PSi Uhambo Programme - Wits School of Arts

PROGRAMME 01 DAY

COMFORT BREAK 11:15

Session 1

AR and VR mobile phone art experience by Digital Arts & Film Students

WEBSITE, WITS THEATRE FOYER

(Article) The Milk of Dreams: Wandering through the Venice Art Biennale 2022 and the SF imaginary by Sanja Vodovnik

(Article) We don't need another hero: carrier bag narratives for journeys within and without by Tamara Schulz

(Short Article and Poem) My Children Danced, long before they were born by Linda (Mdena) Thibedi Video Poster Day with a Firethorn Rhus by Annette Arlande

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Wits Amphitheatre

[11:30- 11:50]

Presentation: Tea Leaves Japan by Michelle Liu Carriger

[11:50- 13:00] Panel: The Journey of a Holocaust Cabaret: from Theresienstadt to Australia to South Africa by Lisa Peschel, Amelda Brand, Ian Maxwell

Nunnery Annex

[11:30- 12:00]

Performance: In search of a new symbiosis by Elena Victoria Pastor

The Wits Nunnery

[12:00-12:20]

Presentation: Wandering Against Whiskey Row: Toward a Performative Praxis by Maiza Hixson

[12:20-12:50]

Performance Paper Choreography By Anusia Govender Elshove PhD

13:00- 14:00

Emakhaya Theatre

[11:30- 12:00]

Paper Performance

“Reconnections: Virtual Practices of Embodied Wandering to Relink with Land and its Social Networks” by Michael Lechuga PhD & Kate Hoyt

Zoom Breakaway Room 2

[11:30- 12:00]

Performance: Hiraeth: An Ode to (Be)Longing by Elizabeth Tomos

Zoom Breakaway Room 3

11:30- 12:00]

Presentation (Re)tracing: words and walks of women writers by Katherine Johnson

[12:00- 12:30]

Performance: the third floor of a university building on a cold winter day by Leah Mullens, David Adu-Appeagyei, Subhashini Goda Venkataramani

WITS THEATRE FOYER LUNCH BREAK

14:00- 15:30

Session 2

DIGITAL ARTS FIRST FLOOR

AR and VR mobile phone art experience by Digital Arts & Film Students

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Wits Downstairs Theatre

[14:00- 14:30]

Performance Cantos of Life in Exile by Makhaola Ndebele

Emakhaya Theatre

[14:00- 14:20]

Paper presentation

Precarious Wanderings, Deadly Crossings: Refugees

The Nunnery

[14:00- 14:30]

Performance installation natal by Penelope Youngleson & Sithabile Zondo

Zoom Breakaway Room 1

[14:00- 14:20]

Presentation

Moving Sounds: Sensing

Transient Places in Vox Motus’

[14:30- 15:30]

Panel "Embodied InquiriesJourneying to Epistemologies of Practice" By PJ Sabbagha Smangaliso Ngwenya, and Nicho Aphane.

PROGRAMME

Stranded on the Polish-Belarusian Borderlands by Dominika Laster

[14:20- 14:50]

Performance

Finding Your Way

Home by Sithembiso Khalishwayo

[14:50- 15:10]

Presentation

Uhambo luyazilawula, challenges faced by South African Institutions of Higher Education when implementing indigenous and traditional music curricula by Mbuti Moloi

Es'kia Mphahlele (UC)

15th Floor

[14:00- 15:30]

Workshop

FAB Workshop with LInda (Mdena) Thibedi

14th Floor

[14:00- 15:30]

Workshop

On the self, by the self facilitated by Kirsten Deane.

16th Floor [14:00- 15:30]

Workshop

Journeying as a present continuous cycle into still, a d othering. Is it really the road less traveled? Where to awethu, from here?

