Song of the Goat Theatre: Artistic Practice as Life Practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-272
Author(s):  
Anna Porubcansky

In this article Anna Porubcansky discusses the work of Song of the Goat Theatre not only in its artistic practice, but as a life practice. Based in Wrocław in Poland, the group continues a Polish tradition of experimental theatre practice as seen in the work of Juliusz Osterwa, Jerzy Grotowski, and Włodzimierz Staniewski. A fundamental influence on Song of the Goat has been the belief in Buddhism of its co-founders Grzegorz Bral and Anna Zubrzycki, which has shaped a performance practice rooted in the principles of interconnection and compassion. The group focuses its work on ‘coordination’, an approach that seeks to create a profound sense of harmony within and between each actor and every element of his or her work through training, improvising, and research on diverse songs, dances, myths, and rituals. Maintaining connection to the world through this material, Bral and Zubrzycki extend the group's artistic work through social projects such as the Brave Festival, which celebrates lost and dying cultural traditions in an attempt to create a performance practice that is actively integrated with the social world. Few academic publications are available on Song of the Goat, and this article draws on three years of extensive fieldwork with the company, utilizing interviews and personal observations of training, rehearsals, expeditions, and performance development for its most recent production, Macbeth. Anna Porubcansky is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London.

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Lagaay

The concept of "Creative Indifference" put forward by Salomo Friedlaender in his 1918 magnum opus, Schöpferische Indifferenz, provides much food for thought from a Performance Philosophy perspective. Friedlaender's work, which has been largely overlooked by academic philosophers until now, was in fact hugely influential in expressionist Dada circles at the time of its publication. It also contributed to shaping Gestalt Therapy theories and practice, thereby relating to a number of bodywork movements that continue to inform performance practice and Performance Philosophy alike. In this short text, Alice Lagaay begins to explore the manner in which Friedlaender/Mynona can be seen as a Performance Philosopher “avant la lettre”, and how the notion of "Creative Indifference” might be fruitful in the ongoing "Mind-the-Gap”- debate relating to the relation between “Performance" and "Philosophy".


Maska ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (203-204) ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Ana Dubljević

This text is offering an overview of principles of feminist dramaturgical thinking, that have been identified and used in research on feminist dramaturgy through theoretical and practical work on the performance Still to Come, a Feminist Pornscape. Some of the principles are: the principle of bell hooks, the principle of relationality, the principle of significant otherness, the principle of negative capability, the principle of critters, and they can be related to a variety of aspects of politics and ethics in artistic practice. The text is an ending chapter of The Feminist Pornscapes, on Feminist Dramaturgical Thinking in Dance and Performance Practice book and is intentionally only sketching the current reach of the proposed principles with the wish to welcome the reader into a conversation, to pave the way for more thorough elaborations that are still to come.


Kick It ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Matt Brennan

This chapter explains the motivations for researching the social history of the drum kit. It traces the history of drummer jokes and outlines the structure of the chapters to follow. Chapter 1 traces the racist roots of linking drummers to primitive stereotypes and contrasts this against the cleverness of drummers that culminated in the invention of the drum. Chapter 2 shows how drummers in fact contributed to redefining the boundaries between noise and music. Chapter 3 reveals how drummers developed new conventions of literacy while standardizing both the components and performance practice of their instrument. Chapter 4 examines the development of the status of drummers as creative artists. Chapter 5 looks at drumming as a form of musical labour. Chapter 6 considers attempts to replace the drum kit and drummers with new technologies, and how such efforts ultimately underscored the centrality of the drum kit as part of the contemporary soundscape.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-89
Author(s):  
Chengzhou He

Throughout his career as a theatre director, Jerzy Grotowski encountered many different theatre cultures, which both collided with and were synthesized in his own practices. Confronted with Cold War mindsets and ideological constraints, Grotowski’s theatrical art reflects a kind of cosmopolitan spirit by embracing a common humanity. Analysing Grotowski’s biography alongside his theatrical innovations and theoretical thinking, this article aims to investigate the following three aspects of his theatrical cosmopolitanism: his encounters with different performance cultures in his theatrical concept of ‘poor theatre’, his advocacy of universal ethics in his representative theatrical production Akropolis, and his belief in world citizenship reflected in his concept of ‘art as vehicle’ from the later years of his career. As a pioneer in the contemporary experimental theatre and performance, Grotowski travelled, lived and worked all over the world, transcending the geographical and ideological divide between the Socialist and the Capitalist blocs during the Cold War. The adverse social conditions of the time did not hinder his creativity, but rather instigated his unmatched artistic talent and his cosmopolitan spirit, both of which are deeply interconnected and integrated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Adam Pultz Melbye

