Circus as Practices of Hope
Marie-Andrée Robitaille
Doctoral Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts
in Performative and Media-Based Practices with Specialisation in Choreography
The documented artistic research project (doctoral thesis) consists of:
1. The live performance Multiverse
2. A digital Spherical Exposition
3. A written exegesis
4. Artifacts
by due permission of Stockholm University of the Arts, Sweden, presented for public defense at Brinellvägen 58, Studio G. May 27th 2024, 13.30.
Chair of the public defence Cecilia Roos
Examination committee Rick Dolphijn, Ingri Midgard Fiksdal, Alexander Vantournhout
Reserve committee member Kent Olofsson
Opponent Karen Fricker
Supervisors Juliette Mapp, Trond Lossius
Abstract
My doctoral artistic research project, Circus as Practices of Hope, responds to the growing complexities emerging from the convergence of the fourth industrial revolution, the sixth mass extinction, and the eco-socio-political turmoil of our time. What does it mean to be human today? What does it mean to be a circus artist today? How is circus relevant in today’s context?
Core to this inquiry is the assertion that although circus arts hold the potential to foster significant knowledge, they simultaneously perpetuate outdated worldviews that restrict their transgressive potential. With this research, I investigate alternatives to regressive models of thoughts and modes of composition, aiming to identify and articulate circus´ inherent epistemic, ontological, and ethical specificities and their relevance for navigating and steering the current planetary paradigm shift.
I conducted my research through embodied practices as a circus artist, as a pedagogue, and from the perspective of a human on Earth. My inquiry occurred through Multiverse, an iterative series of compositional performative experiments and discursive activities. I engaged critical posthumanism and neo-materialist philosophies to challenge and evolve my relation to risk, mastery, and virtuosity.
The project conceptualizes circus arts as nomadic and fabulatory practices, culminating in a series of artistic, choreographic, and conceptual tools and methods that articulate circus arts within and beyond their disciplinary boundaries. The project advances a philosophy of circus that highlights circus-specific kinetic, aesthetic, and embodied relevancies in today’s context, situating circus arts as hopeful practices for the future.
Keywords: circus, choreography, composition, posthumanism, posthuman ethics, new materialism, performative materialism, kinetic materialism, body-reorienting practice, defamiliarization, practical fabulation, nomadic practices, multiverse, technopoetics, material imagination, embodiment, hope, hopepunk
Robitaille, Marie-Andrée. (2024), Circus as Practices of Hope, A documented artistic research project (doctoral thesis) submitted to Stockholm University of the Arts for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy of the Arts, in Performative and Media Based Practices with Specialisation in Choreography, Stockholm University of the Arts.
ISBN
ISSN
© Marie-Andrée Robitaille 2024
Circus as Practices of Hope
A philosophy of Circus
Marie-Andrée Robitaille
Doctoral Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts in Performative and Media Based Practices with Specialisation in Choreography
The documented artistic research project (doctoral thesis) consisting of
1. The live performance, Multiverse
2. A digital spherical exposition
3. A written exegesis
4. Artifacts
by due permission of Stockholm University of the Arts, Sweden,
presented for public defense at Brinellvägen 58, 114 28, Stockholm, Sweden, May 27th 2024, 13.30.
Chair of the Public Defense Cecilia Roos
Opponent Karen Fricker
Examination Committee Rick Dolphijn, Ingri Midgard Fiksdal, Alexander Vantournhout Reserve Committee Member Kent Olofsson
Main Supervisor Juliette Mapp
Supervisor Trond Lossius
Abstract
My doctoral artistic research project, Circus as Practices of Hope: A Philosophy of Circus, responds to the growing complexities emerging from the convergence of the fourth industrial revolution, the sixth mass extinction, and the eco-socio-political turmoil of our time. What does it mean to be human today? What does it mean to be a circus artist today? How is circus relevant in today’s context?
Core to this inquiry is the assertion that although circus arts hold the potential to foster significant knowledge, they simultaneously perpetuate outdated worldviews that restrict their transgressive potential. With this research, I investigate alternatives to regressive models of thoughts and modes of composition, aiming to identify and articulate circus' inherent epistemic, ontological, and ethical specificities and their relevance for navigating and steering the current planetary paradigm shift.
I conducted my research through embodied practices as a circus artist, as a pedagogue, and from the perspective of a human on Earth. My inquiry occurred through Multiverse, an iterative series of compositional performative experiments and discursive activities. I engaged critical posthumanism and neo-materialist philosophies to challenge and evolve my relation to risk, mastery, and virtuosity.
The project conceptualizes circus arts as nomadic and fabulatory practices, culminating in a series of artistic, choreographic, and conceptual tools and methods that articulate circus arts within and beyond their disciplinary boundaries. The project advances a philosophy of circus that highlights circus-specific kinetic, aesthetic, and embodied relevancies in today’s context, situating circus arts as hopeful practices for the future.
Keywords: circus, choreography, composition, posthumanism, posthuman ethics, new materialisms, performative materialism, kinetic materialism, body-reorienting practice, defamiliarization, practical fabulation, nomadic practices, nomadic images, nomadic writing, multiverse, technopoetics, material imagination, embodiment, hope, hopepunk
To quote this work:
Robitaille, M-A. (2024), Circus as Practices of Hope: A Philosophy of Circus, Documented Artistic Research Project (doctoral thesis), Stockholm University of the Arts.
Publication series X Position no. 33
ISSN 2002-603X ; 33
ISBN 978-91-88407-52-8 (print)
EISBN 978-91-88407-53-5 (e-publ)
© Marie-Andrée Robitaille 2024
Stockholm University of the Arts
