruy)
Get PDFIn this audio article, the author reViews Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking work on black girlhood/womanhood, for colored girls who’ve considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. She briefly provides the personal context through which she interacts with the text for the first and latest time. She expands the narrative of black girlhood/womanhood into the personal by examining the actions of the characters and herself through Dr. DeGruy’s lens of Post-Traumatic Slavery Syndrome. Track 1 provides the narrative context and theoretical framework. Tracks 2 – 5 are the author’s performative responses. Track 6 lists the bibliography, while Track 7 provides a short bio of the author
“The Shadow of One’s Own Head” oder Das Spektakel der Kreativität
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Während des Spielens erfährt die Schauspieler_in ein komplexes Regime an Zeichen in Körper, Geist, Gemüt und Geschlecht. Sie sind verstörend und verheißungsvoll. Einerseits wird im Akt der Kreativität eine Wunde offenbar, die sich im Menschen inkarniert hat. Sie gibt ihm zu verstehen, dass er nicht alleiniger Täter seines Tuns ist. Andererseits wird gerade dadurch das Spiel auf der Bühne zum Ereignis. Im Akt dieses Ereignisses zeigt sich eine Form des Werdens (be-coming), in der man handelt (act) und gleichzeitig nicht handelt, in der die Schauspieler_in zugleich agens und patiens ihrer eigenen Performance ist. Diese komplexe künstlerische Erfahrung katapultiert die Akteur_innen in eine offene Passage, in ein Dazwischen (in-between), in dem sie von der Illusion befreit werden, alleinige Täter_innen ihrer Performance zu sein. Man könnte formulieren, die Schauspieler_in erfährt in diesem Umschlag eine Verwandlung, eine „anthropologische Mutation“ (Agamben). Oder anders gewendet, die Künstler_in erleidet eine Art „Tod des Subjekts“.
Es ist bemerkenswert, dass dieser Verlust der Dominanz der Subjektivität ein entscheidender Aspekt des Spielens ist, der besonders intensiv auf das Publikum wirken kann. Warum? Vielleicht weil er eine äußerst intime Verbindung zwischen Zuschauer_innen und Spieler-innen aktualisiert, die das Zwischen von Leben und Tod stellvertretend widerspiegelt. Eine Passage, in der sich das Leben als es selbst zeigt? Leben—in seiner Ebene der Immanenz?
English:
When acting, the actor/actress experiences a complex regime of signs in his/her body, mind, mood and gender. These signs are both disturbing and promising. On the one hand, the act of creativity makes a wound obvious which has been incarnated within man. It tells him/her that he/she is not the sole actor of his/her actions. On the other hand, precisely this way acting on stage becomes an event. The act of this event reveals a way of be-coming in which one acts while at the same time being passive, in which the actor/actress is both agent and patient of his/her own performance. This complex artistic experience catapults actors/actresses into an open passage, into an in-between where they are liberated from the illusion of being the sole actors of their performances. One might even say that by this turn an actor/actress experiences a change, an “anthropological mutation” (Agamben). Or, to have it differently: the artist suffers a kind of “death of the subject”.
It is remarkable that this loss of the predominance of subjectivity is a crucial aspect of acting which may affect the audience in a particularly intensive way. Why? Perhaps because it updates an extremely intimate connection between audience and actors/actresses which vicariously reflects the in-between of life and death. A passage by which life presents itself as itself? Life – by its plane of immanence
Nietzsche: An Immanentist?
