Performing Objects/Performing Philosophy

Shapiro, Carolyn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2987-8111 (2014) Performing Objects/Performing Philosophy. In: Performance Philosophy, April 1-12, 2015, University of Chicago. (Unpublished)

Slideshow (powerpoint presentation) Performing ObjectsPerformance PhilosophyUniversityofChicagoConference.pptx Download (33MB)

Abstract / Summary

The field of "performing objects" comprises object theatre such as puppetry, automata, and toy theatre, as well as object-oriented contemporary philosophies, a split which I discovered upon having organised the conference "Performing Objects" at Falmouth University in October 2013. These two arenas of object-themed scholarship did not tend to converge at all, with the exception of one figure: the automaton. This presentation lays out the huge field which, I propose, can be indexed through delving into philosophical relations between language and happiness. In the presentation, I present a gloss on the term "automaton" which begins to reveal what I see as the split between a more deconstructive recognition of the ambivalence of the automaton figure, and the all-affirming repositioning of the automaton-object within contemporary speculative ontological frameworks.

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