Antonin Artaud Performance Centre

Brunel University
June 17th, 2014, 9:30am - 7pm
Brunel University & University of
Westminster
2nd Joint Researching the Arts/Social
Sciences Conference for Research
Students
9:30-10:00
10:00-10:15
10:15-11:55
11:55-12:10
12:10-12:40
12:40-13:40
13:40-15:20
15:20-16:05
16:05-16:20
16:20-17:30
17:30-18:00
18:00-19:00
PROGRAMME
Registration - Foyer
Introduction - Room 101
Session 1: Alan Saeed, Mark Iruayenama,
Collette Wheeler & Rachel Watson - Room
101
Cofee Break - Foyer
Performance,:Twelve Doors, Haein Song
- Room 103
Lunch - Foyer
Session 2: Wayne Holloway-Smith, Ker-
ry-Jo Reilly, Lizeta Makka & Delphine
Ngehndab - Room 101
Film: Xiansheng: Passing down the tradi-
tion, Peter Ran Guangpei - Room 101
Tea Break - Foyer
Keynote,: Technobiophilia: Stories of Na-
ture in the Wired World, Professor Sue
Tomas - Room 101
Drinks Reception - Foyer
Roundtable Discussion: Chaired by Profes-
sor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos
- Room 101
Keynote
TECHNOBIOPHILIA: STORIES OF NATURE IN THE WIRED WORLD
Profesor Sue Tomas, Visiting Fellow at Te Media School, Bournemouth
University.
Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace (Bloomsbury 2013) is the result of an eight-year
inquiry by Sue Tomas into the relationship between the internet and the natural world. It was
a transdisciplinary journey which began with the very frst days of ARPAnet, fell into biophilia,
discovered environmental psychology, wandered through the Web, trod the hinterlands of Sec-
ond Life, and paddled up the Twitter stream. On the way, Tomas formulated new connections
between disciplines and identifed controversial insights into digital well-being.
Sue Tomas is a writer. Her most recent book is Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace,
an argument for digital well-being (Bloomsbury 2013), and her journalism has appeared in Te
Guardian, Slate, Mashable, Te Conversation, Aeon and others. Previous books include Hello
World: travels in virtuality (2004), a travelogue/memoir of life online, and Correspondence
(1992), short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. In 1995 she
founded the trAce Online Writing Centre, an early global online community which ran for ten
years. From 2005-2013 she was Professor of New Media in the Institute of Creative Technolo-
gies at De Montfort University where she developed the concept of transliteracy and worked
on social media projects related to transdisciplinarity and future foresight. She is currently
working on CyberPark, an EU COST Action connecting outdoor leisure with the wired life.
She lives in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK, where she is a Visiting Fellow at Te Media School,
Bournemouth University. www.suethomas.net @suethomas
A special thanks to Brunel University, School of Arts and The
Graduate School, University of Westminster, and in particular,
Professor Thomas Betteridge, Professor Johannes Birringer,
Professor Christopher Fox, Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-
Mihalopoulos and Sue Ramus whose support and advice
was vital to helping to arrange and fund this conference.
Presenters
Jamesians and Bergsonians Stream of Consciousness on Katherine Mansfelds Prelude
Alan Saaed, English, Brunel University
Tis paper examines some aspects of Mansfelds fction in terms of Henri Bergsons and William
Jamess theories, both in terms of more general aesthetics and form (how Jamess stream of conscious-
ness in a modifed form works in the fction) and in terms of Mansfelds characters (especially issues
of gender and social class, consciousness of diferent and alternative life possibilities, the importance of
childhood and the topic of bohemianism). One of Mansfelds short stories Prelude (1918) is analyzed
through Bergsons theories in the books: Time and Free Will (1889), Matter and Memory (1896) and
Creative Evolution (1907) mainly with reference to duration, memory and ones lan Vital. My argu-
ment will focus upon and explore Mansfelds use of stream of consciousness as a narrative technique
in both individuals characters and also in respect to elements of the narrative voice. Trough stream
of consciousness, the reader will explore how individual characters inner thoughts are represented
ofen through such aspects of omniscient narration as free indirect discourse and focalization.