Facilitated by Fa’Deela Ally-Schmidt

Outside The Nunnery

[14:30-15:00]

Installation

WishBoat & Passage by Serap

Erincin (PhD) Installation

Passage by Serap Erincin (PhD)

Amphitheatre Foyer

[15:00- 15:30]

Performance Installation

Journeys and “Stop points” by Ursula Neuerburg, Lisa Ndejuru, Ramona Benveniste

Flight and The Empathy Museum’s A Mile In My Shoes by Olivia Lamont Bishop

[14:20-14:40]

Presentation

Performing Resistance by Jan Dammel

[14:40- 15:00]

Presentation

Mapping with Feet and Paws: Puppetry as Diasporic Thirdspace in New York Chinatown’s Lion Dance by Zhixuan Zhu

Zoom Break Away Room 2

[14:00- 15:30]

Workshop

[14:00- 14:20]

Presentation

AfriQueer by Warren Nebe

[14:20- 15:30]

Panel From Minority Cultural Praxis to Popular Theatrical Stage: Journeying through Identity Performance and Economic Solutions on Broadway and in China by ChiayiSEETOO, Rita REN, LIU

Yingying, SHEN Liang

Wits Main Theatre Mezzanine

[14:00-15:30]

Workshop Sustainable multilingual interactions in monolingual institutions by Sibusiso Mkhize & Claire French

* Traversing between Archives and Experiential Geographies: Performance Scholarship on Unstable Grounds by Alia Al-Sabi & Anel Rakhimzhanova

Zoom Break Away Room 3

[14:00- 15:30]

Workshop performance

My Body is Your Shrine Poetry, Dance, and Embodied Wanderings with Ancestors By Sai Bhatawadekar (Ph.D )

PROGRAMME

15:45- 17:15

Session 3

DIGITAL ARTS FIRST FLOOR

AR and VR mobile phone art experience by Digital Arts & Film Students

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Wits Amphitheatre

[15:45- 16:05]

Presentation A better life?

Performing migrant stories in Singapore by Nien Cheng Yuan

[16:05-16:35]

Interactive Performance Rethinking Home by Londiwe Mtshali

[16:35- 16:55]

Presentation Between Protests and a Pandemic: Walking in Hong Kong by Joanna Mansbridge.

Wits Main Theatre Foyer

[15:45- 16:15]

Installation Walk as LABORATORY as archive as CONVERSING WALKING TALKING

Installation by Betinna Malcomess & Myer Taub

[16:15- 16:45]

Installation Hide by Tamara Guhrs & Jenni-Lee Crewe

Wits Downstairs Theatre Foyer

[16:15- 17:45]

Installation Hide by Tamara Guhrs

Wits Downstairs Theatre

[15:45- 16:45]

Panel

Administration of creative practices: What CCE employers expect of graduates by Avril Louise Joffe, Smangaliso Siphesihle Ngweny, Denay Willie

17:15 - 18:15

18:15

Outside Wits Theatre

[15:45-16:15] Installation

SWARTWATER by Geralt Cloete & Lee-Ann Van Rooi

Mezzanine

[15:45- 17:15]

Workshop

This is not my language: spitting

(m)other tongues by Fouad Asfour

19:15

Main Theatre: FAB x PSi Awards

Outside Chris Seabrooke : SundownersCommissioned piece Ground Zero

Gavin Matthys

Venue Closes.

AFRICAN MODALITIES

8:00 - 8:30 - Wits Foyer: Registration and Tea

8:30 - Depart for The Centre of The Less Good Ideas

9:15 - The Centre at The Centre Uhambo Lwethu

9:3010:30 - The Centre at The Centre: Keynote Workshop: HOW: SHOWING THE MAKING: Sibusiso Shozi (Recorded for later upload)

10:45 - 13:00

Session 1

The Centre at The Centre

[10:45- 11:05]

Paper

Presentation Playscapes as Homescapes: Migrancy, Homemaking and Theatre by Alex Halligey & Mwenya Kabwe

[ 11:05- 11:25]

Presentation

A journey of Self: Self-narrative as decolonial praxis by Raezeen Wentworth

[11:25-11:55]

Performance iImfihlelo Zohambo by Sanelisiwe Yekani

[11:55-12:20]

Presentation A Way Station for SelfReinvention: Migrant Improvisations in Abu Dhabi’s Electra Park by Samuel Anderson and Piia Mustamaki

The Other Room at The Centre

[10:45-11:05]

Presentation

Yanvalou For Haiti: An Affective Ethnography of Ayikodans’ Anmwey Ayiti Manman by Mario LaMothe

[11:05-11:35]

Performance EVELYN by Smangaliso Ngwenya & Choreographed by David April

[11:35- 11:55]

Presentation Sonic Wandering in New Landscapes by Jane Frances Dunlop

Events Space in The Centre

[10:45- 12:00]

