Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Bale, Robin (2018) And I half turn to go: invocatio and negation of the Public. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/26369/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy And I Half Turn to Go: Invocatio and Negation of the Public Robin Bale M00336277 A thesis submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries November 2016 1 Acknowledgements Thanks are firstly due to Middlesex University, who provided me with the funding to pursue this work. I am also grateful for the remarkable patience and understanding of my director of studies Jon Bird throughout this long process, also to my supervisor Tansy Spinks for her patience, focus and attention to detail. I would also like to thank Alastair MacLennan for his practical advice and example, and Dr. John Cussans for many enlightening conversations. The valuable work of Bean, Andre Verissimo and Benjamin Sebastian at Performance ] s p a c e [ also needs to be mentioned. The support and (not least) space that they offered to myself and many more have been extremely precious, also rare — the city being as it is these days. Infinite gratitude is also due to my partner Nicola, for everything, really. 2 Table of Contents List of performances and other works 3 DVD documentation contents 6 Abstract 7 Introduction 9 Invocation — Prologue 16 Publics — Allegory — Melancholia — Torsion 19 The Public and the Negative 62 The Bike Cemetery 71 Scalies 93 The Athlete 102 Addiction 110 Three Spaces 122 The Neighbour 134 Lastly 140 Conclusion - Reflections on Brexit 144 List of illustrations 152 Illustrations 154 Bibliography 190 Appendix 1 203 Appendix 2 206 Appendix 3 210 Appendix 4 223 3 Performances and Other Works 2010–16 (Works marked by an asterisk are included in the documentation. The disk number is stated. The work is also available for viewing on the following website: www.andihalfturntogo.blogspot.co.uk 2016 – Kkkaaa non-verbal vocal improvisation with digital enhancement, as part of Moving Performances, Faculty of Music, St Aldates, Oxford [* Disk 2] 2015 – Aqua Tophana spoken word and musical performance at Chronic Illness of Mysterious Origin, Dungeons of Polymorphous Pan, London 2015 – Schuld, five track EP of spoken word and experimental sound, self-released on own DISFIGMENT/BANKRUPSEA label (excerpts) [* Audio Disk 2] 2015 – Ceiling Low, The Tide is Rising, improvised percussion and spoken word; at Invisible Noise Museum, the Pumphouse, Rotherhithe London 2015 – Return to the Bike Cemetery, 10 minute experimental sound and spoken word podcast, broadcast on Critical Waves Radio program, Resonance fm [* Audio Disk 2] 2015 – Root, verbal and instrumental improvisation at Middlesex University [* Audio Disk 2] 2015 – Der Leierman, improvised spoken word, percussion and Kaoss Pad, Performance Space, Deptford London [* Disk 2] 2015 – Apostrophe for a Citizen, spoken word and Kaoss Pad improvisation, Middlesex University [* Disk 1] 2015 – Twat Graffiti, Vocal performance on the street at LADA Hackney Wick as part of the launch event for Performance Art Faction Box Set [* Disk 3] 2014 – Invocation, recorded sound piece, listening seminar at Goldsmith’s College [* Audio Disk 1] 2014 – Austerity, recording; online release 2014 – Contact Mic Dance, recording; online release [* Audio Disk 1] 2014 – The Sphinx Song, recording; online release [* Audio Disk 2] 2013 – Untitled, non-verbal vocal and instrumental performance, Performance Space London as part of “Performance Exchange” event 2013 – The Last Days of the Empire, improvised spoken word with percussion and digital effects; as part of Drone Planes Over Westfield event, London 4 2013 – St. James’ Infirmary, recording, online release 2013 – This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You, spoken word and non-verbal vocalization at Anatum’s Abode, Limehouse London [* Disk 3] 2013 – Of Course, We Write All the Time, non-verbal vocal and instrumental performance and text, Vibe Gallery London, as part of “Flows” event [* Disk 2] 2013 – The Neighbour is an Other you can't kill, performative lecture, part of “Powerplay” event, Arts Café, Toynbee Hall London 2013 – Ghosts and Weather, performative lecture and improvisation; Space