Plasticity and schizoanalytic performance practice: the production of subjectivity in a post-industrial town of Bytom
The foundation of my research is based on artistic practice in the field of performance art. It is a practice-based research including three artistic works. From the vantage point of cognitive or semio-capitalism, artistic practice is a device located and conditioned with the economic paradigm of neoliberalism. However, artistic practice has its own accords in relation with content. In other words the practice may give form to non-discursive content. Artistic practice also annihilates forms in order for something new to appear, therefore practice does not only repeat without a difference what is efficient or necessary, but it is an endeavour for virtual potentialities to materialize and take form.
Capitalism is in a perpetual crisis, a messy journey from one crisis to another. A factory becomes obsolete in the similar way as a clerk in the bank, when his or her tasks are reconfigured to fit into the new system, whereas ability to adjust to compartmentalization is a necessity.
My research takes place at the convergence of performance studies, critical theory, critique of neo-liberal capitalism and cultural studies. The overall aim is to produce a contribution in this convergence. In these terms a theoretical approach is necessary not only to scrutinize what some potentialities would be, but also to formulate a support for a practice. Conversely, the three artistic works in relation with my theoretical apparatus are not only singular instances of practice, but aim to augment critique of neoliberal capitalism. This research concentrates on the subjectivity of a performer in the contexts of performance art and performance in general in the context of cognitive capitalism.
My aim is to articulate the complexity of an event, which takes place in the performance on the level of subjectivization. How does a contemporary subjectivity perform and when she performs, what is this subjectivity that performs and how is it being produced? What are the qualities that subjectivity is immersed in, in the contemporary neoliberal context? What is the particular locus of a performer in a setting of performance art or social practices, which do not possess explicit borders between everyday life, audience, performer, physical setting or durations?
My position in the theory of subjectivity is mostly delineated with the idea of a produced subjectivity, or subjectivity as an on-going and political process, which has been articulated by Gilbert Simondon (1958/2007), Félix Guattari (1995), Gilles Deleuze (2004), Catherine Malabou (2008, 2012) and Simon O’Sullivan (2008, 2012), among others. Therefore, my disposition is not limited only to an art context, but pertains to the bio-political context of cognitive capitalism, as well.
