[D-G] observations

[Andr=?ISO-8859-1?B?6SA=?=Lepecki]

The question of "what do we get from philosophy?" is an interesting one, and
an important "refrain" that I hear coming from my students all the time. I
have found some provisional answers has in the odd ways by which some
philosophy enters into composition with movement in order to create an inner
dynamics that takes it towards a "practical philosophy" to use Deleuze's
subtitle for his shorter book on Spinoza. (My favorites philosophers of
movement: Spinoza, Bergson, Nietzsche -- the 3 "proper" philosophers of
movement within the D+G tradition, but also Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and
more recently the amazing Peter Sloterdijk, particularly  with his book on
mobilization; and Gil although sometimes I think he fetishizes movement too
much). Even more intriguing for me (but interesting cases to think about
what we get from philosophy) are those visual artists that have found in
philosophy some energy to make them move: I am thinking here of Bruce Nauman
dancing with Wittgenstein and Bob Morris with Merleau-Ponty. Even more
strange: the recent strong bond between contemporary European "conceptual"
dance and philosophy, epitomized by the 2 dialogues (and 2 books) between
Mathilde Monnier (french choreographer) and Jean-Luc Nancy. Who, by the way,
writes quite nicely on Joy in its relationship to love. Joy, by the way, is
the affect that I like to think may takes us towards the possibility of
thinking and enacting a bio-politics of affects, which then, gives me a very
"pragmatic" (there is always this demand, particularly from smart graduate
students in the arts) possibility of answering: "what do we get from
philosophy?"

Jamie: at the end, does philosophy for you really result in sadness?

André.


On 5/9/06 5:54 AM, "Dr Jamie Brassett" <j.brassett at csm.arts.ac.uk> wrote:

> Thanks everyone for your help. John: I like your cheeky, provocative
> approach. Nice one...I think what you say appeals to my latent Kantian
> faculty. André: I'll check out Gil as my work on cyborgs & body
> modification has also taken me into dance (especially capoeira); &
> Harald, whose question, "I cannot see what you expect to gain or get
> from philosophy" had me thinking for a while. And all I could come up
> with was "joy". Doing philosophy really does make me happy; even if the
> result of it, is sadness.
> 
> j
> 
> Dr Jamie Brassett FRSA
> Senior Lecturer
> Programme Leader, Contextual Studies for
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André Lepecki
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Performance Studies
New York University
(212) 998-1629