Bio
I am a full-time fnal year English Research PhD student supervised by Professor Philip Tew
and Dr. Nick Hubble. I have an MA in National and International Literatures in English from the
Round Table Discussion
Te purpose of the roundtable discussion is to draw the presentations of the day to a close, si-
multaneously broadening the spectrum of post graduate students who are given an opportunity
to respond to the brief of the conference: to share, exchange and develop their research through
their engagement with their peers.
To be chaired by Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos this discussion is open to
all attendees and participants. We have also asked the following students; Eliza Watt, Law, Uni-
versity of Westminster, Paul McGuire, Music, Brunel University and Sameh Habeeb, Journal-
ism, Brunel University, to represent their respective disciplines in the discussion. We welcome
participation from all attendees.
Institute of English Studies at School of Advanced Study, University of London and BA in English
Language and Literature from the University of Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan. I have focused on
Stream of Consciousness technique on the British modern female writers with reference to William
James and Henri Bergson from 1918-1929.
Beyond the Sign-Object-Interpretant Triadic Structure: A Psychological Approach to Religious
Symbolism
Mark Iruayenama, Psychology, Brunel University
Classic semiotic theory posits a triadic structure of the sign (e.g., two perpendicularly crossed
sticks), object (e.g., crucifx), and interpretant (e.g., a Christian who interprets it as a holy symbol).
Te present paper utilises a psychological approach that moves past the interpretant as a rational
and pertinent perceiver, to one biased in perception/interpretation, which consequently alters his/
her present mental state and subsequent behaviour. Te research uses religious symbolism as a case
study in a highly religious country; Nigeria. Two experiments (laboratory and real-life setting) re-
vealed that participants who were exposed to religious symbolism (particularly fearsome religious
symbolism) became less sceptical of religious prepositions in comparison with participants exposed
to rationality symbolism and no symbolism, and difered in their willingness to share funds be-
tween an in-group and out-group. Tese fndings show that religious symbolism in religious cul-
tures constantly reinforce religious cultural values and attitudes, and act as a bufer to external
infuences.
Bio
I am currently in my fnal year at Brunel University, studying for a doctorate degree in Psychol-
ogy Research. My frst degree was in graphic design, while engaged in the creative process of graphic
design, I became increasingly interested in the meaning people ascribe to symbols and how it might
possibly afect them. For my dissertation, I studied the divergent interpretations of the swastika by
Nazi sympathizers, descendants of victims of the Jewish holocaust and their sympathisers, as well
Indians acculturated with Indian culture (where the swastika originates from). Tis approach led
me to theories within psychology addressing the efects of environmental stimuli on the cognitive
states of individuals, and fuelled my interest in psychology. Having gained a BA Hons in graphic
design, I went on to enrol for a conversion course in Psychology, studying various disciplines; from
developmental psychology to new approaches in neurocognitive psychology. Having completed an
MSc in Psychology, I enrolled for a PhD in Psychology Research to further my interest in visual
symbolism, using religious symbolism a as case study.
Representing Temselves in Death: Te Funeral Monuments of the Cavendish Family.
Collette Wheeler, English, Brunel University
To the aristocracy of the sixteenth and seventeenth century the continuation of their reputation
meant everything, even in death. As such the construction of vast, expensive and, frankly, overly
ostentatious tombs was a common place feature to truly captivate the lives that were lead by the
occupiers held within. Tis paper will examine the tombs of the Cavendish family in a way that
demonstrates the integral part that tomb monuments were able to not only memorialize the dead,
but also hail the living relatives they lef behind. By examining contemporary evidence in direct cor-
relation with the life declared on the tomb, we begin to discover how far the lives that we believed
to have been lived have been directly infuenced by the lives displayed on marble. When looking at
the words eternally etched in stone, the fgures created to be placed upon the tomb and the location
in which the deadchose to be laid, we are able to see that even in death reputations could be made
or destroyed forever.
Bio
Collette is currently studying for her PhD in the School of Arts at Brunel University looking at
the evolution of patronage given by the members of the Cavendish family, in particular the females,
from around 1550-1669. She also received her Bachelor of Arts (2011) and Master of Arts (2012) at
Brunel University.
From Egyptians to Land Pirates and Moon Men: Early Modern Gypsy Representations
Rachel Watson, English, Brunel University
According to Marxist thinker, Louis Althusser, literature is part of the truth of history and ear-
lymodern literature has largely been ignored in scholarly work seeking an understanding of gypsies
and gypsy communities. My paper will examine early modern literary representations of gypsies
and gypsy communities to identify their contribution to the current taxonomy and perception of
gypsies. I will also use a continuum model to complicate the binary conceptualisation of gypsy
identity in David Mayalls work with its two opposing defnitions of the gypsy community: ethno-
centric and socio-historical.
