A Pathognomy of Performance

257 Pages·2011·2.199 MB·English

by  Simon Bayly (auth.)

A Pathognomy of Performance
Also by Simon Bayly
ART ON TERROR: The Incendiary Device of Philosophy (co-authored with Hester Reeve,
Bülent Diken and Tony Trehy)
A Pathognomy of
Performance
Simon Bayly
Palgrave
macmillan
© Simon Bayly 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-27169-2
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First published 2011 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-32277-0 ISBN 978-0-230-30693-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230306936
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
While I, in silence, thought to brood on this composition and expected to inscribe
with a stylus my tearful protest, it seemed to me that a woman appeared over my
head, of a countenance exceedingly venerable. Her eyes gleamed with fire, and with
a more than human intensity; her expression was full of colour, her vigour showed
no trace of diminishment; and yet her years were indeed full, and she plainly
seemed not of our time or generation. […] Seeing the Muses of Poetry standing
over my bed and uttering words to my tears, she was momentarily angered: ‘Who,’
she demanded with fierce looks, ‘has permitted these play-acting wantons to have
access to this dis-eased man?’
Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
For anyone similarly dis-eased, and play-acting
wantons everywhere

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
1 Strains of Thought 10
2 Points of Suspension 19
3 Instants of Affection 36
4 Anomalous Appearances 62
5 The Borrowed Masks of Being 69
6 Logics of Expression 83
7 Wrinkles, Furrows and Folds 107
8 The Tonic of the Sonic 142
9 Deleted Expletives 161
10 Peals of Appeal 184
After the Event 190
Notes 203
Bibliography 224
Index 242
vii
List of Illustrations
1 The masks of comedy and tragedy 69
2 Face as icon 85
3 Uncropped photograph illustrating Guillaume Duchenne de
Boulogne’s method of localized electrization to elicit facial
expression, in this case illustrating the emotion of ‘terror’,
c.1860 107
4 Plates 82 and 83 from Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne,
Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine, ou, Analyse
Électro-physiologique de l’expression des passions 112
5 Plate 78 from Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, Mécanisme
de la physionomie humaine, ou, Analyse Électro-physiologique de
l’expression des passions 113
6 Frontispiece to Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, Mécanisme
de la physionomie humaine, ou, Analyse Électro-physiologique de
l’expression des passions 119
7 Plate 24 from Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, Mécanisme
de la physionomie humaine, ou, Analyse Électro-physiologique de
l’expression des passions 121
8 Arthur Elsenaar with computer-controlled electrodes 122
9 Darwin’s engraved reproduction alongside the related
section of Duchenne’s original photograph illustrating the
expression of terror 124
10 The image known as ‘Ginx’s Baby’, made by Oscar Rejlander,
used by Darwin to illustrate ‘suffering and weeping’ 125
11 The photographer Oscar Rejlander (and another model)
illustrating various emotions 126
12 Plate III from Charles Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals 128
13 Still images from Bill Viola’s LCD colour video triptych,
Anima, 2000 131
14 ‘Grimace’, McDonald’s Corporation character costume 135
15 L’Enfance [Childhood], from the collection of lithographs
by Louis-Léopold Boilly, ‘Les Grimaces. Recueil factice de
93 lithographies coloriées’, Paris, 1824 136
viii
List of Illustrations ix
16 Self-Portrait with a Cap, openmouthed, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1630 138
17 Stop-motion image of a sneeze 161
18 Stills from Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7, 1894 165
19 Baby crying during the first day of life 172
20 Joel laughing 179
21 Thomas Alva Edison with the ‘Old’ Liberty Bell in 1915 189
22 Three Little Chavs, Cornwall, 2006 191