Exposition

'Beware the Danger of Merging': Conceptual Blending and Cognitive Dissonance in the work of IOU Theatre (2015)

Deborah Middleton, Tim Moss
open exposition

About this exposition

This exposition introduces and analyses the work of British-based IOU Theatre, a company that has been exploring intermedial theatre and installation since 1976. IOU's work, we suggest, is characterised by their particular strategies for juxtaposing or fusing images, materials, and artistic media. We explore this aspect of IOU's practice through the lens of emergent cognition by drawing on Fauconnier and Turner's (2002) theory of conceptual blending. While Fauconnier and Turner's work applies broadly to the process underlying many cognitive acts, their model enables us to develop a nuanced understanding of IOU's particular creative 'blends' and to identify a 'resistance to the blend’ that proves essential to the IOU aesthetic. The authors have included first-person accounts of some of their own cognitive experiences in response to IOU's work as a way to track the application of conceptual blending in the reception and analysis of an artistic artefact or experience. The exposition both introduces to a wider readership examples of IOU's oeuvre and proposes a reading of conceptual blending as a tool for understanding creative processes, analysing artistic artefacts, and discussing audience reception – in works that particularly exploit creative collisions of imagery or media. In this way, it is our intention to contribute to artistic research a methodology for analysis and a lens through which some key artistic strategies can be illuminated. Our approach may be of interest to those concerned with the making, analysis, or reception of artistic work that is intermedial in the broadest sense.
typeresearch exposition
keywordstheatre, bisociation, performance, IOU, intermedia, conceptual space, conceptual blending, alternative theatre, visual art, fusion, emergent cognition, blending, experiential art, audiences, live art, reception
date01/01/2015
published31/08/2015
last modified31/08/2015
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationUniversity of Huddersfield, UK
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/49027/49028
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/jar.49027
published inJournal for Artistic Research
portal issue8.


Simple Media

id name copyright license
103466 'Electric Field' 2009, IOU 'Electric Field' 2009, IOU All rights reserved
103304 ef IOU 2 versions 2 - copy 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
103298 ef IOU 2 versions 2 - copy 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
97509 Transformation of matter 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
97494 ef sequence showing props etc final 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
97489 Transformation of matter final 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88721 Subma4 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88720 Subma3 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88719 Subma2 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88718 Subma 1 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88715 Crab Encounter 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88713 Crab Encounter 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88711 Blizzard 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88706 Crab Encounter 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88703 Blizzard 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88701 Thread from Nose 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88699 Thread from Nose 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88692 Frozen Tulip 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88690 Frozen Tulip 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88688 accident 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88685 Thread from Nose 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88509 IOU Grade AllPercy Dean_29 Sculpture from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
88507 IMAG0316 Sculpture from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU All rights reserved
88364 Submawhale Tim 'Subjective Experience of Encounter with Vessel 1 & 2' (2013) Moss All rights reserved
88361 efT & D article page 1 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
88310 Biblio banner copy IOU Archive, 'Long Division' All rights reserved
88309 NEW CONCLUSION w txt copy 'Tattoo', 'Waylaid', 'Autoperipatetikos' All rights reserved
88283 Conclusion banner copy iou All rights reserved
88282 Biblio banner copy IOU Archive, 'Long Division' All rights reserved
88280 ORIGINS HEADER FINAL copy IOU Archive, 'One IOTA, 1,2 & 3', 'Forced Landings' All rights reserved
88279 EF header copy 'Electric Field' All rights reserved
88265 Conclusion banner DKM/IOU All rights reserved
88246 Abstract Banner x IOU Archive & 'Electric Field' All rights reserved
88233 fire puch and judy 'Just Add Water' (1989) IOU All rights reserved
88225 cure on beach 'Cure' publicity (2001) IOU All rights reserved
87306 UNSTABLE FINAL copy '2 x Table' poster shoot, IOU Archive All rights reserved
87305 ABSTRACT HEADER FINAL copy iou All rights reserved
87304 ABSTRACT HEADER copy iou All rights reserved
87303 UNSTABLE HEADER FINAL copy iou All rights reserved
87301 ORIGINS HEADER FINAL copy IOU Archive, 'One IOTA, 1,2 & 3', 'Forced Landings' All rights reserved
87296 Unstable header sized copy iou All rights reserved
87294 EF header sized copy iou All rights reserved
87292 Origins header sized copy IOU Archive, 'One IOTA, 1,2 & 3', 'Forced Landings' All rights reserved
87203 D & T IOU 1 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
87178 Double Vessel 'Vessel 1 and 2' from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU All rights reserved
87174 Deb's Venn 'Personal Schema' Venn Diagram (2014) Middleton All rights reserved
87081 Vessel 2 'Vessel 1 and 2' from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
87079 Vessel 1 'Vessel 1 and 2' from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
87077 Vessel 3 'Vessel 1 and 2' from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
87075 IOU Grade AllPercy Dean_81 'Vessel 1 and 2' from 'Half Moon' (2011) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
87072 IOU title 'Antarctic Travelogue', Dean Clough All rights reserved
87069 IOU title 'Antarctic Travelogue', Dean Clough All rights reserved
87066 Dean Clough DC All rights reserved
87064 iou-antarctic-2-banner 'Antarctic Travelogue', Dean Clough All rights reserved
87060 Blend spaces 'Conceptual Mapping & Input Spaces', Fauconnier & Turner All rights reserved
87053 IOU Grade AllPercy Dean_52 Propeller Shoes from 'Cold Fusion' (1997) IOU (Percy Dean) All rights reserved
87051 goggles '2 x Table' (1993) IOU All rights reserved
86834 ef transformation of matter 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
86833 ef IOU 2 versions 2 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
86829 ef sequence showing props etc 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
86806 shoes and hat 'Full Tilt' (1991) IOU All rights reserved
86789 2 X TABLE '2 x Table' (1993) Poster Shoot, IOU All rights reserved
86784 efIELD 34 'Electric Field' (2009) IOU All rights reserved
86766 Canvas image iou All rights reserved
61128 FullTilt4 IOU All rights reserved
61125 Waylaid 1 IOU All rights reserved
61110 Leech1 IOU All rights reserved
61108 Cure1 IOU All rights reserved
61106 Waylaid 1 IOU All rights reserved
61104 Lecky F IOU All rights reserved
49031 IOU Theatre Percy Dean All rights reserved
49030 IOU name on cushion Grade Percy Dean All rights reserved

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