Dance, Technology and the Material Mutations of Rhythm

DANCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE MATERIAL MUTATIONS OF RHYTHM

STAMATIA

C. PORTANOVA

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University East London the of requirements of for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

January 2006

Stamatia Portanova Dance, Technology and the Material Mutations of Rhythm Abstract

The object of this thesis is the relation between dance and technology in all its different aspects, i. e. video-dance. Motion Capture, the Dance Forms choreographic software, interactive and Internet dance. The aim of the project is to take the analysis of the dance/technology relation beyond the notions of conscious imitation, resemblance and representation presupposed by structuralist and post-structuralist dance-text, `mediatised' the the subjective and beyond readings of perceptual/performative mechanisms explained by phenomenology. In order to avoid this textual/phenomenological impasse, I will move the analytical focus on the materiality of the body, perception and movement, as a common and undifferentiated field of emergence in which specific corpo-realities and positions emerge. This thesis will deploy a new methodology for the exploration of the dance/technology link, mapping the processes of rhythmic material transmission which link dancing human bodies and technical machines. Drawing on the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. this project will challenge the centrality attributed by phenomenology to the human body. by considering it as different the components of a material process of rhythmic interchange in of only one which all elements (human bodies of dancers and spectators. computers, screens and other technical machines) share the same rhythmic dimension. The trans-codification different levels: dance be three at explored physical, cultural, of rhythm and will technical. Nevertheless, the three analytical levels will not be considered as separate, autonomous and hierarchical fields but as coexistent layers interconnected by a be identified then The this of stratification of process can common ground. purpose with the conceptualisation of a material and abstract rhythmicity (a field of emergence in scientific, physical terms, or an immanent plane in philosophical terms) which is at the basis of all different dance/technology formations.

[rhythm] that puO 6; as flowing particular way of which is of the sea waves... Fraisse (1979: 7)

Contents:

l 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 2. The abstractness of dance: a methodological map 19 ............... `cyber-dancing 2.1 Critical context: Performance studies and the

body'

22 ..................................................................................................................... 30 (move)

2.2 `A dancer is as a dancer doesn't' .......................................... 42 2.3 - Dancing matter ...................................................................................... 48 kine-auto-po(i)etics

of dance .......................................................................

53 2.4 - The tectonics of the performance ..................................................... 59 How does this thesis work? (`dancing layers') ...............................................

63 2.5 - The scene of immanence ...................................................................... 68 how does a dancing body work? (rhythmic virology) ...................................

3. Bio-physical machines and dancing molecules 82 ....................... in biology: `how body individuates itself 88 3.1 Rhythm

a

molecular

3.1.1 Chrono-biology

88 the the organism .................................. and meters of

93 3.1.2 Viral rhythmology .................................................................................. .

97 3.2 Rhythm in anatomy: how a moving body works .......................... . 97 3.2.1 Kine-physiology.

3.2.2 Electro-rhythms

The first steps of the Body with Organs ................. .

101 .....................................................................................

108 3.3 Rhythm and the senses: how a dancing body `becomes' ..........108 3.3.1 Sensory channelling, coordination and dance ..................................... 111 3.3.2 Trans-rhythmicity .................................................................................

4. Anthropo/cultural machines and dancing packs 126 ................. 4.1 Rhythm in the anthropology:

individuation

ritual as a system of collective

134 ...................................................................................................

134 4.1.1 The codes and meters of rites ............................................................... 4.1.2 Ritual rhythms. Becoming acoustic-chromatic-molecular ................ 139

145 4.2 Rhythmic propagations in space ....................................................... 145 ......................................................................................... 148 4.2.2 Rhythmic contaminations 4.2.1 Kinetography

.....................................................................

154 4.3 Rhythmic mutations through time .................................................... 154 4.3.1 Chrono-kinetics ...................................................................................... 4.3.2 The rhythmic retrovirus of the techno-ritual .....................................157

5. Cyber-dance: technical machines in the crowded space of

167 performance ................................................................................................. 175 5.1 The video-scene ........................................................................................ 175 5.1.1 Analog mediations ................................................................................. 5.1.2 Digital acts ..............................................................................................

179

183 5.2 The stage as cybernetic assemblage . ............................................... . 5.2.1 Interface 183 `active and

scene' ................................................................. .

5.2.2 Bio-technics of movement and the digital code: Motion Capture and 189 inter-active dance ................................................................................................ 5.3 Bio-mathematics 197 of dance .................................................................... 197 5.3.1 Numbered dancers and dancing numbers .......................................... 204 5.3.2 Choreo-matics and digital code: Life Forms .......................................

6. Conclusion

213 ...................................................................................................

Bibliography: 219 ........................................................................................... Glossary:

230 ............................................................................................................

1. Introduction

Sitting at the computer, Merce Cunningham composes, observes and adjusts a series The dancing by figures the tiny anatomy of these screen. on of movements performed little creatures is constituted by concentric circles moving independently from one interface LifeForms, is desktop the their of a stage ethereal performative another, and dance. In for the of a vacuum creation and notation computer animation program scenario with no gravitational constraints, the little dancers perform all possible (and impossible) varieties of movement, from the flexing of a joint to unrealistically high impossible jumps. long All these and variables of movement are then possible or dancers in flesh bones human into to and choreographic scores and passed composed impression is In `live'. the them of an awkward most cases, result who will perform fractured bodies with heads, arms, legs becoming un-synchronised, each limb moving for dancing in its collage of parts: a sort of anatomical velocity own autonomous at for "it's in Cunningham's not uncommon computer assisted choreographies, example, the dancers to move stage left in a series of successive hop-turns on one leg while their heads circle in the opposite direction, " (Copeland 2004: 189) and then "[fleet impossibly foundation for "torqued" floor firmly the the almost provide on planted bending and twisting of the back and neck," so that "the upper body tends to work in disjointed counterpoint to the legs." (194) In other words, a new degree of bodily deformation is obtained, a tendency to `twist' and `gnarl' and `fragment' the body in from far its habitual it increasingly take that physical attitudes. away ways

These new possibilities of choreographicproduction and bodily manipulation imitation faithful human LifeForms' movement: under a of apparent aim of overcome interesting level more effects and resemblance, representation of realistic superficial body. dancing human The between in the the the computer and appear relation discovery of these effects of technology on movement and dance is not a new thing: having `mechanic' beyond description the as a artificial movement negative of going living body), in fluidity 19`h `robotic' (as the the the to century of and opposed quality Heinrich von Kleist had already shown how technology (in that case prosthesesand discover limbs) become to new and acquire new rhythms artificial a way could

possibilities still unexplored in the limited frame of the human body. The highest artificiality became equivalent to the highest naturalness of motion: technology as a ' for way to transformation, rather than a tool representation. On the one hand, considering the software in representational and imitative terms (the program trying to imitate the human body, and the human body re-imitating the program) only leads us to judgments about the poor quality of the technical imitation, compared to the `aliveness' of `real' movement. On the other hand, focusing on the effect of computer technology on the psychology and perceptions of the performers, and the conscious physical experience of the technological impact on their bodies, only gives us a biased definition of the software as a prosthetic enhancement of anatomical awareness. But there is more to it, and none of these two approaches recognises the `generative' aspect of the technical medium and its capacity to produce something new. Only leaving aside our representational and `too human', or `humanistic', points of view, would allow us to identify the potential of computerised choreography with the breakdown of acquired patterns and habits of movement, and with the dissolution of the main tendencies to which proportions, abilities and physical traits lead the dancing human body, together with the creation of new ones. In other words, the dancing body as a mobile anatomical system, with its own modalities and techniques, is reby its encounter with the technical machine. re-organised assembled and

In all its habitual functions, movements and performances,the human body 2 Breathing and follows a combination of microscopic and macroscopic cadences. pulse rate, temperaturefluctuations and blood cell counts, brain waves and muscular extensions/contractions are all temporally organised bodily events affected and patternedby a multiplicity of other cadencedrepetitions, for example by the seasonal, lunar and day/night cycles, as well as by myriads of soundsand noises, gesturesand steps.The body appearsthus like a wiggle, a fluctuation, a whirlpool in a larger field of movementsall moved by the sameundefined energy. The flow of energy crossing the whole universe is interrupted and infolded into a body which breaks it and reorganises it, giving it new shapes and particular chronological durations with its individual gesturesand steps: it is in this way that energybecomesdance,the dancing body therefore working as energetic converter and time producer. Contemporary experiencesof human/technical interaction (from bio-technologies to the media, from cloning to the Internet) make the open, combinatorial nature of the body and its

temporal `connectibility'

even more explicit, while taking it out of the claustrophobic

dimensions of unalterable human subjectivity and `live' flesh and involving it in a series of in-corporeal and non-organic relations. The temporality of the human body is now composed with that of the digital machine, profoundly influenced by the fast logarithmic

functioning

of

computers. After

the fall

of all

perceptions and

into the orbit of cyberspace, contemporary dance could not escape this performances technological contamination, and has evolved tight interchanges between dancing bodies and multiple apparatuses of digital manipulation (video, Motion Capture, interactive and choreographic software, the Internet). 3 Mapping the processes of bodily transformation (rather than representation) which link dancing human bodies and technical machines, we will propose a new approach to engage with the different modalities of encounter between technology and dance, of which Cunningham's computer-assisted choreography is one of the most interesting examples. The dance/technology link will be analysed beyond processes of conscious imitation and beyond its understanding in terms of human perceptual/performative mechanisms, focusing the new, unexpected and challenging rhythms that could emerge in and between bodies.

The conceptual aim of this thesis is to give a re-definition of movement beyond the traditional scientific and choreographicvision of an imitable displacement body, body `whole' the this to measureits and of as a particular capacity of rhythm of displacementas a cadencedrepetition of steps.Rather, rhythm will be consideredhere as an aspectof motion in itself, the weaving up of all the encounters(with air, ground, body) by body in the made motion, rather than the self-enclosedact music or another of measuring its own steps; a rhythm of imperceptible transformations provoked by these encounters,rather than of limits and orders imposed on movement. In other differentiation (rather than a cadenced repetitiveness) in words, a continuous movement. The disciplinary aspect of repetition, measurement and counting is different but coexists with the open, infinite potential of a body to change. In this research,these two aspects, discipline and potential, counting and becoming, will irresolvable dichotomy, be but as the an never consideredas negative/positivepoles of mutually feeding and transforming themselves. While measuring or counting operations immobilise or entrap potential into precise grids, it is only through their productive effect that new potentials can emerge:as an example that will be analysed

detail in the course of this research, we could think of the strict numerical with more dancer in both the ritual, and of the rules organising sound and motion of a simultaneous hypnotic or `trance' state produced by continuous repetitive counting. Considered in their ambiguous and paradoxical value, numbers will appear throughout this thesis as one of the main components of the concept of rhythm. Numbers are function in their of universal operators nature, everywhere and associate everything being also partially revealed by the functioning of digital technology. By saying that is do that an object of conscious everything not mean numbers are everywhere, we numerical counting, but that even the most disorganised and convoluted hysterical attack possessesits own superficial linearity as a number of gestures coming one after its linearity does to turn, even the most this the show up eye; on not another, although channelled, repetitive

by is shaken a continuous and synchronised of marches

trembling and a multiplicity

of minuscule fractions of movement in its `cloned' steps

but again, this trembling cannot be perceived and remains hidden.

In other words, these extreme examplesmake us understandrhythm as a series of microscopic, uncountable or `irrational' numbers emerging and proliferating betweenvisible arithmetical units. Rhythm is difference, a thread of imperceptible and hidden behind transformations, the apparent and continuous openings, combinations isolated movement segments,and this secretrhythmic vibration of every of repetition becomes line only perceptible at some moments, or points, of of movement straight decrease increase duration An the temporal or of and change. alteration passage, between the steps of a march (such as in Cunningham's digital choreography Trackers) is still in the order of quantifiable cadence (although irregular and idiosyncratic), but the sudden, simultaneouspassageto disconnectedmovements of the arms, torso or head appearing between the steps is what renders the dancer's march rhythmic. You will see that numbers are still there, only they start to mix from In this themselves. starting way, a regular and `normal' march cycle, among Cunningham weaves various transversal relations between different

series

(autonomouslegs, arms or head movementsand their combinations at some particular points), which make rhythm emerge.From this point of view, the concrete object of this thesis, i. e. dance and its relation with technology (that we will call cyber-dance) will be consideredas an example of a particular conceptualisationof rhythm, trying to

understandif, and how, rhythm emergesin the encounterbetweena human dancerand a technical tool. Rather than simply producing rhythm with its movements,the dancing human body is also a product of multiple rhythmic performances.While performing in a particular time and place, a body is already an organisedsystemof dynamic processes and a set of microscopic rhythms. We can think for example of the movementsof the moleculesand particles brought to light by quantumand non-linear physics and by the mechanics of fluids or molecular biology, as coexistent and composed with the level human of movement: a performing subject traversedby myriads of macroscopic minuscule motions. Or we can think of the combination between the temporal regularities of cells and the non-organic rhythms of viruses and bacteria hosted inside them. All these microscopic rhythms, all these different coexisting temporalities composedin the physical organisationconstantly move and galvanisethe body, while linear development behind hidden the the scale and apparently macroscopic remaining of movement and dance (at least as it is described by anatomical and neuroby This thesis will consider every choreographic or scripts). analyses, psychological single step as being moved by an already rhythmically dancing crowd, revealing the 4 its in complex microscopic organisation. anatomicalbasis of movement It is at this level, between the motions of cells, molecular components and atomic particles, and between their infinitesimal temporalities, that bio-technology intervenesas a first, microscopic exampleof technological alteration of the rhythms of if is dancing human body: body dancing the already a population of a particles, genetic manipulation or cloning techniques already alter bodily rhythm at an infinitesimal scale, while also modifying, at a macroscopic dimension, what a body hand bodily do. Through technology, the on one capacities and can perceive and from become the start: genetic manipulation, apparently pre-determined performances prosthetics,transplants and chemical researchaspire to delineate the range of human (metamorphic, perceptual and motor) possibilities, the spectrum of our actions and reactions, by regulating processes of alteration and performativity and therefore becoming instruments of physical control. On the other hand, as argued by Luciana Parisi, these bio-technological manipulations of the body point to the emergenceof a microscopic level of mutation proliferating between humans and machines, effectuating a complex engineering and combination of different flows (the energy

conveyedby cellular genetic material, bacteria,silicon chips). (2004) The computer's algorithmic operationsand its codification of information into streamsof numbers,Os and Is, allow the individuation and selectionof ever smaller units, couples,sequences and combinations of genetic material. From this bio-technological sequentiality, new compositions of genetic lines from different species (animal, human) are obtained through the insertion of bacteria and silicon chips: rhythm, as a continuous differentiation and mutation of bodies, emerges in-between these microscopic encounters. If, as cybernetics has shown, the body is a system of energetic transmission where genetic and cellular materials circulate at their own pace and produce their own rhythms, bio-technology is plugged into this level, modifying processesof transmission, accelerating or slowing down the flows, weaving or blocking the communication between particles, with unpredictable results.5 In this sense, this thesis conceptualises bio-technology, and its universal numerical codification and re-combination of a multiplicity of molecular movements, as a microscopic form of cyber-dance. In the bio-technological alteration of chemical, genetic and cellular rhythms as well as in the manipulation of rhythm, movement and perception by the digital dance (video, Motion Capture, interactive and to technologies related audiovisual choreographicsoftware, the Internet), a material continuum of electrons and protons, links the infinitesimal particles of a body to different cells and silicon chips organic technical apparatuses.The particles and molecules continuously moving and dancing across bodies and composing them constitute, with their infinitesimal vibrations, a rhythmic field which, for its unperceivableand unthinkable fastness,is almost totally inaccessibleto the human sensesand can only appearin the form of clear imagesand sounds.By intervening on this infinitesimal material level, by infinitely stretching or compressingenergy waves, digital apparatusesof audiovisual creation (such as video and interactive software) perform what we can define as a bio-technological function, linking the macroscopic scale and pace of movement, perception and dance (what a body perceivesand does) to the microscopic rhythm of a matter continuously crossing a body's organisation. Are the different `bio-technologies' entering the dancestageto be considered as instruments of rhythmic circulation and is their connection to the body generatingnew perceptions,new steps,new dancesbeyond the habitual frames, perspectives,measures,of human corporeality? 6

Together with this re-conceptualisation of cyber-dance technologies (video, Motion Capture, Internet) as tools of bio-technological

modification,

this thesis

suggests the definition of the cyber-dance performance as a new form of ritualisation of bodily movement, without referring to any idea of a linear development of dance from a presumed spontaneous origin (the ancient tribal rite) to a refined and civilised form of expression (the theatre performance), and without attempting any nostalgic tracing of primitive

roots. Rather, the ritual aspect of the performance will be

identified with its codified and numerically regulated aspects (precise numbers of steps, gestures, signs, functions). Between the (apparently) spontaneous movements of the body in its free time and their entrapment in disciplined work spaces, the performance of dance, with its choreographic numerical rules and infinite counting, interesting dancing body into in-between the an of rhythmic organisation, where puts it can neither be defined as totally free nor as totally constrained.

On the one hand, bodily movement is trained and put at work through institutions of social and economic productivity (in factories and offices); on the other hand, the productive subject can discharge its accumulatedtensions during its free time (for example on the dance floor): the work/leisure binomium is still apparently laws discharge. to thermodynamic of energetic accumulation and according working However, the performance of dance goes beyond this thermodynamic alternative, producing a different form of bodily organisation according to a precise temporality and a precise use of space beyond everyday movement and work. In theatres, this ritualisation coincides with the creation of perceptual and cultural norms of spectatorial immobility and of intellectual interpretation (for the audience), and of physico-aesthetic norms of movement and expressivity (as the choreographic by dancer). followed the conventions At the same time, a hierarchical distinction is traced between popular dance and the higher realm of art, a sort of physical and cultural distancing embodiedby the classical and `untouchable' beauty and precision of the ballet dancer, and also by the uncontaminated purity isolating different performative traditions (such as in the distinction of Oriental/Occidental danceby ethnographicdance studies).6 In this way, the physical organisation of bodily movement in time and space coincides with its social and cultural codification. Going beyond cultural separationsbut also beyond notions of a direct, linear exchange (when a tradition is said to copy or borrow a 7

technique or a step from another), the rhythmic aspect of dance rituals appears in the `contaminating' transmissions happening between bodies in time and space, not only across the exact temporal regulations and the delimited perimeters (the stage) of a ritual performance, but also across historical and geographic limits.

It is the particular technological ensemble of rituals which generatesthe repetitive, codified character of movement and dance (for example the acoustic technology of the drum producing the synchronisationof sound beats and dancesteps sequences, or the graphic technology of dance notation producing the exact measurementand reproducibility of movements).The rigid physical organisationand the cultural specificity of dance rituals are two simultaneous aspectsderiving from this technological codification. At the same time, the appearance of numerical technologiesof audiovisual production takes this processto its microscopic scale, so that even the infinitesimal moments of a movement sequencecan be cloned and combined ad infinitum. In relation to thesecyber-dancerituals, the main questionthat is increased be dance the technologically to whether repeatability of answered remains is accompaniedby new forms of connection between bodies, i. e. by an emerging of rhythm and difference not only between the steps of a ritual, but also among its historical its and geographicevolutions. across and participants The apparition of technology on the dancestageis nothing new. Since the first photographic and cinematographiccapturesof dance performances(such as Marey's or Muybridge's chronographic photographs,or the Lumieres' and Pathe's films on Loie Fuller's dances in the late 19`h and early 201h centuries), avant-garde experimentationhas always aimed at the subversionof aestheticand cultural rules by touching the organic purity of the dancing body with the technical eye and body of the camera, and by weaving a blasphemous link between the `ephemeral' and sacred character of the `live' motion performance (and its prestigious classicism) and a technological dimension of recording and manipulation (more connectedwith the pop sphere).?In their rejection of the institutionalisation and conventionalisation of theatre and danceperformances,avant-gardemovementshave always incorporated and used technology as a disruptive tool (e.g. television and video as a disruption in the prestigious apparatusof the theatre, or the music record as a disruption in the live music performance, until the emergenceof the Internet as a disruption in the entire 8 information systemof and communication). From the point of view of modern (and 8

post-modem) avant-gardes, the main raison d'etre of the relation between live performanceart and technology is thus the need to challenge classical performative discipline and its purist, essentialistaesthetics. In the 1960scountercultural atmosphere,the legacy of modernist avant-garde currents (such as Futurism but also Constructivism, Cubism, Surrealism, Dada) was perpetuated by the body art/dance performances of artists such as La Fura dels Baus, Societas Raffaello

Sanzio and Carolee Schneemann (1968,1981,1963),

whose

creative conceptualisation of the body beyond predefined rules and institutional contexts transformed it into a primary artistic object to be moved in non-essentialist ways. Again, technology played an important role in this bodily re-definition: since the `60s, different art movements and happenings such as those of the Fluxus group tried to shift the paradigms of high culture, blurring the boundaries between body, art, technology and popular media into the wider spectrum of `performance art'. Examples of these happenings were the collaborations between John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Merce Cunningham,

or between performer

Carolee Schneeman and the

choreographers of the Judson Church (1964), where the technical machine, either in the form of camera or television screen, or as an electronic music synthesiser or audio recorder, was already becoming an habitual presence. Most of these actions and performances also tried to blur the distinction between art and life, undermining the economic conditions of the art-object and its market value: the work could not be reproduced and consumed in capitalist terms, because it existed as long as the happening lasted (in the Internet terminology, the work exists for as long as you are logged in), fostering the myth of performance art as an anti-commodity transgression. The analogue recording and editing of the happening (for example in Merce Cunningham and Nam June Paik video-dance compositions) was the initial prophetic revelation of the manipulation and circulation allowed by the digital machine 60 years later.

Digital body-art and cyber-danceare the most recent examples of the new avant-gardetechnological experimentation: in the 21st century, the new happenings are Internet-based performances and online event-improvisations. Together with cyberneticbody art (such as Orlan's plastic surgery and Stelarc's technological grafts, Marcel.Li Antünez Roca's and Jana Sterback's remote controlled bodies), cyberdance (or the use of digital technology for the creation and manipulation of 9

choreographyand dance) is the outcome of a futuristic fascination for technologythat 10 first dancing bodies. already animated the still and moving pictures of moving and In the 19th and early 20th centuries,the acclaimed superiority of (Western) man was guaranteedby the rapidity and power of his machines,which transformedhim into an `over-grafted' `overman', an inhuman entity, a sort of animal body mingled with the superpower of a metallic body annihilating time and space through its dynamic fastness This technological and performances. notion of speed as acceleration was exemplified by Loie Fuller's dance performancesand by her use of stage light and multicoloured veils wrapping her rotating body to create a frenetic, vortical effect. In accordancewith Italian Futurists (such as Marinetti, Boccioni or Depero) and their adorationof technology and speed,Loie Fuller's dancewas seenas the movementof a body technologised metallicised, rapidly invading spaceand drawing or measuringit with a successiveseries of positions and forms, in a series of fast passagesfrom one ' 1 Futurist dance The the to speed of was a progressiveaccelerationof shape another. pace, a velocity acquired, one century before the performancesof body artist Stelarc, by an already obsolete humanity through the incorporation of the technical machine. The speedof Fuller's dancing body found its technological counterpartin the machine displacements, her from her passages shape to shape were and of cinema, `immortalised' by the camera, frozen into a series of frames and then speededup againby the incredible velocity of the cinematic projector. As the main symptom of a modern technological evolutionism and of what Paul Virilio has defined as a `dromocratic' anti-humanism,the Futurist philosophical fastness limited, leaving a artistic praise of proposed unilateral notion out the and 12 between deceleration implied by `complex and acceleration' more relation speed. Expanding the stasis/movementdualism and the limited notion of movement as a powerful and fast invasion of space(through bodily displacementbut also through the mastering act of looking) suggestedby the Futurist speed-obsession,215`century drawn ideas have to createnew conceptionsof scienceand philosophy on pre-socratic stasisand motion as two different moments of the samedynamic event, two different 13 into by As states always passing revealed one another. non-linear physics, speed refers to the potential of a moving body to effectuate this passage,to accelerateor slow down, rather than simply to the velocity of its performed movement. In other words, speedsand slownessescomposerhythm. In this sense,the velocity of a unitary 10

body moving through space can be re-thought as a complex combination of speeds and slownessescomposing the rhythm of the body/spacedynamic relation: smoothly, the body doesnot invade but encountersspace,weaving its own rhythmic passages,its accelerationsand decelerations,to the rhythm of its surrounding environment. From this point of view, the aestheticsof a danceperformance,and the performer/audience `connectionat a distance' establishedin the theatre space,can be totally re-thought in terms of differential relations between acceleration and deceleration, speed and slowness, movement and rest between bodies. This thesis will focus on relations bodies, than on unitary rather on the different speedsand rhythms generatedin the dancer/environmentrelation, rather than on the steps and velocities of the dancing body. The main philosophical referencefor this analysis comes from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's concept of `machinism', i. e the conceptualisationof the body as a `machine' characterisedby particular internal/external relations and rhythms, links 14 dis-connections, by defined and more than specifically components. The importance of Deleuze and Guattari's machinism is revealed by its two first have is The the re-definition of one, as we seen already, conceptual effects. rhythm and speed as independent from linear movement and velocity. The second from is its technological `machinic' the the term subtraction of consequence connotations: in other words, we do not need technology to challenge essentialist conceptualisationsof the body and dance. The dancing body is already `machinic', and society is also already machinic: in Guattari's words, "We should bear in mind that there is a machinic essencewhich will incarnateitself in a technical machine,and equally in the social and cognitive environment connected to this machine - social groups are also machines,the body is a machine ..." (1995: 38-39) Conceiving, after Guattari's suggestion,the body as a machine does not lead us to a de-composition `partesextra partes' of its mechanic functioning (organsand limbs, parts, elements,up to the molecular and atomic level) but, rather, to a re-conceptualisationof its actual as well as its potential components,of its organsand elementsas well as of the different speedsand rhythms composing it and connecting it with its environment, and with the other machines that are part of it. In other words, a dancing body/machine is characterisedby inter-relations and rhythms which are independentof the components themselves, because "The organisation of a machine has no connection with its materiality." (2001: 41) A dancing body's machinic character transforms it into a 11

collective entity which is never totally `extractable' or isolatable from the machinesit constituteswith other machinesof all kinds. The machinic nature of the dancing body will be explained more in detail throughout this work. For now, we will say that this machinic character lies in its connectability: light and sound molecules, forming an energetic machine with its own speeds, encounter a human dancing body as a sensory and moving system, a sensing machine transforming those speeds into its own movements. Nevertheless, a human dancing body, for its very machinic nature, never exists in its organic purity but is always linked, interconnected with a series of other different, social and technical machines. According to Deleuze and Guattari, "[m]aps should be made of these things, organic, ecological [social or environmental], and technological maps..., " analysing the different ways in which they compose and reciprocally alter their 61) (2002a: No dancing body can be detached from the social rhythms and relations. dimension of its performance (the performers and spectators involved in the dance dancing machine); at the same time, we can consider analog and collective. ritual as a digital audiovisual technologies as the different technical machines connected to a dancing body and inseparable from it. This thesis explores the relation between dancing body and technical machines in terms of potential transformation, rather than of mere exponential fastness: in contemporary cyber-dance performances, can the use of multiple technological devices produce rhythmic variations? Rather than being merely `extended' and accelerated by these technologies, is a dancing body altered in its machinic, i. e. in those connective and transformative capacities?

With their potentials of `mediatic parthenogenesis' and diffusion, biotechnologies and digital sound, video and Motion Capture technology, interactive software and the Internet reveal a capacity to simultaneously order and open up 16 infinite rhythm to circulation. All these technical machines intervene into the biological, physical and cultural levels of movement and perception and codify them through a system of binary numerical digits, with a double effect of amplified transmission and connectability but, at the same time, of invasive control. The paradoxical working of digitalisation aspiresto an absolute predictability of physical and cultural behavioursthrough a minute control of potentials. As arguedby Parisi, by simultaneouslymodulating and multiplying infinitesimal variables, digital technology is founded on a double articulation, an immanent condition of decodification and 12

control. (2004) On the one hand, a systemof regulatedexchangesacts as a grid on the combinatorial and transformative potential of bodies, limiting capacities and attributes, and blocking actual behaviours and movements into a limited range of physical and cultural possibilities digitally codified. Consequently,physical capacities and charactersare genetically determinedfrom the start (for example through genetic manipulation, prosthetics and transplants, or chemical research monopolised by pharmaceutical corporations), while the movements and dances of bodies are controlled or rigidly forbidden (for example through the ID and personal control dance of clubs, and the prohibition of illegal raves) and dance as a procedures becomes increasingly commercialised through a theatrical and art performance mediatic systemof spectacularisation.On the other hand, the transversalproliferation of genetic information and texts, imagesand sounds,people and goods channelledor preventedby post-industrial digital systemsis also facilitated by them. In this sense, both bio-technological and audiovisual experimentationpromote an epidemic spread of physical and cultural contagion (from the new diseasescreated in genetic labs, to the pop music virus and the diffusion of dance performances on the Net): digital blockage diffusion, alternation a contradictory of and machines creating prevention and flow. Acting on relations and microvariations, speedsand rhythms, rather than on whole individuals, digital technology contributes to the imperceptible pervasiveness and cellular efficacy of control through a modulation of the intervals between information units (as either chromosomes,sound molecules and human neurons or digital bits). An example of this possibility of microscopic control is representedby the modulation of the microvariations of a single dancestep allowed by LifeForms: by calculating and then visualising the intermediary positions in a given movement sequence, the software automatically creates a smooth motion, modulating and therefore controlling the space between two key positions. In Cunningham's own words, "With the computer, much as with a camera,you can freeze-framesomething that the eye didn't' catch. But it's there. As a dance notation, it increases the possibilities - it is immediately visible." (1999: 5) At the same time, information crossesthe spacebetween the computer screen and the human body performing live on stage: the digital calculations and interpolations of key movementsby the software have a direct effect on the biological 13

and anatomical possibilities

of the human body, eliciting

movement dynamics and filling

the discovery of new

the gaps between previously

non-combinable

positions or gestures. For example, in Cunningham's digital choreography Change of Address, six dancers fall on the floor with their woven legs bent along strange angles: we can imagine Cunningham sitting at the keyboards, pressing some keys and coming up with some new movement sequence which suddenly leaves the dancers in a fill legs in the to them the task to them, thus support and giving position without any gap. In this case, the gap (or in-between) is filled by a fall, a strange fall where the legs develop an infinitesimal deviation from the law of falling bodies and are able to trace awkward angles.

