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ASU professors to present 'Performance as Emergence'


October 05, 2012

In the second installment of the Institute for Humanities Research 2012-13 Faculty Seminar Series, Grisha Coleman, assistant professor, School of Arts, Media and Engineering and Ron Broglio, associate professor, Department of English, will present on “Performance as Emergence,” from noon to 1:30 p.m., Nov. 14, Social Sciences, room 109. RSVP here.

This year’s Faculty Seminar Series is centered on “The Humanities and the Value of Performance.” From notions of mediated performance within literary, filmic, musical and dramatic discourse, to ideas about the ethics, politics and the rhetoric of performance, and the cultural, historical, and religious impact and implication of performance, the humanities contributes important and compelling research for understanding one of the root endeavors that makes us human.

Six ASU faculty members whose research encompasses aspects of performance within artistic and creative practice and cultural theoretical discourse, will present over the course of three dates.

Hybrid Place: Interface, Performance, Environment - Grisha Coleman

Performance events organize space around a stage with onlookers configured to sit as a group and observe the event over a designated period of time. This is an ancient and powerful paradigm of expression and information dissemination. However, contemporary models of networked communication are rapidly shifting the media landscape towards new possibilities for how we can receive and perceive a live event, as well as how we may participate inside of it. echo::system is a fusion of art installation, choreographed multi-media performance and public engagement that looks to mediate a connection between art and science. The goal is to examine intersections of art, environmental sciences and interface design; information and place; performance and public engagement in the practical realization of the work.

Non-Rational Thought, Humor, and the Academy - Ron Broglio

Academic writing and thinking follows a well wrought convention of thesis, cited sources, rationales for arguments and evidence, all buttressed and fortified to ward off attacks to the author’s claims. Considering the act of thinking as a performance art changes everything. If thinking is a performance, then by implication it is a theater with staged effects rather than the singular search for truth that traditional academic writing supposes. This presentation explores performances of non-rational thought or thought at the limits of the sensible. The famous and foundational performance thinker is Diogenes, the Dog of Athens, who refused to enter Plato’s Forum. From there, the lecture will address Nietzsche and contemporary philosopher Simon Critchley on the role of humor in thinking.

Refreshments will be provided. For more information, contact the IHR at 480-965-3000 or ihr@asu.edu.

The Institute for Humanities Research is a unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.