From the U.S. With Love
Format: Multimedia, multi-sensory, site-specific, participatory performance
Length: Durational throughout the conference, culminating in a final live 60-minute participatory performance
In this site-specific, multi-sensory, participatory performance From the U.S. With Love we will create a space for meditation on questions concerning love, desire, communication, intimacy, knowledge, subjectivity, surveillance, security, and privacy. Participants will sign up in advance, provide their phone numbers, and receive a series of text messages starting at the beginning of the conference. This communication will culminate in a final, 60-minute live performance on the final day of the conference. The performance starts in the assigned conference room, followed by a short guided walk toward Medici Fountain, during which the participants will listen to an audio track (via smartphone or other audio device with headphones) made available in advance. Once by the Medici Fountain, the participants will be arranged in smaller groups on picnic blankets and provided with cheese and wine. There, a dialogue initiated by the performers and activated by reproduced and found love letters distributed to the participants will be accompanied by a soundtrack of classic love songs in English played on cassette tapes. The found love letters will be excerpts from love letters of famous philosophers, as well as online blogs, journals, and other sources presented anonymously. Participants will be invited to read aloud an excerpt of the provided letters in a language of their choice, and to compose a love letter and send a part of it to a person of their own desire via their smartphone. While on the way back to the conference space, the participants will listen to a final audio track.
In order to participate, participants must have a smartphone or audio device with headphones, onto which they will download two audio tracks in advance of the live performance. Participants must also registerin advance, providing their phone numbers and email addresses by sending a participation request to madison.performance.philosophy[@]gmail.com.
This performance workshop is presented by Madison Performance Philosophy Collective members Thomas Armbrecht, Erin Briddick, James Burling, Tomislav Longinovic, Dijana Mitrovic, Andrew Salyer, and Katrina Schaag.
Madison Performance Philosophy Collective is a new, interdisciplinary assemblage of artist-scholars in the Madison, WI area. We are a regional branch of the international research network Performance Philosophy. Our current members are Tom Armbrecht, Erin Briddick, James Burling, Kat Lieder, Tomislav Longinović, Megan Marsh-McGlone, Jon McKenzie, Dijana Mitrović, Frédéric Neyrat, Michael Peterson, Andrew Salyer, and Katie Schaag. We received a grant from Performance Philosophy for our April 2014 interim event, “Mad Theory.” Our interests and experiences range from theatre and drama to relational aesthetics to new media to political philosophy, and we are each, to varying degrees, both artists and scholars.
Duration: 60 min
