Cultural Transformation: Open meeting in the research unit Affect and the Body
New members of Cultural Transformations have expressed interest in Affect and the Body that for many years has worked with long term goals ahead. Which is why we invite interested and invested researchers into this unit in order to set new goals, ways of working and collaborating. Alexanders and Diana’s presentations will serve as inspiration to our talk about the future – maybe more modestly about the next years activities of Affect and the Body.
Contact person: Britta Timm Knudsen, norbtk@cc.au.dk
All who are dealing with affective issues/approaches are welcome.
Time Schedule:
14-14.15: Introduction to the history of this unit and our work so far (Britta)
14.15-14.45: Small presentation (15 min.) + discussion by Alexander Ulrich Thygesen:
”Affect and the practice of demonumentalisation in a Chilean context”
I am currently working on a PhD project concerning the interconnections of cultural memory and activism during the largest mobilization in Chile´s history that was ignited in October 2019. Here I am especially interested in the creative and participatory practices that Chilean activists incorporated into their activism. One central practice was that of demonumentalisation – the act of tearing down statues and monuments. In this short presentation I will present a handful of interesting cases of demonumentalisation in Chile that acted as a precursor to the global wave of iconoclastic activism that emerged after the murder of Georg Floyd in May 2020. These cases will serve as a point of departure in a discussion on how I can include the concept of affect in my work most effectively.
14.50-15.00: A small-talk break
15.00-15.30: Small presentation (15. Min.) + discussion by Diana González Martin:
”Emotions and Affects. How to Research What Theatre Does to Audiences and What Audiences do to Theatre?”
After working on the theory and analysis of the aesthetics of artworks, mainly literature and theatre, I become more and more interested in researching aesthetic experiences that include audiences, namely: How do they respond to the theatrical event and how do they co-create the theatre play. After a research stay in Colombia in 2019 at the University of Antioquia a whole new approach opened up for me in this regard. I learnt about how researchers and artists perform clown interventions in the territories inhabited by former FARC guerrilla members aiming to contribute to the peacebuilding process. In a current project funded by EU RISE programme together with partners from Colombia, Spain, France, and Denmark we try to find methodologies for the research of how the arts can change audiences’ own life narratives and emotions, affects, feelings by means of aesthetic experiences. I am looking forward to talk with you about the differences between affect, emotion and feeling -if relevant- and to share thoughts about which methodologies can best help in the research of audiences.
15.30-16.00: Open discussion on what the next goals, milestones, tasks and deliverables could be for this research unit? What are our needs, ambitions and desires? What is possible to reach for?