(Syn)aesthetics: Redefining Visceral Performance

240 Pages·2009·1.61 MB·English

by  Josephine Machon

(Syn)aesthetics
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd ii 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
Also by Josephine Machon
PERFORMANCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity
(co-edited with Susan Broadhurst)
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd iiii 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
(Syn)aesthetics
Redefining Visceral Performance
Josephine Machon
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd iiiiii 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
© Josephine Machon 2009
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN-13: 978–0–230–22127–7 hardback
ISBN-10: 0–230–22127–0 hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd iivv 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
For Andrew
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd vv 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Figures x
Acknowledgements xii
Notes on Interview Contributors xiii
Epigraph xviii
Introduction: Redefining Visceral Performance 1
Part 1
1.1 Defining (Syn)aesthetics 13
Synaesthesia – defining the parameters of (syn)aesthetics 15
Engaging sense with sense 16
From the neurological to the theatrical 19
Imagination, the ineffable and embodied knowledge 21
Live performance 24
Tracing a feminized style 26
I nterdisciplinary, intercultural practice and
the (syn)aesthetic hybrid 29
‘New Writing’ and the visceral-verbal 31
Demanding a new discourse 32
1.2 Connecting Theories 34
Nietzsche’s Dionysian 35
T he Russian Formalists – Dionysian
disruptions in linguistic play 37
Barthes – jouissance and pleasurable texts 39
Kristeva’s semiotic chora and genotext 40
Cixous and Irigaray – écriture féminine 42
A rtaud – disturbance and sensation in
the Theatre of Cruelty 44
N ovarina – corporeality and carnage in
the Theatre of the Ears 46
B arker – imagination and disturbance in
the Theatre of Catastrophe 48
vii
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd vviiii 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1144 PPMM
viii Contents
B roadhurst and the liminal – touching
the edge of the possible 50
(Syn)aesthetics – connecting theories 52
1.3 (Syn)aesthetics in Practice 54
The (syn)aesthetic hybrid – a ‘total’ (syn)aesthetic 55
The performing body and the (syn)aesthetic style 62
Disturbing speech patterns – the visceral-verbal playtext 69
(Syn)aesthetics – redefining visceral performance 80
Part 2
Introduction: A (Syn)aesthetic Exchange 85
2.1 F elix Barrett and Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk:
In the Prae-sens of Body and Space –
The (Syn)aesthetics of Site-Sympathetic Work 89
2.2 Lizzie Clachan and David Rosenberg of
Shunt Theatre Collective: A Door into
Another World – the Audience and Hybridity 100
2.3 A kram Khan: The Mathematics of
Sensation – the Body as Site/Sight/Cite and Source 112
2.4 M arisa Carnesky: Trapping the Audience in
the Fantasy – Instinct, the Body and
the Magic of the Experiential 124
2.5 N aomi Wallace and Kwame Kwei-Armah: Desire,
the Body and Transgressive Acts of Playwriting –
on Writing and Directing Things of Dry Hours 132
2.6 Linda Bassett: Bypassing the Logical –
Performing Churchill’s Far Away 144
2.7 J o McInnes: A Text That Demands to
Be Played With – Performing Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis 153
2.8 Graeae’s Jenny Sealey and Playwright Glyn Cannon:
Seeing Words and (Dis)Comfort Zones – the Fusion of
Bodies, Text and Technology in On Blindness 160
2.9 S ara Giddens and Simon Jones of Bodies in Flight:
The In-Betweens, Where Flesh Utters and Words Move –
on Flesh, Text, Space and Technologies 172
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd vviiiiii 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1155 PPMM
Contents ix
2.10 Leslie Hill and Helen Paris of Curious:
Embodied Intimacies – On (the) Scent,
Memory and the Visceral-Virtual 184
Notes 197
Bibliography 205
Index 217
99778800223300__222211227777__0011__pprreexxvviiiiii..iinndddd iixx 33//1199//22000099 66::4433::1155 PPMM