Performance, Religion, and Spirituality

Editorial Introduction

Joshua Edelman — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Editoiral introduction, Performance, Religion and Spirituality 5.1

Experiencing Connection: Bridging the Gap in Interpersonal Exchanges on Stage

Elien Hanselaer — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents interdisciplinary practical research focused on co-performer connection, which refers to the deeply gratifying sensation derived from a profound interpersonal exchange between performers. While several performing arts practitioners, such as Stanislavski (1937/2008), Nachmanovitch (1990) and Zarrilli (2009), have attempted to unravel what co-performer connection exactly is and how performers can achieve it, there are still an abundance of theories regarding how to achieve it, with a myriad of names associated with this phenomenon. Drawing on interdisciplinary practical as well as theoretical research, this article contends that co-performer connection happens indirectly through active engagement with the evolving performance. Following this statement, it redefines the functioning of co-performer connection as a responding to the game of the third space. Furthermore, by drawing a parallel between my redefinition and the ideas of philosopher Leo Apostel, the article argues that dedicated interaction with the performance-in-progress is spiritual in nature and can therefore evoke a spiritually transformative experience.

Spiritual Archives. Communication, Healing and Politics of Performance

siri g. hernández — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this essay, I present the concept of “spiritual archives” as a relevant and innovative tool to analyze and critically understand performance's political power and healing potency. I argue that this concept contributes to the discussion about our ways of categorizing sources of knowledge, which means that the spiritual archives are an episteme, a legitimate way to obtain information about the world. First, I develop the concept in the context of the discussion about “valid” sources of information for research in Performance Studies, which comprise, so far, the archive and the repertoire. Then, I explain four characteristics of spiritual archives by applying the concept in an analysis of my performance art piece Medium. I end by explaining human communication in the context of spiritual archives and their political potency.

Visions of Inner Life: The Performative Techne of Spirit

Donnalee Dox; Joshua Edelman — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This chapter considers the performative techne of spirit by viewing inner life through the lens of visual images. The first section links key ideas: inner life and spirituality, contemplative practice, and the performativity of visual images. The second section discusses cultivation of inner life as embodied practice. The third section offers readings of three genres of visual images, which represent inner life. The techne of visual images mediates the sense of inner life cultivated in contemplative practice by giving that sense sensual form and negotiating between inner self and outer world.

The first genre of images is the infinite regress of representation. This image performs inner life as a kind of theatre in which the cognitive mind sees itself seeing itself, never perceiving the world outside the mind directly. The second genre performs the meditation posture associated with Buddhist and Yogic traditions. This familiar genre performs the external signs of an embodied inner life. The third genre depicts a Buddhist monk wearing an EEG cap. This genre answers the phenomenological question of how we can know the insides of other people by promoting a materialist, technologically mediated view of the mind embodied as the brain.

Front Matter

Joshua Edelman — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Front matter