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Artistic transfer : efficiency through unruly thinkingNon-conformist, non-linear, unruly thought and action have always led to great works of art, pathbreaking inventions and forward-looking perspectives. But how can this precious good find its way into our everyday working life to help us deal with social, ecological and economic challenges? The crucial step, Ursula Bertram contends, is to reach a synergy of logically justifiable knowledge and the capacity to navigate in open systems. To find out how such synergy could come about, Ursula Bertram has observed the strategies and principles of artists, choreographers, musicians and unruly thinkers and compared them with the statements of physicists, mathematicians, managers and researchers. She shows that when artistic thought is circulated and probed in non-artistic fields, an extremely efficient pattern called artistic transfer emerges.
With contributions by Werner Preißing and others.
Toward a transindividual self : a study in social dramaturgyToward a Transindividual Self examines the process of performing the self, distinctive for the formation of the self in Western neoliberal societies in the 21st century. It approaches the self from a transdisciplinary angle where political and cultural anthropology, performance studies, and dramaturgy intersect.
Starting from our concern with the crisis of the social, which coincides with the rise of individualism, Bojana and I critically untangle individualist modes of performing the self, such as possessive, aesthetic, and autopoietic individualisms. However, our critique does not make for an argument for collectivism as a socially more viable alternative to individualism. Instead, it confronts us with the more fundamental problem of ontogenesis: how is that which distinguishes me as an individual formed in the first place? This question marks a turning point in our study, where it steps back into the process of individuation, prior to, and in excess of, the individual.
The process of individuation, however, encompasses biological, social, and technological conditions of becoming whose real potential is transindividual, or more specifically, social transformation. A ‘theater of individuation’ (Gilbert Simondon) captures the dramaturgical stroke by which we investigate social relations (like solidarity and de-alienation) in which the self actualizes its transindividual dimension. This epistemic intervention into ontogenesis allows us to expand the horizon of transindividuation in an array of tangible social, aesthetic, and political acts and practices. As with every horizon, the transindividual may not be closely at hand; however, it is certainly within reach, and the book encourages the reader to approach it.
Circus psychology : an applied guide to thriving under the big topThe lives of circus artists can be mentally and physically demanding. Circus Psychology: An applied guide to thriving under the big top is an evidence-based guide to nurturing the mental health of circus artists while enabling them to perform at the peak of their capacities.
The book is organised into three accessible sections: Mental health in circus, Optimising the circus environment to facilitate thriving, and Mental skills for thriving in circus. The first section introduces general mental health concepts, provides insight into the mental health of circus artists, the stress process, and the role of psychological resilience and perfectionism in mental health. The second section offers insight into motivation and engagement in circus, the features of a psychologically safe circus environment, and advice on psychologically supportive talent development environment. The final section explains, applies, and provides practice material for mental skills, including goal setting, self-talk, mental imagery and arousal regulation.
Written by Dr. Fleur van Rens, a circus artist and lecturer in sport psychology, this is an essential resource for those passionate about the mental health of amateurs and professionals in the circus industry.
Parallel minds : discovering the intelligence of materialsInsights into the intelligence throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and under our skin.
Is there a way to understand the materials that surround us not as passive objects, but as other intelligences interacting with our own? In Parallel Minds, expert in materials science and nanotechnology Laura Tripaldi delivers not only detailed insights into the properties and emergent behaviors of matter as revealed by state-of-the-art chemistry, synthetic biology, and nanotech, but also a rich philosophical reflection that crosses the frontier between nature and culture, where the most cutting-edge scientific syntheses resonate with ancient myth. The result is a technomaterial bestiary full of unexpected encounters with “strange minds”—from cobwebs to kevlar and carbon fibre, from centaurs to amoebas to arachnids, from polycephalic slime to resonating plasmons, from viruses to golems.
Parallel Minds reveals the intelligence at large throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and even under our skin. Full of lateral ideas and unexpected images, Tripaldi’s book imbues the study and synthesis of materials with a new urgency. For not only do the materials that surround us participate actively in the construction of the world in which we live, but harnessing their ability to interact intelligently with their environment could be the key to the future of our species.
