CFP Performance Research: "On Appearance"

Mon Dec 10 11:11:44 EST 2007

Performance Research

Vol. 13 No. 4 (December 2008)

On Appearance - Call for Contributions

Issue Editors:

Richard Gough and Adrian Kear, Aberystwyth University

The aim of this issue of Performance Research is to investigate the ways in which recent theatre-thinking has been converging upon matters of appearance. Beginning from the assumption that the materiality of appearance is at the heart of concerns with the very 'stuff' and substance of theatre and performance, the issue seeks to examine the role appearance plays in the construction, circulation and contestation of lived realities, political identifications and processes of subjectification, and in the mechanics and dynamics of the theatrical event itself. 

The issue seeks to explore the potential and pitfalls of adopting a term infused with pejoratively anti-theatrical echoes of semblance, deception, and mimetic fakery; whilst at the same time examining the correlation between modes of appearance and practices of disappearance and their inscription in the performative dynamics of power. The editors' intention is to investigate the ways in which appearance matters in affecting and positively producing the conditions, forms and relations structuring what Jacques Rancière calls 'the distribution of the sensible': the political organisation of sense-making activities and apparatuses and the roles played by social agents within them. 

Questions of appearance - and their relationship to questions of politics - of course abound and the issue will seek to examine them from a variety of different directions and perspectives. Giorgio Agamben, for example, insists that 'the task of politics is to return appearance itself to appearance, to cause appearance itself to appear' - indicating the importance of appearance as a modality of human exposure and the manifestation of a political 'struggle for truth' (Means Without End, 2000: 95). Alain Badiou likewise identifies the logic of appearance - or rather, appearing - with a significant shift in his thinking that enables a theory of relation and the ability to account for the variability and volatility of the relationship between different elements of a situation.

Questions of practice - social, political, and artistic - are at the heart of On Appearance's theoretical concerns. Performance practitioners from Jérôme Bel to La Ribot, from the Wooster Group to Forced Entertainment, from Societas Rafaello Sanzio to Tadeusz Kantor, have been at the forefront of examining theatre's dependence on, and departure from, questions of appearance. The issue will therefore be concerned with exploring how performance has articulated concerns with the politics, and practical dynamics, of appearance.

Key Questions:

  a.. What is the role of illusion in the theatrical event, and how does illusion return to the theatrical scene after the avowedly anti-illusionist experiments of 'postmodern' performance? 
  b.. What are the ways in which presence and representation intersect in the space of performance, and to what extent is their relationship predicated upon the dynamics of mimesis and the logic of appearance? 
  c.. How does the utilisation of intermedial forms of presentation/representation affect theatre as a locus of appearance? 
  d.. To what extent is the theatrical apparatus inscribed with a logic governing the conditions of appearance for certain conceptions of the human/animal, visible/invisible, subject/object, etc? 
  e.. What are the pleasures and anxieties associated with appearance, and how do these inform/inflect the pleasures and anxieties of theatrical performance? 

Form and Format:

The editors seek contributions that examine the above 'philosophical' questions - questions raised within the philosophy of performance itself - which at the same time investigate the relationship between philosophical and theatrical modes of thinking and practice. Contributions should be grounded in the explication of concrete examples and the contexts of their appearance. The editors actively encourage submissions that explore these questions from a variety of cultural, artistic and critical standpoints and in a range of academic and creative forms: essays, interviews, dialogues, artists' pages, designs, inventions, magic tricks, prestidigitations, etc. A strong visual dimension is integral to our conception of the issue, and we envisage the inclusion of a number of photographs, plans, etc, subject to the normal permissions.

Potential topics include:

  a.. Theatres of memory 
  b.. Political murals, mobilsations and staged interventions 
  c.. Performance art practices of subjectification/de-subjectification 
  d.. Performance, photography, video art and installation 
  e.. Theatrical (and anti-theatrical) illusions, acts and events 
  f.. Magic, manipulation and conjuring tricks 
  g.. The performance of 'the human'/inhuman 
  h.. Animal, infant, and cyborg performances 
  i.. Political appearance/disappearance 
  j.. Mimesis, presence and representation 
  k.. The economics and cultural politics of display 
  l.. Toy theatres, shadow shows, etc. 
  m.. Indexicality, prestidigitation and puppetry 
  n.. Protest performance and political radicalisation 
  o.. Globalisation and localisation as conditions of visibility  

Deadlines are as follows:

Proposals: 22 January 2008

Finalised material: 9 June 2008

Publication date: December 2008 

ALL proposals, submissions and general enquiries should be sent direct to:

Sandra Laureri 

Administrative Assistant - Performance Research

Centre for Performance Research (CPR) 

Aberystwyth 

SY23 3AJ 

Wales, UK 

Tel:   +44 (0)1970 628716

Fax:   +44 (0)1970 622132 

Email: performance-research at aber.ac.uk

Web:   www.performance-research.net

Issue specific enquiries should be directed to:

Adrian Kear: ack at aber.ac.uk

Or

Richard Gough: rig at aber.ac.uk

For complete guidelines for submissions please see:

http://www.performance-research.net/pages/guidelines.html 

Performance Research is MAC based. Proposals will be accepted by e-mail (MS-Word or RTF). 

Proposals should not exceed one A4 side. Please DO NOT send images electronically without prior agreement. 

Please note that submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article have been given to Performance Research.

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"Those who have an orphan's sense of history love history."--Anna in Ondaatje's Divisadero
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"La Pocha Nostra is a virtual maquiladora [. . . ] that produces brand-new metaphors, symbols, images, and words to explain the complexities of our times. The Spanglish neologism Pocha Nostra translates as either 'our impurities' or 'the cartel of cultural bastards.' We love this poetic ambiguity. It reveals an attitude toward art and society: 'Crossracial, poly-gendered, experi-mental, ¿y qué?' " --Guilllermo Gómez-Peña.
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Denis Salter
Professor of Theatre
McGill University
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