Performing Virtual Borders and Acts of Intersubjectivity: interrogating Station House Opera’s telematic performance At Home In London and Gaza (2018) ##conf1264 (Paper 2 of Borders, Performance and Performativity 1)

Kelly, Jem (2021) Performing Virtual Borders and Acts of Intersubjectivity: interrogating Station House Opera’s telematic performance At Home In London and Gaza (2018) ##conf1264 (Paper 2 of Borders, Performance and Performativity 1). In: Royal Geographical Society IBG Annual International Conference 2021, SW7 2AR, London.

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Abstract

Deleuzian theories of the rhizome correspond closely to virtual networks and resonate with telematic performances, in which remote bodies and distant spaces are brought together via Internet connections.. This paper interrogates Station House Opera’s telematic performance, At Home In London and Gaza, in which performers co-located in a theatre in Gaza and Battersea Arts Centre are brought together in a palimpsestic image on screens in each geographical location. Conjoined tasks of performers create points of connection and discrete lines of flight, producing visual cohesion or semantic ruptures in the palimpsestic screen images. The inherent instability of the performers in the virtual space of the screen produces an assemblage in which comparisons of lived experiences of the performers in Gaza and London become problematic. Whilst illusory theatrical forms employ a vertical axis of representation depending upon distinct differences, I will argue that the horizontal relations of At Home in London and Gaza operate by attenuating physical boundaries and barriers. The interpenetration of objects and bodies and the consensual exchanges of lived experiences both collapse distance and blur individual and cultural identities. As Deleuze posits, ‘The task of life is to make all these repetitions coexist in a space in which difference is distributed’ (1994: xix), which is an apt description of a creative process in which acts of cyberperformance operate through a series of planned encounters, rather than precise rehearsals as performers’ bodies engage in a pas de deux with technology.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Depositing User:	RED Unit Admin
Date Deposited:	02 Jul 2021 08:06
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2021 08:06
URI:	https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18355

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