Notes on creation : perspectives from contemporary circusNotes on Creation is a collection of thoughts and advice on the creative process, gathered from the minds of a diverse range of artists from contemporary circus and performing arts: thinkers, makers, movers, teachers, performers, academics, clowns, choreographers, directors, producers and more.
Oli Pinchbeck and Declan Mee interviewed more than 30 artists on a wide range of subjects related to contemporary performing arts – subjects covered include: Research, Inspiration, Music, Directing, Nudity, Group Work, Dramaturgy, Life As An Artist, Teaching and many more.
The book is presented subject-by-subject and question-by-question, with the artist’s contributions displayed in a bite-sized and conversational style. Easy to dip in to just for inspiration, to dive into a specific topic, or to sit down and read from cover to cover.
The contemporary circus handbook : a guide to creating, funding, producing, organizing and touring shows for the 21st centuryThe Contemporary Circus Handbook: A Guide to Creating, Funding, Producing, Organizing and Touring for the 21st Century is a guide to creating theatrical performance shows, built on interviews with dozens of creators who have made shows—big and small—throughout their careers. The author’s circus background is used as an example of practical steps for any performing artist to navigate: from applying for funding, building a team, planning workshops and residencies, and includes many compelling examples of the characteristics of successful shows. These lessons are applicable to circus, dance and theater as well as most performing arts.
Whether it’s your first foray into creating your own major endeavor—or you’ve got a couple of creations under your belt—you’re sure to find advice to improve your process and bring your dream show to life.
Let's become fungal! : mycelial teaching and the arts : based on conversations with indigenous wisdom keepers, artists, curators, feminists and mycologistsThere is a growing interest in fungi and mycelium as a material, the ever-branching connecting threads of the fungal world. The entanglements and how this rhizomatic network functions is not just a fascinating ecological system and material, but carries a profound usefulness as a metaphor for our potential new systems, ways of thinking and behaviors. Let's Become Fungal! takes its inspiration from the world of art and mycology and shares innovative practices from Latin America and the Caribbean that are rooted in multispecies collaboration, symbiosis, alliances, non-monetary resource exchange, decentralization, bottom-up methods and mutual dependency all in line with the behavior of the mycelium. Every chapter is phrased as a question. They do not lead to answers, but to twelve teachings addressing for instance collaboration, decoloniality, non-linearity, toxicity, mobilization, biomimicry, death, and being non-binary. Simultaneously it ventures deeper into the world of fungi. The teachings from the fungus may inspire artists, collectives, organizations, educators, policy-makers, designers, scientists, anthropologists, change-makers, curators, urbanists, activists, gardeners, community-leaders, farmers, and many others, to become more fungal in their ways of working and being.
Écrire le cirque : l'aventure d'Archaos et la méthode AncarCet ouvrage, structuré comme un récit émaillé de réflexions, raconte au fil du parcours de Raquel, artiste interprète dans toutes les créations d’Archaos de 1988 à 2008 (et metteuse en scène et/ou autrice de 2001 à 2021), l’évolution des processus de création au sein de la compagnie. Le « personnage » principal dévoile ses recherches, ses découvertes, au grès d’une aventure artistique riche et singulière. Par le biais de son regard, Raquel Rache de Andrade nous conduit, avec son partenaire complice Guy Carrara, vers le plaisir, l’expérience et la maîtrise de l’écriture. Ils nous dévoilent finalement leur méthode pour écrire des numéros, scènes, scénarios et spectacles de cirque, méthode qu’ils ont baptisée ANCAR, contraction de leurs noms ANdrade et CARrara. Ainsi, simplement muni d’un papier et d’un crayon, en marge de l’exercice physique, chaque artiste, chaque élève, quel que soit son niveau, chaque enseignant, quel que soit le contexte, accédera plus facilement au mécanisme de la composition et de l’écriture du cirque, en y déployant toute sa créativité.
Les auteurs, Raquel Rache de Andrade et Guy Carrara, ont participé à l’émergence du cirque contemporain au sein de la compagnie Archaos et donnent des stages d’écriture et de composition dramatique depuis plus de
vingt ans à des publics très variés.
