Doing Life Is That Which We Must Think

Authors

  • Will Daddario Illinois State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2015.1118

Abstract

Declaration of belief:

Performance Philosophers seek to think anew, not only for the fun of it but also to destroy (or at least artfully ignore) the well-tended perception that thinking must unfold in a certain way, through specific channels, and with the legitimacy bequeathed to thought (i.e., commodified thought; a kind of thought that might be trademarked) through validated keywords and slogans. For these reasons, Performance Philosophers seek to think the doing of life, with the expectation that to do so would mean to live a life worthy of the name. This manifesto elaborates on these claims and calls for the creation of an Invisible College through which we might express the potential of performance philosophy.

Author Biography

Will Daddario, Illinois State University

[email protected]

Will Daddario is an active theatre historiographer and performance philosopher. His research on sixteenth century Venetian theatre and performance has been published in The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Ecumenica, and several anthologies such as the forthcoming Failure, Representation, and Negative Theatre (eds. Dan Watt and Eve Katsouraki) and Theatre/Performance Historiography: Time Space Matter (eds. Rosemary Bank and Michal Kobialka). Will has co-written two articles with Joanne Zerdy. One appearing in the Spring 2015 edition of Theatre Topics (devoted to Performance Philosophy Pedagogy) and another in the anthology Food and Theatre on the World Stage (eds. Dorothy Chansky and Ann Folino White). Additionally, his work in the emerging field of Performance Philosophy has led to the compilation of two co-edited anthologies, Manifesto Now! Instructions for Performance, Philosophy, Politics (with Laura Cull, 2013) and Adorno and Perfomance (with Karoline Gritzner, 2014).

References

Adorno, Theodor W. 2002. “Commitment.” In The Essential Frankfurt School Reader, translated by Francis McDonagh, edited by Andrew Arato and Eike Gebhardt, 300-18. New York: Continuum.

Goat Island. 2002. “Letter to a young practitioner.” In Theatre in crisis? Performance manifestos for a new century, edited by Maria M. Delgado and Caridad Svich, 240-49. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

McLean, Stuart. 2013. “What Is the University For? A Story from the Dreamtime of a Possible Future.” In Manifesto Now: Instructions for Performance, Philosophy, Politics, edited by Laura Cull and Will Daddario, 117-26. Bristol: Intellect Press.

Mullarkey, John and Anthony Paul Smith, eds. 2012. Laruelle and Non-Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Zerdy, Joanne. 2013. “Concrete, Stone, and Soil: Crumbling Histories, Propping Up Ruins.” Paper presented at Performance Studies International, Stanford University, June 26-30.

Downloads

Published

10-04-2015

How to Cite

Daddario, Will. 2015. “Doing Life Is That Which We Must Think”. Performance Philosophy 1 (1):168-74. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2015.1118.

Issue

Section

Laruellian Re-visionings