Life, Movement, and Thought: Directions for Performance Philosophy and Practice as Research

Authors

  • Brian Schultis

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Keywords:

Performance Philosophy, practice-as-research, performance-as-researhc, continental philosophy, Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

This essay addresses the common goals of but also the practical differences between the emerging fields of Performance Philosophy (PP) and Practice as Research (PaR).  It does so by describing them both as interposing effective and affective action into the process of thinking and knowing, thereby resisting what Gilles Deleuze calls the Dogmatic Image of Thought.  The dogmatic image is described as a directional movement based on Plato’s allegory of the cave, where those who would learn turn away from phenomenal becoming and move upward and outward towards eternal Truth.  This movement travels from a static unknowing to a static knowledge.  Both PP and PaR resist such movement by employing techniques which forestall arriving at either stasis.  Through their developments, PP and PaR have come to concentrate on resisting one of these points of stasis or the other – with PP concentrating on avoiding static knowing, and PaR concentrating on finding the proper expression to avoid static unknowing, even while presenting its findings in forms that may appear ephemeral. 

Author Biography

Brian Schultis

Brian Schultis received his PhD in drama from the University of Kent in 2016.  His research built theory around Jerzy Grotowski’s Paratheatre and Theatre of sources periods by applying the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari among others. The practical arm of this research, The Sojourner Project investigated performative meetings in relation to landscapes based on travel and transition.  His current interests involve the relation between movement, threads, and textiles and the attendant questions of tension and release.  He teaches at the University of Akron and is an affiliate scholar at Oberlin College, both in Ohio, USA.

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Published

01-02-2019

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2018)

Section

Articles

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