Sensing Repetition The School of the Art Institute, Chicago (2015)
“Sensing Repetition” was a participatory theatre piece presented at The Performance Philosophy Conference in 2015 in collaboration with Ben Korta, Sophie Traub, and Michelle Bentsman. The piece explored the role of repetition in the process of meaning-making as silver-eyebrowed, labcoat wearing “philosopho-bots” – robots with a strong wish to comprehend the nature of human thought and emotion – led participants through a series of playful experiments designed to tackle a core conundrum: why does repetition generate meaning in some circumstances, and obstruct meaning in others? Five experimental situations were conducted, each taking place within the overarching framework of a philosophical laboratory. Each experiment corresponded to a region on the “Bell Curve of Meaning and Non-Meaning,” which mapped the accumulation and degradation of meaning resulting from repetition over time. The five experiments were: “The Verbal Satiation Experiment,” The Philosopho-Generative Experiment,” “The Meisner Experiment,” “The Memoryscope Experiment,” and “The Mantra Experiment.” This piece bridged the methods of philosophy and performance by creating situations in which concepts could be represented and embodied in equal measure. Experiential inquiry into repetition became a mode of foregrounding the emergence – or non-emergence – of meaning, thereby offering a view into the living practice of philosophy.
“Sensing Repetition” was a participatory theatre piece presented at The Performance Philosophy Conference in 2015 in collaboration with Ben Korta, Sophie Traub, and Michelle Bentsman. The piece explored the role of repetition in the process of meaning-making as silver-eyebrowed, labcoat wearing “philosopho-bots” – robots with a strong wish to comprehend the nature of human thought and emotion – led participants through a series of playful experiments designed to tackle a core conundrum: why does repetition generate meaning in some circumstances, and obstruct meaning in others? Five experimental situations were conducted, each taking place within the overarching framework of a philosophical laboratory. Each experiment corresponded to a region on the “Bell Curve of Meaning and Non-Meaning,” which mapped the accumulation and degradation of meaning resulting from repetition over time. The five experiments were: “The Verbal Satiation Experiment,” The Philosopho-Generative Experiment,” “The Meisner Experiment,” “The Memoryscope Experiment,” and “The Mantra Experiment.” This piece bridged the methods of philosophy and performance by creating situations in which concepts could be represented and embodied in equal measure. Experiential inquiry into repetition became a mode of foregrounding the emergence – or non-emergence – of meaning, thereby offering a view into the living practice of philosophy.