Magic : documents of contemporary artThe first accessible reader on magic's generative relationship with contemporary art practice. From the hexing of presidents to a renewed interest in herbalism and atavistic forms of self-care, magic has furnished the contemporary imagination with mysterious and often disorienting bodies of arcane thought and practice. This volume brings together writings by artists, magicians, historians, and theorists that illuminate the vibrant correspondences animating contemporary art's varied encounters with magical culture, inspiring a reconsideration of the relationship between the symbolic and the pragmatic. Dispensing with simple narratives of reenchantment, Magic illustrates the intricate ways in which we have to some extent always been captivated by the allure of the numinous. It demonstrates how magical culture's tendencies toward secrecy, occlusion, and encryption might provide contemporary artists with strategies of remedial communality, a renewed faith in the invocational power of personal testimony, and a poetics of practice that could boldly question our political circumstances, from the crisis of climate collapse to the strictures of socially sanctioned techniques of medical and psychiatric care. Tracing its various emergences through the shadows of modernity, the circuitries of ritual media, and declarations of psychic self-defence, Magic deciphers the evolution of a "magical-critical" thinking that productively complicates, contradicts and expands the boundaries of our increasingly weird present.
The possible : a sociocultural theoryThis book explores an eminently human phenomenon: our capacity to engage with the possible, to go beyond what is present, visible, or given in our existence. Possibility studies are an emerging field of research including topics as diverse as creativity, imagination, innovation, anticipation, counterfactual thinking, wondering, serendipity, the future, social change, hope, agency, and utopia, among others. The present contribution to this wide field is represented by a sociocultural and pragmatist account of the possible grounded in the notions of difference, position, perspective, dialogue, action, and culture. Put simply, this theory proposes that our explorations of the possible are enabled by our human capacity to relate to the world from more than one position and perspective and to understand that any perspective we hold is, at all times, one among many. Such an account transcends the long-standing dichotomy between the possible and the real, a sterile separation that ends up portraying possibility as separate from and even opposed to reality. On the contrary, the theory of the possible advanced in this book goes back to this notion’s etymological roots (the Latin possibilis—“that can be done,” from posse—“to be able”) and considers it as both a precondition and outcome of human action and interaction. Exploring the possible doesn’t take place outside of or in addition to our experience of the world; rather, it infiltrates it from the start, infuses it with new meanings, and ends up transforming it altogether. This book aims to offer conceptual, methodological, and practical tools for all those interested in studying human possibility and cultivating it in education, the workplace, everyday life, and society.
As we see it : artists redefining Black identityAcross photography, sculpture and painting, a new wave of Black artists is challenging persistent tropes in art and wider society to depict a richer portrait of the lives of Black people from all corners of the globe. As We See It brings together 30 image-makers creating visually refreshing narratives on Black cultural identities, and exploring what Blackness brings to the making and viewing of art. How photographers are investigating and representing notions of Black identity in diverse new ways; Includes photographers who are both exploring the history of Black visual identity while also resetting its future; Full of visually refreshing and challenging narratives--including depictions of Black joy and love, as well as queer and non-binary identities, and images that underline photography's role in challenging stereotypical visual identities; Images come from across the world and straddle the worlds of portraiture, documentary, fashion and fine art; Artists included: Prince Gyasi, Nadine Ijewere, Campbell Addy, Chris Facey, Emeka Okereke, Lina Iris Viktor, Braylen Dion, Girma Berta, Kenny Germé, Naima Green, Mikael Owunna, David Nana Opoku Ansah, Lebohang Kganye, Dario Calmese, Melissa Alcena, Davey Adesida, Takeisha Jefferson, Atong Atem, Donavon Smallwood, Henry J. Kamara, Zithelo Bobby Mthombeni, Ronan Mckenzie, Rahima Gambo, Allison Janae Hamilton, Sedrick Chisom, Lunga Ntila, Jodi Minnis, Délio Jasse, Joana Choumali and Emma Prempeh.
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