Re: [-empyre-] mythic violence / reintegration
--empyre- soft-skinned space--“If Scarface losses this battle he will lose his legacy... Time to strike... And he returns to a heroes welcome but it's only to be a temporary respite.” I share the words of broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough, spoken as a form of commentary on his wildlife programme “Life Story,” as a monkey “Scarface” prepares for battle, performs and is victorious, returning a hero to his community. I caught this tiny section of Attenborough’s programme last night and as I listened to his mesmerizing voice speaking these words (a man who has studied animals intimately for almost his entire lifetime), I found myself drawing comparisons with aspects of the discussions I have read in this month’s Empyre debate. In a moment, I perceived all the same core elements and motivations intermingling - status, territory, community, precarity, gender-bias, language all in circulation through the lifeblood of this monkey’s legacy. How strange I thought... And I ask what does it mean to receive a “heroes welcome”? Why only temporary respite? And how long will it last? An why so many similarities? Michèle On Fri, Nov 28, 2014 at 3:39 PM, Aristita I Albacan a.alba...@hull.ac.uk wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I'll start by responding, with a bit of delay, to the request to elaborate on the TO practice. As I mentioned in my first post, it has its limits, but also holds multiple possibilities. Since 1997 I've seen it working via projects that were either led or closely supervised by me. In Romania, Germany and the UK. In a diverse range of settings, addressing communities that were either already solidly constituted, or temporary. I've also had the chance to participate in exchanges where TO practitioners from Palestine, Nepal, Ghana, South Africa, Afghanistan, as well as various European countries were sharing not only stories about their experiences, but bits of practice (ie. workshops strategies or exercises adapted to the needs of their communities). I've come to the conclusion that TO practice- whether is Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, or, occasionally, Invisible Theatre- works best at grass-roots level. It IS theatre for social change. It manages to empower the communities to think and act differently, even if they do so through small steps, especially at the beginning. It also empowers the facilitators, enriches their approach substantially. From the outside, a) it is a technique that bears similarities with other improvisational techniques (differences are subtle and related to how well the specific dramaturgical path is adapted to the needs of the community) and 2) performances suffer from a raw,unfinished, perhaps even amateurish aesthetics, which works usually as a turn-off for theatre specialists. From the inside, it can lead to life change. It does not work as a palliative, nor it documents issues and problems, it leads to empowerment and encourages people to have an effective dialogue. In this sense it is performance for social action and has a strong political component. Upon his return to Brazil, Boal developed a new TO form- the Legislative Theatre- which aimed to create a direct dialogue between the legislative and the street. I do not know how well that worked, I have only read about it and seen the official video of the Centre for TO in Rio de Janeiro. It could be said, from a theoretical point of view, that Legislative Theatre was most ambitious in undertaking overt political change. Of course, TO practice still has some issues, one of them being evolving its aesthetics in line with the times we live in. The other being that, due to the precarity induced in the arts by the neo-liberal climate almost everywhere, training periods for practitioners are shortened and some end up going into communities with a knowledge of the techniques and key dramaturgical steps, but with limited understanding of the ethos of work in relation to communities. I am talking here about empathy and the understanding that, in fact, in a TO process, there is an exchange- facilitators/artists come with the knowledge of their tools, the community comes with an in-depth knowledge of their issues. And sometimes, it takes a while until these can be communicated effectively, most oftenly via theatrical imagery, words come later. One last observation: I was amazed to see, hear or read about the reluctance communities in established and (apparently) solid democracies have towards the notion of the oppressed. Of course, the oppressor is more diffused here. But, as Boal puts it, the enemy does not have to always be one and visible in order to act, it can act quite effectively through cops-in-the-head, as oppression can be internalised. Bottom line: I'm not saying TO is an ideal practice, but rather still an effective tool at grass roots level.Even in situations of terror (i.e
Re: [-empyre-] ah, aesthetics
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hi Nell, This is very helpful thank you, I will investigate and through my reading maybe can think in a more informed way on what you are discussing here and understand better the depths of what might be explored / is being explored. As a designer who works in performance contexts, I'm particularly interested in the notions of subject/object and also the idea of the semi-living as fashion designers such as Suzanne Lee explore biomaterials and Bio Couture: http://biocouture.co.uk/ where the bacterial sheets are grown to create fabric for garments. The emphasis is more in this instance on the sustainable aspects of design but there is still the living / semi-living aspect and the subject/object I think coming into play. Best Regards Michele From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Nell Tenhaaf [tenh...