Gabriele Brandstetter

Swarms and Enthusiasts. Transfers in/as Choreography

The movement rules summarizing the principles of swarm formation are set along these or similar lines. These are in fact the simplest rules of a complex movement phenomenon that has recently become more and more topical in different areas of biology, economy, media and art. The projection of the ‘swarm’ phenomenon onto various cultural and social phenomena – from football teams and the movement of global migration to the formation of subversive groups – shows that literal transfers of the term and phenomenon of ‘swarm’ are taking place. However, in this the name itself functions more as an umbrella term than a critical technical term: the arts projects presented under this heading refuse to be appropriated affirmatively – in contrast with the ‘success strategy’ of ‘swarm intelligence’ propagated by Howard Rheingold’s concept of ‘smart mobs’. His ‘smart’ adaptation of the swarm phenomenon to social, economic and organisational processes ‘guarantees the highest profits through swarm intelligence’ and promises change in business models, economy and even society: ‘You can only profit from swarm intelligence if you are part of the whole’. This is a development setting in motion participants as ‘users’, in a movement that involves elitist management experts down to corporation-based, interactive behaviour by ‘consumers’ which is coordinated through media: ‘The majority is smarter than each of its members’.

Dancing the Animal to Open the Human: For a New Poetics of Locomotion

Animals have provided a theme and a model for movements in dance from time immemorial. But what image of man do danced animal portrayals reflect? What questions of human identity and crisis do they reveal? Do the bodies of animals provide symbolic material for the ethical, political, and aesthetic questions raised by mans mastery of nature? The exploration of the boundary between man and animal—in myths and sagas, in the earliest records of ritual and art, and in the history of knowledge—is part of the great nature-versus-nurture debate. In the Bible the relationship is clear: Adam, made in the image of God, gives the animals in Paradise their names. In this way he rules over them—but Thomas Aquinass commentary on this biblical text makes clear that the act of naming animals in Paradise is a step toward mans experiential self-discovery. Since then the hierarchy seems to be beyond doubt. Homo sapien , as the animal significans , is distinguished from other animals by his ability to speak, his upright gait, the use of his hands, and the capacity to use instruments and media—man as what Sigmund Freud called the “prosthetic god” (1966, 44).

The Virtuoso's Stage: A Theatrical Topos

This essay considers the virtuoso in music, theatre and dance as a liminal figure of performativity. It draws on cultural studies as well as the history of science to offer a critical reading which follows the virtuosos oscillation between science and art. The escalating dynamic in the virtuosos technical control of material (of the body, the ‘instrument’, language) leads to a polarization between artistic ‘creation’ and virtuoso performance: the virtuoso thus occupies a seismographic function within the aesthetic debates of the nineteenth century. The article also outlines the relationship between the media and virtuoso performance and the relevance of the anecdote for the virtuosos charismatic impact. This essay will contribute to our understanding of how the contemporary media influenced the virtuoso concept, and address the issue of whether the (partial) disappearance of the virtuoso from the theatre stage translocates the figure of the virtuoso onto other ‘cultural stages’.

„Le laid c’est le beau“ Liebesdiskurs und Geschlechterrolle in Fontanes Roman Schach von Wuthenow

ZusammenfassungFontanes Roman beobachtet den Liebesdiskurs einer Dekadenz- und Militärgesellschaft, die durch Idole eines weiblichen und männlichen point d’honneur, durch die staatstragenden Mythen von Preußentum und Luthertum geprägt ist. Gegen diese Konventionen wird eine Frau zur Schlüsselfigur bei der Erfindung einer anderen Liebessprache, die aus dem Bewußtsein ihrer körperlichen Entstellung entspringt. In der Erprobung dieses kommunikativen Paradoxes zeigt sich die Modernität Fontanes.AbstractFontane’s novel scrutinizes the love-discourse of a society in decadence and dominated by a military caste. Its values are structured by idols of male and female points d’honneur and by myths of Prussia and Lutheranism. A women becomes the key figure of the novel by constructing a new love-discourse against the ruling conventions on the basis of her physical deformity. Fontane’s modernity reveals itself by working through this paradox of communication.

Aufführung e Aufzeichnung: arte da ciência?

Presenca versus representacao, eis a formula recorrente na problematizacao da tematica referente a “evento” e “estetica” tao debatida no contexto da assim chamada “virada performatica” nao apenas nos estudos em danca e teatro, mas no campo transdisciplinar dos cultural studies, ciencias sociais e outras disciplinas. Essa formula chama por outras oposicoes semânticas e seus respectivos discursos na figura da relacao (e trata-se de uma relacao paradoxal) entre Auffuhrung e Aufzeichnung , representacao e registro, evento e documentacao. Neste artigo busco transpor tais oposicoes rigidas e sua estrutura hierarquica para uma configuracao “suave” da relacao entre ambas, refletindo sobre a questao da “arte do evento” no seu duplo sentido teorico e performatico: na tensao que se instaura entre evento como arte e no registro como ciencia e critica.

Duell im Spiegel

Der Film ›Der Student von Prag‹ aus dem Jahr 19131 endet mit einem beruhmt gewordenen cineastischen Effekt: Der Student Balduin schiest auf sein Spiegelbild — und bricht selbst todlich getroffen zusammen. Voraus geht eine Geschichte, nach dem Buch von Hanns Heinz Ewers, die als eine rechte Montage aus romantischen Doppelgangerphantasien konstruiert ist und an die bekannten Texte von Chamisso, E.T. A. Hoffmann, Poe und selbst noch Oskar Wilde denken last. Der Student, der beste Fechter von Prag, verkauft sein Spiegelbild um Geld und Liebe. Er wird schlieslich von seinem Spiegel-Doppelganger in ein dubioses Duell verwickelt und nach und nach in jene verzweifelte Situation getrieben, die zuletzt seine Selbstausloschung mit dem Schus in den Spiegel zur Folge hat. — Vielleicht stellt erst das Medium Film durch die spezifisch filmischen Techniken2 die Moglichkeit bereit, die Simulation des Identischen darzustellen: als eine mise en scene des doublierten Korpers. So inszeniert auch John Woo in seinem Actionfilm ›Face / Off‹3 ein Doppelganger-Duell zwischen Verbrecher und Polizist, ein virtuoses Schies-Duell im Spiegel, das schlieslich das Ende der Verfolgungsjagd herbeifuhrt.