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Aesthetics and the Political: An Essay on Francis Alys's 'Green Line'
No full textIn this paper I examine Francis Alÿs’s performance of walking the ‘green line’ – the 1949 act of partition that separated East from West Jerusalem – in light of his question: how can a work of art be political without engaging in politics? I situate this question in the context of a general problematic – that of the relation of the political to the aesthetic, borrowing Jacques Rancière’s distinction between the aesthetic and representational regimes of the image. I explain how the political work of art faces a twofold paradox today, characteristic of its specific historicity. First, it faces what I call the ‘state of aesthetic exception’, which deprives art of a criterion ensuring a univocal, communicable message; second, it confronts a broader historical contradiction, which becomes symptomatic in Bourdieu’s sociological reduction of art to the condition of the habitus. I argue Alÿs’ Green Line circumvents this paradox and in the process provides a novel answer to the question of how a work can be political while evading ‘politics’. The Green Line, I suggest, is thereby able to disclose not just the logic of the political but the constitutive aporia of the sovereign act of power which founds it
Oblique Intimacies: The Scenographic Body's Ethics of Desire
No full textStriking parallels upsurge between events happening in white cube galleries and the emergent black-box theatre of 1960s Europe. This essay seeks to unveil an understanding of those parallels according to a renewal of spatial design beyond mere architectural precepts, breaching away from perspective and proposing instead a bodily space or 'bodied spatiality': a "phenomenal space, governed by the body and its spatial concerns, a non-Cartesian field of habitation which undermines the stance of objectivity and in which the categories of subject and object gives way to a relationship of mutual implication" (Garner 1994:4). This essay strives to articulate the continuing anticipatory position of scenography with respect to the constitution of a bodily space paradigmatically substantiated in the black-box environment. More importantly, the work intends to inquire philosophically into such a spatio-corporeal dimension of phenomenon as one that disentangles normative conceptions of 'perception and the constitution of meaning, objects and their appearances, subjectivity and otherness, presence and absence, body and world' (Garner 1994:3). In particular, it will argue that bodily spaces compel the sensory and cognitive renovation of the body into the formation of an environmental organism: a 'scenographic body' where space and body cannot be apprehended and conceived separately but as an orgasmic entity that propels unsettled, oblique, affects and an ethics of desire.
This essay considers historical and conceptual frameworks part of a contextual research in which I have engaged with the re-appraisal of twentieth century's scenography beyond theatre, within broader fields of spatial design such as visual arts and architecture. However, here I will focus on the intersection of scenography and visual arts to demonstrate a part of the contextual research that underlines on-going practical research I am conducting and will present at the end of the essay
The Craig Lecture 2011: Giving Shape to the Darkness
No full textPaule Constable is an international, award-winning lighting designer, who won the 2005, 2006 and 2009 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Lighting Design. She was also a nominee for four further productions and for a 2007 Tony Award on Broadway. Her work has spanned a wide range of productions, including operas with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera, and productions for the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar, Royal Court and Complicite. She has also designed productions in the West End and with Theatre-Dance
Rituals of the New Zealand Māori Marae Rituals Applied to Theatre
No full textJane Boston is in conversation with Annie Ruth to discuss how the social improvisatory framework of encounters on the marae (Maori meeting place) can teach theatre practitioners a great deal about meeting and connecting with audiences. The combination of structure and improvisation, aligned to clarity around role and purpose, can shift the paradigm of the encounter
A Form of Ethics: The Disrupted and Misappropriated Story in the Monodramas of Mark Ravenhill
No full textThis article explores the politics of disrupted and misappropriated narratives in Mark Ravenhill’s monodramas Product (Traverse, 2005) and The Experiment (Southwark Playhouse, 2009). The subject matter of both of these monodramas concerns harmful acts. In The Experiment, we are told the story of a man who finds himself involved in some experiments on children, while in Product we are told the story of a suicide bomber. This paper will argue that both these monodramas can be read as questioning the commonly held assumption that the dramatic narrative has value to society because it is a medium through which we can come to understand both other people and the reasons for any harmful actions they commit. It will position the dramatic narrative as a structure which society utilises to judge the acceptability or unacceptability of people’s actions and examine the idea that the narration of a harmful act makes it more acceptable to us. It examine the ways in which the process of narration in the Western dramatic narrative, rather than enabling us to see the world through the eyes of Others, reconfigures the actions of Others within a viewpoint that is entirely our own
Theatre Noise: The Sound of Performance
No full textThis book is a timely contribution to the emerging field of the aurality of theatre and looks in particular at the interrogation and problematisation of theatre sound(s). Both approaches are represented in the idea of noise which we understand both as a concrete sonic entity and a metaphor or theoretical (sometimes even ideological) thrust. Theatre provides a unique habitat for noise. It is a place where friction can be thematised, explored playfully, even indulged in: friction between signal and receiver, between sound and meaning, between eye and ear, between silence and utterance, between hearing and listening. In an aesthetic world dominated by aesthetic redundancy and aerodynamic signs, theatre noise recalls the aesthetic and political power of the grain of performance. Theatre noise is a new term which captures a contemporary, agitatory acoustic aesthetic. It expresses the innate theatricality of sound design and performance, articulates the reach of auditory spaces, the art of vocality, the complexity of acts of audience, the political in produced noises. Indeed, one of the key contentions of this book is that noise, in most cases, is to be understood as a plural, as a composite of different noises, as layers or waves of noises. Facing a plethora of possible noises in performance and theatre we sought to collocate a wide range of notions of and approaches to noise in this book by no means an exhaustive list of possible readings and understandings, but a starting point from which scholarship, like sound, could travel in many directions
INTERarts: An Intergenerational Arts Project with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer People
No full textThe INTERarts site provides a resource for Applied Theatre practitioners and arts workshop facilitators. It contains information about the INTERarts LGBTQ intergenerational project, the team of facilitators who were involved as well as some of the participants.
The site presents documentation of the exhibition that took place on 4th December 2011. It also offers information on the pedagogic strategies we employed when planning and delivering the project as well as reflection and analysis of the findings from this work (Research Dimension tab).
The project mobilized high quality exchange, collaboration and creative outputs among the groups of participants. The research dimension of this site explores the most effective strategies for intergenerational engagement within LGBTQ communities
The Exchange Collaborations
No full textExchange Collaborations is based at Central School of Speech & Drama and was created as a result of a research project which was supported by a PALATINE Development Award. PALATINE is the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Dance, Drama and Music.
The Exchange research project explored current and innovative examples of partnerships between universities and cultural industry or community organisations. Looking in particular at internships, apprenticeships and placements, the Exchange research project focused on collaborative learning, teaching and assessment and aimed to outline distinctive models of practice and offer guidelines on how best to make such collaborations work
ReVersion
No full textCAST
Hannah New - Liv
Myles Nicol - Jack
Bethan Coundley - Amy
Laila Alj - Sophie
Jessica Bayly - Kate
Elizabeth Guterbock - Aish