PSi Performance and Philosophy working group
Annual Meeting
27.6.09
Agenda
1. Introduction / Welcome – Laura Cull
2. Report from Making and Thinking
3. Proposals for future meetings
4. Documents – the story so far
5. Proposals for future activities
1. Introduction
Growth of the group
- around 40 people have joined the wiki site that was set up last August (2008)
- 100 people have signed up to the jiscmail email list which was created in January (2009)
Use of the group’s facilities
- All members are invited to use the jiscmail list to distribute information, ask questions, pose problems etc. related to performance and philosophy – if you find it difficult to make time to visit the forum on the wiki which can also be used for those purposes.
- The wiki also hosts a members database which has about 40 entries on it so far. If you’ve not already added a note of your research interests and contact details to this list, please do send them to me.
2. Report from Making and Thinking
“Making and Thinking: Performance and Philosophy as Participation” was a one day symposium hosted by the PSi Performance and Philosophy Working Group and the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies’ Centre for Theatre, Performance and Philosophy at Aberystwyth University on the 31st January 2009.
The event was extremely well attended with over 70 speakers and delegates from as far afield as Tel Aviv, Helsinki and Lisbon coming to participate.
The symposium consisted of a series of panel sessions book-ended by two discussions: the first with the eminent visual cultures theorist, Alexander García Düttmann in conversation with Karoline Gritzner, and the second with the renowned performance company, Lone Twin in conversation with Carl Lavery. In total, there were 14 invited speakers, all of whom provided fascinating insights into the relationship between performance and philosophy, and the specific role played by participation in both practices.
There is a video document of the majority of the papers given at the event. If you would like to obtain a copy, please contact Laura Cull (ku.ca.airbmuhtron|lluc.arual#ku.ca.airbmuhtron|lluc.arual)
3. Proposals for future inter-conference meetings
In the meeting, the Chair invited proposals for future inter-conference meeting from members. This year's meeting in Aberystwyth was financially supported in part by seed-funding from PSi (now called the regional research clusters initiative) but primarily by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies’ Centre for Theatre, Performance and Philosophy. As such, the group now needs to find another venue in which an inter-conference meeting might be hosted, and a department willing to support such an event in kind. Since the last event was hosted in the UK, it would be great to have a second meeting elsewhere.
If you think your institution/department might be willing to support such an event, please contact the Chair.
4. Documents – the story so far
The 1st issue of Documents - an online publishing initiative for and by members of the PPWG - is currently being prepared by the editorial team: Laura Cull, Kelina Gotman and Jon Sherman. The journal will be published on Issu.com - an online journal hosting site.
See http://psi-ppwg.wikidot.com/documents-call-for-contributions for the original call for papers.
We were hoping to have the issue out by September 1st, but due to delays in the submissions process, publication is likely to take place later in the Autumn. As such, if you would still like to make a contribution, you can submit it to the editors for the first issue if you send it before Aug 1.
If you would like to be on the editorial team for the 2nd issue, please contact the Chair.
5. Proposals for future activities
A number of potential future activities were discussed at the meeting:
* PSi 16 - Toronto. Various suggestions were made as to how the working group might participate in the next conference, including: a seminar around a key text for the field of philosophy and performance; a roundtable addressing the ontology of performance and 'publics'; inviting participation from philosophers on a panel
* Application for PSi regional research cluster. The working group could apply for funds from this new initiative. The deadline will be May 2010. Only one event will be funded per year - with an award of around £2-3000. This could be a research project / event / symposium etc. The PPWG could apply for money to do an inter-conference meeting in 2010/11. However, the Chair noted that future PPWG events will still have to largely generate their own funding, rather than thinking of PSi as an organization as a source of money. We need to look for external sources of funding or support in kind to support our activities.
* Joint meeting with other Performance & Philosophy groups. Both ATHE (USA) & TaPRA (UK) have Performance and Philosophy working groups. Dan Watt from Loughborough, who was present at the meeting, is the co-chair of the latter and we are in discussion about the possibilities of doing some kind of joint event. Likewise, Josh Abrams, who has been a strong supporter of the PPWG is chair of the ATHE group - so we are well placed to develop some kind of collaboration.
* Performance Research. Laura Cull is working with Karoline Gritzner (Aberystwyth) and Ric Allsopp to develop a proposal for an issue of Performance Research on the topic of Participation and Philosophy. This proposed issue will in some ways be a response to Making and Thinking, but will not be a publication of conference proceedings. However, there is likely to be a CFP in due course, should the proposal be accepted by the editors of Performance Research.