@yorku.ca] Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 4:31 PM To: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] ah, aesthetics --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Michele, there are a lot of ways to approach the expansion of aesthetics, some examples I like: Brian Massumi on event-based lived abstraction; Jennifer Fisher on the non-visual senses; Margaret Morse on viewer-turned-participant going back to 1970s interactivity. I've just been looking at the material Oron referred to, found the really interesting Introspective Self-Rapports: Shaping Ethical and Aesthetic Concepts 1850-2006, by Katrin Solhdju that includes Neal White's work and some bottom-up aesthetics basics. -Nell On 2013-09-12, at 3:21 PM, Michele Danjoux wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hello Oron and Nell, Just enjoying reading your posts. I am finding the discussion fascinating thank you and was wondering what kinds of references might be ones to look at on aesthetics aside of the heavyweights of aesthetic philosophy? Thank you Michele From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Oron Catts [oron.ca...@uwa.edu.au] Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 6:35 PM To: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] ah, aesthetics --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Thanks Nell, Interestingly enough- in 2002 we organised a conference titled the Aesthetics of Care, there also was very little reference to the heavyweights of aesthetic philosophy. What we had instead was lots of discussion about the non-human on display and references to performance/live art as point of departure for biological art practices. Later, Neal White talked about invasive aesthetics, an idea we liked very much as it yet again disrupt the ocular centric bias of the field. The most intimate relationship one can have with an art work is by digesting, incorporating it into one's body- you can't really do it with a-life... and it is a very different aesthetic experience than just watching But as Samuel Butler wrote in Erehwon, 1872 '...for an art is like a living organism - better dead than dying.' No cascade there... Oron -Original Message- From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Nell Tenhaaf Sent: Wednesday, 11 September 2013 7:30 PM To: soft_skinned_space Subject: [-empyre-] ah, aesthetics --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hello everyone, Oddly, aesthetics has become one of my favourite topics even though I come out of the 70s postmodern and otherwise busted-open art moment. when it was the last thing anyone wanted to invoke. My feeling is that we will get hamstrung in seeking an aesthetic for bioart (or a-life art, or any of the marvellous outlier practices of the past decades) if we drop back to, say Kant - as comforting as that might sound. This came up in the context of a TOCHI (computer-human interaction) special issue I was part of a few years ago, on aesthetics of interaction, which had a lot of good thinking about Dewey's pragmatist aesthetics that keeps real world deployment in view, and in general focused on ways of designing experience or interfaces to engage multiple kinds of embodiments and types of events. One commentator lamented than in the whole issue, the heavyweights of aesthetic philosophy were nearly invisible. It was a bit of a shock - although if the concern is to legitimate some k in d of practice or set of practices, then yes, not such a surprising comment. Can't we legitimate at this point if we need to, via practices that we feel have a kinship in their kind of renegade approach to asking questions? - this reminds me of Rob Mitchell's comments about performance art as a key precursor to bioart, linking it with human/non-human
Re: [-empyre-] Before the Law / Sensory Worlds
Whilst I have been a silent follower of the list postings this month (most months in fact), I have been fascinated by the many things that have been revealed and also very possibly not revealed. Anyway, this last posting from Johannes took me immediately to the Orson Welles film 'Citizen Kane' and to the snow globe and 'rosebud'. A man lying on his death bed, on a large Florida estate, his memories and the small incongruous material object (the snow globe) that connects him to them. Sound and image come together powerfully and yet his small and sensory virtual landscape of the snow world is silent. I have been struck by how much impact the sharing of sound files via this month's list has had (in relation to the hurricane- Alan) and of how we are shifting away from the visual to the aural for sharing of experience. It would be so good if we could also smell remotely how it is to be somewhere else / someone else. Smell links us to memory I have found, so that it can reveal memory that lives inside us that we had perhaps forgotten. Michele -Original Message- From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Johannes Birringer Sent: 31 October 2012 16:07 To: soft_skinned_space Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Before the Law / control and cutting, stripped naked dear all Is memory also such a thing? Can it outlive the person to whom it is said to belong? Simon wrote this question, and i was going to say, yes, this is something i always assumed, and Jonathan refered to this also in regard to how trauma may be passed on from generation to generation. I also think that one can find memory and discover how it lives in one (or the other we live with or engage with), one senses the presence of this lingering shadow world, or one finds it also in the notes left behind by our fathers or grandfathers (cf. Stifter, Die Mappe des Urgrossvaters). Simon also responded to my reference to an emergent, globalized psychic pathology (Malabou), and I was going to try to differ about the assumption (from Damasio) that the effort ... to follow the interactivity of the different levels results in a clear shape [Simon schreibt] The notion of an emergent, globalized psychic pathology is not a drug to be taken outside of a carefully controlled and monitored and emotionally supportive environment or else it is itself the project and end of that