Between dancer and computer, rhythm is the contorted weaving of difference behind linear movement phrases.In this sense,all digital machinescannot be seenas mere technologies of audiovisual and motor reproduction but as veritable biotechnologies, modifying the quality of the dance through the modulation of the inbetween.The modulation of infinitesimal relations and intervals in-betweenunits, and the molecular processesof information transmission between bodies and species, humans and machines trigger different, transversal modes of rhythmic generation, taking movement and dance outside of their human and organic dimensions, while allowing for their infinitesimal control (such as through the innumerable in-human from be LifeForms the the can analysed on angles which movement perspectivesand screen, or through the manipulation of its smallest details, of its micro as well as macro dimensions). Merce Cunningham's use of LifeForms is only one of the multiple examples of bio-technological modification of dance in which the generation of physiological qualities (for example resistance)and anatomical realisations (impossible contortions and balances) is not the result of a mere formal composition of already given anatomical traits and choreographic rules. Rather, new movements are bodily inventions generated through a molecular effort of the dancing body, whose accelerated breath and blood circulation, and whose electrical and hormonal exchanges,all intensified by the impulse coming from the complexity of the digital choreography,combine to produce different and un-thought shapes,as if every new form emerged from the pores of a technically stimulated body occupied by a multiplicity of little 3-D dancers.To the question `does the technological connection 14

produce rhythm', the apparentanswer seemsto be yes. This thesis aims at exploring this affirmation more in depth. Rather than analysing the form of an already performed dance reflected and reproduced by the technological medium, we will therefore try to understand how in a dance performance a rhythmic flow of energy is manipulated by both anatomical and technical systems at different scales. My work will thus explore the `trans-cen-dence' of the dance performance, giving to this word a new, different sense from the usual metaphysical connotations attributed to the performance by its traditional artistic and aesthetic interpretations (the `transcendental' beauty of the human dancing body as a conscious and powerful performer), and focusing on the transformation of states and perceptions, on the passage from a passive spectatorial or active performative condition to a `transe-scendental' state of rhythmic connection. Transcending her own condition of conscious human performer, the dancer becomes a performing machine infinite line to through other machines an rhythmic of variation. connected many

15

Notes:

' In his short essay "On the Puppet Theatre", Kleist opposesthe human lack of spontaneity due to reflection, to the mechanicalneutrality of technology. In the sameway, animal spontaneityis opposed For a critical readingof this essay,seeTroncon 1991: 51. to humanself-consciousness. 2 The distinction betweena microscopic and a macroscopiclevel of bodily performanceis usedhereto distinguish between the different scales (atomic and molecular, cellular, anatomical and organic, anthropomorphic and socio-cultural) which simultaneously constitute the different and coexistent elements of its individuation, at the same time implying differences not only of magnitude but of quality, in the passagefrom one scaleto the other (from the relations betweenprotons an electrons,for example, to the motion of human bodies and social groups), which also imply qualitative and quantitativetransformationsof the performanceitself. 3 The history of the dance and technology encountersis tightly linked to the parallel developmentof contemporarydancetechniquesand of more sophisticatedtechnological apparatuses.From this point of view, if the basic referenceterm of classicalballet was the 'pose' or position as the main componentof danceand as the main performative elementwhich linked danceto photographic practice, modern 20th discovery fluid introduced dance the together the of new ways with notion of a more movement century of filming and motion capturing. In 1910, Rudolf Laban's school proposed in Germany a free, expressionist dance which, according to the choreographer, was able to spiritually elevate the field in basis further developments This the the of choreographic was of conceptualisation performer. innovation, such as-with the work of Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham in the '20s. Usually consideredas the real founder of modern dance, Isadora Duncan was the originator of a short-lived intenselyromantic kind of dancewhich refusedany contact with the technical machine,still or moving her from Duncan's distant Although the merit was and cinematic worlds, photographic always camera. break from academic,traditional costumesof decor, music and technique through the introduction of feet in direct habit dance bare-footed, the to the contact with with such as various subversivepractices the earth rather than isolated and elevatedas points of escapefrom reality. Other important innovations Cunningham in (such Merce dance '60s `70s later from American the the as or contact and new came improvisation performances) when, moving against mimetic aims and refusing the most banal dancers highlight descriptive to started gesture and movement as relations of aspects, and naturalistic weights, forms and matters, and as plays of force, thrust and counterthrust,encounters(and collisions) of bodies. Choreographyacquired then a new function of discovery and definition, of invention of the body and space.Replacing representationwith the physicality of the gesture,this new theatrical dance different for technologies the the the exploration and of utilisation of new space an experimental opened perceptualand communicative modalities introduced by media. This was the basis of a whole seriesof happeningsand performances,where the ambiguousrelation betweenthe society of the spectacleand the concrete character of the body initiated a phenomenologicalreflexive and practical tradition of experimentation. Important examples of these experiments were the avant-garde Fluxus happenings (with their combination of electronic music, dance,cinema,poetry, musique concreteand streettheatre) and the numerousbody-art performancesderiving from thesegroups, where the body was utilised as a meansof artistic expression.Body art eventsand happeningscan be consideredas predecessorsof the fin de si8cle techno-mutantdance performances,with their corporeal dislocation and their replacement of the subjective, intimistic dimension with an inorganic one through synthetic processesof bodily manipulation. In Teresa Macrl's words, these altered forms of corporeal irradiation and these flesh/technology crossbreedsare linked to a totally different aesthetic conceptualisation which goes from the post-organicto the incorporeal performance.SeeMacri, 1996. ° The word 'crowd', corresponding in Paul Virilio's analysisto the `mass', is used here more in Gilles Deleuzeand Felix Guattari's senseof 'pack'. In their differentiation betweenthe `mass' (or crowd) and the 'pack', Deleuze and Guattari draw on Elias Canetti's definition: "Canetti distinguishesbetweentwo types of multiplicities that are sometimesopposed but at other times interpenetrate;mass ("crowd") multiplicities and pack multiplicities. Among the characteristicsof a mass,in Canetti's sense,we should note large quantity, divisibility and equality of the members,concentration,sociability of the aggregate as a whole, one-way hierarchy, organization of territoriality or territorialization, and emission of signs. Among the characteristics of a pack are small or restricted numbers, dispersion, nondecomposable variable distances,qualitative metamorphoses,inequalities as remaindersor crossings, impossibility of a fixed totalization or hierarchization, a Brownian variability in directions, lines of deterritorialization,

16

and projection of particles. ... There is no question, however, of establishing a dualist opposition betweenthe two types of multiplicities, be no better than the dualism betweenthe One that ; would ... and the multiple. There are only multiplicities of multiplicities forming a single assemblage,operating in the sameassemblage;packs in massesand massesin packs." (2002b: 33) s On cybernetics,seeWiener 1999. 6 Notions of performance and the `performative' will not be used here in the sense of a cultural construction of bodily movements and actions, but of a physical, cultural and also technical actualisation of body's potential. 7 "The history of Western performance in the Twentieth century, outside of the established traditions of It is also theatre, ballet, opera, and orchestral music, is indebted to the avant-garde movements ... intertwined with the evolution of technological media whose impact on our cultural environments has now entered the digital stage at which the computer recodes all communications and art forms ... its ephemeral existence inevitably linked to a technological dimension since its gestural visuality has always tended toward capturing the fleeting moment in photography and film. " (Birringer 1999: 361362)

8 According to Michael Betancourt, the use of new, 'disruptive' technologiesoutside of the market is one of the main featuresof avant-gardeart: "Disruptive technology has a connectionto the avant-garde; in fact, the appearanceof disruptive technologiesin the nineteenthcentury primarily affected the arts ... It is this aspect of disruptive technology - its ability to force change - that is the link betweenthe historical European avant-garde's interest in futurity and the embracing of the technological and scientific in the first half of the twentieth century." (2002: 1) The `culture industries' were certainly also the effect of technologiesat the deepestlevel. Yet technology founded its experimentson the realmsof art: Dada, Surrealism,Music, experimental cinema... all assimilatedthe potentials of media as crucial to amplifying the frontiers of creativity and, in many cases,to sabotageor celebrate,the `mechanization of the world picture.' 9 Nevertheless,as Betancourt reminds us, "The lessonof disruptive technologies is that their ability to force changedecreaseswith time as they approachdominance." (2002: 4)ln the sameway, the entrance of avant-gardeart into the elite spacesand institutional systems of museums or theatres (and their limited social distribution) transforms it into another artistic establishment,where, for example, "The potential mass audience of "new media art" is artificially contained through the limited edition videotape selling for high prices. Even though media work of this type is potentially distributable to a mass audience, it is not in order to create an artificial scarcity that supports high prices in the art market." (4) 10For a historical and critical reading of cyberneticbody art, seeMacri' 1996. 11In the 1910sand 1920s,the Futurist obsessionwith the fastnessof military and industrial capitalism and with the rapid pace of modern life was a first way to do away with old artistic and cultural traditions and promote a new, fresh creativity and enthusiasmfor the velocity of the machine. As argued by Paul Virilio, the industrial revolution of the modern era has to be re-defined as a `dromocratic revolution' (from the Greek `dromos', street or race), and the advent of democratic states is the advent of a new `dromocratic' society, a sort of dromological progressbasedon the velocity of the machine and on its perpetuationof a Time war until exhaustion.SeeVirilio 1986. 12The sameconcept of speed has been re-proposedtoday by Virilio's theory: "Speed as a pure idea without content comes from the sea like Venus, and when Marinetti cries that the universe has been enriched by a new beauty, the beauty of speed, and opposesthe racecar to the Winged Victory of Samothrace,he forgets that he is really talking about the same esthetic: the esthetic of the transport engine." (1986: 45) And again: "Dromocratic intelligence is not exercised against a more or less determined military adversary, but as a permanent assault on the world, and through it, on human nature. The disappearanceof flora and fauna and the abrogation of natural economiesare but the slow ?reparationfor more brutal destructions." (64) 3 With regard to the mastering act of looking, Virilio says that, "For the dromocratic State, mastery over the earth is already the mastery over its dimensions." (1986: 70) 14This concept,which is present in all the collaborative works of the two philosophers,is exposedin a more detailed way in their first co-writing of the Anti-Oedipus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. See Deleuzeand Guattari 2000. 15 The distinction between potential and power, both unleashed and amplified by then technical machines of contemporary capitalism, corresponds here to the two French words for `power': `puissance'and `pouvoir', on their turn deriving from the Latin 'potentia' and 'potestas', as respectively

17

differentiated by Spinoza and then by Deleuze and Guattari: a `range of potential, a capacity to affect and be affected', and a `centralised,mediating, transcendentalforce of command' equatedby Michael Hardt with capitalist social and political power. SeeGil 1998: 312.3.

16Drawing on Lynn Margulis's biological theories, Luciana Parisi defines parthenogenetic reproduction as "a state of development in which unfertilized eggs develop into offspring without mating (sperm). The autonomy of reproduction from the logic of filiation (the preservation of genetic information through sexual coupling). " (2004: 206) In this context, parthenogenetic reproduction is linked to the media (particularly digital media) and their potential for an autonomous and endless reproduction of images disentangled from the `humanist' logic of representation and meaning (as a `real/fake' binarism).

18

2. The abstractness of dance: a methodological map

Since the

1990s and the first

digital

experiments

of

Merce

Cunningham,

choreographic/technological collaborations between dancers, multimedia artists and software engineers have been proliferating, together with a whole series of `technographic' (technological-choreographic)

works, mixed and hypermedia performances

digital involving dancing bodies installations to and various electronic connected and ' In the 1996 workshop Connecting Bodies, Thecla Shiphorst presented the media. digital developed by LifeForms, equipe graphics and of an choreographic software Calvert directed by Tom (of which she professor was part) multimedia researchers in dance Big Eye In 1989. the the a computer was used workshop, program same since live dancer's MIDI for to the the movements and conversion of capture performance 2 image lights, projection and sound onstage. messagescontrolling

Telematics and the Internet have also been part, especially in the last few during landscape. In the tele-performance techno-graphic this created a years, of "International

Dance and Technology 1999" (IDAT)

symposium in Arizona, the

Australian dance Company in Space performed Escape Velocity, a duet between two dancers, two cameras and two projectors, linked by an online connection between the Web Cafe of the Arizona State University and a performance space in Melbourne (Australia). The two dancers formed a unique but composite event performed in a sort of `third space' created by their interwoven projections. But even more significantly, the symmetry of the performance was broken by transmission delays that entered the bodily different As temporality. to an effect of movements a choreography and gave this multiple

dispersion, dancers, choreographers and critics felt all their usual

being by bodily the constant to time altered space and as relation parameters of dialogue between what they defined as two `ghosts', two `unreal' bodies moving on the pixilated and manipulated screen surfaces.

In the performances of Company in Space, as in all other choregraphic experiments with digital technology, one of the most usual effects of the `live/mediatised' combination on choreographers, dancers and spectators is the generation of a particular con-fusion between two different ontological dimensions

19

(technological/human)

dancing on the same stage or scene, and producing a

disorienting sense of `rarefaction' and `disappearance' of physicality. This point of view shows a substantial insufficiency to confront with the real problematic emerging in the dance/technology encounter, due to its reduction of this encounter to essential dualisms (flesh-technology),

and to the central position attributed to a subjective

consciousness observing and measuring all transformations according to its own perceptual and cognitive parameters.

How can we get beyond these essentialist dualisms between a spontaneous double? do (the body) its How realm performing and opposite artificial we natural dichotomies old ontological working through the pre-supposition avoid perpetuating of a pure bodily movement coming before all its cultural and technical mediations? It introduce body, to the transversal a of perception more conception appears necessary functioning, in to their that allow us understand or together one would and movement, with (and not before) the dance/technology coupling, beyond the confines of the `human': the body as already a composition of non-organic and non-conscious processes that acquires, in its relation with technology, different perceptual and 3 The functioning is illustrate to the this thus aim of research performative possibilities. in technology these the and effects of on processes, order to of movement processes fact differences between how the and technology as movement as a natural understand its artificial reproduction can be overcome by thinking their common workings and their mutual alterations and transformations. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the `machinic', we will re-conceptualise a dancing body as a machine with its own rhythms and components, relations and connections, non-detachable and influenced by its different deeply combination of other, with a number always machines.

Between different venuesand among different practitioners, the new impact of digital machines on the psychological and perceptual dimensions of the dance performers and spectators has been generating, in the last decades, an increasing number of ontological doubts about the concrete physicality of a dancing body, resonatingin both performanceand cultural studies. Artists and dancers from all around the world have tried to respond to these doubts, breaking down the last prejudices against the digitalisation of the `live' body and promoting an increasedpresenceof technological devices in their performances. 20

Interaction with the weightless realm of the digital is obviously a strong influence on the humanperceptualand motor systemand on its socio-cultural organisation,and has been often stigmatised for its capacity to bring forth what Kitsou Dubois has defined as a new "disease of adaptation" (Birringer 1999: 373); as also Diane Theodores pointed out, digital technologies transform dance to a large extent, penetrating the materiality of the body and putting all preconceived notions of embodiment and corporeality into question: after the deep contact of organic and inorganic surfaces,a new ontological problematic arises,about the conflicting co-presenceof the cold body of technologyand the warm flesh of the humanbody. Furthermore, the technologisedimage of a wired dancer constrainedto a tiny stage-platformpacked with the most sophisticateddevices,has often appearedas one of compromised and limited motor expression, undermining the virtuosity and technicality of the danceand often transforming it into a tedious spectacle.According to JohannesBirringer, the highly sophisticatedlevel of technological experimentation for dance, because its thus to significant still pose problems especially seem of would lack of new modalities for spectatorialperceptualexpansion.(1999: 378) It has been argued that interactivity and the Internet (for example with interactive dance fill World Wide Web) the to seem and videogames on partly out this performances participatory void, replacing the blank space of static observation with more involvement, while giving to dancemore physical and social openness.Nevertheless, neither of these two different approaches(the one focusing on the technological deprivation of the richness of movement, the other considering interactivity as the only way to physically involve spectatorsin the performative process) succeedsin bringing forth the real implications of the digitalisation of dance. As it is becoming more evident in all cases,the emphasison the digitalisation of movement and dance highlights a new problematic: as it is argued, the dance/technologylink leavesthe human moving and perceiving body confined to that traditional, marginalised position of spectator(of one's own, or of the other's bodily dissolution) whose only solution lies in `interactivity', and where the most significant role is played by the entrance and monopolisation of the dance scene by the technological apparatus. A new anxiety is thus emerging after the most recent technological mutations of the human body, perception and movement (biotechnologies and cloning, digital audiovision, Motion Capture), with cyber-dance 21

bringing forth far more ancient and complex dualities between the realms of the natural (body) and the artificial (machine).From all thesedebatedissues,a conceptual challengeis being posed to existing definitions of natural movement and perception, and of danceperformanceand spectatorship.

2.1 Critical

context:

Performance

studies and the `cyber-dancing

body'

In all their different, `naturally human' or `artificially technological' forms, dance performances take dancers and viewers into a sort of common spell, capturing consciousnessand inciting strong sensationsand emotions. In order to `rationalise' and make senseof this `sensational' (more than `sensorial') experience(which is the experienceof rhythm itself), to understandit and explain it in clear, logical terms, interpretative to theorists and practitioners recur various apparatuses.On performance one hand, an example of these rational interpretations and readings of dance is the analysis of its bodily development as a linear perceptual and motor process by a conscious human subject clearly positioning itself in space-time and performing according to particular existential and physical coordinates. This phenomenological approachidentifies the perceptual and performative dimensions of the human bodysubject with that physical exploration and cognition of space which, according to has been dis-orientedand de-materialisedby the technological artists and critics, many intervention. On the other hand, another analytical approach more influenced by constructivist and semiotic theories aims at giving to the dance performance the expressivity and readability of a text. This thesis arguesthat what both constructivist and phenomenological critical literatures lack is a philosophical definition of the body, motion and perception able to account for the biological and physical, social and cultural, technical and aestheticlevels of dance. Curt Sachshas defined danceas 'the art to move the human body accordingto a rhythmic order in relation to time and space'.(1985: 21, my translation) The foetus' restlessnessin the maternal womb and the ludic rites of primates and primitive men are some of the most common examples that have been mentioned as proofs of the instinctual origin of this movement, linking its aestheticappreciation and execution to

22

psycho-biological and anthropological factors. Nevertheless, the instinctual aspect of dance has been considered as gradually developing and evolving itself, in parallel with the human faculty to organise and complexify perception, movement and expression. From a culturalist (or constructivist) point of view, it has been argued that, as human societies evolved their expressive capacities, a fundamental distinction started to delineate itself between the 'simple' and enjoyable aspect of dance as a spontaneous moment of nervous and social discharge, and its more 'serious' and complex character of culturally

sophisticated communication

and artistic

creation: dance is thus

subjected, as all other `cultural forms', to the model of linguistic representation. Drawing on Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault, Susan Leigh Foster argues that, from the point of view of the pervasive relation between physicality and referentiality, the first feature distinguishing dance from other rhythmic activities (such as sport) or from other ritual practices (such as religious rites) is its particular expressive character.

Against the Durkheimian consideration of dance as a mere pathological phenomenonoutside the rules of society, Helen Thomas adopts the same culturalist vision, proposing a re-incorporation of this expressive form into the codified and institutionalised structuresof representation,and its transformation into a determined languagewith its own signifying vocabulary and syntax. (1995) Violent contortions and contractions or sudden motor interruptions would correspond thus to signs of unpleasant feelings, while harmonic and measured movements or rhythmic coordination are consideredas traits of a liberating andjoyous dance. Subjectedto the domination of language and to the exigency of signification, corporeal gestures becomefluid sketchesor uncertain hints which, comparedto the precision of words, make a multiplicity of vague and open sensescirculate in and betweenbodies without crystallising, i. e. without being clearly decodedor rationally interpreted. In this sense, gesturesreveal the semantic multiplicity, polyphony and ambivalenceof all corporeal signs, offering themselvesto a gaze, a reading and an interpretation that subjugates them to the representationaland univocal logic of the `signifier' for the expressionof an inner, emotional content.5 The constructivist conceptualisationof dance as a form of bodily expression for intuitive or unconscious feelings is strictly related to the psychoanalytical definition of the body and its movementsas a text, the expressiveand readablesurface 23'§

of the psyche. In her study about dance and the history of hysteria, Peggy Phelan gives an account of Freud's analytical interpretation of women's motor pathologies (such as spasm or paralysis) as forms of a spontaneous body motricity

deriving

from

6 deviant unconscious emotions, uncontrollable corporeal manifestations of a psyche. For psychoanalysts, the performance of ordered and harmonic movements (sport or dance) makes it possible to tacitly order and physically write what cannot be otherwise articulated, working (in parallel with the psychoanalytical verbal session) as a cure for disorders and for their bodily symptoms, and allowing the restoration of psychological a lost corporeal and narrative linearity. In this sense, we could say that the working of psychoanalysis is also in itself regulatory and choreographic, in its attempt to give the body a fixed temporal system and a narrative structure that assigns images to their respective referents, people to definite

space positions

and actions to exact

chronological moments, i. e. transforming the body into an efficiently communicating dancing body As a and such, moving appears already as a text, the organism. inscription surface of an unconscious content to which cultural rules and performative traditions add a more stable and rigid, codified and institutionalised character.

According to Judith Lynne Hanna, while bodily motion depends on physiological, cognitive or emotional systems,the communicative potential of this behaviour is structured, patterned by cultural experience. (1983) From the physical standpoint,a set of pre-establishedbiological and anatomical possibilities determines what a body is capableto express.From a cultural point of view, the transformationof into language is a also shapedalong a differentiation and a hierarchical movement organisation between different groups and traditions, not only according to their geographic and social disposition but also in historical, evolutionary terms. The constructivist anthropology of danceperpetuatesthe ethnocentric idea of a linear and progressive development and complexification of cultures and languages and, consequently,of body language techniques, with the European model of theatrical performance becoming the example of the most refined stage tradition.? From this point of view, the introduction of different technological apparatuses into the theatrical dance performance appearsas the last phaseof a cognitive and expressive evolution of human performance. Having been defined by critics such as Marshall Mc Luhan and Jean Baudrillard as, respectively, extensionsor simulations of the human body (Mc Luhan 24

2001, Baudrillard 1983), technological media (from analog videos to the Internet) are used as tools for the registration and transcription, copy and mimesis of the body language, constructing what is defined as a `mediatised' representation of the dancing body. Through this semiologic and representational approach, dance/technology criticism becomes a reading and an interpretation of the culturally and technologically, doubly mediated body text. (Thomas 2002) This constructivist approach focuses on a post-human cyber-world where the meanings and discourses enacted by the dancing body on screen enable it to perform its own identity beyond anatomical limits. Physical movement is therefore subordinated to the cultural construction of dance: the body as a mediated signifying sign. cyber-dancing As Brian Massumi argues, constructivist

interpreting apparatuses give a

interactions body to the the material and performances of and make them structure legible according to the dominant signifying schemes.(2002a: 1-2) Even deviant hysterical bodies, marginal ethnic identities or `queer' dance performancescan only choose among a pre-existing set-of gestural possibilities given to them in order to expresstheir difference. In this sense,the body can only perform in a set of limited spaces,rules, languages,while motor practices,rituals and technological apparatuses it form ideology. local together to as a symbolic and a embodiment of recreate work From Massumi's words, we can understandhow, on the cultural and mediated grids tracedby the constructivist study of dance, every or possible signifying ... countersignifying move [is] a selection from a repertoire of possible permutations on a limited set of predeterminedterms Because ... every body-subject [i]s so determinately local, it [i]s boxed into its site on the culture map. Gridlock. (2002a: 3)

What is missing in the vast array of books, articles and essaysinspired by the prolific notions of body, performanceand media as structuresof representationis the body itself, an analysis of the dancing body (and its relation with technology) from the point of view of the concretenessof its movements and perceptions. Focusing on cultural order and on its codification of unconscious desires, social practices and media representations, structuralist psychoanalysis, anthropology and semiotics propose a model of individual subjectivity and performativity as already determined by social and cultural structures.

25

A different, more `subjective', `physical' and `corporeal' approach to the analysis of dance, and a different

focus on the determination of the external

environment by a subjective inside, is added to the dance debate by phenomenological readings. In Birringer's words, "rather than writing about imaginary bodies and tropes (Susan Leigh Foster['s]

"troping bodies"), " phenomenological currents of dance ... theory and practice replace the interest for language and representation with an attention for the `organicity' and naturalness of gestures, highlighting the physicality of the perceptual and motor experience. (1998: 8) Transferring the critical accent on bodily of consciousness and physicality, awareness and manipulation of time, notions space and energy, the phenomenological standpoint also presents some conceptual limits and problems. Despite the conceptualisation of identity and consciousness as a secondary stage coming after a series of impersonal material contacts and movements, the phenomenological

'I' still remains a constant formation,

the main point of

reference of all different positions and steps: a human, live body standing as the perspectival centre of perception and movement.

The subsequentself-awarenessof the human subject is founded on this being originally

in oriented a physically controlled world. Distinguishing situated,

the

secondary aspect of formed (cultural) visions and significations from the originality of natural

perceptions

and movements,

phenomenological

theories

explore

the

physicality of the perceptual and motor process, highlighting the subjective character of perception and movement. Although enveloped in a web of relations, subject and object are still the main situated and defined inhabitants of the phenomenological space, in which natural perception provides the coordinates to specify a perceiving being in the world, and whose movement is conceived as a sum subject anchored as a of existential poses. (Pearson 2001: 424)

The materiality and organicity of the human body and perception is also fundamental in the phenomenological analysis of all `intermedia' contexts where electronic and digital technology is integrated into the performative process. For SusanKozel, questions of space,time, physicality and gravity become fundamental while technology, in the form of camerasor sensors,is reduced to a tool for the live body's exploration and understandingof the environment.8 For Thechla Shiphorst, the reliance on the weight and gravity of the body and on its emotions gives a new significance to the distinction between light and heavy 26

images, between live body and machine. (1997: 2) Along the same line of thought, according to Alexa Wright, every motor performance can be considered as an act of locates is body dis-location "It location 'self, the the which and of subjective and ... interface instantaneity before in Before the the the where of world ... cyberspace, us lost itself location Euclidian their seemingly of space and even notions shape, size, in Edge 1998: Cutting body. " (Wright the a self could not exist without significance, 21) In phenomenological terms, self and body coincide, forming

a subjective,

by dissolved is disoriented the technological and physically positioned entity which contact with

its

de-localised

mediated avatar. In this

dis-orienting

process,

dancer's the experience of technological transposition as recognises phenomenology is human body digital dissolution: the the perceived as extension of one of corporeal totally immaterial, threatening to drag the `live'

body into a rarefied realm of

disembodiment. In cyberspace, subjectivity coincides with a pure mind realised as electronically

coded information,

while

the body apparently

fades away: in

phenomenological terms, technology represents thus a new re-proposition of old body/mind dualisms.

The main phenomenologicalquestionsin relation to danceand technology can T be summarisedas follows: `What happensto the `live', `human' body in cyberspace? 'How does the human-body-subject perceive and move in a technologically To '9 disembodied ' `Is this experience? or physically amplifying a augmentedspace? answer these questions, the

phenomenological approach identifies

the

body/technologyrelation either with a threat of disappearance,or with a possibility of human Body-technology, for the and of perception movement. physicality expansion dance dualisms / A are more perpetuated. mediated physical movement nature-culture, fundamental question on the amplifications, or expansions, brought about by technology `beyond' the limited frame of human consciousnessand its points of body-culture body-mind, body-language, beyond the or bodyreference, and technology dualisms, is missing. In other words, the debateabout the implications of information technologies for movementperpetuatesthe impassebetweenphenomenologicalhuman (or organic) essentialism and discursive contructivism: claims about the return to material embodiment are opposed to the emergenceof a post-human world of cybernetic performativity where meanings and discoursesenableus to perform identities beyond 27

anatomical limits. The main problem of both thesereadingsof danceand technology is constituted by their ontological indecision between a system of linguistic representationsor social conventions entangling the body in its rigid structures,and anothersystembasedon the centrality of the live, human body limited and thwarted, or extended and amplified, by its conscious perceptions and movements in the technologicaldomain. As in both the Platonic and Cartesian metaphysics of essence, the body (movement and perception) is subjected, by constructivist critique, to the transcendent order of the mind (language, signification), with no relation between nature/culture and, therefore, biology/dance/technology. Phenomenological critiques of embodiment do disembodiment not provide alternative conceptual tools to analyse the machinic or conjunctions between physical and cultural aspects of movement and its relation with the technological

machine,

because they are both

based on pre-established

forms functions. biological determination human by defined the and of possibilities Principles of identity and stability dominate in all these readings, together with a body between and mind, anatomy and performance, movement and persistent split dance but also dance and technology (from the physical to the cultural and technical levels).

