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Wandering
Schutzman evokes the notion of “ambulant knowledge” to describe the inherent power of approximation—a vagabond encounter—in jokes. Raikes evokes the “flowing language” of the rheomode to describe dislodging movements of bodies—a nomadic encounter—in the dance component of her performance. Jokes, dances, or any other texts whose enactment reverses the ontological priority between movement and rest, trajectory and destination, can have the effect—and affect—of little explosions: bombs of sense and sensation. Jokers and performers become vagabond characters: the vague embodied; movement in the flesh. Their constitutive labor results in the creation of spaces of movement. Movement is the essence of the structure of these performance spaces. Any kind of space—no matter how fleeting or rigid—has the potential to be both effective and affective. Writing of architecture in performative terms, John Rajchman explains, We might distinguish between two kinds of spatial disposition, effective and affective. In the first, one tries to insert movements, figures, stories, activities into some larger organization that predates and survives them; the second, by contrast, seeks to release figures or movements from any such organization, allowing them to go off on unexpected paths or relate to one another in undetermined ways. (92)Such a distinction, of course, is formal, as both tendencies will reside in any space and any construction of sense. The key is that movement is inherent to each kind of spatial disposition—spaces are living processes and material forces. The question then becomes one of evocation and use. Can we call forth movement, the vague, a sense of wandering? Can we entice it to action? How will we use these little bombs of sensation as they scatter meaning and possibility throughout our vague spaces? Construct performances (mundane or formal) in ways that engage movement. Explode sense and sensation to create a space for change. Wander among ideas and affects, drawing unforeseen connections. Maintain openness to potentiality and encounter. Think of performance as an encounter . . . with a vague space. Think of performance as a mode of habitation, as a liminal life, as dwelling in spaces of movement. Think of performance as the constitution of “nomadic thought.” This is how Schutzman sees Boal’s joker technique being put to use: turning theatre and social structures into nomads, unhinged by paradox, exploded by affect. This is how Raikes sees performance being put to use: turning art and perception to a wandering orientation, unhinged by motion, exploding the distance between performer and audience until it vanishes. | index
orientation vague wandering encounter between works |
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