carefully controlled and monitored and emotionally supportive environment. But then the hurricane came to the north-eastern parts of the united states, and i also, when reading, saw that Alan Sondheim and Jonathan Marshall got caught in an inextricable, perhaps painfully unresolvable online conversation or debate that seemed to infuriate (but i had a sense it was also performed and perhaps not real? this akinetic mirroring line by line? this warped pas de deux?). Then i remembered the many things i learnt, for example, from the postings by you all, and by Diane, Beyond the ways in which pain resists any separability of mind and body, in our currently brain-centrist time, it also resists any explanation that focuses on the brain. especially on SNOWWORLD and pain distraction, shooting snowmen. So my group is conducting a scientific study comparing SnowWorld with a volcano world (same terrain). And then i wondered how it, this month's discussion, might at all relate to the empathy now expressed to all of you in the north-eastern part of the united states hurricaneworld before, during and after the hurricane, and also the experiences that were mentioned initially, the hearing of wind and storm, the recording and photographing it Everyone I know is documenting the storm and putting it up online. The reality as such is troubling... At the moment the situation is more severe, small explosions, more fires, flooding everywhere is this not amazing. having lived through numerous hurricanes in Texas and the Gulf bay area, I can sympathize with your excitement, the thrill, the rush, the relief? i also, when in Houston during these events, felt the impending disaster as intoxicating, dangerous, fatal, and yet (yet Katrina happened nearby, very nearby, and it was awful) and yet, what is it. this becoming equal to the wound we have been talking about? this presumption of live art? or (I refer to Kristine's defense of Burden) presumptiveness of a person somewhere under a ramp or in a white cube doing a act of self-harming, what would it matter, and for whom? what consequence? And probably we can't speak of it in comparison with our fathers, mothers, or grandparents not any longer recognizing themselves or their own absence. And yet we do. I am leaving now, wanting to thank everybody for what you shared here, and for having invited me. regards Johannes Birringer ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Extension on Sabela's text
Hello All, I am fascinated by these discussions and feel that I can now interject and extend this notion of (shared) identity and self through body modification (Sabela) to also include dress as further extension. The 70's and 80's were indeed interesting times where social movements influenced the emergence of new sub-cultures and visual and sonic expressions of shared identities- fuelled by political and academic debate of the time. Beliefs systems adorned bodies and skins - in addition to body modifications such as tattooing, specific items of clothing were adopted and often customised to achieve the desired attitude of wearing and crafting of identity. Also in the 1970s on the streets of London came the rise of black power and black consciousness. Men and women began to wear African tops and debates on black identity were similarly expressed through dress and styling with natural Afro hairstyles also enjoyed. (How different from todays de rigueur straightening of unruly locks in the capital city of Kenya (inspiring such products as Nairobi Hair Relaxer) to achieve that chic and desired urban look). The body is central to the urban space, the clothed and adorned body, the naked body, the absent body where only bones and cloth remain (reference to Ana's post) Bradley Quinn in his book The Fashion of Architecture, Fashioning the Metropolis says: Clothes, being the form in which the fashioned body is made visible, give the wearer a public identity while fostering the construction of the self. Kind Regards, Michele -Original Message- From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Ana Valdés Sent: Tue 3/20/2012 1:05 PM To: soft_skinned_space Subject: [-empyre-] translation of Sabela's text The actual extended practice of the tattoing has their roots of the emergency of the urban tribes, associated with the movements around rock music and punk in the 70:s and 80:s. A selfinflicted sign of identity, traditionally the different uses of tattoin has been linked with rites de passage, initiation rites, belonging, hierachies or stigmatization. In this forum I shared the experience of the MAPI Museum, to try of expose the link between these practices and the bodypainting of differen indigenous communities, both actual as old and other kind of intervention showable in faces and bodies, very similar to our time's piercings, pendants and more aggresive interventions implicating deformating and appendixes. The incorporation of different tendences in the clothing, hair, facepainting and attitude of the urban tribes show a disconformity regarding the mainstream conventions of uses and fashion. This disconformity walk around the streets; their shelter is the appereance, it gives the implicite etablishing of collectives which interchange don't seem have other meaning than the gests and models of behaviour tending to accentuate the difference with the rest of people. These colletives impose upon the urban landscape a kind of movement in different times. From the loudness to the low key the members of those groups, linked or representated by musical styles where they feel they belong, they use the tattoo as part of their language: those marks which survive the pass of the time, which power resides both in the intimate evocation which exclude all others, as in the show off of their designs. In Uruguay, most in Montevideo, the antecedents of this particular social expression goes to the end of the Uruguayan dictatorship, in the 80:s. There is the beginning of the circulation of groups of young people with dark clothes and colorful