Getting Together at the PP Conference

[Stuart Grant]

Dear All

It seems there are a lot of us in the phenomenology group. I am wondering how many of us will be at the conference in April. Do we think it would be fruitful to get together in Surrey and discuss the possibility of staging some kind of phenomenology of performance event in the near future?

Also, shortly before Laura started PP, I put out a call for interest for starting an Association for Phenomenology in Performance Studies. We received almost 100 responses. A lot of the people in this group also answered that call. I'd like to discuss whether the members of this group think it would be better to work entirely under the umbrella of this broader organization (with all the advantages that would bring) or whether to also continue to develop a separate presence through an organization devoted entirely to phenomenology.

I'm currently working with Ian Maxwell from University of Sydney on a project to gather up as much as we can of the emerging work by the growing numbers of performers and scholars of performance calling their work phenomenology, to find out what it is we all think we're doing and how it relates to the tradition of phenomenology.

I'd like to meet at the conference with whoever is interested in participating in or contributing to this project, as well as exploring the possibility of future events and projects.

Please let me know if you're interested in any of this.

See you in Guildford.

Stuart

[George Home-Cook]

Dear Stuart,

Having spent the last 5 or 6 years researching and writing on the subject of performance phenomenology I would be very interested in getting involved in an event or publication that is dedicated exclusively to this topic. Not only has phenomenology 'refused to die', as Don Ihde has noted, but one might posit that we are experiencing something of a resurgence in phenomenology as a field of philosophical enquiry. Given what you have identified here it seems to me that it might indeed be fruitful to "bracket" performance phenomenology in order, if nothing else, to discover what such an exercise may bring about. I am particularly interested to explore the manifold ways in which phenomenology as a 'methodological conception' (Heidegger) has been practiced, played out and appropriated by those engaged in practice-based approaches to theatre and performance.

I look forward to meeting you in Guildford.

George

[James Hamilton]

I will be there. And I would like to talk about phenomenological studies of theater.

Jim

[Rachel Sweeney]

Hi Stuart,

I am certainly interested in coordinating our efforts while we are in proximity. The idea of an independent group that focuses on the tradition as it relates to performance and vice versa is of particular relevance where there is such a wealth of emerging writing practices that are succeeding in shifting the experiential register towards more composite terms surrounding body, sensation and place....I look forward to speaking further in Surrey!

Rachel

[Jane Carr]

Dear All

 I can't be at the Thursday session (annoyingly  I have to go on  first aid course) but would like to fnd out more about developments in this field especially in relation to dance and the relationship between performer and audience. If anyone is around on Friday  with some thoughts to share please let me know!