Studios White Building, London 2012 – Chapter “I Know Thee Not, Old Man” in “Critical Cities Volume 3”, Myrdle Court Press 2012 – We Owe the Future Nothing, derive performance, part of “Moving Forest Coda” event, Chelsea College of Art [* Disk 3] 2012-2013 – Ghosts and Weather, residency project in dub aesthetics, Space studios London 2012 – Invocation/Rehearsal for the Bike Cemetery article, Journal of Media Practice 2012 – Two live spoken word and music sets Abject Bloc radio show resonance fm (excerpts) [* Audio Disk 1] 2011 – Rehearsal at Colonus, audiovisual performance, presented in Vilnius Lithuania, as part of TARP poetry festival [* Disk 3] 2011 – Rehearsal at Colonus, improvised spoken word piece, in Malmberget Sweden 2011 – Cracks/Tracks improvised spoken word performance, Gallivare Sweden (excerpt) [* Disk 1] 2011 – Rehearsal at the Bike Cemetery, performative lecture, part of Journeys Across Media conference, Reading University (excerpt) [* Disk 1] 2011 – The Rapture, fixed media sound and spoken word performance at Abject Bloc, Limehouse Town Hall (excerpt) [* Audio Disk 2 ] 2011– I Can’t Be Near, lecture/ performance, at Fresh AiR Platform, Queen Mary University 2011– The Dandyism of Contempt spoken word/noise performance, Camden Unlimited 5 2010 – I Know Thee Not, Old Man, performative guided walk around the Designated Public Places (alcohol control areas) of south Hackney/Shoreditch; part of This Is Not a Gateway radical urbanists conference 2010 – Football Hooligan performance with Mark McGowan and Rex Nemo and the Psychik Self Defenders. London Anti-Design Festival 6 DVD Contents Disc 1 Apostrophe for a Citizen Cracks Tracks (excerpt) Comensationton bankrupsea Disc 2 Der Leierman Of course, we write all the time Kkkaaa Disc 3 Rehearsal at Colonus This hurts me more than it hurts you Twat Graffiti We Owe the Future Nothing Audio Work Audio Disc 1 1 The Chariot (from Schuld, CD release) 2 Communities/Get Screwed (excerpts from the Abject Bloc radio show) 3 contact mic dance 4 In the Fifth Year Part 2 (from Schuld, CD release) 5 Invocation Audio Disc 2 1 Kicking at Pigeons (excerpt from The Rapture, performance: Limehouse Town Hall) 2 Return to the Bike Cemetery 3 Root 4 sphinx song 7 Abstract This writing is the result of a practice-as-research project that I have undertaken as a poet, performance and sound artist. The works that I have produced dwell thematically and formally on themes of broken temporality, abject subjects, waste time and spaces, and are a response to the period coincident (London and the UK, 2010-2017) with this research. The writing is intended to create a context, or map, of where and when I made the performances and recordings, the pressures and atmospheres they responded to. During this time, broadly welfare-statist senses of “public” as polity, institutions and space have contorted under pressure from a rapacious neoliberalism and the rise of nativist and racist right-wing politics, exemplified by the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Both forces are hostile to the model of rights-bearing citizenship as the universality embodied in “stranger relationality”, which Michael Warner describes as a necessity for a sense of public (2002, p.7). This struggle feeds into debates concerning what both "public" and “citizen” mean as political concepts. I use relational aesthetics as an example of a communitarian tendency that superficially might seem to be opposed to dominant political tendencies hostile to the idea of a universal public. In this, it follows both nativist and neoliberal tendencies; in its artistic strategies it also prioritises voluntaristic “engagement” over contemplation. In both these matters, it replicates certain neoliberal models of ideal subjecthood, in which rights are replaced by privileges. This is, for me, a parallel to the tension between the Romantic lumpenprole figure of “artist” and the valorised, entrepreneurial “creative worker”. As a counterbalance, I look at a waste ground fly-tipping site in east London that I have called the Bike Cemetery. This place had at one time been occupied by an anonymous bricoleur who left an extraordinary mural comprising of collaged detritus and text on a wall supporting a motorway embankment.