Bio
Rachel is currently a PhD student in the School of Arts at Brunel University in the early stages of
research working on early modern gypsy representations seeking to contribute to a deeper historical
understanding of gypsies and gypsy communities which will provide a greater appreciation of the
diversity of those communities.
Twelve Doors
Haein Song, Contemporary Performance, Brunel University
Twelve doors is an interactive digital performance creating an efective convergence between
digital technology and a Korean ritual performance gut. It is started from my passion to create hu-
manised digital practices that go beyond the mechanical, cybernetic and repetitive nature of tech-
nology.
Tere might be diverse ways to create humanized digital practices, but my inquiry is centred on
applying gut as an intermediate because gut is one of the most representative Korean performances
symbolising the internal elements of the people(e.g. her mind, senses, feelings, breathing and soul).
It is based on a combination of the elements of diverse artistic genresincluding dance, music,
theatre and ritualthat focus on underlining the value of our minds and souls. By applying this
characteristic of gut to a digital practice, my work highlights innate elements of performers in the
digital context and thereby diminishes a mechanical and cybernetic character of digital practices.
Bio
Haein Song is an artist, dancer and director born in Seoul. She is passionate about creatingmulti-
cultural performances by fnding an interesting convergence between traditional andcontemporary
culture and arts. She completed a MA in Contemporary Performance Making, Brunel University
and a BFA in Choreography, Korea National University of Arts. She is now continuing her PhD
research in Brunel.
Dick-in-Hand: Te Virility and Impotence of Masculine Working Class Resistance in the Gaze
of the Middle Class
Wayne Holloway-Smith, English, Brunel University
Te 1950s and its British New Wave is ofen celebrated as the last literary movement housing an
authentic workingclass voice. However, that its mode of expression is the overtly sexualised male
body, and moreover, that this mode has been retrospectively romanticized in contemporary culture
as some cheeky-roguish heroism goes largely uninvestigated. As does the question, for whom
do these texts currently exist? In interrogating three major works of fction from this era, issues can
be raised, frstly, with respect to what the sexualised nature of its famous protagonists achieved in
terms of actual class resistance, and secondly, regarding the fetishization of working class bodies,
both in history and today. Drawing upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Lawrence Driscoll and Bev-
erley Skeggs, this article will contend that the space in which these texts currently exist (somewhere
between the bookshelf, the memory, the onscreen adaptation) functions almost as a Baudrillardian
Disney World, which a middle-class gaze can consume, and, in its consumption, imagine itself as
being sympathetic to the concerns of the lower-classes, whilst funding both a neglect, and more seri-
ously, a reproduction, of similar class distinctions in contemporary representations.
Bio
Wayne Holloway-Smith is an English Ph.D candidate at Brunel University, where he won a
scholarship to research representations of working-class masculinity in 20th Century British lit-
erature. Previously, he won A.H.R.C funding for his Literature MA. Wayne is a published poet,
with a debut collection from Donut Press, for which he received short-listings for a Society of
Authors Eric Gregory Award and Te Arts Foundation Prize for Poetry, and a short story writer,
published by the BBC, and long-listed in the Lightship International Short Story Award.
(Title to be announced.)
Kerry-Jo Reilly, Creative Writing, Brunel University
My thesis is on women writing in the 1990s and 2000s about gender and perception. It is fol-
lowed by a novel about gender and perception set in the 1990s and 2000s.
Te writers are Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and hip-hop poets such as MC Lyte and Jean Grae.
Te form and content of their work is designed to radically unnerve the viewer, questioning what he
sees, knows and controls. I am reading these writers with scholarship on gender and race, and fnd
they all disrupt the visual with doubles, gaps, hidden compartments and dissonance in the pursuit
of radical epistemologies that will enable, ultimately, a more just, humane, and real way of being.
Tensions are foregrounded in this research and in my writing, which seeks the kinds of surprises
and dissonance that we have within ourselves. With surprising methods and conceptual creativity,
these transformative thinkers replace fracturing fundamentals with dream possibilities.