Installation | Digital Arts VR and AR by Digital Arts and Film Students

[12:00- 12:40]

Performance

UMKHANGELI ONGENAGAMA (THE NAMELESS SEEKER): Into the Mythical Realms of the Grandmother by Sifiso Ngwane, Lwazi Pinyana, Mondi Ntutu, Likhona Mpepo, Naledi Tsolo, Yamkela Nodlaba, Lufezo Bhovungana, Mandisa Nomalungelo Yende, Asakhe Ngxonono, Regopotswe Modisane

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

PROGRAMME

Presentation

Performative Wanderings to and from the Slave past: Black Countermemory in Contemporary Black Caribbean Art by Danielle Roper

13:00

LUNCH BREAK ON THE GO | MABONENG PRECINCT

14:00 - Depart For Market Theatre

15:00

- Ramalao Makhene

Theatre: Welcome Performance Zoli Yé Marché (The Bones They Walk) by Bruce

15:30 - 16:45

Session 2

Township Boy Dance Studio

Welcome Performance Installation | Digital Arts VR and AR by Wits Digital Arts, and Film

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Ramalao Makhene Theatre

[15:30- 15:50]

Presentation

To the moon with a piece of paper: cross-border meanderings and the micropractices of paper by Alan Parker, Gavin Krastin

[15:50- 16:45]

Blended Panel

“Embodied Ritual Journeys and The Journeying of Embodied Ritual” by Mika Lior, Eric Acakpo, Francesca Pedulla, Iyá Adesibi, Ilê Axé Omin Guiam, Rujeko Dumbutshena.

MPW Auditorium Floor 3

[15:30-15:50]

Presentation

Becoming Anglo –The Creation of Miss Brexit by Alejandro Postigo

[15:50- 16:45] Panel Efficacy of Arts Management Internships by CPM WSOA

Sarafina Studio Zoom Breakaway Room 1

[15:30- 15:50]

Presentation

Refugees Movements: Case Law, Performativity, and Theatre by Sean Metzger

[15:50- 16:10]

Presentation

Mogaga play making by Kgafela oa Magogodi

[16:10- 16:30]

Presentation

From the Sky as a Moko Jumbie to Across the Pond: Queer Migrations on Pointe in “The Dying Swan” from Trinidad and Tobago by Margaret Jean Westby

16.30 - 16.45

“Chasing Spirits: Shapeshifting, Positionalities, and Dilemmas.” By Phillip Boafo

15:30- 15:45]

Presentation

The Oscillation of Contemporary Bodies Between Biopolitics and Necropolitics: Tania Bruguera's Migratory work by Katerina Paramana

[15:45- 16:05]

Presentation

From the local to the festival: Mapping rural creative economies for Ndau people’s livelihoods and cultural sustainability in Zimbabwe by Solomon Gwerevende

[16:05- 16:25]

Presentation

“From Wandering Wombs to Wandering Performance Concepts: Hysterically Bridging Past(s), Present(s), and Potential Futures” by Johanna Bruan

Sunpie Barnes

PROGRAMME

Zoom Breakaway Room 2

[15:30- 15:50]

Presentation SOLDIER. Performance

Theologies of Temporality as a Decolonial Praxis of Re-Becoming. By Patrick Sung Bayele.

[15:50- 16:10]

Presentation

The Journey for Life: the Mexican Zapatista movement in Europe. By Lorena Tabares Salamanca

[ 16:10- 16:30]

Presentation On Death and Return(ing) by Olabanke Oyinkansola Goriola

Zoom Breakaway Room 3

[15:50- 16:45]

Blended Panel

“Embodied Ritual Journeys and The Journeying of Embodied Ritual” by Mika Lior, Eric Acakpo, Francesca Pedulla, Iyá Adesibi, Ilê Axé Omin Guiam, Rujeko Dumbutshena.

