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Abstract
This chapter explores a methodological, practical and fundamentally corporeal connection between phenomenology and performativity. Central to this exploration is a research project into using mobile media to archive the artistic processes of choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir. Her somatic performance practices produce a compelling combination of physical stillness and affective intensity, making her work rich ground for phenomenological enquiry. At the same time as the viewer constitutes her work in the act of viewing, her choreography requires that the dancers perform a variation of phenomenology for its development and performance. Approximately one year of exposure to Guðjónsdóttir’s performances and processes acts as the experiential ground for this reflection, encompassing two performances and time spent with the dancers in the studio performing her myofascial somatic practices. This chapter presents an expansion of phenomenological method to account for affective experience, juxtaposed with an account of Guðjónsdóttir’s studio and choreographic processes. A parallel is drawn between these reflective processes. The wider context for this research into the performance of somatic states and the use of digital media for archival purposes is the political crisis associated with the non-consensual capture, analysis and manipulation of networked social media data of tens of millions of people (by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica). An argument is made for the performance of opacity within mediated archiving, demonstrating how concealment can be a form of resistance.
Abstract
This chapter explores a methodological, practical and fundamentally corporeal connection between phenomenology and performativity. Central to this exploration is a research project into using mobile media to archive the artistic processes of choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir. Her somatic performance practices produce a compelling combination of physical stillness and affective intensity, making her work rich ground for phenomenological enquiry. At the same time as the viewer constitutes her work in the act of viewing, her choreography requires that the dancers perform a variation of phenomenology for its development and performance. Approximately one year of exposure to Guðjónsdóttir’s performances and processes acts as the experiential ground for this reflection, encompassing two performances and time spent with the dancers in the studio performing her myofascial somatic practices. This chapter presents an expansion of phenomenological method to account for affective experience, juxtaposed with an account of Guðjónsdóttir’s studio and choreographic processes. A parallel is drawn between these reflective processes. The wider context for this research into the performance of somatic states and the use of digital media for archival purposes is the political crisis associated with the non-consensual capture, analysis and manipulation of networked social media data of tens of millions of people (by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica). An argument is made for the performance of opacity within mediated archiving, demonstrating how concealment can be a form of resistance.
The series “Aesthetic Practice” is dedicated to the investigation of practice dimensions of the arts from a transdisciplinary perspective, but also to the exploration of everyday aesthetic practices.It will address how works of art can be understood as manifestations of practices, such as exercises, rehearsals, improvisations, writing processes, acts of sketching or designing. These practices can furthermore be considered in their eespective aesthetic intrinsic value as well as explored in contexts beyond the art world. Other focal points include work on aesthetic practices in the context of a postcolonial aesthetics as well as activity-theoretical investigations of the relationship between action, practice, and aesthetic practice, which complement the current praxeological turn in the humanities and social sciences with an aesthetic perspective.