Practical framework -

''But if we are indeed bio-techno-cultural hibrids, if 'nature' is now inseparable from social artifice, and the 'human' is an on-going, open-ended project of mediated self -construction with shifting boundaries and no identifiable telos, then these directions are not arbitrary or unconditioned... the condition in question is one of horizontal movement, not upwards or forwards but sideways; not linear or sequential but dispersive and parallel; not going beyond but an expansion, a multiplication, and intensification of what was always there; a new realisation of the past and its futures, and with this a recognition of the incipient plurality of a psyche  in the process of becoming besides itself. But what is involved in becoming besides oneself? In experiencing plurality? Can I, you those yet to come, really not be what we have (felt to have) been for so long in Western culture, an 'I' that is before all else, as a condition for all else, an enclosed, individual, indivisible, opaque, private, singularly rooted Me?

These practical sessions will be in dialogue with the above re-framing of 'human nature'. Through practice we are aiming at finding strategies which while belonging to performance making registers will enable us to  set up conditions to examine the shifting tension between our sense of monadic 'I' and the idea of distributed self.

Score:
Mapping onto the idea of the japanese Butho - Fu we attempt to develop a score

All situation created have the potential to become choreographies
The situations produce movements and/or voicing of ideas/sensations
The situation produce different relationship between the performers and between the performers and the audience members.
The situation should allow different ways of performing (either different styles/persona, use of different medium... language, movement, images, sound...)

Suggested ideas:

•  performers should do the same things and wear the same thing (3 times during the performance)
• Performers should refer to online digital identity

Rebecca see below an idea of score that point to the direction I am thinking.

The table she is using with a range of notions (presence levels, space relations, sensations, images, self reference, transformation, Deconstruction, Flash backs...) seem to be echoing the use of paper on the wall.

TO BE CONTINUED....

the body...or the self?

I am interested in looking at the term 'self' in relationship to the usual use of the term 'body'. I would suggest to look at the framework of the technology of the self and the idea of distributed self and the need of decentring in collaborative work.
Territories and techniques of deterritorisation ...

Images from Noyale and Rebecca's studio practice in PAF, France, August 2011

Discussion summary 09/11/11

We discussed potential focuses as being:

Bodies in time/time's bodies

How do you compose the body in time?

How do you compose the time of the body?

Addressing the points in the call out:

What is the role of embodiment in performance making and doing?

How important are spatial and geographical considerations to daily experiences of the body?

Performance making

Bodies in motion

The body in space

Looking at Noyale and Rebecca's studio practice, and the different perspectives offered by our roles/expertise as performer-participants/observer-participants/participant-observers.

Noyale and Rebecca have been looking at the notion of mapping the space through the body

Can we actually 'map' time as researchers, or are we limited to writing about time?

Does composition itself 'map time' and if so how might we articulate a time-focused meta-discourse in such a way as to bring together theoretical and highly singular experiences and perspectives? (Susan Melrose)

Reflecting/marking time as part of the research process (through the discussions/practice/blog)

Writing a trialogue paper that is a piece of collaborative writing

See:

'Techne, technology, technician: the creative practices of the mastercrafts person'

Melrose , Susan and Hunt, Nick (2005) Techne, technology, technician: the creative practices of the mastercraftsperson.Performance research: a journal of performing arts., 10 (4, On Techne). pp. 70-82. ISSN 1352-8165

(De)Parsing Bodies: call for papers

Following the recent success of The Body: Exploring Culture and Research, a postgraduate conference sponsored by the British Sociological Association and held at the University of Kent, we are calling for contributions to a future issue of Skepsi: the online interdisciplinary research journal, run by postgraduate students of the University of Kent’s School of European Culture and Language, and now in its fourth year.
In an effort to capture and expand upon the broad and interdisciplinary interest in the body, we are seeking to gather ideas, explorations, critiques and experiments that examine this topic. Studying the body takes many forms. We believe in a rhizomatic approach that combines a variety of perspectives and thus welcome traditional and non-traditional approaches. These could include theoretical, empirical and artistic works, and we therefore welcome submissions in the form of traditional articles, poetry, visual art, etc. Questions in which we are interested include: What is the body? What are the consequences of the body entering into political techniques? How do life sciences impact on our understanding of the body? What does the posthumanist body feel like? What is the role of embodiment in performance making and doing? How important is identity in relation to the body? How much power do the media have in shaping relationships to bodies? How important are spatial and geographical considerations to daily experiences of the body?
Potential Topics Include:

o Biopolitics
o Queer theory
o Life sciences
o Performance making
o Bodies in motion
o Material feminisms
o Trans identities
o Gender and sexuality
o Representations of the body
o The body in space

Submissions are invited from academic staff, postgraduate students and independent scholars. Any of the submitted articles selected by the Editorial Board after peer review will be published in a forth-coming issue of the journal, to be published Winter 2012.
Articles, which should not exceed 5,000 words, should be sent, together with an abstract of about 250 words and brief biographical details about the author, to:
skepsi@kent.ac.uk.
The deadline for submission of articles is 15 February 2012

http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/skepsi/call-for-papers/deparsing_bodies/

How important are spatial and geographical considerations to daily experiences of the body?

Today my head is with the ducks at Regent Canal ... but here I am typing on the keyboard of my laptop sitting on my sofa...