Windybrow Theatre

[15:30- 16:45]

Artistic Research Convenors: Bruce Barton, Annette Arlander, Johanna Householder

Windybrow Theatre

[15:30-16:45]

Performance and Pedagogy

Convenors: Adelheid Mers, Rumen Rachev

Windybrow Theatre

[15:30- 16:45] Critical Race Performance Studies

Convenors: Benjamin Spatz

Track 5 [15:30- 16:45]

Performance and Design

Convenors: Beth Weinstein, Dorita Hannah

COMFORT BREAK

17:00 - Depart for The Market Theatre

17:00- 18:20

Session 3

Township Boy Dance Studio

Welcome Performance Installation | Digital Arts VR and AR by Wits Digital Arts, and Film

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Ramalao Makhene Theatre

[17:00-17:20]

Presentation

“Power to the Parade”: Learning from Activists for Racial Justice in the Festival Archive by Helen A. Regis

[17:20- 17:50]

Performance

ISHONGOLOLO written by Lebogang Tswelapele, performed by Nomsa

Tinah Mavuka, Londa Mkhize, Anovuyo Thabang

18:20

MPW Auditorium Floor 3

[17:00- 17:20]

Presentation ‘New Orleans to Kinshasa: ACultural Exchange inMusic, Art & Film by Rachel Breunlin

17:20- 18:20]

Panel

Carrying KongoHaiti New Orleans: Embodied Routes of African Cultural Practice through Collaborative and Place-Based Music,Dance, Performance By Dasha Chapman, Jean-Sebastien Duvilaire, Ann Mazzocca Bellecci, Phil Rodriguez

Sarafina Studio

[17:00-17:20]

Presentation

Thongo lam’ vuma: Musing on the wake and song as a time travel strategy of ancestral and futuristic dreamscape(s) by Natalia Molebatsi

[17:20- 17:40]

Presentation I Dance in My Mother’s

Language by Kwanele Finch Thusi

COMFORT BREAK

COCKTAIL DINNER

19:00 - Market Theatre Productions Option 1: Isidlamlilo/ The Fire Eater Option 2: KHONGOLOSE KHOMMANDING KHOMMISSARS (KKK)

20:30

Depart for Wits University Theatre drop off.

RADICAL INCLUSIVITY AND COMMUNITY

9:30-

- Blue Theatre

Key Q&A with the Artistic Director: James Ngcobo (Recorded for later upload)

COMFORT BREAK 10:30 10:45 - 13:00

Session 1

TRACK 3

TRACK 4

Blue Theatre Zoom Room 1

[10:45- 11:05]

Performance & Presentation

I Know What You’re Thinking: a Praxis of Embodied

Meta-Cognition by Brian J Evans

[11:05- 11:25]

Presentation

Methodological Meanders: Tracing Place through Wander Maps by Lucy Petchell

[11:25 - 11:55]

Beyond the Linoleum Colon: Revisited by Tarryn Lee

[10:45- 11:05]

Presentation

“Nomadism against standstill. Aesthetic experience in shifting landscapes” by Julia Schade & Leon Gabriel

[11:05- 11:35]

Performance

Nomadic tales and their footnotes: A performance as research by Lireko Qhobela

Soweto Theatre Board Room

[10:45- 11:05]

Panel

Grazing at my navel connect to your womb: How close are your contractions?

Performance as research projects for this moment in South Africa by Petro Janse van Vuuren, Cherae Halley, Tshego Khutsoane, Makhaola Ndebele, Bongani NgomaneGina Shmukker

[10:45- 11:05]

“Taking a dip in gender: Articulating nonbinary knowledge generation through embodied engagements with water” by Sami Wymes

[11:05 - 11:25]

The ‘recce’ as performance making practice: Site-responsive wandering with Dr Karen Berger and Dr Stuart Grant

Yellow Theatre

TRACK 1

TRACK 2

LUNCH BREAK

14:00 - Depart for UJ APK

15:00 - Uhambo | Welcome

15:30 - Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre

Performance: I Step on Air by Layla Zami and Oxana Chi

16:00 - 17:35

Session 2

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre

[16:00- 16:20]

Presentation

A Dangerous Body: Mimesis, Representation, and Little Amal’s Big Walk by Amna Farooq

[16:20- 17:35]

Blended Workshop

The Verbatim Formula: journeys of care facilitated by Maggie Inchley & Sylvan Bake

Zoom Breakaway Room 1

[16:00- 16:20]

Poetry

The nature of identity/identities in the context of mobility, wandering, and fluidity by Maurice Moore.

[16:20- 16:40]

Presentation

Tamara: one story and three different journeys by Bomi Choi.

