June 29th, 2012
Performance and contingency of a contaminated human capital
This paper war presented at the PSi#18 conference in Leeds, 29th of June, 2012.
In this presentation I will use some concepts, which originate outside from the performance studies, such as human capital, contamination, sponge and plasticity. As such, these concepts are essential to my research which is entitled “Schizoanalysis of subjectivity and performance in the context of cognitive capitalism.” Foundation for this research is based on the critique of neo-liberal capitalism and writings of Félix Guattari. A concept of ‘sponge’ is in relation with Guattari’s concept of chaosmosis and plasticity, which has been articulated by Catherine Malabou. This paper is here.
May 3rd to 5th, 2012
Tell Me About Your Machines
Photo: Hannu Seppälä
Turku New Performance Festival
Curators: Leena Kela and Christopher Hewitt
Video-documentation: Christopher Hewitt, Marek Pluciennik
Still photography: Kimmo Modig, Tero Nauha
This performance is part of a project called “Life inBytom” which is going to take place in the Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art inBytom,Poland. It will research the life in the context of neoliberalism, namely our relationship with machines and devices of various kinds. It is part of my research on Félix Guattari’s idea of schizoanalysis and metamodelization.
Audience sits in a semi-circle around the performer. There is lost of black cable and wire on the floor. In the beginning, five people from the audience are asked to become participants in the performance. They are sitting closer to a performer, and are asked questions about their machines. A performer is asking the questions, and the participants hear the questions through headphones. Rest of the audience are witnesses to the performance. The performance space is a Titanik gallery, a room size about 40 m2, with large windows on the one side. Windows are covered, so that while light enters the room, it is not possible to see through the windows.
Photo: Hannu Seppälä
Participants are asked questions about the machines they have, in the following way, and choose on machine that they want to work with:
Can you tell me what kind of machines you have?
What do they do?
Where are these machines?
[…]
What do you do at the same time, while a machine is working?
[…]
Is this machine controlling you in some ways?
Do you control yourself of using the machine?
[…]
How this machine controls your life with other people in social situations?
How does it control your relationships with people or other machines?
What do you think the machine wants you to do?
[…]
Do You think the machine has values? Why not?/What are they?
Does a machine promise you something?
[…]
Do you remember a moment when a machine was new?
Photo: Henna-Riikka Halonen
After the question part, they are asked to take off the headphones and project an image of this machine on a opposite wall. To imagine how this machine looks like, feels, smells, etc. After that a performer steps into that area of projection and becomes a subject of their projections on machines and follow their directions, how they wish or desire a machine to function, serve or command. He says that
I am your machine. You can direct me, tell me what to do, ask me to control you. I am your machine.
After a period of experimentation, the session is over.
Review, Turun Sanomat, 6.5.2012. http://www.ts.fi/kulttuuri/nayttamotaide/342691/Performanssi+todentaa+arkesi
Review, Mustekala.info, Pirkko Holmberg, 11.5.2012. http://www.mustekala.info/node/2908
April 13th, 2012
Life in Bytom: neoliberal contamination, mess and performance
Paper presented in “How Performance Thinks” conference, co-organized by PSi Performance and Philosophy group and Kingston University’s practice.research.unit, April 13th, 2012 at The London Studio Centre. Chair: Laura Cull. This paper is here.
April 5th, 2012
Powiedz mi, jakie masz urządzeinia? Do czego ty je wykorzystujesz?
Can you tell me what kind of machines do you have? What do you do with the machines?
The curator of Kronika Contemporary Art Centre in Bytom, Stanisław Ruksza calls Bytom the “Detroit” of Poland. Almost instantly, when talking with people in Bytom, I am faced with a kind of fog and confusion, a mess, which following my argument, follows the logic of neoliberal, post-industrial capitalism. Such a mess is the question of political, that there is no straightforward answer, ideology or roadmap. It is a mess of collapsing buildings, infrastructures and life itself, but no-one knows what the duration of this process is or what forms it will take. It is the precariousness of this mess, where my endeavour takes place. In this context, what can a performance do?
March 4th, 2012
New Performance Festival appearance
Tinguely's Machine
On 4th and 5th of May, 2012 I will present a ‘work-in-progress’ performance at The New Performance Festival in Turku, Finland. The performance is entitled “Tell Me About Your Machines”, and it is based on the material from Bytom practice. It is part of my research on Félix Guattari’s idea of schizoanalysis and metamodelization.[1] The performance will take place at the Titanik Gallery in Turku.
[1]Guattari, Félix. 1995. Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm. Translated by Bains, Paul and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Watson, Janell. 2009. Guattari’s diagrammatic thought: writing between Lacan and Deleuze.London;New York: Continuum.
