BRAZILIAN JOURNAL ON PRESENCE STUDIES (Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença): PERFORMANCE PHILOSOPHY CALL FOR PAPERS

[Lindsay Gianoukas]

The Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies [Revista Brasileira de Estudos da
Presença], an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that does not
charge any submission or publication fees, invites submissions of
unpublished papers within the scope of the general topic PERFORMANCE
PHILOSOPHY before the deadline of April 30, 2019. 

In recent years, Performance Studies scholars have moved beyond philosophy
as a method to be analytically employed to study performance. Rather,
performance and philosophy – or performing and philosophizing – are seen
as inextricably linked. In both disciplines, the question of the
relationship to the real or to presence remains contested. This connection
led not only to a major reconfiguration of the Performing Arts as a field of
study, but also to the rise of a new paradigm. New perspectives are still
taking hold, in which thought is necessarily “embodied”, that is,
profoundly rooted in both the body and the world, and construed as
inseparable from them. Thus, questions like 'What is Performance?' And 'How
does Performance think?', and so forth, have emerged and defy us to think
beyond the dichotomies and structures built in Modernity. These questions
imply the birth of a brand-new field, not a new “philosophy of
performance”, but rather something radically different; not a simple turn
inside Performance Studies, but a new field of scholarship, artistic
practice and investigation: Performance Philosophy; Philosophy as
Performance; Performance as Philosophy.

Arts-based researchers are engaging with philosophy inside a new perspective
that characterizes a broader interdisciplinary phenomenon, coming from
Philosophy but also from other disciplines. What seemed to be a
“philosophical turn” inside the Performance Studies, grew into a new
field, due to a myriad of new publications on the subject. On the other
hand, this update took place through a shift towards the corporeal presence
of the performer, insofar as Performance as a paradigm has also replaced the
mise-en-scène of representation as a key metaphor. Theatre ceases to be a
mirror of reality, just as the world can no longer be considered a
metaphysical reflection of another order of reality. The change is, in fact,
radical. And if it seems that a philosophical turn took place in Theatre and
Performance Studies, then it is also that a performative turn is underway in
Philosophy and in the Humanities in general. In 2008, the Performance and
Philosophy Working Group was created within Performance Studies
International to reflect and cultivate this growing dialogue, culminating in
2012 with the creation of the professional association, Performance
Philosophy: today an international network of almost 3000 researchers and
artists from over 56 different countries, which produces biennial meetings
and edits numerous publications. Although many issues remain (deliberately)
open, addressed by different and contradictory traditions, there is a
growing bibliography on the subject. Within this context, modern dichotomies
between thought and body, language and action, word and gesture, lost their
meaning insofar as the epistemological field of Theatre and Performance (and
the Humanities in general) is being radically questioned. Over the last few
years, we have been focussing this perspective with the rise of a new field
of studies, Performance Philosophy, an interdisciplinary field of thought,
creative processes and research, which addresses the relationship between
Performance and Philosophy within a wide range of philosophical traditions
and performance practices, including aspects of theatre, performing arts,
dance, art and music. Indeed, it also includes studies of the performative
aspects of life and human existence and of philosophy itself – seen as a
specific "performance of thought". 

The terms "Performance" and "Philosophy" establish a zone of friction within
which each term needs to be repositioned. To think of the possible
intersections between Philosophy and Performance is to go far beyond the
restricted definitions of each of these terms, for a whole new
interdisciplinary field has been strengthened by the writings of forerunners
such as Friedrich Nietzsche (who thinks the body as the place of the
philosophical event) or Antonin Artaud (in suggesting that there are
thoughts that cannot be expressed in words, and presenting us with the
"still radical" idea that there is a type of language capable of finding
expression only through gesture, not words). More recently, authors such as
Gilles Deleuze (and his view of the "Theatre of Philosophy"), as well as
Alain Badiou, who defends the independence of art as thought and language,
and even François Laruelle’s non-standard philosophy, have helped us to
think beyond the limits of what tradition has established for each term. In
order to promote the problematization of relations between Performance &
Philosophy, this thematic session – the first one related to this emerging
field to be published in Latin America – intends to offer an opportunity
to explore this friction zone from different perspectives, through assorted
articles from national and foreign authors. Theoretical essays, articles
from empirical and / or historical research on the relations between
Performance and Philosophy can be submitted, in relation to one or more of
the following topics:

-       The history of the relationship between Philosophy and Performance –
including Theatre, Music, Dance, Performance Art etc.
-       The turn towards Philosophy within Performance Studies.
-       The emergence of Performance Philosophy as a new field.
-       The ‘pre-history’ of Performance Philosophy / performance philosophy
avant la lettre.
-       A Performative Philosophy or a Philosophical Performance?
-       Performance as a device / image of thought.
-       Global understandings of the performance-philosophy relationship.
-       How does Performance "think" or “philosophize”?
-       Performance as "embodied thought".
-       The artist-philosopher and the research in arts.
-       Performing as a way of philosophizing.
-       Performance philosophy as method for art-based-research.
-       Limits, specificities and the future of Performance Philosophy as a zone
of friction and emerging paradigm.
-       Non-standard philosophies.
-       The artist as a philosopher or the philosopher as an artist?
-       Performance events as the philosophical engagement of bodies.
-       Performance, Phenomenology and the hermeneutic circle.
-       The role of performance in emerging theories such as affect, new
materialism, posthumanism and non-representation.
-       The Theatre of Philosophy and the Metaphysics of theatre.
-       Theatre, the crisis of representation and of metaphysics.
-       Performance Philosophy and the Contemporary Scene.
-       Performance Philosophy, subjectivity and formation.
-       Performance Philosophy and the contemporary challenges in the art field.

The Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies accepts articles resulting from
research conceptually linked to the fields of philosophy, performance,
Theatre, dance and other similar languages, paying special attention to
those using images and videos to develop their reflections. It also accepts
articles from interconnected, related fields, which establish a dialogue
with the Presence terms. Submissions should conform to the journal's
standards and be posted directly into our submission system, where they will
go through our general evaluation process. In order to submit a paper for
this call, it is essential to select the proper section (Performance
Philosophy). We remind you that the journal does not charge for the
submission or the publication and uses the double-blind peer-review system.
The text can be sent in Portuguese, Spanish, English or French and will be
published in two languages. Authors who send texts in Portuguese and Spanish
(and those who are Portuguese speaking) will be asked to send a translation
in English. The journal will provide the translation to Portuguese of those
papers sent in English or French whose authors are native in these
languages. Additional information can be found in our website,
www.seer.ufrgs.br/presenca; our guidelines can be found in “Author
Guidelines”.