In this article I describe the development of a performance practice with a new electroacoustic instrument – the FAAB (feedback-actuated augmented bass). Drawing on a background in improvisation, I discuss how the feedback-induced behaviour of the instrument sets it apart from an acoustic bass and how the implementation of operationally closed digital signal processing algorithms facilitates greater systemic autonomy. In identifying resistance as a key feature of improvisation, I propose the term ‘diachronic mastery’ as a way of addressing the equilibration of sensorimotor schemes in the context of developing a performance practice with a complex hybrid system such as the FAAB. Through a discussion of the term ‘agency’ as it appears in recent literature, I develop a preliminary framework for addressing both the immediate experience of agency emerging in performance ecosystems and the biologically informed definition of the term that may be useful in the design of increasingly autonomous instruments and performance systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 384 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-232
Author(s):  
P. V. Menshikov ◽  
G. K. Kassymova ◽  
R. R. Gasanova ◽  
Y. V. Zaichikov ◽  
V. A. Berezovskaya ◽  
...  

A special role in the development of a pianist as a musician, composer and performer, as shown by the examples of the well-known, included in the history of art, and the most ordinary pianists, their listeners and admirers, lovers of piano music and music in general, are played by moments associated with psychotherapeutic abilities and music features. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the psychotherapeutic aspects of performing activities (using pianists as an example). The research method is a theoretical analysis of the psychotherapeutic aspects of performing activities: the study of the possibilities and functions of musical psychotherapy in the life of a musician as a “(self) psychotherapist” and “patient”. For almost any person, music acts as a way of self-understanding and understanding of the world, a way of self-realization, rethinking and overcoming life's difficulties - internal and external "blockages" of development, a way of saturating life with universal meanings, including a person in the richness of his native culture and universal culture as a whole. Art and, above all, its metaphorical nature help to bring out and realize internal experiences, provide an opportunity to look at one’s own experiences, problems and injuries from another perspective, to see a different meaning in them. In essence, we are talking about art therapy, including the art of writing and performing music - musical psychotherapy. However, for a musician, music has a special meaning, special significance. Musician - produces music, and, therefore, is not only an “object”, but also the subject of musical psychotherapy. The musician’s training includes preparing him as an individual and as a professional to perform functions that can be called psychotherapeutic: in the works of the most famous performers, as well as in the work of ordinary teachers, psychotherapeutic moments sometimes become key. Piano music and performance practice sets a certain “viewing angle” of life, and, in the case of traumatic experiences, a new way of understanding a difficult, traumatic and continuing to excite a person event, changing his attitude towards him. It helps to see something that was hidden in the hustle and bustle of everyday life or in the patterns of relationships familiar to a given culture. At the same time, while playing music or learning to play music, a person teaches to see the hidden and understand the many secrets of the human soul, the relationships of people.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 742-762
Author(s):  
Michael Ryan Skolnik ◽  
Steven Conway

Alongside their material dimensions, video game arcades were simultaneously metaphysical spaces where participants negotiated social and cultural convention, thus contributing to identity formation and performance within game culture. While physical arcade spaces have receded in number, the metaphysical elements of the arcades persist. We examine the historical conditions around the establishment of so-called arcade culture, taking into account the history of public entertainment spaces, such as pool halls, coin-operated entertainment technologies, video games, and the demographic and economic conditions during the arcade’s peak popularity, which are historically connected to the advent of bachelor subculture. Drawing on these complementary histories, we examine the social and historical movement of arcades and arcade culture, focusing upon the Street Fighter series and the fighting game community (FGC). Through this case study, we argue that moral panics concerning arcades, processes of cultural norm selection, technological shifts, and the demographic peculiarities of arcade culture all contributed to its current decline and discuss how they affect the contemporary FGC.


Notes ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 907
Author(s):  
Tilden A. Russell ◽  
Valerie Walden

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Budden ◽  
Joanna Sofaer

This article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Age.


2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 1853-1876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Raco

The reform of regional governance in the United Kingdom has been, in part, premised on the notion that regions provide new territories of action in which cooperative networks between business communities and state agencies can be established. Promoting business interests is seen as one mechanism for enhancing the economic competitiveness and performance of ‘laggard’ regions. Yet, within this context of change, business agendas and capacities are often assumed to exist ‘out there’, as a resource waiting to be tapped by state institutions. There is little recognition that business organisations' involvement in networks of governance owes much to historical patterns and practices of business representation, to the types of activities that exist within the business sector, and to interpretations of their own role and position within wider policymaking and implementation networks. This paper, drawing on a study of business agendas in post-devolution Scotland, demonstrates that in practice business agendas are highly complex. Their formation in any particular place depends on the actions of reflexive agents, whose perspectives and capacities are shaped by the social, economic, and political contexts within which they are operating. As such, any understanding of business agendas needs to identify the social relations of business as a whole, rather than assuming away such complexities.


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