i n v i t a t i o n – please join us in our Research Seminar at Brunel:
Wednesday November 15: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Drama Studio, Gaskell Building 048, Brunel University, Cleveland Rd. London UB8
3PH
Katerina Paramana
"IDEA: THIS IS GOOD: On Neoliberal OverFlows and the Reconceptualization of
Economy"
It has been argued that the term ‘overflow’ – despite its changing meaning in
different fields, contexts and epochs – is always discussed in relation to
scarcity, and
that all discourses of overflow have a moral dimension (Czarniawska-
Joerges and Löfgren 2012). In the contemporary moment, we witness, for example,
a
scarcity of time and of stability in social relations and employment, and an
overflow, a
great spillage, of neoliberal ethics and rationalities (which have contributed
to
inequality, precariousness and injustice) into all areas of social life.
In this paper, Dr Paramana proposes a rupture with these ethics and
rationalities and the economic model itself, by suggesting a reconceptualision
of the
term ‘economy’ on ethical terms. For this, based on a Byzantine era definition
of the
term which she rehabilitates and extends, she argues for and proposes a
redefinition
of the term ‘economy’ which points to an ethics of care and justice, and which
becomes the subject of the case study of this paper – her
installationperformance
IDEA: THIS IS GOOD (Gasworks Gallery, London, 2014).
She begins by offering a discussion on the history, etymology and genealogy of
the term ‘economy’, and the changing ethics attached to the term from Ancient
Greece to the current times, drawing on texts on the history of economic
thought and
on Michel Foucault’s, Jeremy Gilbert’s, and Wendy Brown’s thinking. She then
traces
the process through which she arrives at the redefinition of the term and
discusses IDEA: THIS IS GOOD, which uses this redefinition as its conceptual
base, as
an object within the work, and as that which characterises all the tasks
created and
performed in it. The redefinition becomes a proposition that two spectators at
a time,
working together to perform tasks, are asked to question, negotiate their
individual
responses to it, and act according to their decisions. The work, opposing
neoliberal
overflows, proposes the reconceptualization of economy on ethical terms and
points
to the importance of the creation of what Gilbert (2014) refers to as spaces of
decision, affect, and creative possibility. It is such spaces, Paramana argues,
that can
contribute to social change by initiating what Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger
(1998)
refer to as ‘communities of practice’ and by producing what she refers to as
ethical
encounters.
Bio
Dr Katerina Paramana is an artist and scholar, and a Lecturer in Theatre at
Brunel
University London. Her research is concerned with the social, political, and
ethical
dimensions of contemporary performance. Her writing has been published
with Contemporary Theatre Review, Dance Research, and Performance Research
journals
and her performances have been presented in theatres and galleries in the US,
UK, and
Europe (www.katerinaparamana.com).
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Research Seminar Theme: Precarity and the Politics of Art: Performative and
Critical Empowerment after Democracy
This Research Seminar Series aims to probe troubling interpretations of the
increasing impact of unrestrained capitalism in the Western hemisphere and its
impact on all social-economic, cultural, creative, and educational sectors in
the developed world. How sustainable is democracy in the face of political
unrest caused by precarity, migration, refugees and the resulting labor and
welfare issues?
Performance Research Seminar Coordinator: Johannes Birringer
Contact: +44 (0)1895 267 343
All Research Seminars are co-produced with dance-tech live TV and streamed
online as well as archived.: DAPLab.TV: http://dance-tech.tv/videos/daplabtv/
Check our whole series at:
http://people.brunel.ac.uk/dap/ResearchSeminarSeries.html
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