accesories, pale faces and expressions showing they were nightowls and the use of alcohol, etc. They went to specific bars, pubs in special hours; displacements marking the limits between territories which fragility could be interpretated as frustration or as capacity of constructing microclimates, a kind of defense. Tattoomakers and tattoed were together during a month in a museum. The museum was a legitimating institution, constructing the collective memory, keeper of Art and the history of the old, which traditional role in the last decades has been analyzed, questioned and reformulated and whose social and cultural responsability it's not far from the educational emergency, the need of inclusion and the construction of citizenship. I share with you these open lines. -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia158 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/ http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/ http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/ http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/ mobil/cell +4670-3213370 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. - Leonardo da Vinci
Re: [-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 78, Issue 13
interacting, Damasio says: If body and brain interact with each other intensely, the organism they form interacts with its surroundings no less so. Their relations are mediated by the organism movement and its sensory devices. Surely, our new sensors can be seen as augmenters of our senses, (as they stimulate new and unexplored neural activity in the eye, the ear, the skin and so on), drivers of our internal neuropsychological processes and internal motions as these are all interconnected to our physical kinesthetic displays and experiences. Michele -Original Message- From: empyre-boun...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of empyre-requ...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au Sent: Mon 5/16/2011 3:00 AM To: empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au Subject: empyre Digest, Vol 78, Issue 13 Send empyre mailing list submissions to empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/empyre or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to empyre-requ...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au You can reach the person managing the list at empyre-ow...@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of empyre digest... Today's Topics: 1. Wearable Technologies: Cross Disciplinary Ventures. (Michele Danjoux) 2. Re: Wearable Technologies: or, dances with sound (Johannes Birringer) -- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 16:38:47 +0100 From: Michele Danjoux mdanj...@dmu.ac.uk To: soft_skinned_space empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au Subject: [-empyre-] Wearable Technologies: Cross Disciplinary Ventures. Message-ID: 87f8f8969c2b98499f268fcb5ca794990500e...@hemera.lec-admin.dmu.ac.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Re: Wearable Technologies: Cross Disciplinary Ventures. In response to some of the things that have been discussed to date, I think now, in the context of wearable technologies (where we are considering the internal and external architectures and augmentation of the body) that it is perhaps less interesting to talk about the notion of the ?spectacle? where the main concern is to create memorable appearance (unless perhaps this is to convey message as discussed below in Wonderland example) and to turn our gaze more fully to ?Human-Garment Interactions? (David Bryson) and the importance of both physical and digital materiality where we look to augment the senses through a better understanding of both the technological, material and inter/intra psychological dimensions. Textile and garment technologies now have the capabilities to augment the body both inside and out, textiles repair bulging arteries (stents) for instance to offer a patching and compression for damaged systems when the body can no longer effectively function or sustain itself. This type of compression can also be exerted externally for post-operative garments to encourage the flow of lymphatics and aid recovery. In a military context for the compression category, we have specially designed inflatable suits for fighter pilots to combat the effects of G-force. All this requires a superb knowledge of the human body, its biological, structural architectures, functioning systems, capabilities under duress etc. Fashion designers usually do not have this knowledge and I have often found in my many years of being a fashion designer / educator that fashioners designers and students will rarely pay detailed attention to the human body from a structural, movement and functioning point of view. Their questions always have focused on the design aesthetics generally, as suitable for a standard size 10-12 body and so we often find that a new design trend, silhouette etc., will in fact govern the movement of the body in the garment so as to train the body as opposed to allowing a two-way exchange. Through my own work, with dancers within digital performance contexts, I employ a more chorographic approach to design of wearable for performer, where co-creation and iterative design methods are key. My design approach combines the practical and physical with the theoretical and philosophical. But generally, I like to introduce the materials and technologies as initiators of design concepts and motivational tools for movement. Over the years, I have questioned the static and essentially anatomically uninformed fashion design process to employ more dynamic and scientific approaches to design. In a way, my design process has also become more closely aligned with that of the product designer with prototyping and refinement of Human-Garment Interactions, but primarily, I see myself as a choreographer re-writing body and garment in emergent design-in-motion contexts. David Bryson, University of Derby, UK, who lectures in forensic science and has
