Conveners: Pablo Assumpção Costa & Christine Greiner

This work group aims to (1) advance discussion on the concept of performance as episteme and (2) to create a space for artistic experimentation as a method of theoretical research. The understanding of performance as episteme – as a “way of knowing” reality – forces a questioning of the very nature of knowledge and of research, and suggests that artistic practice and creativity are central operators in so-called theoretical activity. We will draw on theoretical discussions stemming from performance theory, philosophy and contemporary science, and each participant will be expected to work on a specific project that can be either a performance piece, a video, a sound piece, an essay, or whatever combination or destruction of the above.

Biographies

Pablo Assumpção Costa is a performance/video artist, playwright, and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Performance Studies at New York University. Pablo is a full time professor at the Instituto de Cultura e Arte, Universidade Federal do Ceará, in Fortaleza, Brazil (ICA/UFC). His academic interests are experimental ethnography, erotic performance, and the sensorial politics of the body in Brazil.

Christine Greiner is Professor in the Department of Body Languages, Graduate Program of Communication and Semiotics and the Undergraduate Course of Communication and Body Arts at the Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is the author of “Butô, pensamento em evolução”, “Teatro nô e o ocidente”, “O corpo, pistas para estudos indisciplinares”, The  Body in Crisis, and several articles.

Participants

Juliana Borrero
Naira Ciotti
Andrea Paula dos Santos
Roberson Nunes
Gina Ulysee
Christiane Martins
Sandra Gabriela Numpaque
Jussara Sobreira Setenta
Oriana Duarte
Carly Kragthorpe