Conference Room 1

Installation | Digital Arts VR and AR by Wits Digital Arts, and Film

Khulani

[16:00- 17:30]

Workshop Teaching Minoritarian Performance by Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud, Pavithra Prasad and Nikki Yeboah

Zoom Breakaway room 2

[16:20- 16:40]

Presentation

“The nature of identity/identities in the context of mobility, wandering, and fluidity” by Jill Planche Presentation

[16:40- 17:00]

Voodling: Image is a(n Autistic) Verb by Julie Dind.

[17:05- 17: 20]

Presentation

Performing Utopia: Transgender Time in La Prietty Guoman by Orion Lee Risk

Tunkie Zoom Breakaway Room 4

[16:00- 17:30]

Workshop

Brief Liberation: Experiments in Black Feminist Embodied Practice (2022) by Anna Martine Whitehea, Tara Aisha Willis, & Damon Locks.

[16:40- 17:35]

Blended Workshop

The Verbatim Formula: journeys of care facilitated by Maggie Inchley & Sylvan Bake

Depart for Spatula and BarCode Limited Space- 20 by Laurie Beth Clark, Jazmin Llana & Michael Peterson Zoom Breakaway Room 3

[16:00- 16:20]

Presentation Towards a Queer Black Ecology of Boston by JD Stokely

16:30- 17:30]

Workshop Traversing between Archives and Experiential Geographies: Performance Scholarship on Unstable Grounds by Alia Al-Sabi & Anel Rakhimzhanova

PROGRAMME

[16:40-17:00]

Presentation

Procession and Pilgrimage, in Italy and China, as Controlled Journeys: A CrossCultural Comparison of Evolved Neuro-Performances by Mark Pizzato

17:35

18:15- 18:40

TRACK

Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre

[18:15- 18:45]

Performance go leba maswing le toding ya dinose by Nolwazi Mbali Mahlangu & Muzi Shili.

COMFORT BREAK AND LIGHT EATS

Session 3

Tunkie [18:15– 18:35 ]

Presentation

As The Crow FliesExploring Identity through Making & Migrating Performances by Wiebke Acton

TRACK

18:40 UJ THEATRE FOYER COMFORT BREAK

19:00 - Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre

UJ Commissioned Piece : Echoes of Heritage

20:00

Depart for Wits University

1 TRACK 2

3 TRACK 4

PROGRAMME

04 DAY

CREATIVE DISRUPTIONS

8:00 - Wits Foyer: Registration and Tea

8:30 - Wits Main Theatre: How PSI Thinks

10:00 - Wits Main Theatre Keynote Panel

Re-align the innards, bite uMoya, and smell to listen: This memory was not written by Nondumiso Msimanga

11:30 - Guided Walks Registration

Guided walk Online, WhatsApp Group

Strategies of wandering by Laura Nanni and Sorrel Muggridge

Shuttles Leave Wits Theatre for Con Hill

11:50 - Welcome to Constitutional Hill: : Reuben Phasha- Heritage, Education and Tourism Manager

Londi Modiko - Creative Uprising Hub Project Manager

12:10 - Con Hill Conference Room 2

Paper Presentation: What is the question again? In Search of Home by Liela Henriques

12:30 - Con Hill Conference Room 2: PerformanceAmagama: Ingobo yomlando – Words: The Archive by Nthabeleng Masudubele and Zinhe Gule

13:00 LUNCH BREAK

14:00- 16:15

Women’s Cells

Session 1

AR and VR mobile phone art experience by Digital Arts & Film Students

TRACK 1 TRACK 2 TRACK 3 TRACK 4

Con Hill Room 2

14:00- 14:20]

Presentation

Moving with Stillness, Timeless

Resistance: Performing Minoritized Bodies in Protest by Serap Erincin

[14:20- 15:20]

Panel

Foodways and Migration by Laurie Beth Clark & Michael Peterson.

Con Hill Room 1

Zoom Breakaway Room 1

[14:00- 14:20]

Blended Presentation

“Wandering Discipline: A Conversation on Law and Performance” by Anna Jayne Kimmel, Henry Washington, Jr. & Kimberly Chantal Welch

Lekgotla

[14:00- 15:00] Panel

Wandering Minds by James R. Ball, Daniel Oliver & Kim Kattari

[15:00- 16:00] Panel

Border-crossings: performance studies wanderings by Swati

Arora, Diana Damian Martin, Azadeh Sharif & Anika Marschall.

