Ghostlight: an ode to Tungsten

Research output: Contribution to conferenceOther (conference)peer-review

Abstract

The Ghostlight project expands on my research framing of choreoluminosity, which explores identity-making and choreographic opportunities that emerge when energies of light and the dancing body coalesce. This work is positioned in what I suggest is an imminent post-Tungsten era, and therefore in a necessarily politicised arena, which is concerned with how we light our everyday, and how we choreograph with light. As an artistic and critical way of questioning a practice of choreoluminosity in a world of climate emergency, Ghostlight is posited as a provocation of dancing with a ‘last light’; what if this were the last light? What if this were a death of Tungsten? How exactly choreographed sensibilities of care towards the non-human come to manifest and to what end, is the concern of Ghostlight. In articulating an embodied poetics of dancing with this incandescent lighting, my conceptual landscape draws on theories of vital materialisms. I move with particular attention to political theorist Jane Bennett’s critiquing of a ‘sensuous enchantment’ (2010: xi), which she identifies as a ‘strange combination of delight and disturbance’ (ibid.), that can become a ‘motivational energy’ (ibid.) spurring a practice of care towards the other than human, in this case the choreographic dialogue with light. As a practice of dancing with a ‘last light’, Ghostlight embraces what eco-scenographer Tanya Beer (2021) identifies as an ethic where sustainability is integrated as part of the artistic vision and design, in order to work beyond simply exercising eco-efficiencies. The co-performing filament bulb in the Ghostlight project was recovered from Tussore (Man, 2005) and has retained the dust of three years of performances and nineteen years of storage. Choreographing with a single purpose-built ghost light made from disused materials, transformed into a non-human performance collaborator was a necessary starting point for a practice of dancing with a last light.

Bibliography
Beer, T. (2021) Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bennett, J. (2009) Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Man, M. (2005) Tussore. [Café de Palacio, Teatro Real de Madrid. 12th May 2005].
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 26 Apr 2024
EventTheatre and Performance Research Association Annual Conference - Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Duration: 4 Sept 20246 Sept 2024
Conference number: 20
http://tapra.org/current/

Conference

ConferenceTheatre and Performance Research Association Annual Conference
Abbreviated titleTaPRA
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityNewcastle upon Tyne
Period4/09/246/09/24
Internet address

Research Groups

  • Practice Research Group

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