Symposium / Workshop
April 19th and 20th, 5:30 – 8:30 PM | Virtual on Zoom & In-Person KAC 108
Michigan State University’s Bridge Program and the Art, Art History and Design Department’s announce an online, two-part symposium-workshop on the topic of Microperformativity featuring a stellar international group of participants including Chris Salter (Zürich), Paul Vanouse (Buffalo), Lucie Strecker (Vienna), and Agnes Meyer-Brandis (Berlin). The event will be held on the 19th and 20th, 2022.
The concept of microperformativity denotes a current trend in theories of performativity and performative artistic practices that destabilize human scales (both spatial and temporal) as the dominant plane of reference. Biological and technological microagencies that, beyond the mesoscopic human body, relate the invisibility of the microscopic to the incomprehensibility of the everyday.
‘Bacteria perform processes. Scientists perform experiments. Algorithms perform actions. Humans perform gender and sex. The question is who or what nowadays doesn’t perform?’ asks Chris Salter… all these levels actually become entangled in this issue ‘on microperformativity’.
Through a series of lectures and discussions, this hybrid symposium and workshop presents and analyses biotechnological performances, physiological processes, and micro-gestures, traditional rituals and techniques of craft, as well as microperformativity seen through the lens of the natural sciences, philosophy, the arts, and economics. The most recent special issue‚ On Microperformativity’ edited by Jens Hauser and Lucie Strecker (2020) with the international journal Performance Research, as well as recent thematic festivals and exhibitions will serve as a rich source of concrete examples to be debated, encouraging participants to develop their own approaches of how to get beyond their ‘mesocopic bubble’.
This virtual event will be held on zoom and is free and open to the public but requires preregistration. To register click here.
Workshop Leaders: Jens Hauser & Adam Brown
Contributing Speakers:
Paul Vanouse (Buffalo)
Lucie Strecker (Vienna)
Chris Salter (Zürich)
Agnes Meyer-Brandis (Berlin)
