Interruption as Dissenting Gesture
(2016)
author(s): Sepideh Karami
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
In this exposition I investigate the tactics of interruption as methods of engaging with the institution through artistic research and approaches. This is developed by drawing upon Jacques Rancière’s concept of ‘dissensus’, Chantal Mouffe’s ‘strategy of engagement’ and Michel de Certeau's idea of 'tactics'. Art as a dissensual activity turns artistic research into a dissident research that can serve to question academic consensus rather than conforming to its established structure. Interruption becomes a dissenting gesture.
I use a fictional and fictitious publication as a tool to 'interrupt' institutions. In this fictitious publication, I have borrowed Lieutenant Fontaine from Robert Bresson’s movie, ‘A Man Escaped’, and have introduced him as a protagonist of 'interrupting architecture', investigating his escape plan as an activity of 'architecting'. The journey of this publication goes through two short architectural narrations of two places: a prison (as discipline) and a library (as dominant discourse). These two narrations are combined with three formulae: amateur, fiction, misperformance or disloyalty; each acts as certain characteristics of dissidence. Together, these aim to raise the question: How do tactics of interruption contribute to dissensus in academia?