MADNESS as METHOD: An intra-‐active encounter between 17th century operatic madness, artistic research and posthuman theories

• How are we as human beings in an increasingly intra-acting global community going about when facing moments of terror and disasters? What can be understood by observing our own acts of knowing, questioning and understanding such moments? This paper performs an encounter between Madness as a creative method and a model for making sense of the senseless; a historical source of a French 17th century musical setting of Leçons de Ténèbres - Lessons in the shadow of darkness - capturing the fall of Jerusalem as presented in the Book of Lamentations; an artistic research study carried out in Jerusalem in August 2014 during the battle between Israel and Gaza; and posthuman theories. The operatic mad scene produced by Venetian academics around 1640, was highly esteemed by its audience, while it also “came to represent an up-side down anti-rhetorical opposition to Renaissance ideals” (Belgrano 2011). This mad scene is somehow mirroring ‘the uneasiness’ sensed around us today in our global society. As a method it suggests an holistic approach, inviting individual units to enter the stage on equal terms allowing for a more broad and deep investigation into processes of understanding and knowing. The artist’s performance of madness brings the audience into an entanglement of walking, talking, singing, critically confronting, animating, ornamenting, articulating and shaping a non-existing form. As suggested by Barad (2012): “a cacophony of whispered screams, gasps, and cries, an infinite multitude of indeterminate beings diffracted through different spacetimes”. Madness (or false madness) is a creative becoming in itself. It is an example of mattering as in meaning-making and knowledge-processing, based on the indeterminable and affinity. The outcome of this performance-paper is a potential creative model for understanding and meeting every day practices, ‘doings’ of human beings and emergent issues of a highly complex global community.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Scenkonst (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Performing Arts (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Etik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Ethics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Voice

vocality

madness

17th century music

method

posthuman studies

artistic research

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)