[-empyre-] concluding post and welcoming Johannes Birringer and October's discussio: "E/motion frequency deceleration"

[Renate Ferro]

CONCLUDING POST:
Many thanks to all of our subscribers who participated in the
September discussion, Zones of Contact.  For many of us who traveled
to ISEA in Istanbul to attend not only the conference proceedings but
also the Istanbul Biennial, we witnessed the university, the
government and the art world succinctly protected from the cultural
complexities of the dynamic energy, the chaos, and the emerging
demonstrations that burst through the streets of Istanbul.  Wrapped
and bundled these institutions were insulated by surveillance devices
and walls of guards that ensured a sense of order and protocol.

(I could not help but make comparisons between the Venice Biennial
with its eclectic convolution… the Italian pavilion’s chaos?.... in
contrast to  the tight, well-planned and executed craftsmanship of the
Istanbul biennial.)

Taksim square and the İstiklal Caddesi always seemed for me to be the
pinnacle of this energy at the end of every day’s official activities.
 From the smell of the hookah bars, the buzz of Raki, the intensity of
the young people in the middle of political demonstrations, the live
music in the bars, and so much more.

This month was an experiment in converging what is ordinarily a
“soft-skinned” virtual space with the real spaces of Istanbul.  I am
presuming that those of you were not in Istanbul got a sense of the
complexities through not only the real frustrations that we
experienced within the confines of the controlled spaces but the
liberation that I think many of us felt within the context of the
cities' neighborhoods.

It was incredibly wonderful to meet so many of your in real space and
here is hoping that we can do it again at some point in the future.
For now we will revert to the spaces of the virtual.  This month
Johannes Birringer will be our special guest moderator.

Johannes Birringer is a choreographer and artistic director of
AlienNation Co (www.aliennationcompany.com), and co-founder of a
telematic performance collective (ADaPT).  He has directed numerous
multimedia theatre, dance, and digital performances in Europe, the
Americas, Japan and China; collaborated on site-specific
installations, and exhibited work at film and video festivals. Author
of Theatre, Theory, Postmodernism (1991), Media and Performance
(1998), Performance on the Edge (2000), Performance, Technology and
Science (2009). Founder of Interaktionslabor
(http://interaktionslabor.de), and co-director of DAP-Lab, Brunel
University (London), where he is Professor of Performance
Technologies.

He will be moderating during the month of October
"E/motion frequency deceleration"

Expanded choreographies and performance processes, and some basic
existential questions might be addressed in the month of October,
raising the issue of how substantial changes in dealing with time can
be achieved in the sense of deceleration, and what the roles of the
performative arts in addition to science will be. The discussion forum
will begin with a reflection on butoh dance.

Thank you Johannes for moderating empyre's soft-skinned space this month.

 Renate Ferro
Moderator, empyre soft_skinned space


--

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/