UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Raw Sense: Choreography
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Raw Sense: Choreography, Disability, Politics A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, Theory and Criticism by Amanda Louise Cachia Committee in charge: Professor Grant Kester, Chair Professor Michael Davidson Professor Suzanne Hudson Professor Mariana Wardwell Professor Alena Williams 2017 © Amanda Louise Cachia, 2017 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Amanda Louise Cachia is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Joseph and Frances Cachia, for their continued generous support and love. I also wish to dedicate my years of intellectual hard work to my husband, Ryan Gambrell, who believed in me from the day we met. He is strength, beauty, talent, dependency and honesty rolled up into one dynamic, exquisite package, and I can’t imagine life without him. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE…………………………………………………………………………………….…iii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………...iv TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………..……….v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………………….vii VITA……………………………………………………………………………………………………...…xi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION……………………………………………………………...…xii INTRODUCTION: AN EMPIRICAL TURN TOWARDS COMPLEX EMBODIMENT…………...…...1 CHAPTER 1: BREAKING OUT OF CONCENTRIC CIRCLESS: A NEW DANCE BETWEEN DISABILITY STUDIES AND ART HISTORY……………………………………………….....24 DISABILITY, IDENTITY & SPACE: A CHOREOPOLITICS………………………………......31 CHOREOPOLITICS AND THE ROLE OF THE BODY……………………………………..….39 BEHAVIOR & PERFORMANCE, PHENOMENOLOGY & DISABILITY STUDIES…..…..…46 FOUCAULT, CHOREOGRAPHY, DISABILITY……………………………………………......58 CHOREOGRAPHING EMPATHY? A DISABLED ECONOMY OF SUFFERING, WOUNDING, AND RETRIBUTION…………………………………………………………......63 PROCESSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE………………………………………………………….....71 RAW SENSE: FORMLESS AND ANTI-FORM………………………………………….….…..77 CONCLUSION: ENABLING MOVEMENT TOWARDS CHANGE………………………..….84 CHAPTER 2: PROSTHETIC LIMBS: WHITE CANES, PODIUMS & OTHER SPATIAL PROPS……………………………………………………………...……..86 CARMEN PAPALIA’S MULTI-SENSORIAL CANE PROSTHESES…………………….......100 BLIND FIELD SHUTTLE: CLOSE YOUR EYES AND TAKE IT ALL IN………………......106 THE SPATIAL PERFORMANCE & POLITICS OF THE ALTERPODIUM…………………..120 THE LECTURE-PEFORMANCE AS INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE………………………....131 CONCLUSION: A LEG, CANE, OR PODIUM TO CHOREOGRAPH ON…………………...136 v CHAPTER 3: RE-SIZING DWARFISM: CUTTING OCULAR SPACE IN HALF…………………..139 TO CONCEAL IS TO REVEAL: BODY-OBJECT-RELATIONS IN WORK OF LAURA SWANSON……………………...…..151 TOGETHER together…………………………………………….……………………………....164 THE CORBAN RULE: REARTICULATING THE BODY IN THE GALLERY……………...172 PLEASE ADJUST……………………………………………………………………….……..…183 CONCLUSION: PIVOTING DWARFISM ANEW…………………………………………..…190 CHAPTER 4: VOLUMINOUS TERRITORIES: DEAF AND HEARING IMPAIRED OCCUPATION OF PHYSICAL AND AUDIBLE SPACE…………………………………………………………………………….….193 AMBULATORY SCORES, EXISTENTIAL SILENCE AND ACOUSTIC ARCHITECTURE……………………………………………………………..........205 SOUND-OFF/FACE-OFF………………………………………………………………………...228 TOUCHING SOUND AND THE THEARICALITY OF SCULPTURE………………….……..235 SKATING INTO SOUND………………………………………………………………………..247 CONCLUSION: A NEW SPATIAL AURALITY……………………………………………..…253 CHAPTER 5: HAPTIC ACTIVISM: MOVING FEELING TACTILE SPACE………………..……...256 CRITIQUE OF OCULARCENTRISM……………………………………………………….…262 3-PLY: WRITING, MAKING, TOUCHING…………………………………………...…….…281 THE LEVITY, THE GRAVITY…………………………………………………………........…291 THE FEEL-GOOD VIBRATIONS OF WENDY JACOB……………………………….……...299 CONCLUSION: HAPTICALLY SPEAKING…………………………………………………..315 CONCLUSION: BEAUTIFUL PROGRESS TO SOMEWHERE……………………………………...319 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………………….339 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………………………..359 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Naturally, this dissertation is the product of much passion, dedication, and thinking over many years. First and foremost, I must thank the generous, talented and very professional Chair of my dissertation committee, Dr. Grant Kester. A graduate student can only hope to have an incredible mentor and Chair with all the qualities that Grant exudes, and I will be eternally grateful for his belief in, and encouragement of, my project. I am equally grateful for the brilliance also represented in the other current and former members of my committee, whom include Dr. Michael Davidson, Dr. Mariana Wardwell, Dr. Alena Williams, Dr. Suzanne Hudson, Dr. Jennifer Gonzalez, Dr. Lisa