Critical Dialogues Issue 10: ‘No Body’

Critical Dialogues Issue 10  

Published on Nov 30, 2018  

Critical Dialogues ‘No Body’ is guest-edited by CP’s Associate Artist Adelina Larsson with pieces by Nadja Hjorton, Lz Dunn, Sarah Hoboult, Geumhyung Jeong and Vânia Gala. The featured topic places the absent body in relief against the non-sighted body and the aliveness of objects, culminating in a meditation on what absence might mean in today’s post-fordist era. The issue incorporates practitioner reflections, academic excerpts and a playful interview to present a rich collective montage of writing that delves deep into the interplay between liveness and death, drawing parallels between timely feminist, queer, disability and artistic concerns. 

https://issuu.com/criticalpath2/docs/criticaldialogues_10_draft53

Critical Dialogues Issue 10

Critical Possibilities| Critical Absences: devices, machines and other hybrid associations

Possibilidades críticas – ausências críticas: dispositivos, máquinas, pessoas e outras associações híbridas

Vania Gala 1

This article explores the potential of absence, invisibility and disappearance as fundamental ideas for choreography in the present time. Capitalism is a main provider of "experiences" making performativity a central locus of productivity. Our relation with objects is defining new relations that moved away from our role of object users. As performance becomes a core feature of capitalism could a refusal to perform or a withdrawal provide a critical stance on the way we live today? Such refusal encapsulates a radical aspect in a time where performance seems to cooperate with capitalism. To leave the stage to an "object performer" is to engage with other meanings and worlds that might translate our present hybrid world characterized by a growing dependence of the human body and technology.

Este artigo explora o potencial da ausência, invisibilidade e desaparecimento como ideias fundamentais para a coreografia no tempo presente. O capitalismo é o fornecedor principal de "experiências", colocando a “performance” no locus central de produtividade. A nossa relação com os objetos define novas relações, distintas e mesmo distantes do nosso papel de simples usuários. À medida que a “performance” se torna a característica central do hiper-capitalismo, poderá uma recusa em "performar", um esconder do "performer" oferecer um olhar crítico sobre a nossa forma de viver? Uma recusa em "performar" encapsula um aspecto radical numa época em que a "performance" colabora ativamente com o capitalismo. Desaparecer, deixar o palco a um "objecto-performer" é engajar com outros significados e mundos possíveis que traduzem a nossa crescente dependência entre corpo humano e tecnologia.

Disponível em:

doi 10.17648/trans-2017-90425

https://proceedings.science/…/critical-possibilities--criti…

‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ by James Armstrong

‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ was originally created as part one of a two movement composition for a dance production choreographed by Vania Gala at the University of Northampton. Initially, James began making textural recordings by playing various hand percussion instruments and non-musical objects against muted strings. Things like rattles, shakers and hand drums were used to bring out the non-standard qualities of the electric guitar. He added some more conventional drones by sending swells through the usual delay and reverb combination so that it retains some of the characteristics of my previous releases. Everything was improvised and none of the sounds recorded were planned and James would like listeners to treat the album as an opportunity for discovery, to allow the longform recordings time and space to evolve.

All of the items that were used to play the guitar were gifts from an ex-partner and their family. As much as James was trying to avoid thinking about that period of time, there was no escaping it when the items were physically in his hands. From here the title ‘Discarded Things Once Loved’ emerged as the instruments had been hidden away gathering dust for quite some time. James also strived to see what sort of sounds could be created as a result of playing the guitar in such a way that the majority of his control and intention was removed from what came out of the instrument.  

credits

released March 10, 2018

Written and produced by James Armstrong
Mastered by Alexander Roberts
Photography by Penny Day
Artwork by Harry Towell

license

all rights reserved

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/discarded-things-once-loved