EXPANDED CHOREOGRAPHY: Shifting the agency of movement in The Artificial Nature Project and 69 positions

Summary, in English

Through two books and a series of video documentations of live performances Mette Ingvartsen makes choreography into a territory of physical, artistic and social experimentation. The Artificial Nature Series focusses on how relations between human and non-human agency can be explored and reconfigured through choreography. By investigating and creating a ‘nonhuman theater’ questions regarding material agency, ecology, natural disasters, the Anthropocene and non-subjective performativity are posed. The resulting reflections are closely related to the poetic principles utilized to create the performances, while also drawing connections to territories outside theater. By contrast, 69 positions inscribes itself into a history of human performance with a
focus on nudity, sexuality and how the body historically has been a site for political struggles. By creating a guided tour through sexual performances – from the naked protest actions of the 1960’s, through an archive of
personal performances into a reflection on contemporary sexual practice – this solo work rethinks audience participation and proposes a notion of soft and social choreography. The contrasting performative strategies
articulate a twofold notion of expanded choreography: on the one hand movement is extended beyond the human body by including the agency of nonhuman performers, and on the other hand, movement is expanded into an
imaginary and virtual space thanks to ‘language choreography’.

• Author: Ingvartsen Mette
• Department/s: Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts
• Publishing year: 2016-09-15
• Language: English
• Full text: - 2 MB; - 6 MB; - 7 MB; Download statistics
• Links: https://vimeo.com/164552586; https://vimeo.com/164558381
• Document type: Dissertation
• Topic: Performing Arts
• Keywords: material agency; vibrant matter; sensorial participation; sensorial problems; immersive stage environments; color perception; nonhuman choreography; actants; the Anthropocene; non-subjective performativity; ecology; catastrophe; technological extensions of the body; the triple image; animate/inanimate; expression; action; production of affect; evaporation; dissolution and dispersion; poetics; expanded choreography; Sexuality; sexual liberation; the performance history of the 1960s; protest and politics; ‘language choreography’; orality; storytelling; pornography; affect and economy; expression and liberty; immaterial labor; self-experimentation; dance; ‘soft choreography'; social choreography
• Status: Published
• Defence date: 22 October 2016
• Defence time: 10:30
• Defence place: MDT, Slupskjulsvägen 30, 111 49 Stockholm, Sverige
• Opponent: Adrian Heathfield (Professor)