This thesis proposes a different method for the analysis of dance and technology, re-conceptualising some of the basic notions (body, movement, it dance develop In this tries to that of way, a philosophy perception, rhythm). overcomes the problems emerged so far, with an approach that goes beyond constructivism and opens up the physical focus of phenomenology to Deleuze and Guattari's

`machinic

materialism',

as

a

third

way

out

of

the

embodiment/disembodimentimpasse.This conceptual third way will allow us to redefine the body outside of its 'self'

d as a constellation, an ensemble of

conjunctions and interconnections,while introducing a notion of movement as bodily production and creation. The nature/culture/technology relation of the dance performance appears thus as a continuous transformation of matter, a mixture of different components creating a whole which is more than the sum of its parts. In relation to this conception, rhythm emerges as an a-syncopated production of difference, of novelty, in the intersectionbetweenthe different productive components of a dancing body/machine. 28

The abstract/materialist

conceptualisation

of

movement

as a machinic

construction reveals the continuity between its different levels of organisation, so that biological and physical dimensions of the moving body cannot be considered anymore as the simple, natural source for more complex cultural constructions such as dance, but appear directly linked to them. Bodily movement is neither given as a prediscursive basis nor as a cultural construction operating through both artistic and techno-scientific discourses (the transformation of movement into a symbolic dance apparatus, and its successive translation into the system of media semiotics). Rather, it beyond interpretations these and without affirming the primacy of any of re-emerges them, as an event undergoing different organisations (biological and physical, cultural, technological). In the same way, the different technologies connected to movement and dance (such as Motion Capture or choreographic software) do not confirm any philosophical dualism between the naturalness of motion and the artificiality

of its

choreographic composition. Rather, the movement-dance relation is detached from body-mind) (or nature-culture

binarisms, by showing the complex and mutually

influential character of both terms. By connecting nature and culture (movement and its cultural transformation into dance on stage), our approach reveals the non-linear in to the this ways which natural physical traits affect pointing relation, reversibility of and are affected by cultural positions and meanings. Without being simply determined by the human anatomical apparatus and its particular capacities and conformations, and far from performing the expression of an identity, movement becomes a form of organisation comprising

different

orders and scales of reality and the parallel

processes of change in-between them. Movement, dance and technology appear thus dimensions coextensive of the same performance. as coexisting,

The critical irresolution between phenomenologyand constructivism is thus expanded (not dialectically solved, but rather amplified and multiplied) by a Spinozian consideration of the moving body and of its transformation into a dancing body as two aspectsof the sameevent, extension and thought: a body is perceivedas 10 body is dancing. This new conceptualisation of the thought of as moving, and a movement-dancerelation is also connectedto a different understandingof rhythm, a rhythm without any pre-given aim or rule, and at the sametime autonomousfrom its subject (dancer) and object (dance choreography), a distributed material rhythm crossing all bodies without belonging to any of them and without being masteredor 29

executed by any of them, but only differently (physically, culturally, technically) organised.In the same way, rather than indicating a further confirmation of absolute mastery of Man over Nature, digital innovations in the scientific and artistic use of technology imply a series of changesbeyond prediction and control, by transforming the compositional and performative processof dance into a continuous transmission of information betweendifferent times and spaces(as in telematic dance),or between different bodies/machines. The conception of nature as absolutely different and separatedfrom artifice is by dance/technology link, which highlights and doubles those the questioned also processes of rhythmic energetic elaboration and organisation that are already part of our bodily motions and perceptions. In this sense, we can argue that a an-organic level is by both organic and technical machines, where operated of energetic manipulation the digitalisation of these processes only appears as a new conjunction or modality of elaboration. The supposed artificial nature of the new dancing body addresses thus important questions about movement and technology: if our simplest physical processes or everyday actions are already the results of rhythmic stimulation and energetic organisation, and of complex operations of sensorial and motor codification, we can argue that artifice is not limited to the theatre stage or to the science lab, but is already part of nature. Technological innovation does not add any artificiality

to the

presumed spontaneous nature of our already trained molecules and cells, organs and limbs: it lays out the machinic character of the body and movement, perhaps animating it with a new, unknown rhythm. If creativity corresponds to a flight from the restrictions of the physical and cultural organisation of movement, this thesis will explore how the highly codified and predictable working of the technical machine, in conjunction with a dancing body, can represent a different possibility of performative creation.

2.2

-'A

Thinking

dancer is as a dancer doesn't" l (move) of

dance beyond the limiting

and limited

constructivist and

phenomenologicaldefinitions of meaningful bodily language(the culture of dance)or expressive live performance (the naturalnessof movement) implies finding in it the in-significance and levity, but also the artificiality and complexity of all natural

30

phenomena. A human body and a sound molecule dance on a common rhythmic field. The body becomes tense, elastic, ready to burst; its sensibility is amplified. After their passage through the auditory channel, sound molecules become a wave of electrical sparks, excitations of the nerves translated into the steps and gestures of a dancer, then into those of many others. Then, a set of digital machines enters the process, capturing and distributing

movement, light and sound particles across screens and other

sensitive surfaces. The whole game becomes a video, or a cyber-dance performance streamed online.

Under the superficial rules of the game (the physical rules dictated by gravity laws and anatomy, the choreographicrules memorised and performed by the dancer, the cultural and behavioural rules of the theatre,or the binary sequencesof the digital its by the the steps allowed software and calculations), our code and pre-programmed departure bring light `the real conditions of the game's to of will methodologicalpoint emergence': If the rules are ex post facto captures that take precedence, what do they take it from?: from the processfrom which the game actually emerged, and continues to evolve ... The foundational rules follow and apply themselves to forces of variations that are endemic to the game and constitute the real conditions of the game's emergence.The rules formally determine the game but do not condition it. (Massumi 2002a: 72)

According to Massumi, the conditions for the emergence of a form, a formalised game or performance with its own rules, roles and actors, are constituted by a field, a material field of forces of variation. In the dance performance, the gravitational and anti-gravitational forces pushing the dancers towards the sky and bringing them back to earth, electromagneticforces moving sound particles towards dancing bodies and vice versa, a whole set of physical forces attracting and repelling bodies among each other or reciprocally connecting them, constitute the field which generatesthe anatomical, choreographicand technical rules of the dance game. This field of forces polarises, i. e. vectorises movement and perception, gives them a direction, composing the material substratum immanent to all the physical, cultural

31

and technological codifications of dance, to all physiological coordinates, choreographedpirouettesor digital manipulations. Our methodological starting point will be thus the definition of perception and movement as `material' processes generated by different forces and `directing' the formal realisation of dance. This conceptualisation takes the definitions of the moving and perceiving body out of the `physical' or `organic' sense attributed to them by phenomenology, developing a different methodological map of non-textual, nonhuman and non-organic but `material' concepts of a body, perception and motion as detached from significance and subjectivity and only related to the forces of attraction and repulsion moving them.

Beyond phenomenological conceptualisations,our definition of perception does not coincide with a pre-determined and conscious recognition of an external reality by a given body-subject, or by a human being anchored in the world and appropriating it through its movements. Rather, it corresponds to the Bergsonian in Henri Bergson's philosophy, halfway between specified things conceptualisation: and perceptual representations, between subjects and objects, bodies (defined by him as `images') relate among themselves through a continuous transmission and reception of movement, a continuous flow with no fixed anchorage, no reference '2 from While all point, and which existential coordinates emerge as an after-effect. bodies act and react, and reciprocally relate, in all their elementary parts, `my body' (or the body-subject) emerges as a different entity because it is not only known from without through external perceptions (perception of an environment as landscape), but also from within through internal affections (perception of one's own body). When the perceiving and perceived body coincide, perception becomes affection, or a feeling of one's own body simultaneously to the stimulation by another body. At the same time, 'body interval between the the when and other bodies decreases, perception (as the virtual power of the body) becomes a real action. According to Bergson, affection, perception and action refer to the coexistent and different aspects of the sensori-motor circuit, a sensori-motor schema coinciding with the perception of afferent excitations and their elaboration into efferent movements. In this process, the brain is an instrument of action, and not of representation ... Therefore we conclude that the living body in general, and

32

the nervous system in particular, are only channels for the transmission of movements, which, received in the form of stimulation, are transmitted in the form of action, reflex or voluntary. (1991: 73)

Between a perception (for examplethe senseof a loud sound or the contact of one's bare foot with the floor) and the execution of a movement(for example a jump), affection is felt as a force, an invitation to act, a tendency,a movement begun but not fully executed.13In his book Videofilosofia,Maurizio Lazzaratoarguesthat conscious, subjective human perceptions(the phenomenologicaltenets) are already the result of selecting,ordering and codifying processesfiltering the continuity and multiplicity of movementsexchangedbetweenbodies, and of the multiple potentials, tendenciesand forces associatedwith them. In the samebook, he also defines intelligence, language further forms (the tenets) constructivist of semiotisation structure as and symbolic blocking other possibilities of material expression.(1986) It is on this particular subject, as both Lazzarato and Deleuze show in their Bergsonian readings, that Bergson's philosophy coincides with Nietzsche's radical by Friedrich Nietzsche, consciousness(as a As revealed physicism, or materialism. consciousbodily perception or action) hides the plurality of potentials and forces that 14 intellectual linguistic Beyond the and appropriations of constitute subjectivity. structuralist and post-structuralist interpretations,and beyond the conscioussubjective described experiences

by

phenomenological critiques,

the

Nietzschean

conceptualisationallows a re-thinking of perceptual or performing subjectivity (e.g. the dancerand spectatorwith their given and fixed positions) as a temporary stoppage, a freezing in a continuous processof inter-relation (of bodies that change while exchanging something). Ultimately, this relation between bodies is a potential relation, perception referring to the potential action of a body-image upon another, and vice versa. Bodies-images display thus their reciprocal influences, the capacity to reciprocally touch and move (for example size, shape, colour, odour or sound decreasingor increasing in intensity at different distances). Deleuze and Guattari subtract this process from the human and organic field (perception as an exclusive characteristicof live matter, from unicellular organismsto the human nervous system) and transfer it to matter, in the form of a material resonation, or vibration. This re-

33

conceptualisationrevealsthus the narrow limits of human perception which, intended as a capacityfor vibration and resonation,is only activatedat very limited frequencies. Perception,intelligence and languageare defined by Bergsonas working in the same,limited way as the cinematic machine,stringing instantaneous,frozen visions of an ever-flowing reality of potential affections on the continuous thread of consciousness.This illusion is also at the basisof an illusory perceptionof movement15 instants forms/poses). (immobile action as a sum of privileged According to Deleuze, Bergson's philosophy totally reverses this cinematic

vision, making movement correspond to a continuous change affecting the whole bodies/images the a of all movement universe, continuously acting and re-acting with eachother. From another point of view, movement is referred to one single aspectof this flowing whole, so that we can distinguish two different conceptualisations.The first one is that of a continuous duration or change of the whole cosmos in its microscopic concatenations.In this sense, Deleuze highlights how the Bergsonian theory is one of the moving body entering a wave, a continuously flowing matter `in which no point of anchoragenor centre of referencewould be assignable', and from which novelty continuously emerges. The second concept is that of a single duration this as a modification of the relative positions of the elements articulation of of a given space. As a result, the idea of the human body as an original source of initiator the movement, and as conscious of a series of progressive displacements 16 is aiming at a particular point, overcome. To the idea of a transcendentalsynthesisof movement from pre-existing poses to be realised by a conscious subject, Deleuze opposesa different theory: the instants or moments composing a movement (for example the cinematic frames) are its material immanent elements, its `instants whatever', rather than its preexisting positions. (2002a) These instants are the singular points pertaining to movement and only successivelyidentifiable, the moments of unpredictable qualitative change and '7 not the moments of realisation of a transcendentalscript or choreography. In other words, every movement, every quantifiable spatial displacement, has an aspect of qualitative change.Without reproducing ideas of the body as image/representationof something else or as an already realised subjectivity perceiving and moving in space and time, the Bergsonian and Deleuzian conceptualisationof motion also overcomes the functional mechanicist approaches of the neuro-physiological sciences 34

transforming the dancing body into a set of well-functioning and perfectly coordinated moving and sensing parts. Dance constructivism and phenomenology dissolve, togetherwith the empirical scientific analysisof bodily movementas an inert object of dissectionand de-composition. Rather, the conceptualisation of the physical action/reaction causality as an open circuit sinking into suspended states of affection and in-tension, half-actualised or incipient potential tendencies "cresting in a liminal realm of emergence," (Massumi 2002a: 31) and the concept of motion as unquantifiable qualitative change, allow us to avoid the `superficial' surface of symbolisms and representations, but also to expand the phenomenological dimension of oriented subjective movements and perceptions. In the Bergsonian conception, sensori-motor processes are a characteristic of the " whole organic world. Expanding the Bergsonian point of view, Deleuze and Guattari argue that even mechanical and organic cannot be directly opposed anymore because there is a germinality, a proliferation of tendencies and qualitative changes that is common to animate and inanimate life, a `vitality' which is proper of a matter full of 19 life, life and of a singularities coming to spreading to the whole of matter. As a consequence of this re-conceptualisation, notions of body and subjectivity cannot be simply reduced to the human, because the human body itself appears as a being made up of a multitude of micro-perceptions and motions, or micro-bodies and, at the same time, as only a partial element of bigger aggregates: perception and movement are amplified into a sort of `more and less' than human sensing and moving.

Going beyond the limits of human or organic identification, this definition of the body visibly extends to all material entities (physical particles and human bodies, social groups and technological aggregates).As argued by Spinoza, a body can be conceived as a finished thing only by virtue of its limitation by another body of the samenature, for example when we conceive it as part of a bigger one. (2000: 87) In this research,the definition of the body, its movementsand its perceptionsdraws on Deleuze and Guattari's Spinozist conceptualisation. In this conceptualisation, the preciseshapeand clear confines of a body blur into a shifting cloud of perceptualand motor events: a body is only delimited by a diagram with two perpendicular dimensions, a double axis of `longitudinal' and `latitudinal' coordinates, as the dynamic and kinetic featurescontinuously delineating the shifting contours of a body. Drawing on the cartographic definition of the body elaborated by 17`" century's

heretic philosopher Baruch Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattari's notion delineates, or `individuates' the form of a body, beyond its fixed and predeterminedidentity, at two levels. (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a) At a dynamic level, the body exists in its affective capacities: all the relations and passagesof a body and all its contacts or connectionswith other bodies provoke a continuousvariation of this capacityto affect and be affected. At eachnew movementthe body, temporarily identified and enclosed into a stable territory or corporeal confine between its internal and external dimensions,undergoesa certain degreeof de-territorialisation, i. e. of dis-identification and dis-placement, an interchange of molecules with other bodies, a state of total 20 it in opennessputting relation with an absoluteexteriority. At a kinetic level, a body is defined as an aggregateof infinite, non-quantifiable and non-confinable particles which enter in relations of movement and rest with other particles and provoke the actual affections (collisions) of the body. The notion of the body as peopled by multiplicities of moving and colliding particles links its formation, articulation and functional behaviour, while always presupposing a to of productivity codes good ' lateral degree de-coding through certain of exchangesand side-communications. This conceptualisationof the body in dynamic and kinetic terms displacesthe idea of an easily identifiable dancing body, with its integrated subjective perceptions and precise movements; rather, the movementsof the dancing body and its relations with other bodies, partners, scenographicelementsor simply the floor, its velocities and its contacts produce a shifting, variable and non-coincident profile. The cartographic analysis of a dance performancecan be traced thus as a diagram of the affective, attractive and repulsive vectors linking the different components(dancersspectators-technicalmachines) that can be part of the performative event, and provoking their qualitative alteration. In this body cartography, all particle exchangesand affective variations are regulated by `membranes', porous surfaces which delimit and articulate the body's individuality. 22In the dance performance event, membranescan be identified either with biological and anatomical surfaces (from the nuclear membranes to the five senses allowing perception and motion), or with the socio-cultural, spatial and temporal, geographic and chronological limits between dancers of different performing groups, or even with the drum-headsor loudspeakers,digital sensorsor screenstechnologically populating old and more contemporaryperformances.Across

human senses,across geographicalconfines or historical periods, and acrosselectric sensorsor plasma screens,the passageof particles (for example of sound) between bodies transformsevery resonatingbody involved in the performanceinto an event: in the cyber-danceperformance-event,where do the confines of the dancing body begin and end?Who (or what) is moving and perceiving, and who or what is not? The blurred subjective confines delineatedby bodily membranes(as points of opening and contact with the external) are the sites of non-local sensationor, to echo Deleuze and Guattari's terminology again, of bodily 'becoming' after the encounter body. Instead another of reducing technology to a prosthesisof the active bodywith subject, sensationamplifies the concept of bodily extension, indicating the becoming of the body beyond those conscious intellectual and emotional states that guide its 23 its distance from bodies. other movements, actions, performances and mark Technology affects (rather than extends) the body through a continuous interchange in becoming: Deleuze and Guattari's Spinozist conceptualisation, and reciprocal becoming is to extract particles between which one establishes the relations of is becoming, that to and slowness are closest one and speed what and movement rest, through which one becomes.(Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a) Rather than considering the dancing body as a self-enclosed subjective individual performing in space after cognitive appropriation, we can focus on its becoming through its encounter and relation with other body-particles, with sound particles, dancepartners,but also technologicaltools. Without dismissing questionsof perception and movement, becoming appearsas a fundamental concept for a nonreductive, non-human and non-organic understanding of their relation with the technical engineeringof the danceperformance. But what does it mean to say that a dancing body `becomes' while moving? Every human body, every social group or every technical machine is augmentedor decreasedin its potential by a new relation with another body, group or tool, as in the case of sound molecules provoking the activation and acceleration of cells, bodies, whole human groups and machines. Between the molecules of a body, between the bodies of a group or betweenthe humansand technologiesof an experimental lab, the passageof different sound (or chromatic, or even chemical) intensities provokes irresistible incitations to move: in this sense,dancebecomesa matter of intensity and potential, rather than of intentions and skills. It becomesde-subjectified in multiple

affective relations, or sensations,before being re-shapedinto the closed individual circuits of an individual dancing (or simply observing) body. In other words, a dancer becomesand moves, when she does not identify herself as a subject. As soon as she falls back into the illusory awarenessof her accomplishedsubjectivity, she stops and freezesagain. From this point of view, what becomesanalytically crucial about cyber-dance is the edge, the moment of indetermination or resonation when the potentiality of in becoming is (as body) being the the non-human realised the affect of perceiving appearanceof a particular sound, a movement,a video image on the screen,and in the between Physical dance, body them. and object, nature and movement and relation culture distinctions appearunnecessaryand untenablefrom the point of view of their Dancing bodies, and active and passive specific emergence. observing and virtuality distribution, depend a net of nerve pathways on a sensori-motor circuit of conditions, in the body that helps the organs to organise the disequilibrium produced by an 24 directing it towards a specific sensorial mode and reaction. affective encounter,by At the same time, the affective dissolution between subjective bodies and functions de-personalisation `dethe and sensorial a co-fusion of routes, coincides with a but bodily experienced sensations,affections not consciously sensorialisation' of hearing) felt: (e. than through channel or a sense g. particular synaesthetically rather through the sensorial combination usually defined as synaesthesia(jumping between the senses,e.g. seeing a sound), the synaestheticquality of affect has to do with the possibility "to transform the effects of one sensory mode into those of another." (Massumi 2002a: 35) In this sense, it becomes possible to take the dance performance out of the perceptualgrid striating and distancing bodies and spaces,bringing on the surfacethe openness,the sensibility of the body (organic and inorganic, real and represented, dancing and perceiving alike) materically touched in all its points by waves of a diffuse energy (light on the skin-screen, sounds to incite fleeting movements of microphones and eyes). Excited particles aggregate and resonate along the usual routes of the senses,along social perimeters and borders, and along technological channels. If resonation can be seen as the autonomic self-reflection or reverberation of vibrating matter, the notion of affect as reverberationof potential associatesdancing

or observing body-subjects, the trembling air and flesh between them, the vibrating glass and metal of different technological tools. In this way, we can re-define the body beyond its different organic or inorganic actualisations, at an a-organic level. 25 In other words, the concept of affect becomes important for the delineation of a zone of non-recognition

and indiscernibility

where it becomes impossible to distinguish

between a real body and a screen image, or between the dances of different times and spaces, or even between the sounds and colours of a dance, and where the emergence of shifting singularities (degrees, or intensities, as Deleuze and Guattari define them) beyond difference its inorganic, appear subjective or objective organic or makes actualisations:

What is the individuality of a day, a season,an event? A shorter day and a longer day are not, strictly speaking, extensions but degrees proper to extension,just as there are degreesproper to heat,color etc. An accidental form therefore has a "latitude" constitutedby a certain number of composable individuations. A degree,an intensity, is an individual that ... enters into composition with other degrees, other intensities,to form another individual. In short, between substantial forms and determined subjects,betweenthe two, there is degrees, intensities, of a play natural ... ... events, and accidents that compose individuations totally different from those of the well-formed subjects that receive them. (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a:453)

Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, we can analysethe danceperformancefrom a different point of view; or rather, we can start and feel the intensity of movement beyond its attribution to a particularly skilled dancer or to the velocity of her edited performance on the video screen. Questions of sound/movementdifferentiation and expressive synchronisation, or of expressive performativity, spectatorship and interpretation, of choreographic technicality or of cybernetic disembodiment, are all expandedby a more vague focus on the processesof de-formation and becoming of bodies,perceptionsand movements.26 In Deleuze and Guattari's conceptualisation,`affects' and `percepts' constitute the non-human and non-organic, ' non-conscious and non-subjective, or virtual, becomings of the body and of its perceptions,a body and a perception beyond and

39

before the human. (2002b) The paradoxical relation of affect to the body (as being of it but always escaping, outside of it) unfolds as a vibratory event, an intensive state of the body exceeding itself and its own confines or subjective positions. In this sense, affect is defined by Massumi as an incorporeal dimension, the unleashing of a bodily potential before and beyond the realisation of a stable, extensive corporeality. " Echoing Massumi's words, we can argue that the abstractness of the body coincides its with never being present in position but only in passing, with its being never actualised but always real, in a moment of instantaneous emergence arising and disappearing again like the crest of a wave. (2002a: 5) This abstract dimension of emerging tendencies traces the concrete space of perception/movement with multiple coexistent vectors, virtual vectors which are nevertheless inseparable from the process of their actualisation, in a coexistence and reciprocal influence of virtual and actual levels. Taking the body out of its `self-presence' and `self-possession', affect can be identified with what remains of an actual affection, as an intensive resonation shadowing and obfuscating perceptual clearness.

In parallel with affect (the becoming of the perceiving body), Deleuze and Guattari's notion of percept defines the non-human becoming of perceived objects, bodies and landscapes,their loss of all relations with the psychological and physical states of the perceiving subject. (2002b) A percept is the becoming sensible of a material force through the emergenceof particular traits of expression,or qualities, in the perceived body or object (such as a sound timbre or frequency, or the speedand 28 bodily rhythm of a movement). Affects and percepts (non-human ways of feeling and perceiving) composea sensation, a transformational moment in which something attracts and something is irremediably attracted.29 What bodies share in every perceptual and performative process are sensations, `becomings' of those actual subjective and objective states which take them into different, incommunicable trajectories. The becoming of a dancing body through its sensations lies in its own movement, as a wave of transformation embracing, enveloping all the different bodies participating in it, a 30 fixed metamorphosis cutting across all positions. The concept of the body as a population of parts or particles spreadingthemselvesin spacedistributes the sensation of movement and changeinto the whole body (as a body-environment relation), rather than making it depend on a central point (consciousness)guiding and directing it 40

according to physical laws. In this sense, the thought of movement is not separated from the moving body and from its sensations, but coincides with movement in the critical moment of its appearance (or of its sensation). While a dancing body is consciously moving, it is also always imperceptibly, rhythmically

becoming; not

becoming something, but simply becoming (i. e. sensing). The viewer's perceptual experience, the dancer's movement and its representation through the technological apparatus are all decomposed by vibratory events, sensations that make all the bodies become, outside of their own individual identities.

According to Deleuze and Guattari, becoming sensible (or the emergenceof forces into a certain material, or matter, and to to corresponds a passage of sensation) the subsequent springing of qualities or expressive traits. Amplifying traditional theoriesthat define art as the imposition of a precise form (as a pre-existing essence) in on an unformed matter order to re-producereality, Deleuze and Guattari's notions of affect, percept and sensation allow the definition of a different aesthetics, transforming artistic creation into a process of elaboration of forces through the densities and intensities of matter: sensation, as the becoming sensible of iminaugurates feeding forces (affects and an aesthetics of virtuality percepts), perceptible back and forward in the different machinic connectionsof a molecularisedmatter. The dance (light the as an artistic creation and sound particles, performance material of human flesh and bodily movement but also the wood, fabric, chemicals of old dance rites, or the alloy metals, glass, chrome, silicon of cyber-dance)reveals its own forces (gravitational and attractive, anti-gravitational and escape forces) through the linked in(or trans-sensorial to the qualities sensations emergence of a-modal, tensions) of movement as a non-subjective act: the act as a non-human becoming of action. In this sense,we can define the aestheticsof dance as a kin-aestheticsrelated to the modulation of matter (in this case,the body and its motion in the environment) and its energetic and kinetic potentials, rather than to a mere composition of forms. The molecular modulation of a dancing body by external forces crossesits path with the opposite vector of the body's own forces and with its own processesof modulation (for example the escapeforce of the body modulating the air and ground as landscape of its movement, as opposed to the force of gravity giving weight to the body and modulating its motion). From this encounter, the resulting sensation is one of oscillation, betweenfloating and falling, flying and coming back to earth. 41

With cyber-dance, the sensation of dance undergoes a further process of in it be As different tool. technical through will argued more material elaboration a detail, rather than introducing a totally new performative aesthetics, the digital code participates, as a different machinic conjunction or a new creative material, in the same process of molecularisation and modulation performed by a dancing body, introducing a technique of microscopic dissection and of multiplied re-combination which

opens up a further

possibility

infinitesimal of

deviation.

possibilities determined by the digital code and its micro-modulations

The limited can become

thus unpredictable angles of variation through their re-elaboration by the moving and becomings. body, turbulent affective and perceptive a effect of generating perceiving An air molecule, a light or sound particle striking a body's cell constitute in this sense the basic couple, the first

into Entering duet the stage. animating molecular

combination with particles of another material, a silicon particle of a computer chip, these dancing molecules are transformed into a logarithm, a number or a bit which by force its re-entering the stage metamorphosis, or of re-incarnation, of own reveals dance. flow its to the of material own path and re-joining

2.3 - Dancing matter Borrowing from Deleuze and Guattari's aestheticterminology in What is Philosophy?, bodies (moving dance have defined as as a composition of molecularised matters we by forces this a of matter and as modulation aggregatesof particles/sensations), (gravity and anti-gravity). Considering a dancing body as modulated matter from Guattari's Deleuze and emerge, can echo we now which new qualities continuously interrogation about the ontological (and physical) implications of this term, and ask "how are we to define this matter-movement,this matter-energy,this matter-flow, this in leaves " (2002a: 407) them? that enters assemblages and matter variation The definition given by the two philosophers is that of an unformed flow of particles/intensities,"subatomic and submolecular particles, pure intensities, prevital and prephysical free singularities" (43) condensedalong the cartographic axes of different bodies and swarming across a grid of fixed bodily identities. In the hylomorphic/morphogenetictheories of Western philosophy, all physical entities are realisationsof ideal forms (the essences,the models from which notions such as those

-42

of copy and resemblance derive); creation appears as something beyond the capacities of the material substratum and only coming from some external, transcendental agency (God-creator-choreographer, as Man himself, or an essential idea). In Deleuze and Guattari's theory, it is matter itself that, without any external intervention, becomes onto-genetic, or hetero-genetic (or, in the philosophers'

terminology,

`schizo-genetic'), in the sense of a continuous creation or production of difference, a 31 material schizo-graphy.

