Location: Zoom Room A / Salle Zoom A

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8075386377?pwd=QGMSB3uhyUxwIbvOIzkUanoMoqRkOX.1

• Francesca Marini, “‘No Archive without Outside’: Embodied Archives and Autobiographical Performance”

In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida writes: “There is no archive without a place of consignation, without a technique of repetition, and without a certain exteriority. No archive without outside.” This quote can be applied to performance and performers, viewed as embodied archives. In this paper, I address the conference’s theme of interiority, and these topics: “the relationship between interiority and embodiment,” and “identity work and the performance of self.” I analyze works by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, Diana Taylor (The Archive and the Repertoire, and “Save As”) and other authors. Based on this analysis, I create a framework for understanding artists as embodied archives. I specifically examine autobiographical performance, in which artists use the creative process to manifest their “interior” (ideas, values, life experiences, memories, thoughts, feelings, trauma…) via the “exterior act” of performance. I apply this framework to Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia. I compare the 1987 movie version to the 2002 live version that I witnessed in Los Angeles, which sadly revealed the artist’s suffering at the time (Gray died by suicide in 2004). Gray’s work is an example of how artists use the “exterior act” of performance to convey meaning and invite audiences into their “interior.” The resulting bond may have lasting effects on the audience. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of future steps, to further develop and apply the framework presented.

• Shabnam Sukhdev, “Practice Makes: An Iterative Approach to Developing Research (Creation) Methodology”

My paper explores the role of iterative research methodologies in understanding performance, with a focus on identity and embodiment. It complicates the interplay between interiority and embodiment, revealing a dynamic relationship that challenges traditional dichotomies of inner thought and outward expression. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s exploration of “lines” as emergent pathways shaped through interaction (2007), the essay considers how cycles of experimentation, reflection, and adjustment, much like desire lines that emerge over time, can illuminate the dynamic interplay between interiority and embodiment.
Building on Natalie Loveless’s argument that research-creation generates knowledge through creative practice (2019), the essay explores how iterative methodologies position artistic processes as integral to understanding identity and performance. It also interrogates how these practices help bridge the gap between the transient nature of live performance and the permanence of recorded mediums. How might technological tools transform our understanding and documentation of embodied practices without diminishing the immediacy and intimacy of live performance? By exploring how performers negotiate these tensions, the essay highlights how Judith Butler’s concept of performativity (1990) – as (gender) identity formed through repeated acts – resonates with iterative research. 
Finally, the essay considers pedagogical implications, asking: How can iterative research, informed by Loveless’s research-creation framework and technological interventions, guide the teaching of performance, encouraging both creative exploration and critical reflection? Blending traditional practices with innovative approaches, this paper constructs a framework for capturing and studying the ephemeral while expanding possibilities for knowledge creation in the field.

• Sarah Waisvisz, “Creating and Collaborating on the Edge (of the River): Symbiosis/Symbiose in Action”

My paper will give an overview and a state-of-the project reflection on a project that is “liminal” in many ways. As a theatre artist, I find myself working at the edge of my own comfort zone as I seek to navigate a nature-based, bilingual, community arts project with two visual artists who live in different cities and countries (Ottawa Canada and Paris France).

First conceived of just before the Pandemic, then moving to online meetings, then eventually to an in-person residency in Ottawa in the summer of 2024, Team Symbiose / Symbiosis is still hanging on, sometimes just by a thread, to our united idea to work together to explore the tension between the urban and the natural worlds, revel in experiences of nature, and to encourage life-long stewardship of the natural world. Symbiose / Symbiosis engages with the current critical climate emergency by inspiring love and awe for the natural world and underlining our role in protecting it, with a focus on liminal environments where nature meets urban development. 

Our planned capstone project is an immersive artistic experience which will invite participants into close relationship with the river. As they walk, cycle, roll, or otherwise ambulate along a designated accessible route on the Pasāpikahigani Zībī – Rideau River, participants will encounter art installations, growing gardens, site-specific theatre performances, teach-ins, and practical workshops about how to live in good relationship with the natural world. 

My presentation for CATR will offer an account of our progress so far, including an attempt to garden with preschoolers; our imperfect engagement with local Indigenous elders; how motherhood changed my approach to time; and the challenges I face as I try to make theatre magic happen with visual artists and community members who don’t necessarily work in my way, but with whom I want to be in good relation.

Biographies

Francesca Marini

Dr. Francesca Marini (she/her) is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. Her research focuses on performing arts documentation and archiving, and on theatre history. She teaches courses on aesthetics of activism, devised theatre, applied theatre, and arts archiving and documentation. 

Shabnam Sukhdev

Shabnam is a multimedia artist, educator, and performance scholar. Grounded in community-engaged scholarship, her interdisciplinary research explores the dynamic interplay between individuals, families, and societies through sociological, psychological, and critical disability frameworks. Her SSHRC-funded inquiry investigates the role of spontaneous performance in fostering authentic connection and communication.

Sarah Waisvisz

As a mixed-race and multi-lingual theatre artist, writer, and scholar, Sarah Waisvisz understands personal and professional liminality. She has created many works for the theatre, both for the stage and beyond, and loves making magic out of nothing with like-minded collaborators.