SM6305 Media art theory amp practice

Critical amp Creative Intervention a ldquoPerformativerdquo approach

Linda Lai

March 27 2008

language as enunciation

Two kinds of theory of language have been challenged

(1) historicist models -take evolutionary and developmental approaches

-languages mutate and shift through time and cultural space

Evolutionary view assumes the more recent the better

(2) structural linguistics- langue and parole Look at language as a closed system

Whole determines the part

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(1) Wittgenstein bull language as usebull there is no unity of language but only clusters of usage

governed by a system of rules untranslatable into those of others ndash ldquolanguage-gamesrdquo family resemblances

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(2) JL Austin Speech Act Theory

Language is not just about signification or naming Every utterance is directing towards intention and action

The act of speech = the speaking of an act

Performativity things might be done with wordsIllocutionary acts of speech Vs perlocutionary acts of speech

bull Actions performed by virtue of words (illocutionary acts 語內表現行為的 )bull Actions performed as a consequence of words the name performs itself an

d in the process of performing the name becomes a thing done (perlocutionary acts 語言表達效果的 )

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

Revisionist views on language a summary

Historicist amp Structuralist view of language

Everyday Language Theories

[Wittgenstein Speech Act Theories]

Key distinctions

The importance of meaning-makingThe location of meanings

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

language as enunciation

Two kinds of theory of language have been challenged

(1) historicist models -take evolutionary and developmental approaches

-languages mutate and shift through time and cultural space

Evolutionary view assumes the more recent the better

(2) structural linguistics- langue and parole Look at language as a closed system

Whole determines the part

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(1) Wittgenstein bull language as usebull there is no unity of language but only clusters of usage

governed by a system of rules untranslatable into those of others ndash ldquolanguage-gamesrdquo family resemblances

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(2) JL Austin Speech Act Theory

Language is not just about signification or naming Every utterance is directing towards intention and action

The act of speech = the speaking of an act

Performativity things might be done with wordsIllocutionary acts of speech Vs perlocutionary acts of speech

bull Actions performed by virtue of words (illocutionary acts 語內表現行為的 )bull Actions performed as a consequence of words the name performs itself an

d in the process of performing the name becomes a thing done (perlocutionary acts 語言表達效果的 )

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

Revisionist views on language a summary

Historicist amp Structuralist view of language

Everyday Language Theories

[Wittgenstein Speech Act Theories]

Key distinctions

The importance of meaning-makingThe location of meanings

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(1) Wittgenstein bull language as usebull there is no unity of language but only clusters of usage

governed by a system of rules untranslatable into those of others ndash ldquolanguage-gamesrdquo family resemblances

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(2) JL Austin Speech Act Theory

Language is not just about signification or naming Every utterance is directing towards intention and action

The act of speech = the speaking of an act

Performativity things might be done with wordsIllocutionary acts of speech Vs perlocutionary acts of speech

bull Actions performed by virtue of words (illocutionary acts 語內表現行為的 )bull Actions performed as a consequence of words the name performs itself an

d in the process of performing the name becomes a thing done (perlocutionary acts 語言表達效果的 )

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

Revisionist views on language a summary

Historicist amp Structuralist view of language

Everyday Language Theories

[Wittgenstein Speech Act Theories]

Key distinctions

The importance of meaning-makingThe location of meanings

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Revisionist views on language

Everyday language theories 日常語言學派

(2) JL Austin Speech Act Theory

Language is not just about signification or naming Every utterance is directing towards intention and action

The act of speech = the speaking of an act

Performativity things might be done with wordsIllocutionary acts of speech Vs perlocutionary acts of speech

bull Actions performed by virtue of words (illocutionary acts 語內表現行為的 )bull Actions performed as a consequence of words the name performs itself an

d in the process of performing the name becomes a thing done (perlocutionary acts 語言表達效果的 )

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

Revisionist views on language a summary

Historicist amp Structuralist view of language

Everyday Language Theories

[Wittgenstein Speech Act Theories]

Key distinctions

The importance of meaning-makingThe location of meanings

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Revisionist views on language a summary

Historicist amp Structuralist view of language

Everyday Language Theories

[Wittgenstein Speech Act Theories]

Key distinctions

The importance of meaning-makingThe location of meanings

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip

Societycultureauthoritieseducationtraditions

Everyday life setting the ordinary person

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

The importance of meaning-making

Meaningssignifier-signifier usage use performance intention amp actions inventive activities

（重點）意義符碼 符號變為應用指向行為意義的創造性

SignificationRepresentation the constant act to question and play with signifiers and to overthrow stable meanings

（重點）表徵再現意義 符碼的修正和再造變為無限延伸的嬉戲解構顛覆

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity

Things might be done with words

A word not only signifies a thing but that the signification will also be an enactment of the thing

(Speech Act Theory)

Act amp process of speech gt settled meanings

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida

Critique of Western intellectual traditionsbull Critique of ldquologocentrismrdquo the dependence on fixed a priori trans

cendental meanings that is universal meanings concepts and forms of logic within human reason before any other kinds of thinking occurs

bull Critique of ldquophonocentrismrdquo that is priority to sounds and speech over writing

bull Critique of stabilized meanings (To him meaning can only be generated through the play of signifiers and therefore cannot be fixed Words carry multiple meanings)