Deleuze and Guattari's aesthetic conceptualisationsare based thus on the field forms. Generating as an empirical a continuous series of matter of virtual notion forms deformations the transformations, and changes, virtual and of passages potentially contained by matter are constituted by singularities (unactualised tendencies as topological, implicit forms), what Deleuze and Guattari call affects, be by the emergence to affected), affect and and are expressed unactualisedcapacities of affective and intensive traits (or thresholds-affects),qualities and capacitiessuch as 32 frequency Qualitative speed. colour, sonic or movement resistance, weight, differences between bodies are differences of potential, of force and affect, and of tendency, deriving from the movements of molecular populations or from the While them. through essentialismposits physical entities movementsof matter-energy in ideal forms be (models) to copied order to obtain the as realisations of common Sameand differentiate it from the Other, the Deleuzian concept of positive differences driving dynamical processesof creation refers to intensive differences qualitatively appearingas variations of chromatic intensity or speed,timbres and rhythms, that can 33 be only successivelyor retroactively measuredand quantified. The qualitative and quantitative modifications of bodies are distinguished by Henri Bergson's philosophical conceptualisationas two different dimensions: (1) duration, which "tends" for its part to take on or bear all the differences in kind (becauseit is endowedwith the power of qualitatively varying with itself), and (2) space, which never presents anything but differences of degree (since it is quantitative homogeneity).(Deleuze 1998: 38)

The ontological importance of space (for example the stage space of a performanceas a grid with fixed coordinates)and of the pre-conceivedforms realised

43

in it (choreography) is replaced by the dancing body's qualitative modifications 34 throughout time. Following Bergson's conceptualisationof qualitative difference, Deleuze opposesthe different articulations of the real (which we could identify with choreographiccuts and bodily poses, fixed shapesand measurablevelocities) to the lines of fact (or the intersections of different bodies at dynamic and kinetic levels), formal directions: in different them two going as series of events considering actualisation (where forms diverge) and the virtual continuum (as a convergenceof formal differencesonto a smooth plane of intensities and qualities) 35 Drawing on Deleuze's reading of the Bergsonian distinction between a field form from individuation (the of material an unformed emerging of movementof dynamics) and a movement of specification (the mere surface difference between already given forms), we can baseour analysisof danceon a Bergsonian `philosophy forms forms, between between ' difference: the the choreographic specification not of between `live' or technologically mediated different traditions, or cultural of formations, but the different intensive and qualitative individuations produced by down dance breaking Rather by than a performance every step. every perception and into its constitutive formal/choreo/semioticor phenomenologicalsubjective/objective brings to on the surfacethe and material processes matter elements,a closer attention form, field the that of movement and emergence make possible conditions matrix of bodily interaction. In other words, this bottom-up approach is more interestedin the connectivity and relations of a dance system than on its schemas and particular identities. In this sense, an individual dancer, a whole dance performance or a dance/technologyinteraction can be defined as bodies composedof multiple sub-sets, individuals. As an example, we can to populations with a capacity connect with other draw on Manuel DeLanda's definition of the walking animal as forming a it body (which the with a surface) and with a with ground provides compositional gravitational field (which gives it weight). (2002) In the same way, dancers,dancing different the technical components of different groups and machines can appear as dancemachines.By considering all the different material aggregationsenteredby the dancing body (as already an aggregate)and by mapping its consequentqualitative alterations,we can thus draw an outline of the material field of dance. If, as suggestedby many physicists, the field is a material condition, not a discursive practice, a trans-disciplinary dialogue with physics can provide this 44

methodology with a helpful contamination of routes, a "polyphony of `unmerged' but connected pluralities" guiding us towards the exploration of the material field of dance.36In the un-contaminated vision of classic essentialist philosophies, an external essenceor organising principle (e.g. choreography as working according to principles of harmony and essential ideas of beauty) gives a system its purpose and function, bending a dancing body to externally imposed laws in favour of identity and form; against this conceptualisation, constructivist philosophy attributes the construction and organisation of identity to an external social or discursive apparatus (the symbolic attribution of meaning to dance). Going beyond these two oppositional frames of thought, the adoption of physics as a methodological reference allows us to find an organisational force in the material universe itself (the matter of dance, or a dancing matter).

Deleuze and Guattari's work is an outstanding example of this transdisciplinary proximity betweenphilosophy and science:in their words, every creation, from living beings to artistic works, is the product of a necessaryact of self-positing (as auto-affirmation) or, in more scientific terms, of an `autopoietic' activity. 37 In 1972, physicists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela introduced the notion of autopoiesis(from the ancient Greekpoieo, to create) as an autonomousand self-organised act of creation, identifying this self-organisation with the basic characteristicof all physical systems(such as the nervous and perceptual system of living organisms).38In Maturana and Varela's autopoietic theory, `homeostasis'is the mechanism of autonomous self-organisation which allows the maintenance of equilibrium and stability despite all the transformations undergone by a system. All autopoietic systemsbecomethus closed systemswhose movementsand dynamics are always directed towards the conservation of equilibrium, auto-referential systems characterisedby circularity and by a limited set of pre-establishedrelations allowing them to adaptand avoid disintegration. In a more artistic sense, performance theories and critiques emphasise a similar autopoietic notion of dance, in all its physical, cultural and cybernetic levels. In the case of human movement, neuro-physiological studies find in the notion of `motivation' the hypothesis of an adaptive and reactive nature of motion, considering the organism's autopoietic equilibrium as a fundamental aspect generating all motor activities. (Le Boulch 1991: 67-70) At an anthropological and social scale, dance 45.

becomes inserted into schemas of tension discharge aiming at the conservation of social equilibrium

between dangerously conflicting

individual

or psychological

tendencies: dance as an autopoietic safety valve of the social system. (Spenser 1985) At a cybernetic level, the information

exchange systems created by the use of

electronic and numerical machines in all biological

from and cultural spheres,

medicine and work to art, and dance, are kept at balance through the avoidance of human the closed and program circuits of user - technical tool autopoietic noise interactions. (Shannon 1949)

More recently, the appearanceof the notion of `far from equilibrium systems' in the work of physicists such as Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers, and its has limitative the to the chaos, amplified and mathematics of philosophy adaptation idea balance homeostatic `autopoietic the system', replacing and of closed notions of 39 but flows Systems `turbulence'. to are always open of never closed of entropy with matter; nevertheless, rather than mere randomness, the physical

fluctuations

by a system generate their own organisations and structures, continuously undergone an autonomous order of temporary and meta-stable patterns. The main elements of these spontaneous acts of material creation can be defined as the attractors and bifurcations of a physical field of forces. As virtual tendencies of a system, attractors (or endogenously generated stable states, singularities of matter) can be identified with long term behaviours, the states a system spontaneously tends to reach as long as it is forces; but by totally always approximately attractors are never not constrained other (asymptotically) touched, infinitely approached but never reached, polarising the field 0 force inducing it to enter a meta-stable state. The second through their motor and characteristic of material processes of creation are phase transitions (bifurcations), events taking place at certain thresholds of intensity (or critical values of affective qualities such as pressure or temperature), taking the system out of its equilibrium state and introducing it into a different one, through a release and a successive redirection of tension. Acting as catalysts, bifurcations modify the force-field as points of unfolding of a tendential movement, points of application of a force. Sequences of attractors and bifurcations (as respectively the tendencies and transitions of matter) are the topological forms guiding material morphogenesis and forming a virtual, intensive vector field crossed by infinitesimal curvatures of actualisation which, when certain 1 values are reached, give shape to concrete things.

46

The combination of attractors and bifurcations, i. e. the emergence of moments of qualitative alteration in a meta-stable state, gives a system its rhythm. As De Landa points out, attractors and bifurcations

are more than linguistic

concepts or

mathematical models, and their `mechanism-independence' transforms them into properties actualised by many different models, individuating

the isomorphism of

different physical processes, from social and economic fluctuations, to physical or artistic creations and performances. (2001)

In the sameway, in the danceperformanceevery movement `tends' towards a particular choreographicattractor, allowing the dancerto find its meta-stableposition. This `tension' is not separablefrom the errors made during the trajectory due to the opposite gravitational attractor. Virtual attractors are never fully actualised, and for this reasonthey never correspondto any concreteposition: a differential angle always separatesthe actual position of the limb and the `neutral' choreographicmodel aimed bifurcations her Manning, (in Erin According to words, `intervals') generate at. qualities (for example the intensity, pitch, duration, timbre of a sound, or the tint, saturation and value of a colour) "that are vivid in their differentiation (fast, slow, long, short), recombining these qualities with sensations(loud, soft, bright, staccato, sweet)." (2005: 12) Following this vectorial field of forces, qualities and sensations, we see that the concept of transcendentalmatter introduced by Deleuze and Guattari implies a radical methodological change so that, beyond the discursive level developed by a semiotic analysis of dance, and beyond psychic or even organic essentialisms,we will be able to relate the problematic of movement and the genesis of its form to intensifications of energy as catalysts of performative and perceptual from dance in its demarcated but in the the emerging events,seeing not objects effects field itself - the moments of intensity, peaksor valleys within a continuous field. This materialistic approach allows us to describe the dancing bodies and the perceptual apparatuses(human or technological) connected to them as systems in continuous metamorphosis. The dynamic/kinetic aspect of dance can be thus related to the attraction of electromagnetic particles-intensities: the dancing body as a swarm of particles attractedbetween two opposite poles, gravity and anti-gravity, terrestrial and aerial tendencies,and generating different sensations;the impact of these sensations on perceptual and technological apparatuses,as the capture systems crossed by the rhythm of the dancing body-swarm.

47

The apparent equilibrium of these different levels, and the apparent channelling of these flows into the anatomical, choreographicand technical systems which allow the dancerto convey a clear representationto the eyes,earsand minds of the audience,are revealedin all their complexity and instability. Choreographedforms and movementsare generatedby an autonomousmaterial field threateningall physical balance,clear interpretation and technical communication with the suddenappearance in fluid jerk, the event, a nervous running of the of an unexpected a mistake or a glitch from its The dance the aesthetics of most unstable performance.` performanceemerges elementsand relations, rather than from its fixed forms and meanings.

kine-auto-po(i)etics of dance Through a trans-disciplinary mixture of philosophy and physics, i. e. in-between the scientific exploration of

autopoietic

material systems and the aesthetic

conceptualisationof the poetics of danceand movement as a creation of rhythms and (an the autonomousmaterial of an emergence auto po(i)etics patterns,we can outline creation) of the dance performance. In other words, the autopoietic level of bodily is by the poetic, creative and system opened up movement as a closed physical unpredictableaspectof dance (in the most literal senseof the word `poieo', to make, to create,to make the new emerge);on its turn, this po(i)etic creation of rhythms and harmony linked from is liberated to principle of choreographic any external patterns traditional dance poetics, and attributed to the autonomousorganisation of a dancing body as a material system in movement. In this sense,the auto-po(i)etics of dance becomesa scientific and aestheticreading of the material originality of movement, a kine-po(i)etics questioning the self-integrity of a dancing body's dynamical system. From an autopoietic (or kine-poietic) perspective, a dance performance explodes into an aggregateof microscopic events, a rarefied dust of material waves and vibrations thickened by the changing intensities and qualities of movement. This intensified field of waves, this shifting massof qualities appearsto our eyes and ears as a dancingbody. At its passage,all the perceptualand technological systems,bodies, machines,surfaces inhabiting the performance spaceresonate,making the beauty of danceemerge. Classical definitions of beauty in danceperformanceshave always beenrelated to specific rules requiring "a well-developed physique, natural grace, and perfect 48

aesthetic training to reveal [the] beauty of motion. " (Chalfa Ruyter 1996: 22) In 19`h century's dance aesthetics, Francois Delsarte's Hellenic principles of harmonic pose were at the basis of a kin-aesthetic equilibrium

in which legs, torso and head

constituted the physical foundations of a reciprocal counterbalance. In the 20th century, the phenomenological theorisation of aesthetics by thinkers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty

and

Mikel

Dufrenne

transformed

the

formal

and

idealistic

essentialisation of beauty in movement and dance, into a subjective feeling, an organic experience mediated by living flesh: the body-subject experiencing not only a static but from a of view, geometrical perfection a privileged point contemplation of penetration, getting in carnal communion with `all the erogenous zones of the `live' therefore, the carnal, with perception and movement of the sensible' and, dancer.42

These theorisations overcame the hylomorphic theory of form/ content and balance), bodily (such Delsartean division those the proclaiming a of as subject/object dance, (e. between in-differentiation and or of the work and world g. of movement new dancing body and its environment): a work (in this case, a dancer) is in the world 43 it in any way. This phenomenologicalaestheticsresonateswith without transcending the Kantian definition of beauty as that which, without possessinga determinate 44 indeterminate singularity without a concept. concept,can only be felt as pleasure,an But, more than to phenomenology,the singularity and unpredictability of the beautiful links the Kantian aestheticsto Deleuze and Guattari's notion of sensation.According to StephenZagala,

Kant's "beautiful form" approximates a Deleuzian notion of difference becauseit is endowed with an internal difference; difference which differentiates itself and affirms its difference without negation ... as the absenceof a determinate concept entails both its singularity and its repeatability. (2001: 952)

Beyond both classical and phenomenological connotations, beyond the standard rules of aesthetics (the perfect and harmonious form of the body) and its subjective judgment (the flesh of the feeling body), the auto-po(i)etic notion of `beauty' emerging from Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy implies a felt immediacy,

49

force or intensity' in process; in this process, technology loses its merely mechanical function, becoming one machinic component among others. As argued by Melissa Mc Mahon, this machinic and processual conceptualisation of beauty takes a kantian (rather than benjaminian) direction: "Both the Critique of Judgement and Benjamin's essay deal with the tensions between a dominant mechanical paradigm and an organic model of cohesion. But while Benjamin finds no viable reconciliation between a fragmented modernity (carried by mechanization), and a lost pre-modern idyll of holistic coherence (home of the traditional work of art), Kant creates a third term between the organic and the mechanical which is precisely the aesthetic." (2001: 853) On one hand, for Walter Benjamin the modern mechanisation of art cannot provide an image, i. e. it cannot create values, relations and forces, because "To provide an image is to provide a point of reflection, identification and orientation for the subject in is beauty "45 Benjamin's its thus the to to world. notion of and community relation directly linked to an original aura, or sacred character of the work of art, dependent on magic, religious or profane aims. The disappearance of these aims (and even of beauty death determines the of the ritualistic aspect of art. On the other as an artistic aim) hand, from a kantian point of view, in-between the mechanical and the organic lies the distinguishing itself form i. the among others. aesthetic, e. emergence of a

According to Mc Mahon, Kant's notion of the aesthetic singularity is a philosophical precursor of Deleuze and Guattari's machinic. Conceiving beauty as difference, Deleuze and Guattari's concept of sensation opposes both the classical understandingof harmony and the phenomenologicalfeeling of organic pleasureto an auto-po(i)etical aesthetics,i. e. the material affectivity that unfolds in expressive,nonfunctional and unpredictable ways from the relations between different components: as a material singularity, beauty starts a seriesof chain reactions,and we do not know what an art work can do in advancebecause,unlike an organic being, the beautiful brings into play all manner of things, contracting them in its own way. In this sense, Deleuze and Guattari's concept amplifies the Kantian theory of the beautiful: rather than to individual spontaneity, and rather than to a universal category of the human faculties, the sensation of beauty correspondsto the materiality of the body-mindworld process. Subjective or objective notions of aesthetics, with both their acceptanceand their refusal of standardsof taste and form, are replaced by an openendedprocess.

50

In the autopo(i)etics of dance, the power and virtuosity, i. e. the `beauty' of a performance, can only be intended as a force of elaboration driving the autonomous emergence of material nodes, rhythms and patterns in bodily movement, as a material force, a sensation connecting all performing and perceiving bodies at the same time. Against the Newtonian, Euclidean and Cartesian models of ordered movement at the basis of classical kin-aesthetics, the solid forms seen on the screen, the sounds heard, the dancers watched moving on stage, all appear pulverised into self-organised forming intensely decletions turbulencies affecting the spirals and and curvilinear body beyond attention and intention: kine-auto-po(i)etics as a mode of creation and perception ontologically

preceding aesthetic standardisations. Aesthetic taste or

judgment becomes attraction, an intense motion that does not separate body-mind, or intellectual

functions, from perceptual openness. Packs or aggregates of atoms

in distribution, light in turbulent tides, particles and air molecules waves and swirling touching, attracting and affecting the dancing and perceiving bodies in dis-organised but drawing is beauty the contours, of what escapes the not a question of ways: breaking The the the the same vertigo, the of unexpected. contour, secret movement, same tension and excitation is visible when children group and separate, walking off fluid flights birds, in in different the at once and suddenly of or and going off modes, changing.

In this kine-auto-po(i)etic model, the apparent linearity of a jump becomesa fluidifications dilatations, and and series of continuous microscopic contractions solidifications, extensions and contortions of the body as a dancing population of particles and capacities. Recurring to topology as the `science of self-varying deformation,' (Massumi 2002a: 134) we can imagine the abstractschema(or diagram) jump, but by body in the transformations the a simple step or undergone of qualitative follow focusing different it. Rather the totally than on and completely never geometrical figures realised by the body in space, we can think of a continuous processof transformation, where it is practically impossible to distinguish betweenthe beginning and end points of each single movement. As shown by Jose' Gil, in this gliding or slurring of movements, every gestural unit appears as an aggregateof micro-gesturesthat cannot be easily isolated, presupposingmultiple articulations of heterogeneouselements imbricated into each other (for example toes, ankles, knees, legs as the different topological points of a jump). (1998) The superposition of all 51

possible micro-articulations a body can activate is what gives us the virtuality of its movement, as a continuous topological malleability drawing the concretenessand rigidity of the body with a plane of multiple, coexistent vectors or tendencies.The qualities of a body's movement expressthis potential, generatinga fluid dimensionof speedsand rhythms. As revealed by Nietzsche in his writings on Greek tragedy, the main aesthetic

question related to the becoming-beautiful of an object is `who?' While the essentialisation of beauty as a particular propriety of determinate static objects according to the Socratic and Platonic opposition of essencesto appearances(or of being to becoming) found its clearest expression in the aesthetic question `what?' (What is beautiful?), Nietzsche's empiricist and pluralistic aestheticsinvestigatesthe forces that take possessionof something: what forces, who expressesitself, who manifests itself behind something?The aestheticquest is directed towards the forces that make bodies beautiful by possessingthem. Who? What forces? (Deleuze 1992: 107) The beautiful, as the emerging of difference, ceasesto be an essentialproperty (essentialism), a subjective feeling (phenomenology) or a transcendentalcategory (Kant), becoming a sensation(transcendentalempiricism).46 This passageof forces and sensationsinto a material body is well exemplified by the becoming of movement into a dance.As argued by Deleuze and Guattari, this force/matter aesthetic passage is constituted by three co-existing and inextricable moments: the first moment is the incarnation of sensation and of qualitative differences(such as the sensationof rhythm) into flesh, into the materic unification of a sentient and a sensed(2002b: 178-179): dancers,spectators,technical apparatuses are all constituted by a unique vibrating matter transforming the whole dance scene into the site of intense synaesthetic encounters. This matter/flesh registers and measuresthe passagesand intensities of the forces crossing the lived here and now of a conscious aesthetic experience.Preventing sensationfrom falling into the absolute chaos of matter, the composition of an architecture of formal planes is the second aestheticelement, intervening as a solid foundation to give the body and sensationa substantial consistence. From the virtuality of the affects and percepts of a vague sensation, the formal composition of a work gives it a possibility of geometric expression, for example with the enclosure of flesh and its sensations into the choreographicarchitectureof danceas a stablecomposition of gesturesand steps. 52

The last aesthetic component is constituted by what Deleuze and Guattari define as cosmic forces, forces which affect the dancing body and make its dance become molecular. These invisible and inaudible forces traverse the performative scene, transforming it into a continuous plane of material composition, opening it (in Deleuze and Guattari's terms) to a line of flight that prolongs its confines out of its own frame-space-stage. On this scene, a dancing body becomes a simple moment of variation, a condensation or singularity on a plane of universal modulation, making visible (or audible) through its movement and its qualitative traits, multiple forces of gravitation or bodily balance, the various temporal or mechanic forces crossing the

scene. These forces should not be confusedwith the repressedunconscious,psychic forces that psychoanalysisseesas spontaneouslyerupting and expressingthemselves through bodily motion. On the contrary, they derive from an inside/outside, body/environment inextricability: the aesthetic (and ec-static) condition of dance is the body's pervasion by cosmic forces that go beyond human, and even organic, levels. The aestheticsensationof the auto-kine-po(i)eticsof the danceevent becomes thus a consideration of the quality of the forces which give the body a senseand a direction. Beyond any illustrative, figurative and narrative analysis of dance as a body from isolation, liberation dancing the the all extraction, of representationalart, semantic links immerses it into a series of relations which directly connect the contoursof its moving figure to a background,a magnetic field of dancing molecules, by forces. all moved attractive and people,even planets, repulsive

2.4 - The tectonics of the performance47 The fluid undulations and modulations of matter as a force-field of virtual vectors engender the formation of actual organisms (physical organisations of organs, perceptionsand movements, spatio-temporal,geographicand cultural dispositions of bodies, functional technological apparatusesof communication) as phenomena of coagulationand sedimentationblocking energeticflows and channelling them through the generationof forms, functions and hierarchical configurations. At the sametime, theseorganisationsare continuously crossedby transversalmovements,a relationality

or abstract connectedness making all the different components and transformations is: be immanent. From to the this question asked next simultaneous and point of view, how can the continuous flow of matter create the conditions for the emergence of clear perceptions and controlled

movements? In other words, how is a dance

performance organ-ised, composed, articulated, from a continuous energetic flow in body directions? the all crossing

Drawing a parallel with the geological formation of the earth's surfaceand its inorganic, organic and human strata, Deleuze and Guattari describethe emergenceof all forms and functions out of the virtual flows of matter as a processof stratification: (but also of simultaneous compositions and solidifications selections, a series of it into destratifications) to and enclosing giving shape matter crumbling, escapesand 48 inorganic, living the molecules, tissues and organs of and thinking organisations. More specifically, the two philosophersdistinguish three main strata: an inorganic or its latter human the turn on stratum, physical stratum, an organic stratum and a language (the (the technology) tools world of signification): of and world producing "technology and language,tool and symbol, free hand and supple larynx, "gesture and hand-tool linked Being 60) ""(2002a: to the couple and to the gestural speech. dance its linguistic body human than to the can thus utterances, rather expressivity of be re-conductedto different levels of stratification: the physical stratification of the dancing body (in relation to the organic and anthropomorphic formation of the sensorial and motor apparatusof a human dancer), and its sub-strataof gestural and technological production. On the other hand, all these levels are in contact with the have as seenalready, physical, gestural and technological of matter: we virtual plane formations are all dissolved into a micro-kinaesthetic field of affects, percepts and acts going beyond the physical, biological and anatomical structure of the performing form/content dualisms beyond the the or attributed natural/technological, subject and to its performances.Deleuze and Guattari's concept of stratification as an articulation, its into different strata, each with own content and a cutting and ordering of matter be bodies (which to and signs are not confusedwith signified and signifier expression, and their representational relation), on their turn each with its own form and substance,`code and territoriality', derives from Louis Hjelmslev's glossematictheory 49 language. of

54

The first moment of this stratification differentiates the fluid character of molecular material aggregates from the stability of molar compounds: Deleuze and Guattari identify the `selection of metastable molecular units' and the `imposition of a statistical order' upon them with a more fluid organisation, while the `establishment is the the compounds' structures and construction of corresponding molar of stable related to more solid organisations. In scientific terms, auto-poietic non-linear systems (which we can identify with a dancing human body, a dancing group or a performerheterogeneous be defined can of as molecular aggregates audience connection) elements which, under certain conditions, organise themselves in hierarchical strata, solid articulations of homogeneous forms according to causal relations.

These two kinds of (fluid or rigid) mineralization bring hard structures to coexist with softer, more evanescentmaterials as the two articulations of a self(in bones, the the result of processesof same as continuum way organising material bodily mineralization and complexification, constitute the exoskeletonthat directs and internal it dance). distinction The flesh, to to and applies move same allowing sustains for body (such distribution the as organism as, example,the organisation of systemsof of a single neural cell, or the whole nervous system): the first model is that of a by heterogeneity, instability, complementarity connectivity and network characterised and interchangeability of elementswhose passagesand interchangesare regulatedby is that of a centralised system (pyramid-like) the membranes, second model characterisedby homogenisation and stability and centred around a nucleus (spinal cord or brain). In De Landa's words, meshworks and hierarchies are respectively associated to these two different processes of actualisation: one based on the emergenceof qualitative traits and whose rhythm consists of energetic passagesand intensive alternations, the other producing extensiveshapeswhose rhythm consistsof the spatialisation of temporal intervals and refrains. (2001) Following another geological parallel, we can compare meshworksto the fluid lavas and magmaswhich drive the plate tectonics of the earth while, at the sametime, leading to the formation of solid structuresthrough a gradual emergenceof form and organisation. Molecular and molar aggregates,soft tissuesand ossified structures,transform the body into a more or less compact, more or less rarefied mass, a substance expressingits own dynamic capacities or forces. In other words, forces, rather than meanings,are the real content of the kinetic expression of the dancing body. In the 55

is forces the these also organised through a model of stratification, expression of further articulation cutting across the molecular/molar distinction. This articulation individuates the `content' and `expression' of each single stratum in a totally different way from traditional Saussurean semiotics, transforming their distribution into the function of different forces. According to Deleuze and Guattari, `content' constitutes `formed matters', "which would now have to be considered from two points of view: substance, insofar as these matters are "chosen, " and form, insofar as they are chosen in a certain order (substance and form of content). " (2002a: 43) At the same time, `expression'

indicates

`functional

structures',

"which

would

also have to be

form, from the their two and own specific points of view: organization of considered substances insofar as they form compounds (form and content of expression). " (43) On the human (or anthropomorphic) stratum, content and expression are distributed along the hand-tool and face-language couples. But, as Deleuze and Guattari remind hand [for dancing body's "In the the this anatomical apparatus] must us, context, us, dynamic but instead be thought as a coding a of simply as an organ[ism] not ... structuration, a dynamic formation... " (60-61) In other words, the gestural content of the dancing body reveals its own formal traits as shaped by the body's anatomy and, as a form of content, is "extended in tools, which are themselves active forms implying substances, or formed matters... " (61) On their turn, the anatomy, gestures dancing body form tools the autonomous strata with their own articulation of and of content and expression: a bio-physical

stratification

where the genetic form of

limbs is (code) to the cells, and apparatuses connected organisation of expression (body territory); a socio-cultural stratification of bodily gestures with a distribution of movement (kinetic content) across different geographical and temporal milieus, and a regime of signs associated to different ritual traditions (semiotic expression); and a technical stratification of gestures, where the different tools associated to the content and expression of

dance (i. e. technologies

of audiovisual

manipulation

and

choreographic composition) shift from an analogue to a digital form (code), and from the volatile concreteness of photochemical techniques to the lightness and micro-scale of silicon.

The concept of stratification thus takes danceout of the signifying parameters usually applied to the socio-cultural interpretation of the symbolic structures of the dance rite and to the reading of technology as a tool for the representationof the 56

formal body interpretation its identity. It to substantial and moving and opens up dynamicsof content and expressiondifferent from signification. In this model, content and expressionare not linked by a hierarchical relation of biunivocal correspondence (subordinatingcontent to the law of the signifier), but entertain a relation of reciprocal influence. As a methodology, stratification is a-signifying and anti-mimetic, identifying the materials and forces which are perceptuallyand semiotically stratified, codified and territorialized by anatomy, culture and technology. Finding the angle of field body force the the and vice versa, gravitational exercises a on application where forces following trajectory these the of along the performance, allows us to and interpret meaning as a particular relation betweena form of content and a content of delineated becomes through a the content/expression relation expression, where forces forces forces: the of the and escape gravitational of earth, shifting relation of body.50 For this reason, different dance traditions or codifications coincide with different content/expressiondistributions, for example when the content of bodily force is by is in dance `subjugated' the tribal of expressive a gravity which vibrations the earth, or when the ballet dancer managesto overcomethese forces and to express its own capacity to `fly'. Beyond signification and textual reading, the focus on these material trajectories constitutes a topological mapping of the codesand territorialities, from forms dance, the to and strata of as a method pass contents and expressionsof discourseto a diagram of forces of microphysical power and expression. As pointed out by Massumi, Deleuze and Guattari's concept of expression does not signify but expressesthe field of conditions that gave rise to it, and the 51 potential that this process envelops. In other words, the notion of a phenomenologicalsubjectivity expressingitself through its gesturesis replacedby that into forms, field actual subjects of a of expressivepotentials and qualities crystallising and objects of expressions.As an agency with no agent, an auto-poietic momentum producing subjectivity (rather than originating from it) through the channelling of expressive forces and potentials, expression reveals a performative dimension: it modifies content, it strikes and de-forms both the performer's and audience's bodies with its creative power, overwhelming their habits and knowledge. Rather than a mere passive response, habit, the repetitive performance of mechanical gestures like reaching "the floor with our toes as we crawl out of bed in the morning," (Manning 2005: 2) appearsas a productive defenceagainst the shock of expression that might 57

overwhelm us at the perception of the always different gradations of heat and sunlight entering our room, its repetition being produced by a self-organising and autonomous memory of the flesh defending the body from the expressive shock of light and its 52 Stratified habits can only be deterritorialised and reever-shifting qualities. intensified through an intermediate state of atypical expressions appearing between established contents and ordered expressions, the hysterical spasms and nervous fits of an excessively expressive body: a deforming `tarantella', in Massumi's words, an asignifying violence of electrical sparks suddenly wracking the body and taking it out of its habitual trajectories.

This thesis proposesa definition of dance(from tribal rituals to choreographed performances) as organisation in-between habit and atypical expression, a performative result more or less coherently assembledthrough the `chorematical' (rather than grammatical) composition of myriads of interwoven microscopic units, from the bending of an arm to its inter-connectedand indiscernible articulations, up to the infinitesimal electro-shocksgalvanising its neural cells. The definition of danceas a `chorematic' (echoing the Hjelmslevian `glossematic' theory of language)(Bosteels 1998, and Genosko 1998) proposed here focuses on the infinitesimal energetic moments (rather than on the signifying units) crossing and composing the gesturesof a body, and on the minimal componentsof its steps,the microscopic gestural acts, or movements in movement, as a continuum of "unformed, unorganised material intensities," "semio-chips - edges, points, particles, degrees of intensity" (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 69) that acquire a code (choreographicform) and a territoriality (corporeal performative substance)when actualisedand expressedthrough particular perceptionsand movements.This `chorematic' will draw an immanent perspectiveof micro-movementsas choreutic particles-signsbeyond signification, and of danceas a physical and semiotic stratification which is also connected in many ways to the 53 machinic stratum of technology. In Guattari's theory, these a-signifying particles-signs conjoin and create somethingnew: perception and motion consist of an emission of particles striking the body and exposing it to a metamorphic process which identifies dance with the `creation' of a new body, or with the qualitative variation of a `habitual' one, while becoming a subjective performanceand acquiring meaning.The emergenceof traits of expression, affective qualities, particles-signs (colours and sounds, velocities and 58

durations) appears as the becoming sensible (or the actualisation) of certain potentials 54 body. The expressivity of the dancing body becomes and affective capacities of the disentangled from any linguistic and communicative property of the gesture: rather than being 'of'

body or rather than being pronounced or performed, originated by it,

expression is linked to the moment of its very appearance into, or across, the body, to the forces that pass through it and transform it into an expressive event. The specificity of the kinetic expression of dance appears as a series of multilayered codifications of these forces, in which the component particles-signs of the (physical) human body, and the (cultural, technical) compositions of which it is part, each manifest their own form of expression.