Zoom Breakaway Room 1

[14:00- 16:15]

Guided Walks in Con Hill (group of 10) Register during morning registration

From Home To Home, A phenomenological perspective on peregrination by Andrea Vassallo

PROGRAMME

[15:20- 15:40]

Presentation

Traversing Space: Exploring the negotiation of space increating museum theatre at Constitutional Hill Women’s Gaol by Stephanie Jenkins

Presentation

Performative Wanderings to and from the Slave past: Black Countermemory in Contemporary Black Caribbean Art by Danielle Roper

[14:20- 14:40]

Blended

Presentation

Wanderwall: The Actor’s Journey into New Performance Technologies and Undiscovered Collaborative Potentials by Jen Parker-Starbuck & Will Shüler

[14:40- 15:40]

Blended Panel Wanderings, Homecoming, And Social Impact: The Global (Diasporic) Practice of Performance Studies as a “Wandering” Episteme from the Philippines to World Making by Belen D. Calingacion, Rosalie A. Zerrudo, Robert Arlo

Deguzman, Dennis D. Gupa & Allen B. Baylosis

The Womens' Goal Grass Area

[14:00- 15:30]

Workshop

Finding the Autobiography in Ethnography and the Ethnography in the Autobiography facilitated by Warren Nebe

Zoom Breakaway Room 2

[14:50- 15:50]

Presentation

“Wandering Discipline: A Conversation on Law and Performance” by Anna Jayne Kimmel, Henry Washington, Jr. & Kimberly Chantal Welch

14:00- 16:15

Session 2

Zoom Breakaway Room 4

[14:00- 14:20]

Presentation

“Have You Ever…”: The Limits of the Sayable of Migrant Life by Sareh Z Afshar

14:20- 15:20]

Panel Wandering Back: Journeys of Return in Site-Specific Performance

Art by Cynthia Citlallin Delgado Huitrón, Yarden Stern & Joanna Evans.

[15:20- 16:00]

Presentation

Prayogillu: An Interdisciplinary place by Praveen Maripelly

Zoom Breakaway Room 3

[14:00- 14:20]

A Rose Without a Name, or Meditating on Virginity by Amanda Marie Rogus

[14:20- 14:40]

Presentation

Affecting the (Im)possibility of Change through Performance Generating Systems by Phil Hansen

TRACK 1

TRACK 2

TRACK 3

Zoom Breakaway Room 2 [14:00- 14:20]

Presentation Embodying a posthuman dramaturgy of place: Distance, Sound, and Silence in Australian Contemporary Performance by Kate Hunter and Rea Dennis

PROGRAMME

ASSEMBLE PSi #29

20-23 June 2024

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in collaboration LIFT (London International Theatre Festival) invites responses from scholars, practitioners, and artists to the call for proposals for the Performance Studies international, PSi #29 conference in June 2024. PSi #29 is organised in partnership with the University of London: Birkbeck, Royal Holloway, and the School of Advanced Studies.

This hybrid conference focuses on the main theme: Assemble. To assemble has multiple meanings: to gather together in one place for a common purpose or to put together the parts of something. This theme foregrounds practice research, processes of making, as well as their antithesis, un-making. In response to the pandemic and to the climate crisis and global struggles for justice and recognition, we have to reconsider how to assemble, how to come together, to build, to construct, to co-create, and, conversely, what we need to disassemble, to take apart, to dismantle, to decanter, to unlearn.

For performance studies, the concept of assemblage serves as a lens through which we can investigate the dynamic interplay of various elements, whether they be objects, individuals, or ideas. PSi #29 connects the diverse themes of assemblage, assembly, and disassembly as they pertain to performance, shedding light on their potential to shape and transform our understanding of the world. The notion of assemblage can be applied to a collection of things or a group of people or animals. By examining the process of assembly, both as a means of coming together and as a state of being together, we hope to investigate the transformative potential of collective action in performance. Methodologically, the role of practice research as a mechanism for assembling knowledge, bridging theory and praxis, will form the basis of PSi’s collaboration with LIFT.

