i n v i t a t i o n – please join us in our Research Seminar at Brunel:
Wednesday November 15: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Drama Studio, Gaskell Building 048, Brunel University, Cleveland Rd. London UB8 3PH Katerina Paramana "IDEA: THIS IS GOOD: On Neoliberal OverFlows and the Reconceptualization of Economy" It has been argued that the term ‘overflow’ – despite its changing meaning in different fields, contexts and epochs – is always discussed in relation to scarcity, and that all discourses of overflow have a moral dimension (Czarniawska- Joerges and Löfgren 2012). In the contemporary moment, we witness, for example, a scarcity of time and of stability in social relations and employment, and an overflow, a great spillage, of neoliberal ethics and rationalities (which have contributed to inequality, precariousness and injustice) into all areas of social life. In this paper, Dr Paramana proposes a rupture with these ethics and rationalities and the economic model itself, by suggesting a reconceptualision of the term ‘economy’ on ethical terms. For this, based on a Byzantine era definition of the term which she rehabilitates and extends, she argues for and proposes a redefinition of the term ‘economy’ which points to an ethics of care and justice, and which becomes the subject of the case study of this paper – her installationperformance IDEA: THIS IS GOOD (Gasworks Gallery, London, 2014). She begins by offering a discussion on the history, etymology and genealogy of the term ‘economy’, and the changing ethics attached to the term from Ancient Greece to the current times, drawing on texts on the history of economic thought and on Michel Foucault’s, Jeremy Gilbert’s, and Wendy Brown’s thinking. She then traces the process through which she arrives at the redefinition of the term and discusses IDEA: THIS IS GOOD, which uses this redefinition as its conceptual base, as an object within the work, and as that which characterises all the tasks created and performed in it. The redefinition becomes a proposition that two spectators at a time, working together to perform tasks, are asked to question, negotiate their individual responses to it, and act according to their decisions. The work, opposing neoliberal overflows, proposes the reconceptualization of economy on ethical terms and points to the importance of the creation of what Gilbert (2014) refers to as spaces of decision, affect, and creative possibility. It is such spaces, Paramana argues, that can contribute to social change by initiating what Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1998) refer to as ‘communities of practice’ and by producing what she refers to as ethical encounters. Bio Dr Katerina Paramana is an artist and scholar, and a Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London. Her research is concerned with the social, political, and ethical dimensions of contemporary performance. Her writing has been published with Contemporary Theatre Review, Dance Research, and Performance Research journals and her performances have been presented in theatres and galleries in the US, UK, and Europe (www.katerinaparamana.com). ++ Research Seminar Theme: Precarity and the Politics of Art: Performative and Critical Empowerment after Democracy This Research Seminar Series aims to probe troubling interpretations of the increasing impact of unrestrained capitalism in the Western hemisphere and its impact on all social-economic, cultural, creative, and educational sectors in the developed world. How sustainable is democracy in the face of political unrest caused by precarity, migration, refugees and the resulting labor and welfare issues? Performance Research Seminar Coordinator: Johannes Birringer Contact: +44 (0)1895 267 343 All Research Seminars are co-produced with dance-tech live TV and streamed online as well as archived.: DAPLab.TV: http://dance-tech.tv/videos/daplabtv/ Check our whole series at: http://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/ResearchSeminarSeries.html +++++++++ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