How does this thesis work? ('dancing layers')

The stratified methodology of this thesis delineatesa tripartite analysis, focusing on the biological and anatomical developmentand organisation(which will be defined as 55 bio-physical the codification) of a moving humanbody, on the socio/cultural level of dance(gestural over-codification), and on the insertion of technological tools into the bio-physical and ritual dimensions of a dance performance.The difference between these levels of organisation is only one of scale: as Parisi and Goodman point out by drawing on the philosopher A. N. Whitehead,waves, electrons,protons and molecules form their own societies (i. e. inorganic bodies, cells, vegetal and animal bodies, technical machines and digital chips). (2005) As a consequence,we can understand the bio-physical stratum of the dancing body as a population of organisedparticlesforces, in the sameway as the becoming cultural of danceorganisesthe movementsof bodies on the `anthropomorphic' stratum. At the sametime, different devices(such as digital drum machines and sonic software, video, Motion capture, choreographic software, Internet)

are

plugged

into

the

molecular

composition

of

a

perceiving/performing body, altering its dynamicsof rhythmic transmission. These levels are not separate fields or successive stages of a progressive evolution of the dancing body. In Deleuze and Guattari's words, "evolution does not go from something less differentiated to somethingmore differentiated" and "it ceases to be a hereditary filiative evolution, becoming communicative or contagious." (2002a:238) In other words, you do not go from the organic physicality of the moving body to its progressive approachesto technology. In Manuel De Landa's cross59

elaborationof Deleuzo/Guattarianin-volutionism and nonlinear physics, evolutionary dynamicsare "not only far from equilibrium but also nonlinear, that is, [with] strong mutual interactions (or feedback) between components." (2001: 11 and 21) Beyond the cultural/biological or nature/artifice impasse,the conceptual functioning of this thesis unfolds an `in-volutionary' analysis of dance, mapping the bio-physical transformationof rhythmic matter/energy,of atoms and molecules into a live, moving body, the simultaneousanthropomorphicidentification of a body and its insertion into a social group, the use of various technologicalapparatuses,as coexisting levels of the danceperformance.56These layers are not the progressivelymore sophisticatedstages of an evolution with technology and digitalisation at its further end, but different processescrossed by transversal material flows `inside and between' heterogeneous populations(of moleculesand cells, humanbodies and technical machines).At certain thresholds, each one of these organisations assumesa molecular, chaotic character with respectto the other ones,starting to behaveas a pack, a swarm or a blob. The hierarchical organisation of the thesis layers (or chapters) progressesas follows. The third chapter maps the bio-physical organisation of the dancing body, trying to explore how a living, moving and perceiving organism is formed and organised as the corporeal content for the expressive performance of dance. Considering rhythm as an attribute characterising the molecular, micro-physical dynamicsof matter and its energeticvibrations (i. e. rhythm as a continuous qualitative emergencespreading from chemical reactions), the whole of matter loses its static appearanceand becomesan ensembleof dancing molecules. Sequencesof molecules and cells, neuro/chemicalpaths and electrical signals, organs,tissues and apparatuses align themselvesin a particular order, building up the biological conformation of an organism and its formal, anatomical structure,which at the sametime becomesa host of parasiting processes. After this level of molecular `aggregation'(the `social' level of the biophysical organisation),the emergenceof the human speciesfrom the organic stratum happens through a particular systematisationof organs and through particular morphological (arms, legs, head), postural (standing position) and kinetic features,together with the development of a particular sensori-motor system based on the 5 sensesand on perceptual/behavioural coordination, as the pre-suppositions of various socially codified habits already `incarnated' into the physical consistencyof the body. At the 60

same time, myriads of molecular movements and relations perform their own schizo/rhythmic

development in the organism, provoking

a sort of micro-kin-

aesthetics of imperceptible alterations and deviations. Acting as a sort of virus, the molecular propagation of energy across a

living/moving body follows a rhythmic pattern of epidemic diffusion. This rhythmic vector or spread of energy cuts across the very organisation of the living body: its transversalweaving of intensive amplifications along the linear sensori-motorschema of perception/responsedecentralisesand trans-forms the coordinated actions of the body. In the muscular/skeletalapparatus,the spreadof rhythm works as a viral electric diffusion through the nerves, in a sort of neural micro-dynamics fractally composing movement as a series of involuntary jerks, variable speedrelations and gravitational lines of flight. In the human body, the energetic dance of electromagnetic matter (light, sound) produces a series of molecular alterations, triggering the production of hormonal local substances auto-poietic, chemical, and generating multiple various realisations, dispersions and excessesof the movement performance (the excesses by hysterical `extremely' exemplified spasms attacks). and and macroscopically This chapter questions the self-identification of the body/subject and the harmony and coordination of its composition, movements and perceptions, focusing on the notion of rhythm (as biological or bodily rhythm, and as the rhythm of perception, movement and performance) as a viral contagion. Bio-technological experiments,Stelarc'sexperimentswith prostheticsand telerobotics, and digital audiotechnologies are examples of technical apparatusesdirectly connected to the body's micro-kinetic organisations,performing a redistribution of rhythm acrossall different levels and dimensionsof the bodily system. After mapping the emergenceof the anthropomorphicbody and the passageof rhythm from material energy waves to bodily movements,Chapter Four explores how the energy traversing the human body becomesculturally organised among different bodies and social groups, giving them an ordered structure of territorial relationality. Uniform kinetic habits and corporeal regulations, geographic and cultural confines constitute the rigid grid of expressionwhich moulds the circulation of rhythm between dancing human bodies and groups through the codification of gestural signs: ethnic dancerituals as the form of expressionof a socio-cultural content. At the sametime, the kine-topology of rhythm reveals how solid and stable social structuresare eroded 61

by uncontrollable subterraneanmovementscoinciding with a micro (or local) level of aggregationof crazy particles/signsand particles/peoplegathering or moving around particular speed attractors and drawing a schizo/rhythmic map across spaces and buildings, cities, states,continents. Focusing on dance in its cultural aspect, this chapter questions the kinetic synchronisation of the body/group performed through the regulation of motion, its spatial delimitations and its linear temporal development.The conceptual subject of this discussion is the diffusion of rhythm and movement rituals across different cultures, times and spaces,as a viral event disrupting the clear delimitations imposed through particular kinetic habits, and as a cultural contagion spread by both analog and digital technologies. On the anthropo-social layer, technological apparatuses emerge(for example from acoustic drums to digital sampling and mixing machines), provoking perceptual amplifications and turbulencesthat infect the bodily sensorium and corrodethe borders of regimentedsocial relationality, while travelling acrosstime and space.Cutting acrossthe dualistic conceptionof a biological and physical level of the body as different and opposed to the mediated, linguistically shaped level of human society, cultural viruses (such as the spread of sound and dance) draw a different level of relationality involving systemsof bodily signs successivelyordered into semiotic substances,a variety of substancesof expression such as gesturesand rites circulating in and across bodies and weaving a field of proto-social relations between the different scales of bodily molecules, organisms and groups: the distinction is thus displaced and transformed into a continuum of nature/culture rhythmic circulation. Cutting acrossthe double physical/semioticstratification, technology performs a simultaneous codifying/de-codifying operation. Chapter Five analyses analog and digital technologies of dance choreography and performance and the most recent developmentsof digital cyber-dance.The functional structureof expressionrealisedin all dance/technology experimental combinations usually delineates a particular hierarchical organisation of the performative content. A precise geometric schema draws thus the dancestageas a fixed structureorganisedaround three main points: the dancer as creator of linear movement sequences,an immobile viewer as message receiver (both as `live', organic bodies), and technology as mediating, inorganic `interface' or reproduction surface.

At the same time, contemporary audiovisual technologies and cybernetic systems make more evident the complexity of these man-machine relation, entangling the smooth line of information transmission with various side-effects of perceptual and kinetic friction

(such as perceptual shocks, or noise and disturbance in the

transmission process through the Internet). Focusing on the different

technical

developments of dance, this chapter questions the linear communication between human bodies and technical machines performed through the control of cybernetic dynamics of information exchange in the dance/technology encounter. The aim is to focus on the concept of rhythm as an interruption of the linear cognitive and conscious relations established between the different components of the cybernetic performative system (dancer-machine-audience),

and as the viral

invasion

of

bodies by

microscopic, non-conscious sensations travelling through the perceptual and technical interfaces. In this sense, the digital cybernetic system becomes a non-integrated differential circuit of information exchange. The development of a technological level appears more related to rhythm than representation, being more effectively connected dance. In the open rhythmic circuit of than the, the aspects molar of with molecular dance perception and creation, human and technological identities do not merely coincide in a hibridising microscopically

contact and phenomenological juxtaposition

related on the plane of a reciprocal

material

but are

influence

and

contamination. In a human sensorium / technological sensors feedback loop of feed how does technical the machine reciprocal re-action and continuous resonance, back into the perceptual and motor levels of the body, on its sensations and performances? How is the technical stratification connected to both its bio-physical and cultural counterparts?

2.5 - The sceneof immanence One stratum can serve directly as a substratum for another without the intermediaries one would expect there to be from the standpoint of stages and degrees (for example, microphysical sectors can serve as an immediate substratumfor organic phenomena). Or the apparent order can be reversed, with cultural or technical phenomenaproviding a fertile soil, a good soup, for the development

63'

of insects, bacteria, germs, or even particles. (Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 69)

The different strata of the dancing body are all coexistent and interconnected by a common field, a material abstract commonality

(a field of emergence in

scientific, physical terms, or an immanent plane in philosophical terms) from which all different formations emerge. It is important to clarify the material character of the common field of all strata: without coinciding with a pre-formed physicality of perception and movement as the natural basis for further cultural or technological evolutionary developments, the materiality of the field in the dance/technology relation is better understood through its abstract character, where this abstractness immanent (not preto and refers a non-positioned non-formed rhythmic matter existent) to the evolution of all physical, cultural and technical formations and organisations. As already argued in the previous sections, intensive gradients guide the

tendencies of abstract matter and trigger the emergence of qualities from its virtualities and potentials. The material, auto-po(i)etic processes,the attractors and bifurcations, intensities and qualities constituting the kin-aesthetics of the dance performance are structured and organised through its different stratifications from which contentsand expressions,but also spacesand times, derive. The concept of the dance stage as an extensive measurablespacetraced with points and positions is a result of this stratification, requiring a cessation of movement, a deprivation of dynamism and a stopping of continuity, and entrappingthe reality of dance into three (or four) dimensions. Geometry, anatomy, choreography obey this necessity for control and territorialisation, operating a basic separationof spaceand time: time, as a source of change and unpredictability, must be eliminated through geometric strategies of configuration which transform it into space (movement as displacement), and through architectural strategiesthat give the body a surface for its displacements, guaranteeing an effective performer/audience delimitation, together with a phenomenological separation between subjective and objective roles, or internal and external levels. In the measuredspace-timeof the stage, dance unravels its performativity in a quantifiable way, developing a successionof steps temporally configured: the linear space-timeof dancebecomesmetricised, i. e. subject to a meter of measurement. According to Bergson, extensive space is only a retrospective 64

construct, a retro-duction obtained through measurementsand quantifications. At the sametime, these processes are coexistent with a simultaneous'de-stratification or, as Deleuze and Guattari define it, `absolute deterritorialisation', which brings all different dancing bodies (individual, collective, technical) on a common material level, a material field immanent to all performancesand strata; in other words, the dance, the `immanent scene' connectingall stagesand scenes. of matter Different but coexistent with the fixed objects, actions, people of a performance, and from a space-time with specific coordinates, this material, immanent dimension of dance can be better understood through Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the `plane of consistency', (2002a) a matrix of production or a field of emergence for all formations always coexistent with the quantitative and qualitative differentiations, positions and movementsof organismsand structures,and intensity. degrees This immanent plane "knows nothing of differencesin their of with level, orders of magnitude, or distances difference between the the nothing of ... artificial and the natural ... the most disparate of things and signs move upon it: a semiotic fragment rubs shoulderswith a chemical interaction, an electron crashesinto a language, a black hole captures a genetic message,a crystallisation produces a passion ... " (2002a: 69) Despite the randomnessof the movements animating its surface, this immanent scene is not a totally chaotic or undifferentiated flow: it is matter drawn, composed,indexed by an abstract machine or diagram which does not 57 dance. but Moving away from nature-culture, body-mind or generates represent body-machine dualisms, we can argue, echoing Luciana Parisi's words, that on this scene abstract (mutating) matter is machinic as it entails the heterogeneous composition of different bodies. (2004) From this point of view, the dancing body (a molecule or a cell, a human body or a group of bodies, a binary digit or an image dancing on a screen)emergesfrom the immanent scene as an interval, a machine emitting or cutting, producing and absorbing intensive flows, at the same time dis-tracting and re-directing them, organising their topology as a kind of attractor that bends the world around itself. (Guattari 1995) The confines of the body as a dancing machine do not coincide with those of the individual human dancerbut cross it and cut it, or exceed it and insert it into more complex"unities: drawing on Deleuzeand Guattari, we can define a machine as a mixture of biological, technical, social elements... 65

Dancers, audience and technological apparatuses are the inter-connected has (a `machinic assemblage' which components of a unique performative assemblage nothing to do with technical mechanisms and with technological

determinism).

Without having meaning as its main goal, this assemblage is transversally crossed by a distributed energy and populated by myriads of micro-perceptions and micro-motions by is in The scene occupied whole zones of attraction. energetic material coagulated machine-organs linked

to machine-sources, the latter emitting

energetic, non-

breaking (Deleuze former intensifying flows, them. the and and cutting, conscious Guattari 2000 and 2002a) An a-signifying and a-syntactic matter is thus formed into forms bodies/images of of visibility composed molecular

and audibility,

forms of

luminosity and `conicity', flashes and noises, scintillations and resonations, all shaped by machines which distribute clear and obscure, high and low pitch, slow and fast, limited here is `machine' The imperceptible. to the sense of word not perceivable and technical objects but includes assemblages of organs, functions, positions and configurations

of objects that can hide or unveil things, creating a regime of

2002b) 2002a (Deleuze and perception.

Through machines (human and technological, microscopic and macroscopic, level In is brought digital), this to of sensations. an s-significant matter analog and force, a self-reproducing energy open machinic circuit, energy works as productive desire is desire, Guattari, for Deleuze of something not energy and without entropy: but desire in itself, not hormonal or electric or magnetic energy but energy in itself, in itself, desire/energy itself, in producing and re-producing a movement production itself incessantly,creating reality before representation.The body/machine is moved by desire as a flow of energy that does not have anything to do with neuroThese determinations. linguistic energetic physiological or psychological, cultural or fragmentation, body producing a surface neither unity nor with vibrations run over a 58 being Rather inscribe themselves. than chains sensations where only molecular of identified with a natural or spontaneousdetermination or passion (the warm passion of the `live' dancing body as opposed to the coldness of the machine), desire articulates and is articulated, `machined'. It creates alliances (for example between dancing human bodies), joins parts and machines into assemblages(for example humans and computers into cybernetic assemblages),making the dancing body emergeas an always differently individuated subject. Proliferating at every level (bio66

physical, cultural, technical) as a disavowal of subjectivity and domination, a dissolution of choreography, order and programming, desire also holds in itself a power, a force to stratify: in other words, desire contains its own negation, which entraps its energetic intensity in the grid of representation and scatters it in the wrinkles

of

discourse: from

here, the

cybernetic, representational and

phenomenologicalaspectsof the danceperformanceoriginate as formations of power. In the dance field, this stratifying power appears as a physical self-control and a communicativeability of the dancing body masteringits own energeticexcesses: By exploring what transpires in the dancer-audienceexchange, we can acquire a what-and-how repertoire of the powerful ways that moving images communicate emotion. The common denominator of the danceraudience relation ... is power. The power to influence attitudes, opinions and feelings is critical to the stage performer aspiring to success. The first means of power an individual possessesis the body The body's ... real and symbolic power ... A lively, skilled dancer epitomizes power and the strength and discipline most ordinary people might feel they lack. (Hanna 1983:6)

Realising a philosophical flight from this physical and symbolic power of dance, and

from

the

vicious

circle

of

form/content,

movement/dance,

corporeality/signification or live embodiment/technologicaldisembodimentdilemmas, Deleuze and Guattari's notion of `desire' and their schizo-analysis of the machinic departure by desire immanent field (scene), the of on offer a point processesmoved for an exploration of dance in its material functioning. The questions of traditional dance critique ('What does a movement mean or signify?', or "What does a dancer feel and do as a conscious body/subject?'), are replaced thus with a different, fundamentalissue, i. e.: `How doesa dancing body work?' The answeris rhythm. In other words, this thesis deploys rhythm as its main conceptual operator. Liberating it from human corporeality, habits and purposes,it re-defines rhythm as an attribute of matter itself, a galvanising current of changesflowing in all animate and inanimate, organic and inorganic bodies: rhythm as the diagram traced by desire between different bodies/machineson the immanent scene of dance. Rhythm as the imperceptible differentiation of a movement, an invisible current shaking the moving

67

body and continuously de-forming its shapeand trajectory in a way that can only be sensed,rather than seen. In other words, what we see and recognise is the linear sequenceof steps or gestures,but what we senseis the desire of the dancing body moving rhythmically, and changing us along with the unfolding of the dance. From this point of view, the notion of rhythm presentedin this work will be much more related to complex phenomenaof material aggregationand dis-aggregation,than to the ordered choreographies of human dancers. Disobeying the rules of clear communication,dancecan appearthus associatedto the in-significance of all material events.To the fluidity of a seawave, the speedof an electron orbit, the intensity of a flow As crowd. a material or wave, the enthralling spiral of dance directly connects the contortions of a dancer's body with the microscopic, involuntary movementsof its cells and with the macroscopic dynamics of the social tissue it belongs to, as well as with the algorithms of the computer. Every single step or individual trajectory appears as a fractal phenomenonun-veiling a whole world of dancing molecules and cells, people and numbers, and revealing the dancing body as an ensemble of resonating particles: a dance to be materially unfolded, rather than semantically understood.A rhythmical escapeinto and out of corporeality, rather than a performance of stable, embodiedpower.

how does a dancing body work? (rhythmic virology) Confining rhythm into the field of human movementas a linear sequenceof positions and steps, Western science and philosophy have theorised a difference between rhythmically disciplined and undisciplined motion, reducing rhythm to an instrument of kinetic power and motor regulation. All

philosophical or musicological

conceptualisations have thus perpetuated a dichotomy between a mechanical, discontinuous rhythm subject to physical laws, and an organic now as the free and continuousexpressionof nature. In its pre-socratic etymology, `rhythm' indicates the emergenceof a shapeout of a flow, or the improvised, momentary and modifiable pattern realised by every living organism.59 Restoring order and rigidity in this too fluid etymology, Plato's philosophical theory restricts the rhythmic quality to human movement and, in particular, to those activities (like walking, working or dancing) which can be divided into elementary units (or steps) and ordered according to the regular meter-of an 68

60 in alternatetiming, as a military march. After the Platonic theorisation of rhythm as a behavioural script working through counting, reiteration and timing, the `mechanicism' of the human body becomesopposedto the irregular, spontaneousand free nature of the mind. This mechanicist/spiritualist(or objective/subjective split) in rhythmic conceptualisations gives human behaviour its two main dimensions: an external side of movementsor physiological modifications to be objectively observed and measured,and an internal side implying a seriesof mental activities of reflection. The interest in the mechanics and psychology of human movement is connected to its social categorisation, and to the specification of different kinetic practices, each with its own synchronisedpace (work, sport, dance). In traditional social analyses,the referents for dance, such as emotional expression, play, work, duty, union with the sacred,theater,ceremonialsof authority, and art, are all reduced to the dichotomy between dance as a popular practice to be interpreted in its anthropological and ethnic values, and danceas an artistic practice to be aesthetically read andjudged. This double position occupied by danceon the social grid (betweenthe dance hall and the theatre stage) simultaneously incorporates a double attitude manifested towards technological experimentation, from dance clubs and their enthusiastic incorporation of rhythmic technologies, to the choreographers'and dancers' fear of technical contamination of the `naturally rhythmic' body, or their exclusive interest in technology as a representational (rather than generative) tool of rhythmic reproduction. From a phenomenological point of view, the relation between technology and the fluid rhythm of movement and dance apparently passesthrough ears and eyes as the two physical routes or channels for the corporeal and social circulation of rhythm (respectively in the dance hall and the theatre stage), as a phenomenon exclusively accessible through direct perception. According to this sensorial model, rhythm is enclosed and shaped by perceptual channels: sonic rhythmic lines are perceived and exchanged between human and technological acoustic membranesor channels(ears,loudspeakers),and then echoedand re-enacted into a synchronisedsequenceof bodily gestures.On its turn, the sensorial codification of bodily rhythm occurs through the perceptual,horizontal and vertical coordinatesof vision and its related technical apparatusesof movement capture (eyes, notation alphabetsas visual writing systems),organising danceinto a seriesof linear phrases. 69

The codification of dance as a visual form of expression is operatedthrough systems of movement notation and choreography, translating and organising the motion of the body into a seriesof spatial displacements.At the sametime, sound is reduced to a series of synchronous linear phrases symbolically related to bodily gestures.The connection of the dancerwith the sceneappearsbasedon her conscious activity and control over the linearity and precision of the movements, and on her capacity to elaborateexternal stimuli and inscribe them into a seriesof motor events. This concept transforms the stage into the spaceof a clear information transmission between different components, and the dance performance into the message.In cyberneticterms, information is obtainedby detachingdifferencesbetweenthings and changesover time, and by distinguishing the significant from the insignificant: "In the real world most of what goes on has little importance to a living system, e.g. the random bumping of electronsinto atoms in a wire. Thesethings are differencesbut of no significance and so are background noise. The determination of significance becomesimportant." (Ascott 1999: 7) In a sense,we can say that rhythm is nonsignificant and often goes unnoticed, as a background noise between the significant units of a messageaffecting and infecting the body before and after its interpretation. Cutting across all binary oppositions between mechanical body / free mind, popular ritual / avant-gardeart, or active performance/ passiveperception, this thesis proposesa more vague, indistinct and im-perceptible notion of rhythm, endowing it with a capacity, a potential to overflow and exceed all technological and sensory channelsand cultural codifications, rather than identifying it with a power formation. Echoing Michel Chion's words, this thesis adopts a `transsensorial'model of rhythm 61 analysis. This transsensorial aspect (as a perception that belongs to no sensory channelor an indefinite and vague quality that cannot be limited to any specific mode but can pass through all of them) finds in the sensory system its particular, interchangeablecirculation routes, revealing rhythm as something that can be grasped between and beyond the senses, below the sensitivity threshold and above the saturation threshold. In other words, the particular rhythmic quality of a movement traversesthe perceiving body's physiological organisation, like a flowing sensation suggestingthe emergenceof infinitesimal differentiations, before we can consciously and clearly distinguish the visible or audible order, and the repetitive regularity or irregularity of forms.

70

Rather than a specific quality of audible sound or observable human behaviour, rhythm becomesan imperceptible attribute of the whole material world, associatinghuman movement to those macroscopicand microscopic events (flowing rivers and swerving atoms) which the Platonic and Cartesiantraditions had excluded from the realm of rhythmic phenomenabecauseof their excessivelength or brevity, velocity or slowness. (Seidel 1987: 11) Along a theoretical continuum, Lucretius' notion of life, movement and change as depending on the swerve and collision of atoms (the `clinamen') is re-vitalised by modern science and its analysis of the turbulent behaviour of particles/waves.After the modern recuperation of presocratic ideas, rhythm becomesa molecular coagulation or dispersion happening behind the perceivablestepsof a moving body. In this sense,rhythm transforms every movement into a spiral. Distinguishing the metric nature of all disciplinary practices aiming at the from the undisciplined, turbulent characterof of movement control and regimentation rhythm, Deleuzeand Guattari write: It is well known that rhythm is not meter or cadence, even irregular meter or cadence:there is nothing less rhythmic than a military march ... Meter, whether regular or not, assumes a coded form whose unit of measuremay vary, but in a noncommunicating milieu, whereas rhythm is the Unequal or the Incommensurable that is always undergoing , transcoding. Meter is dogmatic, but rhythm is critical; it ties together critical momentsor ties itself up in passingfrom one milieu to another. It does not operate in a homogeneousspacetime, but by heterogeneousblocks. It changes direction. (2002a: 313)

Translated into sonic terms, disciplinary meter becomesthe standard unit of music, the cadence counted evenly and stressedon every main beat. On the other hand, in this linear flowing of a `pulsed' sequence,rhythm appears as a dialogic, molecular web of relations between several uniform metric lines, or as a swelling 62 different wave connecting critical moments of qualitative acoustic change. The transition between coded cycles is the interzone of rhythm: for example the syncopation of electronic dance music transforming the offbeat into a way to emphasise in-betweenness,where "the game is to push the beats to the edge of

bifurcation without allowing them to settle into a singular basin of attraction." (Goodman2004a:11) Rather than offering the body a regular hold to be followed with an ordered sequenceof movementsand steps, rhythm emergesat a molecular scale, leadingthe body to the edgeof dis-orientation. After the contact with neural cells, the viral spreading of sonic rhythm becomes an electric diffusion between the different parts and elements of the nervous system, at the same time translating the wave of electromagnetic energy circulating between bodies into a multiplicity

of disconnected impulses directly touching the

muscles and joints. Rather than a quantifiable, measurable and organisable succession of positions, poses and steps, movement becomes an intensive transformation involving multiple micro-electroshocks and leading the body across various critical points (such as sudden speed shifts or centrifugal

and centripetal transitions).

According to Massumi, movement is the continuous, qualitative change of a body is (2002a) It intensive its thresholds. only when movement stops that across various lies in the we can plot steps and gestures, poses and positions, while movement intervals, when the body in motion does not coincide with itself but is in transition, decomposable is This but in in transition them not all. passage across any point never into constituent parts: in Massumi's words, it is a dynamic unity in which the different binarism becomes speeds: of emergence a continuous stasis/motion

"Passing into" is not a binarism. "Emerging" is not a binarism. They are dynamic unities continuities under ... qualitative transformation. They are directly processual.(2002a: 8)

Conceiving a body in terms of its rhythmic `passings' allows us to go beyond its lived, accomplishedexperiences(which are related, rather, to a phenomenologyof movement), and to reach the very conditions of those experiences,the continuous qualitative shifts which, once realised in spaceas positions and movements,represent the controllable and controlled actions of a bodily identity. In other words, rather than body, delineates the the elusive characterof metricising a reiteration of steps,rhythm its molecular self-differentiation, its continuousdis- and re-appearingalong perceptual and spatial changes.In the sameway, Bergson's conceptualisationrefers to movement as mutation, the non-decomposableduration or interval in which an invention, a

72

into fragmentation duration is depth whose creation of something new, of generated, a 63In every instant, successive perceptions only appears as a product of consciousness. consciousness links an infinite number of moments of an infinitely

divisible time,

importing the past into the present and contracting many moments of duration into a single intuition, one singularity of perception, a sound beat or a dance step. The virtual continuity tied by rhythm becomes actual discontinuity, an abrupt perishing and reappearing of beats with interwoven resonances and contagious effects. Rhythm always remains hidden behind meter, only emerging in unexpected moments of disorientation.

The periodic repetition of a basic component consciously counted, perceived and performed realises a behavioural code, a metric reiteration which disciplines the body and its movements through identification, synchronisation and communication body is Metric to recognise the accurateclock which allows a mechanisms. reiteration its organic and human identity (the biological code as based on filiative genetic and cellular reproduction), to perform its ordered movements and interactions (the social behavioural based the structures)and to adapt technology adoption of code as on rigid to its own aims (the digital code as basedon clear information exchange).In order to has In body this sense,meter to these count. consciously perform all operations, a would correspondto what Deleuzedefines as `generality', i. e. a set of immutable laws designated identity their to the equivalence and resemblanceof subjectsand regulating terms. (2001) Against the equality and equivalenceof metric generality, the behaviour of rhythm is related to singularity and uniqueness, i. e. in Deleuzian words, the repetition of an external conduct echoing a secret vibration. Linking together and transcoding heterogeneous blocks or lines (of molecules, human populations, information bits), rhythm opens every bio-physical, social or technical organisationto identity contaminations, synchronicity disruptions and communication disturbances. In this contagious rhythmic economy, the body escapesphysiological, social and communicative constrictions. Rhythm cannot be counted, but does this imply that we can do without numbers?The following researchwill deal with this question, trying to avoid simplistic binarisms such as that equating numbers with limits: as we will see, in many casesnumbersare both rhythm and meter, pathology and cure. Challenging the classical, mechanical conceptualisations of anatomy and limited as neuro-physiology analytical tools for the analysis of movement, this 73

research engages with the virology, the social physics and the mathematics of rhythm in all its bio-physical, cultural and technological realisations. In this sense, we can highlight the appearance of rhythm in all intimate contacts between beings of different scales, species and worlds, and in all webs of transversal weaving going on across linear processes of exchange. In all processes of contagion (of which the impact of sound vibrations as viral micro-organisms on the molecular constitution of a human body is only one example), the emergence of rhythm catalyses the intensive movement, trans-formation and becoming of infected and infecting bodies, while at the same time triggering the nonlinear evolution and organisation of a dance.

