[-empyre-] critical theory, motion, art practice: introducing Stelarc and Nora Zuniga Shaw

[Timothy Murray]

Ashley's illustration and juxtaposition of William Kendridge  and 
Deleuze's writings on cinema bring us directly to considering the 
relationship between critical theory, movement and artistic practice. 
We have had an intense  first week in our discussion of Critical 
Motion Practice.  From divisibility and failure to stillness and 
mishap, toward
the everyday to Post-Futurist and Neo- Baroque perception to the 
failure of success to truthsand temporality.

We would like to thank our guests this week,  Stamatia Portanova, 
Ashley Ferro-Murray, and Erin Manning.  We hope that they  will have 
time to
transition into next week's discussion.  We are thankful to you all 
for your engaged
participation in this week's discussion and we hope you will continue 
to join in from time to time as the discussion progresss throughout 
the month.

We would like to welcome our guests for the second week of Critical Motion
Practice:  Stelarc (Australia/UK) and Nora Zuniga Shaw (US).  Stelarc and
Nora will be making their introductory posts tomorrow.

Stelarc (Australia/UK)
Chair in Performance Art, School of Arts, Brunel University West London,
UK and Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Artist in the MARCS Labs at the
University of Western Sydney, Australia.  Stelarc is an Australian artist
who has performed extensively in Japan, Europe and the USA- including new
music, dance festivals and experimental theatre. He has used medical
instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems and the
Internet to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with
the body. He has performed with a THIRD HAND, a VIRTUAL ARM, a VIRTUAL
BODY and a STOMACH SCULPTURE. He has acoustically and visually probed the
body- having amplified brainwaves, blood-flow and muscle signals and
filmed the inside of his lungs, stomach and colon, approximately two
metres of internal space. He has done twenty-five body SUSPENSIONS with
insertions into the skin, in different positions and varying situations in
remote locations.  He also is an exciting innovator in robotic 
performance and tissue art.

Nora Zuniga Shaw (US)
Norah Zuniga Shaw is a choreographer and arts researcher in The Ohio State
University Department of Dance where she is an Assistant Professor and the
Director for Dance and Technology. She is currently working with 
William Forsythe and the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and 
Design as co-creative director for
Synchronous Objects project.  Her recent research has been focused on 
interdisciplinary engagements with embodied knowledge and the 
translation of choreographic structures from dance, to data, to 
interactive visualizations. She is a published author on dance and 
technology topics and her recent artistic commissions include an 
interactive
sound performance for ICMC2007 with circus artist Jerome Thomas, three new
dances for television (WOSU-PBS), and performances for NANO at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. Zuniga Shaw is currently working on a book
about Synchronous Objects and the new methods in arts research it required.

Thanks so much to you both for joining this week's discussion.

Best,

Renate and Tim

-- 
--
Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
Co-Moderators, -empyre- a soft-skinned-space
Department of Art/ Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
Cornell University