Christel Stalpaert & Kristof van Baarle 
Performance and Posthumanism 
Staging Prototypes of Composite Bodies

Recent technological and scientific developments have demonstrated a condition that has already long been upon us. We have entered a posthuman era, an assertion shared by an increasing number of thinkers such as N. Katherine Hayles,  Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Richard Grusin, and Bernard Stiegler. The performing arts have reacted to these developments by increasingly opening up their traditionally ‘human’ domain to non-human others. Both philosophy and performing arts thus question what it means to be human from a posthumanist point of view and how the agency of non-humans – be they technology, objects, animals, or other forms of being – ‘works’ on both an ontological and performative level. The contributions in this volume brings together scholars, dramaturgs, and artists, uniting their reflections on the consequences of the posthuman condition for creative practices, spectatorship, and knowledge.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Performance and Posthumanism: Co-Creation, Response-ability and Epistemologies; Christel Stalpaert, Kristof van Baarle and Laura Karreman.- 2. 9 variations on things and performance; André Lepecki.- 3. Does the donkey act? Balthazar as protagonist; Maximilian Haas.- 4. Latent Performances. Conditions for some things to happen; Daniel Blanga-Gubbay.- 5. Aesthetics of Mykorrhiza. The practice of Apparatus; Stefenie Wenner.- 6. On Composite Bodies and New Media Dramaturgy; Peter Eckersall and Kris Verdonck.- 7. Decoding Effet Papillon, choreography for three dancers inspired by the world of video games; Mylène Benoit and Philippe Guisgand.- 8. The refrain and the territory of the posthuman; Aline Wiame.- 9. The right to remain forgotten and the data crimes of post-digital culture: a ceaseless traumatic event; Matthew Causey.- 10. The Biography of a Digital Device. The Interwovenness of Humanand Non-Human Movements in Production and Distribution Processes as thematized in the Artwork Rare Earthenware by Unknown Fields; Martina Ruhsam.- 11. Tentacular Thinking-With-Things in Storied Places. Parliament of Things (2019) by Building Conversation; Christel Stalpaert.- 12. The Point of the Matter: Performativity in Scientific Practices; Maaike Bleeker and Jean Paul Van Bendegem.- 13. Music Notation and Distributed Creativity: The Textility of Score Annotation; Emily Payne and Floris Schuiling.- 14. Spectators in the laboratory: between theatre and technoscience; Mateusz Borowski, Mateusz Chaberski, Małgorzata Sugiera.- 15. A Hybrid Device to Choreograph the Gaze: Embodying Vision through a Historical Discourse on Optics in Benjamin Vandewalle’s Peri-Sphere; Helena Julian and Dieter Brusselaers.

Über den Autor

Christel Stalpaert is Professor of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at the Art Studies Department at Ghent University, Belgium. She is director of the research centre S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts and Media) and co-founder of 
Co Da | Cultures of Dance –
Research Network for Dance Studies.





Kristof van Baarle is post-doctoral researcher at the Research Centre for Visual Poetics, Antwerp University, Belgium. As a dramaturg, he works with Kris Verdonck and Michiel Vandevelde.Together with Verdonck, he is conducting an artistic research project on Samuel Beckett and Noh at KASK – School of Arts,  Belgium.





Laura Karreman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where she teaches on the BA Media and Culture, the MA Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy,  and the RMA Media, Art and Performance Studies courses.