The relation between the diffusion of sound and the spread of epidemics through their common working pattern and their historical simultaneity (at both physical and social levels, sonic and epidemiological viruses work in the same way and often appeartogether), is particularly relevant for the exploration of rhythm as a web of molecular relations between viral particles and bodies, for example between sound molecules, human cells and silicon chips. In this sense,rhythm is embeddedin the links between a cellular level of dancing molecules, an anthropomorphic level of dancing bodies and a technological level of dancing bits and bytes. The study of both kinaestheticand epidemic phenomena,the analysisof sound, danceand illness, can be thus integrated with the study of biological, anthropological and cybernetic systems. This trans-disciplinary combination allows a `microscopic' understandingof rhythm as a viral spreadamong molecular packs at all levels and scales(sound moleculesand human cells, bodies and societies,genesand information units), and of movement and dance as expressions of the logic of a sensing, `pathic' (from the Greek `pathos') body: dance as the symptom of a patho-logical, rather than representational, behaviour.

74

Notes:

1 The concept of 'techno-graphic' introduced by Diana Theodores Technology". (1999: 372)

as a mixture of technological and choreographic elements is in Johannes Birringer's article "Contemporary Performance

2 For a comprehensiveaccountof thesefirst

experiments,seeBirringer 1999.

3 The definition of `non-conscious' here, and throughout the whole work, is related to Brian Massumi's use of the term, and on his discussion of William James's 'radical empiricism': "William James made transition and the feeling of self-relation a central preoccupation of his latter-day "radical" empiricism. "The relations that connect experiences, " he wrote, "must themselves be experienced relations, and any kind of relation must be accounted as 'real' as anything else in the system." If incorporeal materialism is an empiricism it is a radical one, summed up by the formula: the felt reality of relation. A complication for radical empiricism is that the feeling of the relation may very well not be "large" enough to register consciously. It may be what Leibniz termed a "small perception, " or microperception. The vast majority of the world's sensations are certainly nonconscious. Nonconscious is a very different concept from the Freudian unconscious (although it is doubtless non unrelated to it). The differences are that repression does not apply to nonconscious perception and that nonconscious perception may, with a certain amount of ingenuity, be argued to apply to nonorganic matter." (Massumi 2002a: 16)

° For Leigh Foster, in semiotic terms, the educationof human movementunder the regulation of rhythm determinesa multiplication of conventional body signs (steps, rotations and jumps, distensionsand contractionsof the limbs), all constituting a complex alphabet of dance positions and figures. Against the linguistic predominance of verbal language as the main expressive tool of the human species, `textual' interpretations of dance argue for a `semioticisation' of the body, and for its acquisition of a representationalvalue parallel to that of our oral or written words. SeeLeigh Foster 1986. 5 As statedby A. Carter, "In terms of its scholarship,dancehas suffered from an assumption,basedon contentiousnotions about the nature of artistic expression,that it is the `outer' manifestation of `inner' experience.Such an idea, [arguesthat] dance is seenas `an outlet for intuitive or unconsciousfeelings inaccessibleto verbal (intellectual) expression'." (1998: 19) 6 In psychoanalytical terms, between an internal and an external dimension of the body (as the psychological and physical dimensions),corporeal expressionoperatesa link, translating in a corporeal languagea text which is already written on the substratumof the psyche. Unconscious desires and passionsburst forth in the uncontrollable movementsof dreaming, mad, hallucinating or sick bodies. In a structuralist/psychoanalyticalframe of referenceconnectedwith Freudian and Lacanian theorisations, a complex kinetic semiotics (or bodily vocabulary) complementsthe signifying power of the word with a seriesof physical signals/symptoms/signs.Trauma (as a psychic and physical obstruction) can only be resolved by the synergetic curative potential of the word and movement, and by the capacity of the latter to releaseand expressdeep feelings and bodily demands.SeePhelan 1996. 7 Accordingly, most anthropologists highlight primitive dancers' lack of technique or artistry, their disorganisationand frenzy which only allowed for the expression of simple, primordial feelings and emotions.Keeping an analytical distinction betweenthe concreteand the symbolic charactersof dance, anthropology defines primitive dancesas full of instinctual exuberance,but as repetitive, limited and with little methodology or structure from the point of view of their representationalcapacity. See for exampleD'Aronco 1983. 8 "Physicality is the basis for understanding and negotiating digital abstractions, both virtual and otherwise, and technologically mediated experimentationallows us to expand upon the phenomenonof embodiment." (Kozel 1998: 3) 9 Fighting against the tendency to transcend the body in favour of mind/intelligence/brain, the phenomenologicalbody appearsas a subjectively felt experienceof unity to which the fluid identities of cyberspaceare only attached as proshtetic characters:"the personaswe invent on the Net are pure theatre: ... The virtual body is a simple and malleable representation; `added on' to the self as an ... external prosthesis." In both cases, the interrelation of body, consciousnessand the senseswith the technological context represents"a radical alteration of the forms of our culture's previous temporal and spatial consciousnessand of our bodily senseof existential 'presence'to the world, to ourselves,and to others." (Shiphorst 1997b :24)

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10On the two attributes of matter (or substance),extensionand thought, body and mind, see Spinoza 2000, and Deleuze2001.

" This title draws on Massumi's definition that "concrete is as concrete doesn't", opposing the solid identifications of bodies and things to their continuous transformation and becoming in movement. (2002a: 6) 12In other words, a body-subject is not already there to perceive a world of already present objectimages: they both form and trans-form themselves along their mutual participation in the perceptual process. `Bodies' are `images', every body/image being more than a mere idealistic representation but less than an empirically determined and totally subjectified thing. The energetic modifications, tensions by bodies, throughout the and reciprocally act react universe cross which and perturbations propagated linking all their facets at once. Bergson's radical immanence goes to the point of affirming that we cannot even say that bodies can simply be isolated as individuals acting and reacting reciprocally, because they are not separable from their own variations, movements and relations. While conceiving Bergson from isolated images bodies to their essentialisation, corresponds reciprocal relations as of cannot conceive relations without their respective terms either: in this case, philosophical reflection would fall into the absolute relativism characterising modern philosophy and science and their total faith in laws, against the idealism of ancient thinkers (such as Aristotle's theory of the genres). See Bergson 1991 and 2002 : 190.

13Before and beyond the self/other dichotomy, this affective intensity is felt at a pre-personal,prebody, his In the level theorisations the about of subjective re-cognition. emergence preceding subjective (e. between defines lapse Massumi the the g. an external stimulus of action movementand perception, sound) and the perceiving body's reaction (as a conscious perception and movement) as the site of for it keeping interval breaking a moment of the suspended perceptual circuit open and affect, an incertitude, while a multitude of possible and mutually exclusive pathwaysopen before consciousness. (2002a: 28-33) 14Identifying subjectivity with reason, the philosopher explains how a linguistic fetishism (based on subject-object,matter-spirit, space-timedistinctions) capturesa multiplicity of non-discursivematerial relations.(Lazzarato 1986: 8-9) 's As argued by Deleuze, Bergson's idea was that the two main cinematic elements(the instantaneous sections,imagesor frames, and the impersonaltime/movementwhich makesthem `move') are reflected by the way in which perception, intelligence and language take instantaneoussections of an everflowing, wave-like reality, in order to make sense.See Deleuze 2002a. Conscious and self-conscious experience interrupt the continuity of movement by "doing something equivalent to taking snapshots, frozen, cartoon-strip slices of experienceframed in hard, black outlines againstthe flowing background of continuing actions." (Kepes 1965: 28) On this model, time is either reduced to an image of eternity or to a linear progression,and therefore deprived of any productive reality. 16"Movement be made reducible to the positing and positioning of a phenomenologicalor cannot ... " (Pearson2001: 413) psychologicalconsciousness. 17"Movement as a physical experienceis itself a composite:on the one hand, the spacetraversedby the moving object, which forms an indefinitely divisible numerical multiplicity, all of whose parts -real or is hand, differ in degree; the which alteration, a movement, only on other pure and possible- are actual qualitative multiplicity ... " (Deleuze 1998:47) '$ For Bergson,the complexification of the nervous systemand of the whole perceptualcircuit, and the subsequentdiversification of the sensorial response, distinguish living beings among themselves. Beyond all physiological differentiations and beyond all micro-macro or simple-complex distinctions, the perceptual process,as an irritation/contraction of living matter, associatesthe complexity of human See 2002. Bergson living to the the of simplest organisms. reactions perception and movement According to Gilbert Simondon, affect (as a resonationor self-reflection) cannot be confused with the human condition of subjective emotion but must be extendedto all living things (see Simondon 2001) while, in Massumi's terms, this capacity becomes linked to all things in general, living or not, delineating a common, material level of reverberation and a protosubjective dimension of connections "encompassingthe human, the artificial and the invented." (Massumi 2002a: 36) 19This vital force of matter is defined by Bergson as the `elan vital'. As shown by Pearson,"The elan vital ... resurfacesin C1 and names the force which blasts open and apart the continuum of organic representation.The `gaseousstate' provides a point of accessinto the non-organic life of things that evolves and involves without regards for the limits of the organism. In this `swampy life' ... the light of natural perception finds itself lost in darknessas the difference betweennatural substancesand artificial creations becomesan indifferent one, equally potent, equally alive." (2001: 426) This gaseousstate of

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inorganic matter is also appearsin Deleuze's Bergsonianconceptualisationof an animated(or `alive') matter beyondorganic embodiments. 20 At the same time, this continuous de-territorialisation of the body always presupposesa reterritorialisation, and every affective dispersionis always accompaniedby the formation of a new stable interiority (or in-territoriality, or confined identity). 21With their motion, theseparticles determinethe form the of organism, its degreesof complexity and the active and reactive functions of its parts. 22The porosity of the membranes allows reciprocal passages and draws permeable regions of resonance which transform every immobile or moving subjectivity into an event. The membrane is a double structure of tissue which, while allowing for the separation between a subject and its external other, also exercises an action of absorption and secretion, an exchange of fluids and chemicals which confuses the separation into a continuous passage or flow.

23On the media as prosthetic extensions,seeMc Luhan 2001. 24For Massumi, affect representsan interruption of physio-logical connectionsand nervouscircuits, an event which cannot be localised in any bodily part but only intensely felt in the body as a continuous, unqualified vibration or a suddenshock, betweenthe sensesor betweensensesand brain, as a sensorial con-fusion. SeeMassumi 2002a. 2 The notion of affect as a bodily potential encompassingall organic and inorganic differencesderives from Spinoza's philosophical conceptualisation.In his neurophysiological interpretation of Spinoza's philosophy, Antonio Damasioequatesbodily affects (or `emotions') to the capacity of living organisms to react to different objects and events, the reaction being followed by a pattern of feeling and a variation of pleasure or pain as its necessarycomponent. (Damasio 2003: 11) But as argued by Massumi,material reactions (with the relative increaseor decreaseof energeticpotential of a body) are characteristics of the whole material world, in this way subtracting Spinoza's concept to every phenomenological interpretation. The very notion of feeling, deprived of its humanist meaning and consideredas a literal capacity to feel one's own potential, becomesa self-perception characterisingall material phenomenaof resonation.SeeMassumi2002a. 26Affect allows thus to feel the `emergence'of form (as a consciousexperience)from a non-conscious and non-formed level of vibrations converting spaceand time into an intensive continuum. 27In Spinoza's theory, affection is the state of the affected body and implies the presenceand imageof the affected body (idea, representation).But the nature of affect is transitive and non-representational, experiencedin a duration which includes a difference betweenstates.SeeSpinoza2000. 28 Bergson already distinguished between the actual nature of affections and the virtual nature of perceptionsas that which gives the body (or living being or subject) the senseof its capacity, and so the possibility to act. From this Bergsoniandefinition, Deleuzeand Guattari derive their concept of affects (or sensations)as virtualities not unextendedbut vaguely localised. The distinction of sensationsand the evocation of different imagesof sensorialimpressionis then related to different perceptualqualities and the translation of affects into sight, touch, proprioceptive data, as their correspondingideas. 29As a becoming sensible of force, sensationtransforms perceptions into fields of rarefied intensities, indefinite (and undefinable) impressions which resonate into the material composition of bodies, together with future (in)tensions and past mnemonic traces. In other words, sensation is the mode in which potential is present in the perceiving and moving body. In a sensation, heterogeneouslevels contract into the body, where they re-issuean action, so that this multiplicity is singularly expressedin the unity of a movement,a perception or a thought. In other words, sensationsmake the body `become': not becomesomethingelse but simply `become'. (Massumi 2002a: 75) 30This notion of `becoming' relates to the body as a population of molecules and cells; through its becoming, the fascinated and possessed,sensing body reachesan imperceptible dimension along "an order descendingfrom the animal to the vegetable,then to molecules,to particles ... Each multiplicity is symbiotic; its becoming ties together animals, plants, microorganisms,mad particles, a whole galaxy. Nor is there a preformed logical order to theseheterogeneities. " (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 250) 31The genesis of form is not due to any transcendentalintervention but is a process of modulation immanent to matter itself, an immanent morphogenesis(or actualisation) already implicated in those virtual states (or energetic potentials) which, in physical terms, are defined as the `endogenous topological forms' of matter from which actual organic or geometrical forms derive. Arising from a series of accidents, random or improvised events happeningat the atomic and molecular levels, form appearsas a side-effect. As Heraclitus believed, there is no dichotomy between form and process.In other words, form is not anymore pre-conceived but emergesas the result of a process of creation which, far from being an exclusively human prerogative, is extendedto the whole material world. The

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topological, virtual forms implied in matter are defined by Deleuze and Guattari as vague essences"as distinct from formed things as they are from formal essences." (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 407-408) Opposed to essences, the singularities or "fuzzy aggregates" of matter possess a corporeality of their own, which is as different from intelligible essentiality as it is from perceivable thinghood. While essentialist and constructivist theories explain creation through transcendental factors such as essences or cultural archetypes, schizo-genetic accounts are dynamic and recur to resources which are immanent to the material world. On material morphogenesis see Simondon 2001. On Deleuze and Guattari's schizo-genesis see De Landa 2002. 32On the one hand, ideal essences and concrete objects are sharply distinguished by their stable forms (d ferenciated); on the other hand, the virtual singularities and qualities of matter delineate continuous zones of indiscernibility where difference does not appear as the formal specification of discontinuous spatial structures but as the crossing of intensive thresholds (differentiation): rather than a shaping of matter by forms, a continuous generation of forms.

33"If Deleuze is sometimesdescribedas a vitalist, and if he doesn't himself reject this term altogether, it is because he is prepared to say that even the inorganic can have life insofar as it engenders difference." (Buchanan and Swiboda 2004: 5) On Deleuze and his Bergsonian concept of difference, seeDeleuze 1998. 34"Actualisation comes about through differentiation, through divergent lines, and creates so many differences in kind by virtue of its own movement.Everything is actual in a numerical multiplicity ... There are no relationships other than those between actuals, and no differences other than those in degree.On the other hand, a non-numerical multiplicity by which duration ... is defined, plunges into its from is It longer is the to dimension, temporal: virtual moves spatial and purely which no another in its differences lines differentiation by itself to it that correspond of creating actualization, actualizes kind." (Deleuze 1998: 43) 35 Every different infinite is the out of an the one possibility realisation of only virtual actualisation of field, and does not imply any relation of similarity or resemblancebetween the previous and the difference is Eric Alliez, "duration, According tendency, the of self with the self ... to successivestates. finding its principle in life itself to the notion of the virtual ("duration is the virtual"), that thanks ... for basically dismisses, but the samereasons,a phenomenologicaltype of also containsno negation ... approach." (2001: 404) While duration is the difference of the self from the self, memory appearsas a is `elan Bergsonian The degrees difference. the motor, the vital' of principle of coexistenceof various the `differenciation' of difference. Categories of resemblance,identity, analogy and opposition, all deriving from notions of representationand of formal description, are thus to be considered as mere residuesof material operations. 36This trans-disciplinary methodology consists of the accumulation and synthesis of a multiplicity of heterogeneouselements interconnected without losing their heterogeneity. In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari define this methodological process as `nomadic thinking'. In Gary Genosko's hackles "Such the Guattari's Felix of thought transdisciplinarity, certainly raise of ways account of disciplinary cops." (2002: 49) In Guattari's case, one of the most familiar couplings was his is forms This the literary therapy. transversality, combination, or certain and of criticism combination of very condition of creative connection which also gives to thought and action a possibility to escapepredetermined coordinates, because"one of the key features of polyphony [adopted from Bakhtin as denominator is its irreducibility describe to trans-disciplinarity] term to common a single another ... Genuine polyphony entails that the plurality at issue remains `unmerged', independent, coexisting, interacting." (51) 37For them, the most subjective becomesthe most objective. SeeDeleuzeand Guattari 2002b: XVIII. 38 Organisation is given by the relation between components, while structure is the whole set of elements,their proprieties and their relations. The organisation and structure of an autopoietic system from individual distinction the a through unit of operation of a chemical are generatedautonomously, phenomenaland an interaction space. SeeMaturanaand Varela 1980. 39 From this point of view, self-organised physical systemsare continuously crossed by irreversible phenomenaof transformation involving billions of particles and their unpredictable interactions. The order and stability presupposed by autopoiesis are replaced by fluctuations, instability and limited factors introducing levels. Being to and chaos sensitive microscopic at all extremely predictability events (such as the gravitational attraction of an electron), physical systems pass from conditions of small initial perturbations to complication and nonlinearity (the so-called Butterfly effect). See Prigogine 1997.

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40 , What this means is that a large number of different trajectories, starting their evolution at very different places may end up in exactly the samefinal state(the attractor), as long as all of them begin ... somewherewithin the sphereof influence of the attractor (the basin of attraction) ... In particular, they [the attractors] confer on trajectories a certain degree of stability, called asymptotic stability. Small shocksmay dislodge a trajectory from its attractor but a long as the shock is not too large to push it out of the basin of attraction, the trajectory will naturally return to the stable statedefined by the attractor (a steadystate in the caseof point attractors,a stable cycle in the caseof periodic attractors,and so on)." (De Landa 2002: 32) 41 ,Deleuze makesa sharp ontological distinction betweenthe trajectories as they appear in the phase portrait of a system,on one hand, and the vector field, on the other. While a particular trajectory (or integral curve) models a successionof actual statesof a system in the physical world, the vector field capturesthe inherenttendenciesof many suchtrajectories,and henceof many actual systems,to behave in certain ways thesetendenciesare representedby singularities in the vector field, ands as Deleuze ... notes, despite the fact that the precise nature of each singular point is well defined only in the phase portrait ... the existenceand distribution of thesesingularities is already completely given in the vector (or direction) field." (De Landa 2002: 41-43) 42On phenomenologicalaesthetics,seeMerleau-Ponty 1965,and Dufrenne and Formaggio 1981. 43Phenomenologicalaestheticsrefers thus to the senses,to what involves and impregnatesthem, giving body. by Nevertheless, lived displeasure a a of perceived world perceiving as experiences pleasureand phenomenologicalaestheticismdoes not prove to be more successfulthan classicism,when confronted from its increasing distance the the technologisation an old paradigm of sphere and artistic of with organic integrity. 44For a reading of the Kantian Critique of Judgmentand its aesthetictheory, seeDeleuze2005. 45"Originally the contextual integration of art in tradition found its expressionin the cult. We know that the earliest art works originated in the service of a ritual - first the magical, then the religious kind. It is significant that the existenceof the work of art with referenceto its aura is never entirely separatedfrom its ritual function. In other words, the unique value of the 'authentic' work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as beauty, forms beauty. The in the the cult of secular of cult of secularized ritual even most profane developedduring the Renaissanceand prevailing for three centuries,clearly showedthat ritualistic basis in its decline and the first deep crisis which befell it." (Benjamin 1999: 217) 46On transcendentalempiricism, see Massumi's description of Henri James's philosophy. Massumi 2002a. 47As a layering system (or diagram, or abstract machine in Deleuze and Guattari's terms) associating all physical, cultural and technical formations, the scientific study of tectonics brings forth a pluralistic view in all fields, producing a number of layers and giving a sort of cross-sectionalview of the object. As an alternative geological investigation technique, tectonics explores the emergenceof order (as extensiveshape)out of textural patterneddifferentiation (as intensive quality). 48"Strata locking intensities form imprisoning They Layers, Belts. to or of giving matters, of consist are singularities into systems of resonance and redundancy, of producing upon the body of the earth molecules large and small and organising them into molar aggregates.Strata are acts of capture, they are like `black holes' or occlusions striving to seizewhatevercomeswithin their reach. They operateby coding and territorialisation upon the earth: they proceedsimultaneouslyby code and by territoriality. " (Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 40) 49 According to the philosophers' interpretation of the hjelmslevian theory, in the process of stratification, matters are turned into substancesphysically or semiotically formed, and functions becomedifferentiated as forms of expressionor content. Expressionconstitutes icons, indexes,symbols or semiotic systems,while content constitutes bodies, things, objects of physical systems,organisms, organisations.SeeDeleuze and Guattari 2002a. For a more detailed analysis of the linguist's theory, see Hjelmslev 1991. 50"Content and expressionare indeed reversible, but the "perspective" according to which one becomes the other is not fundamentally the point of view of an outside observer. It is the angle of application of an actual force. Content and expression are reversible only in action. A power relation determines which is which. Since each power relation is in turn a complex of power relations, since each thing is taken up in a web of forces, the distinction may seemuntenable.Complicated it is, but not untenable. The strands of the web can be unwound. We can follow the trajectory of a force across its

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entanglements with other forces ... and we can follow the trajectory of a thing as it passes from one knot of forces to the next " (Massumi 1992: 15) ... 51 Ontogenetic conditions and unrealised potential constitute thus the sense of expression. Cognitive sciences' analyses of expression define the latter as an act of categorisation and classification, a sort of autonomous net covering the whole world and giving it shape(s): in other words, the cognitive definition of expression corresponds to that of human thought, as the moulding grid appropriating everything under its ordering power. Without being directly in contact with external symptoms or internal causes (as for example natural signals do), expression is linked to them through a `mediation' which categorises, classifies, its referent (the symptom or cause) into a particular class of objects or events, the sense of the expression thus becoming totally independent from the original cause: in other words, verbal language. The universality and adaptability of the human word to every object or field generates the illusion of a human superiority based on the rationality of its oral or written, or thought, expressions. Human expression (or thought, or the linguistic forms associated to it) is thus distinct from the sphere of the living and from its continuous production of signals. Many different linguistic and corporeal acts, being in a hybrid position between the animality of a signal and the humanity of the thinking process, are therefore excluded from this definition. The cognitive analysis of expression fails to explain the non-human forces of expression that are at work under the human cognitive net, traversing and striking the body/mind while making it `expressive', and also to understand how the peculiarity of human expression is formed, rather than considering it as an already given and preexistent reality. On Deleuze and Guattari's conceptualisation of expression in non-cognitive terms, see Massumi 2002b: XIV-XXI.

52As Massumi points out, habit is an autonomousdefensive capture against the shock of expression, allowing the body to recognise it as an impulse already integratedand functional to life. Habit contains potential through resemblance,so that singular events can be grouped together and solicit the same reaction. It is organic and physiological, as much as cultural. SeeMassumi 2002b. 53The term `choreutic' used throughout this work derives from the Greek `choreuo' (dancing), as an adjective related to the danceperformancein its physical, cultural and technical levels. 54"Signs are qualities (color, texture, durability, and so on). And qualities are much more than simply logical properties or senseperceptions.They envelop a potential - the capacity to be affected, or to submit to a force ... and the capacity to affect, or to releasea force ... The presenceof the sign ... Is simultaneouslyan indicator of a future potential and a symptom of a past. It envelopsmaterial processes pointing forward ... and backward ... Envelopment is not a metaphor. The wood's individual and phylogenetic past exists as traces in the grain, and its future as qualities to be exploited." (Massumi 1992: 10) 55The explanationof the use of the term `codification' here is directly related to the concept of the body as already a population, a society of particles, a systemof cellular relationality ordered (or codified) by the bio-physical apparatus.As all organic and animal bodies have their own social levels, humanculture takes the form of a symbolic over-codification through particular systemsof signs and according to the logic of the signifier. This systemwill be extensively explored in the courseof this research.For now, it will be sufficient to say that, in the specific domain of human dance, cultural codification acts by submitting bodily movementand perceptionto the logic of linguistic signification. 56In the classical,Darwinian tradition, evolutionary theory only admits one possible historical outcome: once the fittest design is reached,the systementersa state of equilibrium and historical processesstop. Traditional evolutionary readings of dance follow this model of linear progress, defining rhythmic sensibility as an exclusively human faculty realised through the progressivedevelopmentof danceas a universal, species-specific language. Accordingly, "To dance is human, and humanity almost universally expresses itself in dance ... It may even have been significant in the biological and evolutionary development of the human species[in order] to assertthe essenceof humanity." (Hanna 1987: 3) 57 In Deleuze and Guattari's words, "The abstract machine is pure Matter-Function diagram independent of the forms and substances,expressions and contents it will distribute The most ... deterritorialised element causesthe other element to cross a threshold enabling a conjunction of their respective deterritorializations, a shared acceleration.This is the abstract machine's absolute, positive detteritorialization. That is why diagrams must be distinguished from indexes, which are territorial signs, but also from icons, which pertain to reterritorialization, and from symbols, which pertain to relative or negativedeterritorialization.." (2002a: 142)

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58As argued by Deleuze and Guattari in their schizo-analytical critique of Freudian desire, empty bodies of desire are fascist, ruled and identified, subjectedto hegemony,while full bodies are crossed by intensity, a continuous creation and differentiation, a proliferation of desire. See Deleuze and Guattari 2000. 59For a comprehensive etymological history of rhythm, see Fraisse 1979.

60Once taken out of the fluid plane of natural experienceand limited to the human sphere, rhythm becomes, in the platonic sense, a motor regime, a disciplined organisation and synchronisation of corporeal behaviour along a uniform sequenceof sounds(such as handclapsor drum beats).A closed circuit of action/perception/actioncausality connectsthe acoustic performanceof a rhythmic sequence to its resonanceinto the body and then to the motor execution of a new rhythmic sequence.In its musical realisation, the rhythmic quality is obtained through a reiteration of elementarycomponentsor minimal rhythmic units (the beats) and through the regulation of their velocity as a way to guide and direct bodily movementalong an articulated successionof steps.On this sonic/motor rhythmic link, see Fraisse1979: 9-12. 61"In the transsensorial or even metasensorial model, which I am distinguishing from the Baudelairian one, there is no sensory given that is demarcated or isolated from the outset. Rather, the senses are channels, highways more than territories or domains. If there exists a dimension in vision that is specifically visual, and if hearing includes dimensions that are exclusively auditive ... these dimensions are in a minority, particularized, even as they are central. " (Chion 1994: 137)

62According to Wilhelm Seidel, ethnic dancesdid not follow regular rhythms divisible in beats but were extremely complex, and their transcription into our notation systemswould entail frequent beat shifts or superpositions,and also stratifications of different velocities. SeeSeidel 1987. Seealso Davis. 63 For Henri Bergson, movement cannot be conceived as a mere displacement of parts (up to the molecules and atoms, and to the curpuscules and the `imponderable' which generate the particles) always remaining the samein themselves.The duration of the body is a wave, and a set of intersecting durations constitutesrhythm, in which the unity of pattern representsself-sameness,and the novelty of the detail representsdifference. Scientific disciplines such as psycho-kineticsand their isolated systems of immutable moving bodies only focus on the extremities of rhythmic intervals, i.e. on the statesof bodiesbefore and after movement.SeeBergson2002.

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3. Bio-physical machines and dancing molecules

Taking as its conceptual point of departure the difference between meter (as the repetition of samenessalong a sequence of steps) and rhythm (as emerging qualitative difference between steps), and considering meter as a catalyser (rather than a mere solidification or linearization) of rhythm, this chapter focuses on the relation between rhythm and the bio-physical stratification of a dancing body. Dance as a rhythmic process generated in the connections between the body's molecules and cells, limbs and senses, movements and perceptions, composes the main argument of the chapter. At the same time, we will also be exploring the concept of bio-technology as a technical machine intervening and modifying this connective rhythmicity of the body and, (as suggested before), we will propose a re-definition

in dance in biodifferent the technologies used performances of

technological terms. The first section deals with the rhythms of molecular and cellular biology and maps the composition of the body at its microscopic level, differentiating

and relating chrono-

biological meters (the regular clocks and steps of cellular life) to the rhythms infiltrating

and

contaminating them (for example the non-linear temporality of viruses and bacteria throbbing and swelling and putting bodily organisation out of phase). The second section of the chapter explores the functioning of rhythm at the macroscopic level of anatomy and movement: in the spatial displacements allowed by the body's anatomical organisation (the osteo-articular and muscular frame body), the architectural sustaining and shaping a rhythmic proliferation moving system as an of myriads of synapses (as the critical points of the nervous system conceived as a meshwork) before last focuses between body The the the consciousness. section rhythm on relation galvanises and perception in the dance performance: a level of trans-sensorial rhythmicity will be thus revealed behind the channelling of the senses and linear sensorial/performative synchronisation.

