Norah, thanks for the provocative questions, and I will try my best to give them the attention that they deserve (in spite of my ignorance about dance).
> First, in relation to the idea of a trace, in our work we've been interested > in the idea of a generative trace (meaning that the trace generates > creativity more than preserves a past present). Davin and others speak of > the idea of an original and of the "gap of difference between the event and > the representation." Perhaps the decoupling of trace and original is of use > here. This also decouples the idea of a trace from the idea of document. > Even more traditional dance scholars who work on reconstruction of > historically important pieces have begun to question the existence of "an > original." What is the essence (yikes, not a great work) or better said, > what within a moment, a dance, an experience can be traced and represented > and created a new with change being a central value, not stasis? While I lack any knowledge of dance in a "high art" sense, my experience with dance and performance is grounded in the live performances I enjoyed in Southern California in my late teens going to see bands play in various venues (basement shows, small clubs, underground outdoor concerts). The phenomena that I experienced are well described in much of the writing on punk performance--intimacy of the venue, permeability between stage and audience, DIY ethic which encourages "consumers" become "producers," a sense of a strong local culture, physicality and improvisation, etc. Aside from what people write about it, the direct experience of such events is burned into my mind--the feeling of sweaty exhaustion, the mix of fear and exhilaration, the romance of meeting new people, the occasional conflicts (usually caused by neo-Nazis), and the interesting friendships I made. But mostly, I felt like I was a necessary part of something special. Efforts to formalize such an experience tend to fall flat (look at the various efforts to capitalize on specific "scenes" and you see how much stress corporate commerce and mass consumption can place on the fragility of the specific). They rely almost entirely on the people involved. On the other hand, my desire to seek out a punk scene was inspired largely by watching videos like Decline of Western Civilization, Repoman, Another State of Mind, Suburbia... as well as numerous skate videos which featured bands like Suicidal Tendencies, JFA, NOFX, Pennywise, etc. The representations of punk were influential in forming my desire and expectations for an alternative to what people were doing at school (playing sports and working on the pecking order). So, I may not have had access to the direct experience of exhilaration had it not been for experiencing representations. Similarly, I had been prepared to enjoy the particular experience by watching iterations of its style. But the experience of watching is entirely different from doing. It gets back to the idea that being forgets itself to be felt, but then becomes estranged from itself under observation. > Secondly, I'd love to hear from this month's contributors and others on the > list about relationships between participatory art and participatory > pedagogy and perhaps even some of the rhetoric around cyberlearning these > days. I'm finding really productive connections between my research in this > area and my teaching and I'd love to hear from others about this as well. On the topic of education, I am working on a project for Liquid Books on "The Post-Corporate University." The participatory and performative character of teaching and learning ought to be a part of this discussion. I would love it if interested parties wanted to get involved. http://liquidbooks.pbworks.com/The+Post-Corporate+University Peace! Davin _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