Cartwright, and Dr. Amelia Jones. It is hard to put into words just how fortunate I feel about blossoming as a young scholar in concert with established, renowned scholars whose work I have admired for many years. I respect them very deeply and without reservation, along with their important, transformative, and visionary work. Without them, I could not do the progressive work I am trying to do here, and thanks to them, I strive to be the best scholar possible. It is meaningful that they believe in the critical import of my work. This project would also not have been possible without all the artists that I recognize in the pages of my chapters, many of whom I have had the privilege to enjoy prolonged professional and personal relationships through my curatorial work. These artists include Fayen d’Evie, Helen Dowling, Ricardo Gil, Joseph Grigely, Raphaëlle de Groot, Wendy Jacob, Christine Sun Kim, Alison O’Daniel, Noëmi Laikmaier, Park McArthur, Carmen Papalia, Laura Swanson, and Corban Walker. I’d also like to vii acknowledge some of the other artists with whom I have worked in a curatorial capacity over these past five years, which includes Katherine Araniello, Ingrid Bachmann, Mowry Baden, Francisca Benitez, Diane Borsato, Arseli Dokumaci, Lindsay Fisher, Erin Gee, Cassandra Hartblay, Sara Hendren, Martin Kersels, Darrin Martin, Christof Migone, Laurence Parent, Aaron McPeake, Anthony Ptak, Catherine Richards, Steven Roden, Kim Sawchuk, Katherine Sherwood, Stelarc, Sunaura Taylor, Alexa Wright and (Chun- Shan) Sandie Yi. Your work continues to captivate, amaze, and stimulate me, and I have enjoyed watching your practices grow, evolve, and take the world by storm. I hope our relationships can continue to mutually benefit and nurture our evolving and promising careers in the many years ahead, in the art world certainly, and also in the world at large, as we join together in our radical attempts to develop critical thinking towards disabled subjectivity. As mentioned in the above paragraph, my curatorial work has allowed me the opportunity to work with very closely with many of the artists who are the subject of this dissertation, so I’d like to thank all the people who have offered me opportunities to develop my critical ideas as they pertain to the intersection of contemporary art and disability studies. These include Matthew Callinan, Dr. Kristin Lindgren and Dr. John Muse at Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College (What Can a Body Do?, 2012); Jay Dolmage at the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies and Geoffrey Shea (Cripping Cyberspace, 2013); Allisun Curtin and Scott Polach at Space4Arts, San Diego (Composing Dwarfism and Performing Crip Time: Bodies in Deliberate Motion, 2014); John Spiak at Grand Central Art Center at California State University in Santa Ana and Trish Stone, Dr. Jordan Crandall and Dr. Brian Goldfarb at gallery@calit2 at the viii University of California San Diego (LOUD silence, 2014-2015); Padraig Naughton at Arts & Disability Ireland (Marking Blind, 2015); Ruth Gould, Dr. Chris Smit, and Dr. Aaron Williamson, through the partnership of DaDaFest and the DisArt Festival, showcased at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art and the Grand Rapids Art Museum (Art of the Lived Experiment, 2015); Barbara Fischer and Ann McDonald at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto Art Center and Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto (The Flesh of the World, 2015); Megan Whitman at the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan (Laura Swanson: Resistance, 2016), and Ginger Shulick Porcella, Celia Gold, Marina Grize, Kevin Freligh, Nick Lesley and Meegan Nolan at the San Diego Art Institute (Sweet Gongs Vibrating, 2016). I would also like to thank the following individuals comprised of artists, scholars and much more, who have shaped my scholarship and my curatorial practice in some shape or form over the last five years: Dr. Patrick Anderson, Dr. Brenda Brueggemann, Dr. Lisa Cartwright, Dr. Eliza Chandler, Dr. Derek Conrad Murray, Dr. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Dr. Faye Ginsburg, Dr. Joseph Grigely, Dr. Elizabeth Guffey, Dr. Brian Goldfarb, Georgina Kleege, Dr. Mara Mills, Dr. Karen Nakamura, Dr. Graham Pullin, Dr. David Serlin, Dr. Tobin Siebers, Dr. Vivian Sobchack, Dr. Bess Williamson Stiles, Dr. Joseph Stramondo, and Elizabeth Sweeney. I have dedicated this dissertation to my parents and to my husband, but I wanted to add a few more notes about the role each of them has played in my work as a junior scholar. My parents have partially financially supported me through the last five years, and it is important for me to