These three sections coincide with the internal, external and extended milieus of a body's is According Deleuze Guattari, "Every to and perception. milieu and composition, movement block in by the periodic repetition of the a words, other of space-time constituted vibratory, identifies interformal "' This the three chapter milieus of and substantial organisation component. bio-physical dancing body if in it, the stratum of a and emerging out of as out of chaos: a woven compositional milieu (where cells, tissues and organs are rhythmicised, or differentiated, by a infinitesimal the energy which of puts parts of a body in a state of continuous continuouspassage (where bones of actions a milieu and muscles and their coordinated performancesare variation); by rhythmicised a passageof electrical energy which provokes a continuous variation of the body's 82

movements); a perceptual milieu (where the sensorial systems and motor coordination are rhythmicised by the passageof sound betweenexternal environment, sensoryreceptorsand motor neurons,producing the continuous infinitesimal variations of a dance).All the different milieus of a dancing body are constituted by periodic sequencesof basic components: the genetic code choreographingsequencesof molecules and cells at a unidimensional level and generating the qualities, possibilities and capacities of the body; the anatomical structure giving shapeto precise movement sequences;the five sensessynchronising perception and movement, and directing the performanceof danceas a sequenceof steps.This linearity is cut acrossby the emergenceof rhythm as a `differentiator' throbbing beneaththe surface. Molecular biology is the scienceof the body's rhythms, a scientific but also aestheticreading determine, how body biological level does deals This time. or as a of rhythm not explain a of with simple natural ground, the cultural formations of movement and dance,but reveals its own degrees focuses intensive level (or This unof vibrations rhythm as an chapter on of complexity. differenciated energy not-yet hormonal, not-yet electrical, not yet sound or light), and on its viral transmissionand transformation betweencells and bodies. Our definition of rhythm as viral derives from an understanding of viruses as a first example of transversal energetic transmission: by level, bodily lateral information the at cellular purity allowing passagesand a contamination of body's disrupting first the the of genetic metrics ordered rhythmic element viruses appear as a biological organisation.Rather than natural or physical essences,we have heterogeneities,complex fixed important become differences, than transmissions more where viral passagesand mixtures of is illusion (such `pure' the the the of rhythm more working genetic code): molecular as of structures dependenton viral contagion than on the essentialnature of a body. From this point of view, we will discusshow, in the complex bio-physical organisation of the body, the behaviour of the whole systembecomesmuch more complicated than that of its parts. From microscopic systems and their continuous generation of novelty, the structural and behaviouralpatternsof a body emergeas recognisableand recurrent. The aim of the chapter is thus to explain how the different. (biological, anatomical, perceptual) regularities of a dancing body are formed but also de-formed in a rhythmic way. The conception of a dancing body as a material its fundamental for level is the of superficial an understandingof matter as process:under aggregate by body is through the run energy, myriads of excited molecules as sites of microscopic steps, legs: to the transferred torso, macroscopic movement of arms, neck, rhythms Both arms frequently stretch up and over the head, but then curl back down toward the shoulder blades in a jagged arc.

83

Necks often tilt upward, directing the dancer's gaze toward the ceiling. As with much of Cunningham's recent choreography, the arms now seem at least as active - and often more prominent - than the legs. But this is work that makes extreme demands on the lower body as well. For example, the dancers often execute low, rapid jumps on one foot, while the other leg is raised and tilted at a 45-degree angle. Occasionally, as both arms rise to frame the head symmetrically, both feet perform a bent-legged jump that finishes in first position. (Copeland 2004: 194)

In Roger Copeland's description of Cunningham's choreography Biped, the unity and wholeness of the dancer as the organised anatomical source of motor performance is replaced by a sort of dis-organisation of the body without `hot spots', a decentred body that moves in a similarly de-centred stage-space where no specific location prevails. The dancing body becomes a `machine' whose components are fragmented and whose relations are randomly re-arranged. As Copeland points out, Cunningham's dis-articulated choreographies remind us of Deleuze and Guattari's body. Subverting the `arborescent model of thought', this notion rethe conception machinic of defines human beings as machines moving beyond subjective consciousness, as intentionless phenomena. This schizophrenic definition

of the body beyond both natural essentialism and

cognitive construction echoes Antonin Artaud's own definition

of the `body without organs':

"When you have made him a body without organs, / then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions / and restored him to his true freedom. / Then you will teach him again to dance wrong side out. " (Artaud in Copeland 2004: 235) Giving

us an image of

a `wrong

side out'

dance, Cunningham's

choreography

his from dancer's them the the self and uprooting conscious subjective movements, schizophrenises cognitive and motor habits. This is not only important because of the accumulation of movements beyond but because formal dance, the these the go complexity of and repeatedly performed motions the usual capacities of the body, therefore preventing consciousness from directing the performance, for develop body its in to the part own autonomous awareness, order and requiring every single into is direction by The to centralised consciousness split of movement work. complex system several autonomous `consciousnesses', each one corresponding to a particular motor sequence: head legs, torso as autonomously thinking and moving aggregates connected to each and arms, by is dancer itself in that the them, always out of embodied so and all simultaneously of other, different bodies. We can even push this concept a bit further, and define the condition of the dancer in `trance' a which the body is not anymore guided by its ordinary perceptions and motor on stage as Artaud defined (what as `automatisms') but enters a de-subjectified condition of split reactions sensori-motor performance and of simultaneous body/mind coincidence. In this sense, the de-

84

centralisationof the dancer's movements works through the same abstract machine of spasm:the hysteria of a dancing body as a processof de- and re-articulation in which the body transcendsthe unitary self. This condition derives from a machinic connection between the body's own composition, habits and thoughts, the environment/stageconceived by Cunningham as always decentred,and the technological tool (the choreographyhaving been composedwith LifeForms). Throughthesemachinic connections,the body un-learnsto dance`wrong side out'. In a different performative situation (body art rather than dance, improvisation rather than choreography) but with the same challenge of pre-programmed movements, Stelarc's use of technology takes the condition of bodily de-centralisation and split performance produced by Cunninghamand his dancerseven further, linking it to the separateand involuntary activation of different body parts. In 1995 in Luxembourg, Stelarc's body becamefor a few days a nodal point of split movement,a de-centralisedsystemwhose actions could be directed from different parts of the world. From different countries (Paris, Helsinki, Amsterdam), people could actuatethe movements his body through a muscle stimulation system with a touch-screen interface, in a remote of controlled simultaneous choreography. At the same time, the body actuated its Third Hand, a device by impulses leg the the of electrodes positioned abdominal and peripheral moved on muscles. In another performance (Ping - Sydney and Rotterdam), rather than being prompted by body itself: bodies in different locations, by Internet the scattered was guided activity other "Random pinging to over 30 global Internet domains produce[d] values from 0-2000 milliseconds that [we]re mapped to the deltoids, bicepts, flexors, hamstring and calf muscles - 0-60 volts initiating involuntary movements." (Bell and Kennedy 2001: 571) Moved by Internet data,the body from Net. telematically through the the electrified and stimulated signals coming was A node in a computer network, the performing body becomesa field of distribution for a galvanising current. Its shifting anatomical confines trace a topological space of energetic flexions, in bodily different lines contractions, rotations give of escape, which energy accumulations transforming organs and limbs into interchangeable,temporary points of passage,intensification intense body dispersion. This the condition of electrified comes to physically coincide with the and hysteria: involuntary hyperesthesia spastic and of contractions and paralyses, symptomatology limbs particular suddenly grasping according to the autonomouspassageof the nervous convulsions 2 In all its (aestheticand psychiatric) expressions,the excessof hysteria makes the electrical wave. (and not always controllable) nature of bodily motion clearly perceptible. Re-actualising Deleuze distinction, Guattari's meter/rhythm we can identify the metric codification of bodily movement and linear (the by trans-coding of gestural repetition units controlled a consciousness, where with 85

rhythm of a dance)is generatedby the passageof electrical energy between the body's anatomical organisation,its internal milieu of cellular composition (neurons, muscle fibres) and its extended milieu of perceptualstimulation. Not to be seen,or heard,this rhythm can hardly be sensed. Biological, kinetic and choreutic structures do not determine a body, its movementsand dances, but appear as open sequences coexistent with transversal transmissions of energy, and with 3 intensification. None of the two different aspects, the emergence of critical moments of energetic the rhythms and codes of the body-system, the energy and matter of its motion, the fluidity and repetitiveness of its dance, can be said to precede the other in time, space or importance, as they represent two immanent sides of the same event, the form and substance of dance. From this point linear is by dancer the the through that actively of view, we can argue rhythm not performed organisation of its movements; rather, it ties itself up across all the dancing body's milieus (cells, in its in dancing body deal does other words, a with rhythm movements, perceptions); or, not only integrity as a whole performing organism, but also in its molecular dimension. 4 It is this energetic transversality between the body's milieus that Stelarc makes into the object of his bodily science (as a development of concepts through the body), while

Cunningham's

dancers deal with

its

codification into a precise choreographic modality. Again, two aspects of the same event, as if Stelarc's body was showing us what is microscopically happening on Cunningham's stage.

Between the reduction of rhythm to movement metrics, and the dismissal of dis-continuity fundamental in favour fluidity impasserestricts the analysis of of and continuity, a and repetition hand, dance On the concept to the these two the one other one and either or of aspects. performance dance is for definition basis the the as a of of rhythm as a cadencedsequenceof gestural units combination of steps performed on a linear block of space-time: dance is thus reduced to the absolute codification (the form) of its performative meter, as a molar kinetic organisation 5 by body dancer. On the other hand, phenomenological the conscious of the voluntarily performed critique has constructed the notion of rhythm as a perceptual and kinetic continuity of the body6 its improvisation. external environment, as if in a continuous subject with the energetic flows of Nevertheless,none of these two rhythmic definitions (respectively based on fragmentation and continuity) totally succeedsin taking into accountthe simultaneouslyfluid and syncopatedcharacter its intensive importance dance, because to them and quantifiable aspects, gives equal of none of both the metric of its movements and the potential of its rhythm. Rather paradoxically, the coexistenceof the substantial,measurableconsistenceof a dancing body with its wave-like, intensive has been better conceptualisedin the scientific terminology of quantum abstract nature and more

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physics as the main feature of matter, always existing in the simultaneous, immanent state of matter/energy,

is to the body, the real-material-but-incorporeal ... ... as a positioned thing, as energy is to matter ... mutually convertible modes of the same reality ... the incorporeal is something like a phase-shift of the body in the usual sense, but not one that comes after it in time. It would be a conversion or unfolding of the body contemporary to its every move. (Massumi 2002a: 5)

Deleuze and Guattari's philosophical concept of a material `plane of immanence' defines this rhythmic co-existenceof particles-affects(i. e. the kinetic and dynamic properties, the matterenergy) of all bodies as a material diagram: the repetition of difference, or the combination of repetitive patterns and unpredictable events, attractors and bifurcations, extensive movementsand intensive sensations, abstract energetic potentials and the forces vectorialising (i. e. giving a directionality) and qualitatively actualising them.7 The clear sonic and visual images,the limits and orientations perceived through eyes and ears, simultaneously with the vague sensations of rhythm/energy and movement, involve the dancing body into a state of alternation between concretenessand abstractness, territorial firmness and volatile instability, whole and fractal tendency. Re-conceptualising rhythm as a material attribute of movement, we can understand its working in the danceperformanceas being implicated in the very composition of the dancingbody, its in perceptual/kinetic relation with the environment: rhythm is never the property of an and isolatablebody. Gilbert Simondon consideredevery individual body (for us a human dancing body) as immanent to the system of its own individuation. (2001) Drawing on Simondon's ontogenetic theory of individuation, the first step of this thesis is the re-conceptualisationof the dancingbody as a continuously self-individuating system, rather than an already individualised performer. In this sense,we can re-define an individual dancing body, with its biological, anatomical and sensory structures,and with its actual perceptionsand movements,not as a pre-given performing entity but as only a phase, a partial and relative formation in a process-of energetic elaboration, a dynamic apparatuswhich is also full of potentials, forces and tensions: a dancing body as a rhythmic system in continuousvariation. Re-configuring the relation between micro-sensations and macro-perceptions of rhythm, digital technology brings to light a possibility of changein this relation and createsa different zone of bodily expression: all the perceptions and movements that can be consciously perceived or 8 become the object of a new microscopic manipulation. The following chapteralso looks at altered, 87

the relation between bio-physical micro-rhythmicity and its bio-technological transformation, in order to point out a further level of stratification (the biological/technical passage)and its rhythmic level of intensive emergenceand production: between the bodily organisation of molecules and cells, and the cut and paste operations of digital bio-technology on them, other rhythms appear, bringing the body to a qualitative threshold. From this point of view, we arguethat, by manipulating the rhythms of a body, its movements and its perceptions at a microscopic level, all technical machinesof information modulation and transmission(from cloning to digital video or the Internet) work as machines of bio-technological expression. The second section analysesprosthetics and teleroboticsas used in Stelarc's experimentalperformances,considering them as other examplesof bio-technologicalintervention on bodily rhythms. The third section considerstechnical machinesof perceptualalteration (such as machines of digital sound and techno music) as another example of bio-technological mutation producing particular bodily conditions and states (such as `trance') through rhythmic modulation.

3.1 Rhythm in molecular biology: `how a body individuates itself 3.1.1 Chrono-biology and the meters of the organism The definition of bio-technologies like cloning as sterile repetitions of identical copies in a sort of forms, eternal of coincides with an essentialist metaphysics based on the essencemimicry appearancedualism, and with an essentialistconceptualisationof the body. Essentialisttheories of the human body as already `genetically' existing in its essenceand in its expressivecapacities(in its Platonic theory of essences(for example the rhythmic rhythmic capacities) echo a case our essenceof human movement) as already given ideas or abstract entities realised by bodies and things as their imperfect copies.9 Before Plato's theory of rhythm as an essential property of the human body, Democritus' atomistic philosophy describedthe genesisof all bodies (for example of the human body) as a temporary composition of atoms destinedto dissolve again in its elements:in other words, rhythm was intrinsic to the body's composition and to the movement of its composing in both before becoming body by Simondon, As the a property of as a whole. atoms, argued essentialistand atomistic philosophies, a principle of individuation is already given, as either an essentialprinciple or a microscopic material entity (the essenceof the human body as whole, the it in in both terms, the composing atoms or, more contemporary cases,a pregenes); non-divisible is body atom or capable to move and generate form in a multiplicity of rhythmic existing 25-26) (2001: Nevertheless, atomistic philosophy was more interested in the atoms' possibilities. 88.

kinematics than in essence. The Epicurean and Lucretian version of atomism did not define the movement of these atoms as an ordered, linear and mechanical process following laws of causeby determined a transcendent principle or power (as the Platonic rhythmic essence moving effect and guiding the human body). Rather, the fundamental element of the atomistic conceptualisation was the notion of `clinamen': atoms descending at the same velocity but occasionally swerving from 1° bodily their straight vertical trajectory, and thus colliding and composing all complex systems. From this Lucretian point of view, Luciana Parisi understands cloning as a re-programming which brings a cell back to a virtual stage (a 0 degree of development) revealing the time of cells as nonlinear and infinitely reversible: This molecular time is not chronological. It is not defined by regressive and progressive linearity On the ... contrary, the reversibility of cellular time marks the non-linear relationship between causes and effects: a positive feedback where effects act back on their causes - the future on the present, the present on the past, unfolding a declination from the trajectory of time. This is turbulence, the virtual-actual vortex of time. (Parisi 2004: 73)

In L'individuation psychique et collective, Simondon developsa conception of the individual (from humanto cell atom) without any pre-given essentialidentity, and therefore always susceptible to transformation in all its aspects and parts. The linear dimensions of an individual (its chronologically sequential history and actions, and its spatial extension or trajectories) are the forms generatedby the transmission of a constantly changing tension. The rhythm of this residual processof individuation, as an energetic propagationand a simultaneousmultiplication of layers or dimensions, is defined by Simondon as `transduction' (for example the propagationof an structured energy wave at different paces, and the consequent generation of different and non-coincident chronological sequences,or phases,rather than a unique linear processof harmonic tuning). (2001) From matter and its tensions,all kinds of individuations (from atomic and physical to biological and formed then through a rhythmic processof modulation of collective) and psychic and are organic, potential energy. The re-definition of individuation as a transduction or a rhythmic passageof energy and a diffusion of structures or milieus allows us to conceive a dancing human body as a bio-physical rhythmic organisation, an organically assembledmultiplicity emerging (rather than pre-existing), biological its functions, body from dancing clocks and a series of energetic events: a with all from it. From an ontogenetic point of view, the than rhythm, rather merely performing emerging becomes: how does a dancing body individuate itself? Is there any specific relation main question 89

between a dancing body and the rhythmic character of a-organic matter? How does a living body transmit energy? According to Simondon, the difference between organic and inorganic individuation lies in the continuity of the former process, as opposed to the instantaneous and abrupt character of the latter. In Simondon's words, a continuous morphogenesis characterises the living organism not as the definitive result of individuation but as a `theatre of individuation'

or an `individuation system':

not a representational theatre of poses in the static and classical sense of the term, but a dynamic scene for the performance of multiple material transformations, morpho-genetic de-formations and behavioural patterning, the scene for the masking of rhythmic apparitions under the camouflage of " Bringing to light the brought individuation forms structures continuous of repetitions. and metric about in the living by energetic resonance, Simondon's ontogenetic investigation challenges the limited potentials of a `phenomenology of the lived',

i. e. of the analysis of perception and

movement as the structural accomplishments of an already given, stable living body. The relation of the living body with material rhythm can therefore be defined as multiple, in the sense of a continuous qualitative mutation happening in the body along its continuous processes of energetic resonation and elaboration.

Chrono-biology interprets the evolution of life as being directly dependenton a rhythm of from it linear to metric repetitions: energeticelaborations,which neverthelessreduces a series of this point of view, the first microscopic organismsappearingon Earth were generatedfrom cyclical 12 day. fluctuations, between darkness the cold of night and the searing radiations of environmental Simultaneously, the periodic behaviour and physiology of living organisms produced other interweaving interrelations to these codifying an events, a complex system of counterpoints undefinedenergeticflow. In these interrelations, the complex structure of the living body is realised biological diffusion (a fundamental by transduction) of milieus, all guided a with an escalating In (the all their alignment of proteic material content repetitive and of genetic expression). meter periodical structures and dimensions, living organisms can be defined as dynamic systems different frequencies: at many oscillating Instead of having physiological variables that are constant, you have variables that are rhythmic: your temperature, concentrations of substancesin the blood, your heartbeat,your respiration, circadian rhythms, menstrual cycles is known what now as chronobiology ... organisms as rhythmically organizedentities. (Goodwin 1995: 2)

90

Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's meter-rhythm distinction, we can see how Goodwin's analysis of body times makes the organic temporality exclusively coincide with an essential structure of meters, of ordered and sequential chrono-biological

events. This bio-physical

choreography starts from the assemblage of atomic particles of inorganic substances: biology identifies the metric cadence of life with a shifting oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphor and sulphur quantification. These elemental particles are then combined into macromolecules (or `biopolymers', such as proteins and DNA) which on their turn form cells. The stratification of happens in double through the cell a process of codification rhythm

and territorialisation:

the

its code genetic passes script, through the RNA messenger molecule, to the proteic content, so that a particular nucleotides' sequence becomes the form of expression coupled to a particular amino acids sequence, also directing its movements and functionality in the cell. This DNA metrics follows repetitive syncopated patterns of dis-continuity,

"It has loops, it controls itself. It's like a

programming language where genes are being turned on and off all of the time. " (Chaitin 2000: 4)

In this organisation, cells appear as the functional modules or micro-assemblages,the first living individuals populating the territory of a body and performing the extensive realisationsof the geneticchoreography.The movement of the corporeal substanceafter the genetic beat unravelsas a folding, a re-plication of materials composing the structure of the cell and of the whole body: according to Deleuze and Guattari, individuation is "a never-ending differentiation of being along folds which continuously merge into one another." (Broeckmann 2001: 1975) Stimulated by differences in energetic intensity, the act of folding develops as an inside-outside differentiation betweena de-territorialised organic surface or tissue directly influenced by the external, and its reterritorialised internal dimension (for example in the formation of the eukaryotic cell and its In living body, the the surface in contact with the external world becomes structure). nucleated differentiated as an organ specialised in the reception of stimuli. (Freud 1967) In highly developed organisms,the membranepartly withdraws in the interior of the body (as the human brain cortex), it while other parts of are left on the surface(as senseorgans)acting as energeticfilters (for example the hearing sensorysystemallowing us to danceat the soundof a violin without becoming deaf). Collective cellular choreographies of folding and invagination distribute cells into microscopic populations, composing tissues and organs with different shapesand functions, from building the and of the skeletal structureto the formation of neuronsand the shapingof ossification (De Landa 2002: 57) The organism is the result of an assemblageof parts and sensorysurfaces. following functions a metric temporality which dependson the combined pace of different regular beat, heart respiration, neural pulses, metabolic assimilations, masking chaos and operations: 91

random patterning under a surface of biological repetitiveness. All these bodily events appear in (regular or irregular) patterns, in which multiple neural and chemical responses change the internal milieu, the viscera, and the musculoskeletal system for a certain period and in a particular pattern. Facial expressions, vocalizations, body postures, and specific patterns of behaviour (running, freezing, courting, or parenting) are thus enacted. (Luce 1972)

From a chrono-biological point of view, the body works as a homeostatic systemreceiving and continuouslydischarging rhythm-energy.In his book Lookingfor Spinoza,physiologist Antonio Damasioillustrates how all living organisms (from amoebasto humans) automatically solve basic physical problems of energetic managementwithout recurring to intellectual activity, but only through what he defines as `emotions', or homeostaticdefencesagainst external excitationsthat can become`traumatic', powerful invasions or explosions of difference and shock.13 Metabolism and immune system reactions, reactive physical behaviours (for example approach or withdrawal and bodily stiffening, on their turn deriving from the emission of chemical signals or from immune drives (such as curiosity and play) and feelings (joy or sorrow), are all different systemreactions), emotions expressed at microscopic and macroscopic levels by a moving body. Drawing on Massumi, we could say that all emotions, from human behavioursto amoebas'reactions,appearas codified habitual, repetitive events fixing the intensity of energy into an action-reaction circuit, "intensity owned and recognized." (2002a: 28) Drawing on this theory, we can understandthe chemical but also the anatomical, perceptual and emotional levels of every human performanceas machinic organisationsof energeticstimulation. Far from being a unitary, pre-given entity expressingitself through rhythm, movement and dance, the human body is already a rhythmic composition, in its structure and actions, as a multiplicity of patterns of microscopic oscillations metricising all its different levels along an inorganic-organiccontinuum (from atoms and moleculesto cells and the organisationof life). At the sametime, this organisation of structures and movements can be opened up through Simondon's living body `theatre', the of as a or a `territory', of individuation and of rhythmic conceptualisation expression(or transduction). The next step is to show how the homogeneousmolecular, cellular and disciplined the and metrics of a body-subject-performerare always crossedand organic structures de-stabilised by a rhythm of continuous thresholds, of communications and passagesbetween infinitesimal interwoven deviations by a rhythm of generating and generated components, oscillations of organic sequences.

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3.1.2 Viral rhythmology

Focusingon the microscopic mechanicsof fluids, non-linear physics and molecular biology reveal the closed and repetitive mechanismsof the body as open to differentiation. The turbulent body openedup by molecular biology goesbeyondthe limited performative and reproductivepossibilities body, biological the of revealing an infinite potential beyond them. Becausethe body is composed by relations of movement and rest, by capacitiesto affect and be affected, an organism is already packedwith bodies, and bodies continue to form themselvesbetweenorganisms.In other words, we body in different the that the all codes of are a perpetual state of trans-coding or can say transductionwhich brings them to continuous thresholds.The sliding of milieus into one another (for example in the helicoidal disposition of molecular chains and the formation of a DNA molecule)is rhythm: as Deleuze and Guattari argued,life and deathhave rhythm. Beyond the metric stratification of parts, traits, capacities and tasks organised by nucleic lateral between bodily the components cellular continuous exchanges reproduction, codification and living does immanent Deleuze Guattari it, level As the and put not only of mutation. provoke an thing continuously pass between milieus, but the milieus pass into one another: the body is infinitesimal being through static, a molecular, constantly moving and mutating, even while by bio-physical body determined The the pre-given of are not structurally rhythms modulation. from defines Goodwin but Brian (1995) (or `basic the them) emerge morphs', as patterns `microbiological' domain of metabolic chemistry. In other words, rhythm develops in the body as a "Between from inorganic living between different (for to cells): cells, or example molecules passage between day, between is that that mutation which constructedand which grows naturally, night and from the inorganic to the organic, from plant to animal, from animal to humankind, yet without this in-between, " (Deleuze Guattari 313) In 2002a: this chaos and seriesconstituting a progression ... becomesrhythm, not inexorably, but it has a chance to: the chance to become rhythmic is the human its inorganic-organic, to through the animal and potential pass virtuality of matter, or continuum. In this sense,we can argue that viruses and bacteria, with their non-linear contagious behaviour,representan abstract machine (or a model) of rhythmic transmission. From inorganic to from bacterial is to there rhythm as eukaryotic a transformational continuity, as well meter, organic, between leap, because is is there transcoded than there passage a sudden rhythm whenever a rather heterogeneousspace-times. Drawing on biologist Lynn Margulis, we can define biological rhythm as a function of Darwinian linear by Against transformation. the of classical models proposed processes symbiotic biology, Margulis's SET (Serial EndosymbiosisTheory) "is a theory of coming together,of merging 93

14 histories different " and abilities, "the living togetherin physical contact of organismsof of cells of different species.Partnersin symbiosis, fellow symbiontsabide in the sameplace at the sametime, literally touching each other or even inside each other." (Margulis1998: 2) To biological sameness (genetic heredity and replication through sexual reproduction in the same species),the theory of `symbiogenesis' adds the idea of a merging, an embrace of heterogeneouselements as the productive factor of difference, explaining the generation of living bodies, organs and species through a promiscuous and parasitical coexistence of different kinds of micro-organisms: "We from the microcosm ... A major theme of the thirty all species of us, emanate animals, million microbial drama is the emergence of individuality from the community interactions of onceindependentactors."(10-11) Contamination and transversality, emerging and interrupting pureness and linearity, weavethe rhythm of living bodies as symbiotic molecular populations. The living body is assembled across a series of non-linear incorporations, invasions, On have how intrusion, have rhythm. already seen proliferation, contagion contaminations,and we linear development biology identified biological hand, the of a with repetitions classical one `filiative' milieu; on the other hand, in endosymbiotic terms evolution and difference are also biology between different bodies, Symbiotic illicit by the species, milieus. encounters produced definesfor exampleorganelles(the cytoplasmic componentsof cells outside the nucleus)as similar to microbes and all other bacteria living together with, or inside, the cells of a living being. These "nonnuclear" cell parts, with their own peculiar heredity, were Is remnant forms of once free-living bacteria.

According to Margulis, cellular organellesderive from autonomousbacteria, and "the origin bacterial is integration to the of symbiotic evolutionary exactly equal of cells with nuclei forming billions larger "16 Symbiotically of years ago cells, merging and eukaryotic communities. bacteria built life, and they are still following the same abstract machine of transmission,trading in is in life The thus transversal a caught their genetic material a non-linear, way. generation of life contamination: contaminatesmatter. of rhythmic process Viruses, bacteria and organellespassbetweencells of different species.Viruses, as parasites its intrude disrupting through the themselves, the cellular system organisation and reproduce cell, of The functions for its distortion the that the the and signals cell utilises own reproduction. of temporality of viruses is a reversecausality, or a changein biological direction: rather than implying for DNA-RNA temporality linear the passage synthesis reverse substance, viruses's of proteic a involves an influence of a virtuality, a non-actualisedfuture or in-between (RNA) on the actuality of

94

the present(the development of the viral DNA in the host cell). In this sense,we can understand by (defined Deleuze and Guattari as `what changesdirection') as `retro-viral'. rhythm In the same way, without any linear or circular periodicity (for example the circadian meters of eukaryotic cells), bacteria make us understand rhythm through their different reproductive modalities: transmutation, transduction and re-combination. From a symbiogenetic point of view, these modalities delineate the tendency of bacteria to bind together through a horizontal genetic transfer and a non-linear transmission which enables them to share information and to reprogram their collective genome according to the influence of external conditions. Drawing on Margulis, Parisi describes this weaving of a multiplicity of transversal communication lines and microrhythms as a characteristic of all living bodies, which are always inhabited and moved by a proliferation of different combinations:

molecules assembling compounds, compounds assembling unicellular

bodies (for example bacteria and all sorts of micro-organisms) and the latter parasitically co-existing with multicellular organisms (for example the human body). (2004: 15-16)

Viruses and bacteria are rhythmic, becausethey imply a continuous change in direction, deviations, mutations (difference). In the same way, contagion is the mode of communication betweenthe microcolonies of the organic body. The biological rhythm of a body correspondsto the interweaving of lateral contacts between different but communicating milieus: the effects of this felt its feed back They the their as are registering of sensation, always on causes. rhythm, and deviations infinitesimal the those which sensations of molecular mutations of matter, of cellular development 2002) life. At (Bergson the same the the emergence and morphological of provoke time, the body sensesitself as a mutating population, rather than a finite organism. The visceral in feeling body in its is this symbiotic weave animating a which, molecules and cells a sensationof Massumi's words, is too short to be conscious: it is a non-conscious, `infra-empirical' micro. its large" is for its "the it "too to to attached components, whereas relation part, registers, perception fit into a perception since it envelops a multiplicity of potential variations (it is superempirical)." (2002a: 16) In other words, the infinitesimal variations engenderedby the molecular rhythms of the body resonate,putting it in contact with its continuous variability, in a sort of non-coincidenceor overflowing of its own frame. These intervals of virtuality and mutation are the micro-perceptions in-itself, transformation of which will never reach the conscious threshold, and of rhythm, senses thereforethe body will never know, but only feel. We are now starting to understandhow the sensationof rhythm-in-itself works. Crossingthe body through a viral and bacterial diagram, the rhythmic sensation anticipates the ' sensorial its qualities, while only registering intensity in a moment of indecision. Accordingly, recognition of 95

imperceptible disorienting the vague, almost and of as a perception rhythm we can re-define fractal These as sensations act microscopic conscious perception. rhythmic sensation accompanying fluid body's linear interruption in disorientation (i. and perceptions and a of and attractors e. points by body's becoming intensive leaps temporal the expressed a path and punctuating movements), as body's its in flesh, the the sensation own multiple reof a sensation of potential, sensation a combinations.