[reference chapter on Derrida in Chris Barkerrsquos Cultural Studies an introduction see handout]

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity-Derrida-Differance

Differance (Vs ldquologocentrismrdquo)

ndash Language is non-representational meaning is unstable and constantly slides away

ndash Meaning is always generated via difference 差異 and deferral

ndash Every articulation of a signifier bears a trace of its previous articulations

ndash The relation between a word and its meaning is that of ldquosupplementrdquo and not identity

bull There is no pure referentiality

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity-Derrida-Writing

Writing (Vs ldquophonocentrismrdquo)

ndash Writing is not secondary to speechndash Truths are not outside the act of writing and t

he subject who writes

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction

Deconstruction ldquoword playrdquordquowriting performancesrdquo

bull To deconstruct means to take apart to undo to reveal the underlying assumption

bull Deconstruction involves destroying the hierarchical binary oppositions 二元对立

bull To deconstruct is to place a word under erasure

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading Writing and Performing

Influence from Speech Act Theory amp Derridarsquos deconstructionism

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Reading 解读

to deconstruct 解构 (to take someone down exposing what fails to work at the level of appearance) via interpretation

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Writing书写

ldquoThe politics of writingrdquo 书写的政治 necessarily foregrounding stylecalling into question ordinary language -- eg grammar and style narrativity etc ndash to look at how we structure the world via language in order to bring ldquonewnessrdquo to the world

[Source Salih Sara and Judith Butler (eds) 2004 The Judith Butler Reader Malden (MA) Oxford (UK) Blackwell Publishing P 325]

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Basis (of her ldquopolitics of writingrdquo)

bull Butlerrsquos position as critical intellectual

the commitment to engage in questioning set norms and ldquobasicrdquo assumptions

(comparable and related to)

bull Michel Foucault 米契 福柯rsquo s ldquopolitics of discomfortrdquo designed to estrange and upset

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing

Performing 抒演

to effectuate realness

to engage in concrete action

hellipto the degree that it resists settled reading

ldquoRadical re-significationrdquo basis for intervention in the form of creative activities

[See Paris is Burning on video]

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity Judith Butler

Reading and performing

[see Paris is Burning on video]

There is NO STABLE IDENTITYonly the materiality of the body

没有稳定的身份只有身体的物质性

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Performative writing -- an impetus to naming

THREE sources[Nietzsche and Wittgenstein]bull Derridabull Judith Butlerbull Literary works Laurence Sterne James Joyce Samue

l Beckett the American ldquolanguage poetsrdquo such as Robert Creeley Ron Silliman Rosemary Waldrop and Lyn Heijinian

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

ldquoPerformative writingrdquo

bull Writing is not a functional tool

bull Writing is not for the sake of the ideas conveyed

bull The ldquomeaningsrdquo of writing is not in its content but in the act itself

bull Only the real present tense of writing and the continuous act of writing make writing a purposeful activity

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

Writing involves power and control

A performance that engages with language necessarily comes face to face with power

Performative writing is often politically charged although the act itself is to engage with forms

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo

bull A work with performative character often begins with citing or setting up a specific situation not with the burden of meanings and purposes It often leaves open room for new discoveries to which re-strategizing is required along the way

[compare this to the ldquopoetics of discoveryrdquo 發現的詩學 as opposed to the ldquopoetics of significationrdquo 象徵的詩學 ]

bull The conventional boundaries between or the separation of pre-production production post-production reception has to be challenged

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performativity in creative work may highlight the following

bull Undermines the idea of ldquocompleted-nessrdquo of a work therersquos NO clear demarcation or definitive moment for a fully finished work There is only a deliberate even arbitrary drawing to a close of a self-conscious creative process for a specific reason

bull Ultimate meanings are NOT pre-determined even though specific points of intervention are prescribed

gtFinal meanings donrsquot exist before the beginning of the work gtMeanings are generated along the process of the evolvement of the work the result of discovery rather than planning

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performative Writing

Performative video

Performative photography

(Please refer to list of case studies)

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Performing the Self

bull Gary Hill ldquoI want to dialog with my mental process consciously self-consciouslyrdquo [Art + Performance p 186-7]

bull Working with no preconceived images the work is more the process of performance and fictionalizationhellip

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Photo Voice

Participatory Action Research

Three examples

-women in Yunnan

-women in Guantamela

-children and the disabled

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples

Work samples

Works by Linda Lai

One Take (2003)

Door Game (2005)

• SM6305 Media art theory amp practice
• language as enunciation
• Revisionist views on language
• Slide 4
• Revisionist views on language a summary
• The changing locations of meaning-makinghellip
• The importance of meaning-making
• Performativity
• Performativity amp Deconstruction Jacques Derrida
• Performativity-Derrida-Differance
• Performativity-Derrida-Writing
• Performativity-Derrida-Deconstruction
• Performativity Judith Butler
• Performativity Judith Butler Reading Writing and Performing
• Slide 15
• Slide 16
• Slide 17
• Slide 18
• Spaces of Writing ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative writingrdquo
• ldquoPerformative Writingrdquo
• Slide 22
• Performativity in creative work may highlight the following
• Slide 24
• Performing the Self
• Photo Voice
• Work samples