Rehearsal for A Play in Two Acts
(2020)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
published in: Research Catalogue
Play in the format of the philosophical dialogue, 2019
Drama is pretense. But, unlike fiction, a theatrical play is not a pretended representation of a state of affairs; rather it is the pretended state itself, in which the actors pretend to be the characters doing the pretending in the actual performance of the theatrical play. The actor is in this way irrealised in the character. Aside from writing the play, which consists largely in pseudo assertions, the playwright gives the actors directions on how to pretend to make assertions and to perform actions. Therefore, the playwright is writing a recipe for pretense. Instead of pretending to write assertions, the playwright gives directions to the actors on how to enact a pretense.
The philosophical dialogue has been an established, although uncommon, method of philosophical writing, which usually deploys fictional characters to present a discussion between several divergent viewpoints on a topic of ordinary or philosophical interest. The juxtaposition and debating of opinions in ordinary uses of language, without prioritizing any opinion, endows the dialogue with open-endedness instead of conclusiveness. As McKeon (in Prince, 1996: 3) argues:
"Dialogue is statement and counterstatement, based on ordinary ways of life and ordinary uses of language, with no possible appeal to a reality beyond opposed opinions except through opinions about reality. Truth is perceived in perspective, and perspectives can be compared, but there is no overarching inclusive perspective."
In this exposition, I exploit the dialogic format to expose the views of Jean-Paul Sartre, a well known philosopher and father of the existentialist philosophical and literary movement, and Maurice Blanchot, a rather obscure philosopher of literature and literary critic. Notably, both Sartre and Blanchot were active in the post second world war period, which significantly shaped their philosophical insights; specifically on modes of writing, including fictional prose, about a variety of topics, from politics, to ethics and aesthetics. Because referencing is rarely used in philosophical dialogues, here I employ full bibliographical referencing in the end. The dialogue presents an advantage for reaching a wider readership, beyond the confines of those with strictly philosophical and academic interests.
Prince, Michael, "Philosophical Dialogue in the British Enlightenment: Theology, Aesthetics and the Novel", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Voic/musick/perform/ing: an intra-active spiritual matter?
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Elisabeth Laasonen Belgrano
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The role of a singer/musician/performer calls for an ability to capture the attention of an audience. In the 17th century the general concern would have been for the performer to develop musical and performative means in order to touch both hearts and souls of the listeners. In a blog from 2016, Finnish voice-artist Heidi Fast writes about a specific case study in a hospital environment (as part of her doctoral research) where she examines and explores the possibilities of non-verbal vocality to attune embodied relationality: “my task is not to ‘give voice to the patients’, instead, I try to create favourable conditions with my voice and presence to invite the participants to an entirely new dialogue. The role of the researcher is not a distant observer, but experiential in proximity.” The relationality enacted by performer/s, researcher/s, listener/s, participants in a musical event/encounter allows for overlappings of shared elevated (or even spiritual) experiences inspiring to new ways of thinking. Such existential experiences can be challenging to describe or to discursively articulate at a later stage. At the same time these ‘spiritual’ experiences provide a provocative point of departure for artistic research. The aim of this presentation is to open up for an intra-active discussion on relationality, with reference to voicing musicking/performing and the spiritual/existential experience; artistic research and religious studies/radical theology/new materialist/non-dualistic/holistic theories; artistic research in music and its potential contribution to existential meaning-making applicable for ex in pastoral care.
The music performed in this performance-paper refers to the city of Paris in the 17th century, to the fallen city of Jerusalem as described in the biblical Lamentations, and to Gothenburg and an early 20th century water cistern. Experiencing walls and scores constructed in the past sheds new light on future structures and potential relations.
Presented as "Voicing: an intra-active spiritual matter?"
at National Network for Artistic Research in Music (Nationellt nätverk för konstnärlig forskning i musik / NFKM) 23-24 Aug 2017, Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden
in progress...open exposition comments (0)