The conference will engage with the concept of assembling as counterpublics, exploring how performances create alternative spaces for dissent, resistance, and marginalised voices, as well assembly as a 'space of appearance', contemplating how performance serves as a site where identities are negotiated and social realities are (re)constructed. Participants might examine how the act of assembly becomes a condition of political action, highlighting its role in fostering social change and advocating for justice. We also hope to explore the process of disassembly, whereby performances can be taken apart and separated into different parts, allowing for critical reflection and deconstruction. The lens of decolonisation reveals how assembly and dismantling intersect, enabling the questioning and reconfiguration of dominant narratives and power structures. We consider London as a global centre and highlight (post)imperial assemblage and acknowledge this space as a focal point of colonial histories, and we welcome responses to the city’s role in shaping performative practices and influencing cultural landscapes.

Additionally, we explore archival assemblages and their construction, investigating how memory and history are assembled and composed through performance. LIFT’s development of concept touring offers an opportunity to reflect on new forms of festival assemblies, examining their potential for innovation and transformative experiences. Eco-assemblies and eco-disassemblies shed light on the urgency of environmental sustainability in performance practice, while digital and immersive assembly demonstrate the expanding boundaries and possibilities of performative spaces. Scenographies and dramaturgies that take apart or dismantle challenge conventional notions of performance, pushing the boundaries of audience experience. Experiences of diasporic assembly can reveal how performances become sites for negotiating hybrid identities, cultural memory, and belonging. We invite scholars and artists to also consider processes of co-creation and the potential for horizontal and asymmetrical assembly, promoting collaborative practices in performance. Place-making as assemblage reveals how performance can shape and redefine our relationship with space and environment, while intersectional assemblies highlight the intersections of various social identities and the ways in which they inform performance practices.

Lastly, we investigate the challenges of assembling in hostile environments, exploring the role of performance in resistance, resilience, and survival. Collective politics and assemblies shed light on the mobilising potentials of performance, questioning power dynamics and advocating for social change.

Ultimately, PSi #29 aims to explore the multifaceted nature of performance assemblage and disassembly, examining its potential to shape and transform our understanding of the world.

Themes to be addressed at the conference include, but are not limited to:

· Assemblage, a collection of things or a group of people or animals

· Assembly, the process of coming together, or the state of being together

· Practice research as assembling

· Assembling as counterpublics (Warner)

· Assembly as a ‘space of appearance’ (Butler)

· To assemble as a condition of political action

· Disassemble, to separate into different parts

· London as global centre and (post)imperial assemblage

· Archival assemblages and the manner of their construction

· Memory and history as assembled and composed

· Concept touring and new forms of festival assemblies

· Eco-assemblies and eco-disassemblies

· Digital and immersive assembly

· Scenographies and dramaturgies that take apart or dismantle

· Diasporic assembly

· Processes of co-creation, how to assemble horizontally and asymmetrically

· Place-making as assemblage

· Intersectional assemblies

· Assembling in hostile environments

· Decolonisation as assembly and/or dismantling

· London as global centre and (post)imperial assemblage

· Archival assemblages and the manner of their construction

· Memory and history as assembled and composed

· Concept touring and new forms of festival assemblies

· Eco-assemblies and eco-disassemblies

· Digital and immersive assembly

· Scenographies and dramaturgies that take apart or dismantle

· Diasporic assembly

· Processes of co-creation, how to assemble horizontally and asymmetrically

· Place-making as assemblage

· Intersectional assemblies

· Assembling in hostile environments

· Collective politics and assemblies

· To assemble or take apart performance time

We invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to performance studies, theatre, dance, music, visual arts, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, law, social sciences, and history. We encourage submissions that explore these themes through diverse theoretical, methodological, and creative approaches.

Accepted presentation formats include: Pre-planned panel presentations and roundtables (of 90 minutes)

Individual papers: in-person (15 minutes); online (12 - 15 minutes)

Performances and/or installations (20 – 30 minutes with minimal technical support)

Laboratory/workshop sessions (90 minutes)

Screenings of performance documentation and practice research (10-15 mins)

Analogue spaces - there will be several spaces without technology that will be available to curate for conversations, dialogues or other interventions

Important Dates:

Abstract portal opens: 30 September 2023

Submission Deadline: 15 October 2023

Notification of Acceptance: 10 November 2023

Conference Dates: 20-23 June 2024

We look forward to welcoming you to a vibrant conference that embraces interdisciplinary dialogue, artistic experimentation, and critical engagement.

For questions about becoming an institutional member for PSi or for related programming please contact Serap Erincin at seraperincin@gmail.com.

We look forward to your submissions!

The PSi #29 Conference Organising Committee