Bio
I am a part-time fnal year Creative Writing PhD student supervised by Fay Weldon and Matt
Torne. I have an MSc in Culture & Society from LSE and a BA in Literature from Kent; I
have focused on gender, social representations, everyday survival strategies such as humour, and
silence in womens literature.
Praxis and creativity: Te project of autonomy and the collective event
Lizeta Makka, Teatre, Brunel University
Te present paper raises the question of the relationship between art and politics. For Allain
Badiou the situation of politics is also the situation of art, given that both include the state of
political action. Cornelius Castoriadis proposes the project of autonomy as a radical response
to the failure of the existing system, based on the creative dimension of praxis. In order to
achieve its autonomy, the subject, must return to the primary state, just before the praxis. In
other words, the social must regain its imaginary state. In the present paper I will argue that
art through collective action can propose new structures of the social, or as Badiou would call
it a new universality. Te occupation of Embros theatre in Athens which functions as a self-
managed space will be a paradigm to this argument through which the attempt to raise the
connection between art and politics will unfold.
Bio
Lizeta Makka is an artist and PhD candidate at the department of Teatre and Performance
at Brunel University. She received her Bachelor in Fine Arts from the University of Ioannina,
Greece in 2007 and she then moved to London to pursue her postgraduate studies at the Uni-
versity of the Arts London (Camberwell College of Arts), where she received a Masters in Visual
Arts in 2011. She has been exhibiting her work since 2006 in numerous shows in Greece and in
the United Kingdom. Her research examines the current social and institutional crisis mainly
in Greece. One strand of the research focuses on collective artistic practices and the occupation
of public spaces as political praxis. Te second strand focuses on political philosophy and the
concept of social autonomy examining the role of art as praxis that serves the common good.
When Cultures Encounter: a Case Study of Bamenda Market Womens Experiences of
Foreign Soap Operas
Delphine G Ngehndab, Screen Media, Brunel University
Mamaaaaa, Sharon pinched my jaw, son cries to mother. Sharon stop disturbing these kids.
Dont you see I am watching Le Clone? Tis study explores the manner women in Cameroon
respond to foreign texts and also probes the role of institutions in broadcasting foreign soap ope-
ras. Te study combines two approaches drawn from political economy and cultural studies be-
cause both provide a concrete measure through which one can interpret what transpires behind the
scenes of production and how audiences relate with cultural products. Te theoretical framework
of the study is drawn between authors who back the deterministic power of the media and those
who argue about the interpretive freedom of audiences in shaping peoples behaviours. In order to
obtain best responses to the research questions, the following methods were employed: qualitative
survey, participant observation, focus group discussions, electronic mail and face-to-face in-depth
interviews.
Bio
I am Delphine G Ngehndab and I am in my second year with the department of Screen Media,
Brunel University. My study investigates the meaning market women make of global soap operas
consumed within their local environments as part of an ongoing process to create diferent identi-
ties. I hold a Master of Arts degree in Journalism and Media Studies obtained from Rhodes Univer-
sity, Grahamstown, South Africa. I am also a graduate of the department of Journalism and Mass
Communication, University of Buea.
Xiansheng: Passing down the tradition, (China, 27min)
Peter RAN Guangpei, Ethnographic Research, University of Westminster
Xiansheng is a group of local ritualists, who perform funerary ceremonies in southwestern Chi-
na. Tis practice was previously condemned as superstitious and were thus strictly forbidden during
the Cultural Revolution. Mr. Tian Yongdi frst learned to practise Xiansheng at the age of 16. He
has not only witnessed the survival of the tradition through diferent historical periods, but also
involved in its eradication and revitalisation himself. His life story interweaves with the fuctuation
of the religious practice as well as the history of contemporary China. Engaging in chant learning
from Mr. Tian, the director tried to uncover how the tradition survived radical political compaigns,
how it is passed down through generations and what kind of future is ahead for the newly revived
traditional practice.
Bio
Peter Ran is an ethnographic researcher and documentary flmmaker from southwestern China.
He attained an MA in Visual Anthropolgy with distinction at the University of Manchester, and
was trained in flm production at Tsinghua University during his undergraduate studies. Xian-
sheng: Passing down the tradition is his latest flm produced in the summer of 2013 as part of his
MA dissertations. Peter is currently a PhD student at Contemporary China Centre, University
of Westminster, working on a research project looking into locally based heritage preservation in
southwestern China.