Get PDFMy paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter deals with the concept of Nietzsche’s usage of “immanence;” I will be tracing his usage of this term. My second point is a more general one. I would like to focus on the question as to whether it is possible for Nietzsche to have a strong concept of immanence, particularly when we recall that Nietzsche clearly formulates his strong opposition to all ideas of transcendence. Might any immanence at all be retained here? The third chapter contains an in-depth examination of two sections of Beyond Good and Evil, Sections 3 and 6. I think we are able to note some important aspects in these passages as we seek to understand whether Nietzsche has any kind of idea or concept of immanence
Silent waves: On silence, Singapore, and Jacques Rancière
No full textThis article stages the silent adventure of watching theatre about Singapore Malays and reading Jacques Rancière in Singapore. The argument blurs the real and the fictional, the voice of the author with the voice of the spectator, Rancière’s voice with the silence of Maya Raisha, a Malay-Muslim girl. In doing so, the piece seeks to evidence that as a consequence of the regulatory nature of performance in Singapore, more than creating a moment of disruption against the normative sphere, silence evidences the instrumentality that ‘speaking up’ has in the normativity of the city-state. The piece is written as the performative chronicle of an intellectual adventure that took place between 2012 and 2013, when alongside reading Rancière’s work in detail, the author moved to Singapore and watched Teater Ekamatra’s Not Counted (2012) and The Necessary Stage’s Best Of (2012-3)
Nietzsches Dionysos
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Nietzsches Dionysos stellt zwar eine direkte Provokation und einen Angriff auf die seit Winckelmann gültige Klassik-Deutung dar, die das Apollinische zu ihrem Zentrum erhoben hat, und gegen dessen Prinzip die Einführung eines anderen, entgegengesetzten Prinzips keine genuine Erfindung Nietzsches darstellt, vielmehr der schmalen Kluft zwischen Hegel und Hölderlin ersteigt. Weist nämlich die Hegelsche Ästhetik von Anfang an auf den Schein und die Erscheinung – als notwendige Bedingung der Wahrheit, denn die Wahrheit wäre nicht, wie Hegel schreibt, wenn sie nicht schiene und erschiene –, so bleiben Schein und Erscheinung doch überall an ans Kriterium des Absoluten gebunden, ja die Unwahrheit des Ästhetischen liege geradezu darin, dass es gar nicht anders könne, als sich der Sprache der Erscheinungen zu bedienen. Für Hölderlin avanciert hingegen das Dionysische zu einem metapoetischen Symbol, die ihn, den Schillernden und sich stets Verwandelnden, mit der Praxis der Kunst selbst verbindet. Nietzsche knüpft hieran an, auch wenn er der Metapher eine ganz andere Wendung erteilt.
English:
Nietzsche’s Dionysus, admittedly, represents a direct provocation and an attack on the classical interpretation accepted since Winckelmann, an interpretation that elevates the Apollonian to its central point of focus; Nietzsche’s introduction of another principle to oppose it, rather than representing a genuine invention, in actuality bridges the small gap between Hegel and Hölderlin. If, namely, the Hegelian aesthetic from the very beginning points to Schein and Erscheinung – as necessary conditions of truth, for the truth would not exist if it were not to “superficially appear” (scheinen) and “make its appearance” (erscheinen), writes Hegel – Schein and Erscheinung would still nonetheless be bound up everywhere with the criterium of the absolute; after all, the untruth of the aesthetic rests squarely in the fact that it cannot do other than to draw upon the language of Erscheinung. For Hölderlin, on the other hand, the Dionysian advances to become a metapoetic symbol combining itself – the enigmatic and continually transforming – with the practice of art. Nietzsche follows those very same lines even while giving the metaphor a thoroughly different twist
Ethics, Gesture and the Western
Get PDFThis paper relates the Western Movie to Agamben’s implied gestural zone between intention and act. Film is important in the realisation of this zone because it was the first means of representation to capture the body in movement. The Western movie explores the space of ethical indistinction between the acts of individual fighters and the establishment of a rule of law, or putting this another way, between violence and justice. Two classic examples of an archetypal Western plot (Shane, 1953 and Unforgiven, 1991) that particularly embodies this are cited. In both a gunfighter who has forsworn violence at the start is led by the circumstances of the plot to take it up once more at the conclusion. In these terms all the gestures contained between these beginning- and end-points are analysable as an ethics of gesture because, captured as gestures, they occupy the human space between abstraction and action, suspended between them, and reducible to neither. David Foster Wallace\u27s definition of this narrative arc in Infinite Jest (and embodied in it) is adduced in order to suggest a parallel between Agamben\u27s notion of an ethics of gesture, and an ethics of genre