AGxKANSAI 2022 Art and Philosophy in the 22nd Century After ARAKAWA+GINS

Date: March 11–15, 2022 Venue: Kyoto University of the Arts, Kyoto, Japan
(on-site and online)

Online Lecture 1 (E/J)
Beings Do Not Preexist Their Relatings

Adrienne Hart English session with Japanese translation

* Please visit the following website for the videos shown in the lecture:
https://www.neondance.org/puzzle-creature

Vernon Lee, best known for her work on aesthetics at the turn of the 20th century, described how ‘the subjective inside us can turn into the objective outside'. Lee's Beauty and Ugliness, which was first published in the Contemporary Review in 1897 noted physical changes in the body when looking upon art and architecture. She hinted at our entangled nature with things. Ian Hodder in Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things (2012) suggests ‘the lack of inertness is linked to the lack of isolation'. He speculates in a thought experiment that only a child born suspended in darkness deprived of all external stimuli unable to even touch and therefore learn from its own body might escape such a fate that ‘The thing ties people together, and into relations of dominance and subordination'. In towns and cities our environment is often a constructed one. Are we creating smart environments that (like the architectural works of Arakawa and Madeline Gins) resist all compulsions toward habit, routine, acceptance, inevitability, and any other kind of corporeal or conceptual determination? Where would that lead the body? This lecture will embark on a series of proposals for interventions that are informed by and demonstrate the inter-connectedness of the ‘architectural body'. A thorough re-visioning of our relationship to constructed spaces and experiences; an open challenge to reinvent and discover our full potential.

Adrienne Hart works internationally as a choreographer and as Artistic Director of Neon Dance. Adrienne has worked in Russia, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Kosovo, Japan, USA, and extensively in the UK. Her work has been commissioned and supported by Arts Council England, British Council, Creative England, Sadler's Wells, The Place, Modern Art Oxford, Glastonbury Festival, Reversible Destiny Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, South West Creative Technology Network, Pavilion Dance South West and Art Front Gallery amongst others. Commissions include working with Sadler's Wells resident over 60's performance group Company of Elders and 'Puzzle Creature', inspired by artist / architect duo Arakawa and Madeline Gins, invited to premiere as part of Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Japan).

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