[-empyre-] relational objects

[davin heckman]

Norah, thanks for the provocative questions, and I will try my best to
give them the attention that they deserve (in spite of my ignorance
about dance).

> First, in relation to the idea of a trace, in our work we've been interested
> in the idea of a generative trace (meaning that the trace generates
> creativity more than preserves a past present). Davin and others speak of
> the idea of an original and of the "gap of difference between the event and
> the representation." Perhaps the decoupling of trace and original is of use
> here. This also decouples the idea of a trace from the idea of document.
> Even more traditional dance scholars who work on reconstruction of
> historically important pieces have begun to question the existence of "an
> original." What is the essence (yikes, not a great work) or better said,
> what within a moment, a dance, an experience can be traced and represented
> and created a new with change being a central value, not stasis?

While I lack any knowledge of dance in a "high art" sense, my
experience with dance and performance is grounded in the live
performances I enjoyed in Southern California in my late teens going
to see bands play in various venues (basement shows, small clubs,
underground outdoor concerts).  The phenomena that I experienced are
well described in much of the writing on punk performance--intimacy of
the venue, permeability between stage and audience, DIY ethic which
encourages "consumers" become "producers," a sense of a strong local
culture, physicality and improvisation, etc.

Aside from what people write about it, the direct experience of such
events is burned into my mind--the feeling of sweaty exhaustion, the
mix of fear and exhilaration, the romance of meeting new people, the
occasional conflicts (usually caused by neo-Nazis), and the
interesting friendships I made.  But mostly, I felt like I was a
necessary part of something special.  Efforts to formalize such an
experience tend to fall flat (look at the various efforts to
capitalize on specific "scenes" and you see how much stress corporate
commerce and mass consumption can place on the fragility of the
specific).  They rely almost entirely on the people involved.

On the other hand, my desire to seek out a punk scene was inspired
largely by watching videos like Decline of Western Civilization,
Repoman, Another State of Mind, Suburbia...  as well as numerous skate
videos which featured bands like Suicidal Tendencies, JFA, NOFX,
Pennywise, etc.  The representations of punk were influential in
forming my desire and expectations for an alternative to what people
were doing at school (playing sports and working on the pecking
order).  So, I may not have had access to the direct experience of
exhilaration had it not been for experiencing representations.
Similarly, I had been prepared to enjoy the particular experience by
watching iterations of its style.

But the experience of watching is entirely different from doing.  It
gets back to the idea that being forgets itself to be felt, but then
becomes estranged from itself under observation.

> Secondly, I'd love to hear from this month's contributors and others on the
> list about relationships between participatory art and participatory
> pedagogy and perhaps even some of the rhetoric around cyberlearning these
> days. I'm finding really productive connections between my research in this
> area and my teaching and I'd love to hear from others about this as well.

On the topic of education, I am working on a project for Liquid Books
on "The Post-Corporate University."  The participatory and
performative character of teaching and learning ought to be a part of
this discussion.  I would love it if interested parties wanted to get
involved.

http://liquidbooks.pbworks.com/The+Post-Corporate+University

Peace!

Davin