The microrhythms and combinatorial potentials of the body go through a critical threshold focusing Rather the bio-technological than on artificially manipulation. with a new phase enter and digital bodily technology allows to sensetheir connectivity, concentratingon composition, units of in blending by Parisi, than a space of as argued perception essence: re-combination rather distances digital through "The a cloning shrinks of optical smooth space variations, recombinant impact intensified loop between the of virtual reception and action amplifying close vision, an things upon the body and the body upon things. This smooth spacedeterritorializes the disciplinary digital into biological 20th 19th [of of a matrix observation] century's microscopic and glance bio-technology infinitesimal bodily Mapping 165-166) " (2004: at scales, re-combinations mapping. becomesa portal towards a different sensationof bodily rhythm, and of the infinite mutational, transformative capacities of a body. Directly intervening on the microscopic organisation of the body and opening a series of gaps and bridges in its milieus, digital biotechnology un-veils bodily the the of potentials and altering of engineering an apparatus micro-rhythmic as working rhythm, body through the multiplication of its molecular'and cellular transmission,generatingheterogeneous '7 body its In the this own rhythms. acquires a sense of way, webs. assemblagesand parasitic On one hand, in common senseopinions and traditional critiques, the possibility of genetic designfrom scratchapparently acts as the catalystof an endlessproliferation of identical copies,and hand 2004) Nevertheless, (Parisi biological the we can other on order and sameness. as a meter of its identical but biological is entity with copy always a new arguethat the cloned unit never a totally body's bio-technological The the genetic code manipulation of own genetic and somatic qualities. (the biological how and expression syncopatedon/off switching of genesand codification reveals their linear reproduction and transmission through lines of direct descent) are simultaneously a From hidden lines this point of transversal of of contamination. residual product and a generator field becomes form different identical the of relations: a genetic unit of expressionof a view, every The is through these cloning obtained recombination micro-variations an assemblage. of always unit different different information the of emergence modes of provokes and the symbiotic merging of bodies where resemblance,similarity and identity only appearas mere surface effects: in this way,

the bio-technological machine introduces a different conceptualisationand a different possibility to between difference, how distinguish metric while also repetition and showing rhythmic actually from inorganic/organic different, the on a a-organic level. (128) assemblage rhythm emerges Repetition and difference are always the two sides of the same rhythmic process:in other by bio-technical is discipline the always and control allowed machines of manipulation words, by level lateral a of modulations and combinations. (135) The replicating and accompanied information hierarchical behaviour bacteria does their transmission of and not need reproductive bio-informatic In the those as and mitosis. same way, such of eukaryotic meiosis structures biolevel, different information On is based this the on merging of systems. unnatural modulation digital recombinations capture the variations and modulate the communicative capacities that emergebetween chemical particles, genetic substancesand cells. The alteration of genetic patterns through bio-technological manipulation also triggers a potential for subsequentchangesin physical but (such behavioural also sensitivity, capacities and performances as characteristics, perceptual and body in the of motion), constituting an example of the transformative resistance and velocity by potential unleashed such rhythmic manipulations on a macro scale, and significantly altering body dancing it how The body the of can perform. microscopic rhythmicity can perceive and what a thus resurfacesin a more perceptible and different way. By fractalising the integrity of the body into a multiplicity and by subjecting it to a seriesof bio-physical bio-technology the the of shows malleability and elasticity scratch manipulations, information its In its this technical and of and affectivity. sense, all machines openness structure, bodies, the altering composition of our materially movements and perceptionsand communication directly modifying our potential at a microscopic scale(genetic engineeringand prosthetics,but also digital audiovision and the Internet as the technologiesof dance)can be defined as bio-technologies, i. e. informatic machines acting as rhythmic amplifiers and modulating the moving and perceiving body as an anatomically organisedfield of dancing cells.

3.2 Rhythm in anatomy: how a moving body works

3.2.1 Kine-physiology. The first steps of the Body with Organs In an online article published on the 18 February 2005 on the BBC News website, journalist Michelle Roberts reported that "Scientists in the US have created a robotic arm that can be " (Roberts by 2005: 1) Tests had thought alone. conducted already shown previously controlled is between brain limb In this this signals and movements. experiment sense, correspondingpatterns

a result of the neuro-physiological idea of movement as the performance of a centrally organised anatomywith a hierarchical nervous systemdirected by the brain. But from a schizoanalyticpoint of from a consideration of the body's anatomical system as a meshwork, rather than a view, and hierarchy,how doesmovementreally work? The folding and invagination of billions of cells organisethe anatomy of the living body as a coordinatedsystemwith various interrelated organ-isationscomposing the functional physiological harmonious shape and equilibrated posture that allow the organism to move. The structure, composition of these cells, differentiated in tissues and aggregatedinto organs, constitutes the forms. become the anatomical and of milieu where shape, posture movement expressive content From birds' flights and courtship rituals to human dance,movement is also always immanentto an in the multicellular physiology of the animal organism, a variation qualitative variation undivisible 18 by in provoked multiple thresholdsand expressed the performanceof particular gesturesand steps. The next step of this thesis is to explore how qualitative change is produced in the successivedisplacementsof the moving body. Considering movement in its schizo-geneticaspects, i. e. in its continuous production of variation, we can challenge the notion of a conscious and immutable moving subject, pointing to the idea of a dancing body being put in continuousvariation by the intensities of its own motion. The acquisition of a sensori-motor capacity is considered by Bergson as the main trait distinguishing animals from all other living organisms, the two `extreme' realisations of the two dancing being by immobile jellyfish the the the the and static and mobile, represented variables, human. In the vertebrates' anatomical organisation, the performance of movement is specifically linked to the developmentof the osteo-articularapparatus(bonesand articulations), of the muscular apparatus(striated muscles) and of the nervous system. The evolutionary development of this is dedefined by Deleuze Guattari the of and as sensori-motor system product of a series territorialisations and de-formations, or a seriesof `lines of flight' altering the morphological traits from form, 60-6 1) (2002a: the their point of view of capacity and actions. of organisms From the amoebic and aquatic forms of life of the Paleozoic era to the human of the Quaternary period, anthropologist Leroi-Gourhan identifies the different thresholds and lines of flight which determined an escape of the animal body from water, and a progressive deterritorialisation of the hand from locomotion: from the nutrition/locomotion dichotomy (realisedby the body's head and limbs), through the acquisition of a bipolar anterior field where hands start to become prehensile, to the emerging of the facial/manual (or language/tool) distinction which, together with bipedalism and erect posture, appearsas the evolutionary trait of the human species.

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(Leroi-Gourhan 1993: 29-41) As a decisive effect of erect posture, movement became increasingly dependent on the capacity to stand in equilibrium and balance. The `human animal' becomes thus its its in to to to gravity, and adapt own anatomical articulate movements relation precisely able organisation to three-dimensionality

is Human terrestrial anatomy properties of space. and other

body kinetic determine in the to obtain an to capacities, allowing a series of such a way organised body forces by between horizontal forces (for the the the against exerted of example equilibrium body) by force the the the and to perform a series ground on exerted and equal opposite ground, and of balanced movements.

As statedby JoseGil, energy(as non-codedforce or the intensity of a force, the motor of any immanence, in its is material simultaneously concrete and abstract movement or process) The (1998) indeterminate in its in its determined un-differentiation. effects and simultaneously force inside individualised into becomes body the a particular a undifferentiatedenergy permeating field, and acquiresa vectorial character(i. e. it is directed and channelled): Force seems to be an oriented energy, implying a "resistance". While energy is related to the pure positivity of a flux, force implies fault lines produced in this flux and in particular points at which energy is coded by some agent. Energy becomes force inside a "field, " acquiring a vectorial aspectundergoing cracks and fragmentationsthat are part and parcel of the individualization of force. Since there is force only for another force, it has to be admitted that in the process of the individualization of energy the tension betweenforces is already in play, or, in other words, opposing vectors are in conflict ... Thus it is the sameoperatorwho startswith energy, individualizes it into force and encodesit in such a way that it 19 forces... field in of can act as such a

A force is always linked, coupled or resistedby another one, and between the two a tension is always in play. Bodies are the operators that territorialise forces: for example according to Newton's laws, for every force exerted by a body againstsomething, there is an equal and opposite force acting back on it. For this reason, pushing against the floor becomes necessaryin order to force foot is floor, if the the against result an accelerating accelerateupward motion: we push one being exerted by the floor on us, a change in the body's velocity, a shift in movement direction: "becausegravity acts vertically downward on our bodies at all times, we can only remain motionless if there is a vertical supporting force equal to our weight. In order to jump off the ground vertically for long force downward to floor the than enough to greater our weight, against we need exert a be desired. Although achieved small vertical velocities may achieve the vertical upward velocity In 55) jumps from bent legs 1986: the " (Laws feet the most require an acceleration alone, with ... 99

field, jump involves the codification of energy into vertical, upwards and downwards a gravitational accelerations and forces: as a "crucible of energy mutations", (Gil 1998: 106) the body acquires a capacity to escape gravity's work, if only for a moment.

The point of application of the force at the conjunction between floor and foot shows the between the two bodies,while also determining the `sense'of movementas power relations shifting a continuouslychanging disposition of the assemblageof body and ground (the ground as a field of gravitational expressionwhen the body/substanceis not able to consistently stand up and falls, or the body as a form of kinetic expressionprevailing on the slow motion of the Earth/ground).Kinetic competenceis acquired by the moving body through learning, and through an automatedacquisition of repeatedhabits (the `habituation' of movement). Every habitual bodily exercise is stored up and set in motion again at every new impulse, generating a closed system of automatic movements in the same order and pace. As argued by Bergson, there are two different each other succeeding kinds of memory at work in the body: while proper memory appears as the recording, or representation,of past events and gesturesthat had been stored up, habit is a memory lived and acted in the present. (1991: 80) Drawing on Bergson's theory, we can identify habit with the development of a series of articulatory movements prolonging the previous capacities progressive and perceptions accumulated in the body, and re-actualising their active potential after a new solicitation. In the routine flow of habit, improvisations or random movements are not enough to difference (as a non-determinedemergenceof novelty), becausetheir possibilistic appearance create is already derived from an instantaneousdecision among a set of behavioural conventions, the 20 delimit body's the choices as a set of rules determined in advance. Every guidelines that improvised performance already includes the individual body's predisposition to move in patterns establishedand `routinised' through everyday training or simple predilection. In this sense,the `unknown' side of movement is not equivalent with improvisation and surprise; rather, its novelty can appearas a glimpse at every step, either programmedor improvised. As pointed out by Massumi, the unity and composition, the wholenessof the body and of its fractal, is of a multiple nature. (2002a) In other words, all human performancesare actions always shapedby a meter of regular, automatedbehavioural repetitions acting as containersof a molecular instability. In movement, the very possibility of choreographic organisation and control is always immanent to a destabilising rhythm of microscopic electrical connections between nerves and dancing body, bodily the the while of unity of structure and performance is continuously muscles threatenedby the disorienting effect of these inter-cellular events. The movementsof the body and

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its most sophisticated performances derive from a continuous (and not easily controllable) molecularelectrification.

3.2.2 Electro-rhythms Every moving body is animated by a flow of electrical energy running across the system in an fluidity breaks. kinetic In this of and system,metastableequilibrium consistsof a normal alternation releaseof electronsand their transmissionthrough a network of nerve connectionsseparatedby tiny gaps(the synapses).(Le Boulch 1991) Once an electrical impulse has reachedthe end of the nerve, neurotransmittersare releasedacrossthe synapseand taken up by the neighbouring nerve, where the pattern is repeatedand electrical impulses can travel along the next series of nerves. Movement depends on a smooth energetic transmission across the nerves: for example in Freud's thermodynamicdescription, "the dominating tendencyof mental life, and perhapsof nervouslife in general,is the effort to reduce, to keep constant or to remove internal tension due to stimuli ... ", (1967: 98) while different kinetic pathologies derive from the alteration and disruption of this electrical transmission, provoking an over-stimulation of the nervous system and an autonomous hyper-activation of different bodily areas. An example of this excessive kinetic condition is representedby the suddenjerks of the spastic hysterical body: being literally flooded by a flow of uncontrollable electrical energy, the nervous body becomesa schizophrenic kinetic system whose spasmsresult from a seriesof infinitesimal alterations and from the abnormal working of its neural cells. From a thermodynamic point of view, this excessivecondition representsa pathology to be cured through energetic discharge: for an increasedamount of energy and motor stimulation, more movementis needed.From here, the old habit to cure hysteria with dance. But apart from the excessive galvanisation of hysteria, electrical contacts between neurons constitute the molecular critical moments of activation of all movements, the field where small beginnings trigger momentous organic events: as stated by Bela Balazs, "the most violent cellular landslide is nothing other than the result of the movement of little pebbles and molecules." (Balazs in Gil 1998: 108) In the body, the wave of these electrical sparks is fractally transducedand diffused across the different components of the musculo-skeletal system, transforming it into an it is impossible to distinguish betweenthe beginning and end continuum where practically electrical linear single movement, of each every motor sequenceresulting from a seriesof microscopic points 21 stimulations and contractions. The moving body is continuously dis- and rejointed, breaking joining apart and up to form a linear movement sequence. simultaneously

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As an example of movement articulation from anatomical and motor disarticulation, the mime shows very well the multiplicity

of motion, by multiplying

and accentuating the composed

character of its performance and the electrified cuts between its jerks: "the articulations are multiplied, each gestural sequence is exaggerated, now including an infinitude of microsequences " (Gil 1998: 108) In the same way but in a different field (or street), that were not there before ... break-dancers cut movement apart and push it to the extremes, twisting a turn until they are spinning on shoulders and butts. Stopping motion through a multiplicity

of sudden `freezes' or

holding the positions between steps, these dancers highlight the coexistence of fluidity and jerks in the same plane of kinetic consistency. On this plane, hits (sudden muscularised stops that can be on the beat or syncopated) and isolations (moving one part of the body, like a shoulder or a hip, while keeping the other parts still), `krumping' (rapid-fire moves, often of the chest and pelvis) and other precise movements that `lock' or stop in place before the next one begins, emphasise the `broken' nature of motion, while the body is traversed by a flow of electricity constituting the energetic 22 In this dance. molecular electrical field, the rhythm of a motor performance is not continuum of by linear the progression and velocity of steps, but also tyed up by the intensity of the only measured moving body as continuously mutating along the electrical wave: dance as a series of passages between electric thresholds. It is important to understand here that this microscopic level of deformation does not coincide with a random disorganisation of energy and with its supposed liberation from a constrictive motor regime. Rather, it is from the repetition, the accumulation of movements (or steps) that a critical threshold emerges, as a sort of molecular re-organisation 23 body before its conscious realisations. moving the

The passagesbetween these nodal points constitute the rhythm of a movement which becomesmore similar to a fluidification and occupation of space, than to its slow or super-fast, solid or liquid penetration or measurement.Beyond the mechanistic functions and rules assignedto the parts of the anatomical system, and beyond the phenomenological spatio-temporal coordinates traced by it, we can define rhythm as the combination, or the patterns of longitude and latitude drawn by a body as a fluid occupation and composition of space, i. e. as the alternation between kinetic their and sensations counterparts.The after-effect of this fluid bodily energetic, electrical is is longer is "[I]t to that thing space according a modelling of precisecoordinates: a occupation no but is in by form "a body); (the that to the thing" space space, modelled modelled material gives immaterial (spaceas a set of relations)." (Gil 1998: 116) Rather than a body acquiring rhythm in its geometrical relation with space, we have a space acquiring form and substancethrough bodily impress bodily in movements space the traces of .a corporeal form, and create rhythm: 102

configurations whose matrices are the morphogenetic forms and possibilities of the body. (122) In this way, a new space/body assemblage is formed at every new step. (124) In this conceptualisation, movement as a form of displacement, a quantifiable and metricisable action with precise velocities, is not negated but integrated with a potential for transformation and becoming.

On one hand, the main referent and product of the body's objectivisation in spaceis the formation of an integrated `body image', a `whole attractor' (in Massumi's words) towards selfawarenessand self-control, a dynamic link betweenparts and totality obtained through coordinated feedbackby all sensorysystems. In other words, bodily equilibrium is dependenton the recognition of one's own self-image in integrated different but bodily the combination of well-coordinated and parts positioned as 24 distributed fractalisation Nevertheless, the to a space. of motion into myriads of relation in by Gil beyond body-image the motor-particles pointed out goes notion of a microscopic unitary interest in fractalisation In Gil's "The to of self-perception. space,corresponding a parallel words, body image pathology, as much as that of corporeal phenomenathat come about in possessionrites, is discontinuities, breaks, to the show and multiplicities that can composethe us as we shall see, space of the body ... " (1998: 125) All motor pathologies (and pathologies of body-image recognition) reveal the sub-terrain of molecular components and the de-centred character of bodily images and movements:either standing or moving: unitary apparently The body without an image is an accumulation of relative perspectives and the passages between them, an additive spaceof utter receptivity retaining and combining past movements,in intensity, extracted from their actual terms. It is less a space in the empirical sensethan a gap in space that is also a suspensionof the normal unfolding of time. (Massumi 2002a: 57)

The moving body cannot see,but only feel itself moving while seeing space.The perceptual feedbackon movement derives from proprioception: "There is in fact a sixth senseattuned to the body: involves joints. It in the the proprioception. specialized sensors muscles and movement of Proprioceptionis a self-referential sense,in that what it most directly registers are displacementsof the parts of the body relative to each other." (Massumi 2002a: 179) Registering quality as a body floor for (for hardness for dance), the example movement as condition walking and condition links it to the posture, position and orientation of its single components.Before and beyond the rebodily image, complete of a proprioceptive sensations pass, in continuous and construction decentredstreamsof electric signals, through the body's neurological network system:

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The spatiality of the body without an image can be understood even more immediately as an effect of proprioception ... Proprioception folds tactility into the body, enveloping the skins contact with the external world in a dimension of medium depth: betweenepidermis and viscera ... Proprioception translatesthe exertions and ease of the body's encounters with objects into a muscular memory of relationality. This is the cumulative memory of skill, habit, posture ... the subject's reactionsto the qualities of the objects it perceives through all five senses,bringing them into the motor realm of externalizableresponse.(Massumis 2002a: 5859)

Proprioceptive sensations are related to movement as referenced to itself and to its own variations, allowing

the moving

body to intuitively

(rather than sensorially)

orient itself.

Proprioception is stored in flesh as a mnemonic kinetic diagram, a superposition of vectorial fields, flesh. The but the the as perspectives not of eye of of pressure and resistance, sensations of temporality of these proprioceptive

sensations eclipses the body from subjective time, as an

interruption or a gap in empirical time and a punctuation of its linear unfolding, a suspension in form. is The `autopilot' bodily of qualified proprioceptive memory allows without which movement the body to sequentially navigate in space, feeling twists and turns rather than seeing things and scenes, as a memory of contortions and rhythms unfolding alongside the appearance of visible forms. As Massumi points out, the moving body operates according to two separate systems of reference: a predominantly proprioceptive system and a predominantly visual system of reference. The two systems are calibrated to each other, and their respective spaces of orientation are always body's image the of a as clear perception and of the sequentiality of one's one communicating, displacements in space, the other as the vague sensation of a body's movement, and of the transformations implied in it: a freeze-framing of movement and its dynamic sense. (Massumi 2002a: 179) When the two fail to encounter each other, the body hallucinates, or goes into a `trance'. In Massumi's words, perceptual forms-in-configuration

(visions) feed back into the

(proprioceptive in field tendency-plus-habit sensations muscles and of as neural activations vectorial orientation fills the gap between exo-referential and self25 linking dimension them through a synaesthetic of experience. referential perception, ligaments), and vice versa. Bodily

Rather than enclosing the body into an integrated form drawing precise shapesin space,the fractal conceptualisationof movement and its perception transforms the body into an off-centre and intensely from `far of particles sensing and occupying gravitational aggregate space, a non-static draining irradiation through the working system' accumulation, and of electric energy. equilibrium Transplants,prosthesesand, more recently, telerobotics and the realisation of bodily remote-control intevention kinetic technological this of a modality of on system organisation,cutting and constitute 104

flows the traversing the moving body and giving them a different electric re-connecting directionality. In this sense,we can argue that the replacement,addition and re-configuration of influences limbs kinetic body, the tendencies the or of multiplying its proprioceptive organs introducing by new critical points of self-referential feedback into the fractal, un-stable sensations systemof nerves and muscles, limbs and sensorial extensionsof a body in movement: with every body is it becomes feels itself the multiplied, and as something else. Directly tapping on organ, new the level of electrical transmission, bio-technological transplants, prosthetic surgery and remote control influence the neuro-physiology of human motion, behaviour and social relationality, transferring the moving body on a dimension of electro-digital stimulation, de-centredcontrol and unexpectedmutation. From this point of view, Stelarc's Third Hand project representsan interesting example of technological mutation, highlighting the complex, de-centralised character of the moving body system,in which different organs are connected,or coupled, and where accumulatedstimulations introduce a multiplicity

of disjointed sensations in the moment of movement perception

(proprioception as the habitual process of registering, recording and directing movement). In his by Stelarc to the connected utilises a robotic manipulator and actuated right arm performance, from the muscles of abdomen and thighs: proprioception and signals coming electromyogram 26 his left At thus the time, are split. same arm is remote controlled, robotised movementactivation from by intermittent jolts from jerkily the of electricity coming animated and stimulators and flexor biceps bodily The to the of voltage and muscles. synthesis of organic and application is limbs animated by a continuous flow of electric energy traversing the body and prosthetic flesh). (proprioception the the centres of sensation as scattered recording on of energy actuating When performing a gestureor a step, the body literally entersan electromagneticwave which, at the is kinetically body in This the of contact, modulates motion. electric modulation moment body its by the recorded on nervous/muscularsurface, every new registering or proprioceptively inscription, every new sensation re-directing movement, every new movement engendering a different sensation:

Technology disconnectsthe body from many of its ... functions. DISTRAUGHT AND DISCONNECTED, THE BODY CAN ONLY RESORT TO INTERFACE AND SYMBIOSIS. (Stelarc 2001: 567)

Technology also leads the body to be symbiotically connectedwith other bodies. In another performance,a multiple muscle stimulator makes possible the programming of movement through 105,

computer interfaces situated in remote geographicallocations. In this way, movement is not only automatedbut displaced,its actions, skills and habits completedand acquired on-line: Consider a body that can extrude its awareness and action into other bodies or bits of bodies in other places. An alternate operational activity that is spatially distributed but electronically connected. A movement that you initiate in Melbourne would be displaced and manifested in another body in Rotterdam This is not about a fragmented but a ... multiplicity of bodies and parts of bodies prompting and remotely guiding each other. This is not about master-slave control mechanisms but feedback loops of ALTERNATE AWARENESS, agency and of split physiologies You watch ... a part of your body move but you have neither initiated it nor are you contracting your muscles to produce it. (Stelarc 2001: 567)

As Massumi points out, proprioception constitutes the non-conscious, habitual and body-environment (or sensation of rhythm autonomic encounter) activating and recording movement before subjective awareness.In this sense,Stelarc's split agency and his use of bodily for direct signals movement stimulation, without passing through the circuit of conscious electric thinking and decision, reveal the involuntary forces behind movement; at the same time, the distributed initiation of movement through the Internet extendsthe confines of this split corporeality to other poles of the open electrical circuit. In other words, we can arguethat, by opening-thebody's neural network to the passageof an autonomouselectrical wave, prosthetic bio-technology gives to the performanceof movement a new rhythm: a rhythm of electrical, energetic exchangesbetween digital, internal, (electric, external) which becomeseven more autonomous from conscious codes action/perception,and which is directly `sensible' and `performable' through the bio-technological assemblage. Proprioceptive sensations of position/orientation/rhythm result thus amplified, bodily awarenessfrom the limited self-perception of a body, to the alternatedisjunctive extending inputs in its to external of multiple awareness relation own internal rhythms. The connectionof the body's motor neurons to the electrical signals coming from other bodily parts, and their reconnectionto the thoughts and actions of other bodies situated in distant parts of the globe and even to the electrical voltage directly emanating from the Web, allow the body to perform a gesture without having consciously decidedto do so, and to senserhythm beyond its actualisation. The moving body appears thus as a machinic assemblageof thoughts, movements and sensationscoming and going towards different directions: another important point to be highlighted here is the reciprocal influence between bio-technological assemblageof objects, or technological tools, transformed by human thought and sensation,and of bodily parts, or limbs, transformed by 106

technical extension.The body-technologyrelation becomesnon-linear, a reversecausalitywherethe future, of non-actualised causes(such as Stelarc's Idea of the human body as obsolete) virtuality influences present effects (technological intervention and the sensation of the body as already prosthetic, connectible and re-placeable), and where present effects or output (the unpredictable bodily mutation and movement) transform the potential of past causes or input (technology). Becoming parts of the thinking and moving body (and vice versa), things and objects establish a mutual implication, a non-discernibility of the user from the used. According to the artist, it is merely a question of point of view, in a polar co-functioning where body and thing meet in the reciprocity of perception, a "reciprocity [which] is not a symmetry, since the two plug in differently to contrasting poles of shared forces and travel, through their forcible conjunction, in different directions." (Massumi 2002a: 96) The body/thing reciprocity constitutes an asymmetricalsymbiosis instrumentality, beyond functionality human began by "He and goes consciousness: which approachingideas as materialized thoughts and making them into unthinkable objects - artefacts that can only be sensed- pure sensation.Then he put the unthinkable objects on the body to see it. become " (97) of what might Having already defined bio-technology as a form of technical manipulation of bodily how be this can extended beyond the specific example of can now understand notion rhythm, we between (inorganic different their engineering and modulation of energy codes and genetic cloning molecules, organic genes and cells, animal anatomy and movement). Intensifying the electrical interchanges biobody, Stelarc's the technological of a moving allows apparatus cross-cellular technologicalrhythmic amplification, by directly intervening on the kinetic performanceof what he himself defines as an `obsolete' organism. The actions and motions of this organism are already decentred, displaced and as a seriesof non-linear and unpredictablestimulations and electrical open, body bio-technology intervenes the this electro-digital of on structure communications; anatomical information As a result, open-ended system of scattered open and nodes an and catalytic points. as the reciprocal prosthetic relation between body-technology introduces a further level of splitting in the apparentlinearity of movement, at the sametime allowing the body to senseand expressthese de-centred of and multiplied motor actuation. In other words, technology moments microscopic its body between to the the and perform perceive previously unnoticed electrical connection allows head, thighs, chest, together with the relation between movements and the external abdomen, imperceptible the and unpredictable mutations, i. e. the rhythm of movement, are environment: brought to light and expressed,or transduced,into a new performance with its own effects and involuntary by In Stelarc's remote-controlledarm the this sense, movements performed sensations. 107

and the imprecise gesturesof his robotic Third Hand trace an electrified dance which makes us sensehow a moving body works.

3.3 Rhythm and the senses: how a dancing body `becomes'

3.3.1 Sensory channelling, coordination

and dance

With their technological assemblageof computers,loudspeakersand drum machines,danceparties body de-centralised the to techno subject a and non-conscious, involuntary motor music and activation, this time linked to the vibrations of sound and to its `production' of dance. Movement here delineating kinetic two the emerge as simultaneous processes event, the same and perception two expressiverealisationsof the body on a milieu of associationswhere "Motor activity changesas input input direction 1973: 7) " function (Murch varies as motor sensory and sensory of changes. a The direct interconnection between motor and sensory apparatusesconstitutes the anatomical for the performanceof precise,sophisticatedand coordinatedmovements. condition Sensori-motor coordination is the basic element of performative precision. In the human body, perceptualfunctions acquire a fundamentalrole of support, direction and orientation, allowing the bipedal and erect anatomical structure to perform complex, articulated and controlled 7 The elaboration of visual and acoustic stimuli acts thus as a sort of kinetic control: movements. information flows from its body different directions the the through sensory crossing all channelling human body into transforms the consciously perceived sounds and referencepoints visions systems, 28 dance. for the organisationof According to Bergson, the perceptual systems respond to the complexity of the external detection, action of analysis, storage and response, extracting environment with a selective into from directing them a components a generalised electrical specific stimulation, and particular, linear action/reaction circuit. " Each particular perception thus results from the organisation of a (sound light At the other end of the process,this of particles or motion material particles). vibratory into literally, dancing body the coordinated movements are of a whose steps organisation results force by drawn the of sound. attractive materially As an undulatory phenomenonproduced by a mechanicaldisturbanceand propagatingitself in the air (or throughout water or other elastic media), sound can be defined as a mechanical is body, (or in in Bergsonian the terms) an excitation a complexification, stimulus which, provoking by 1973: Considered (Murch 12) through ancient channelled acoustic perception. controlled and `wave theories' as a continuous, diffused disturbance,sound (energy) and its material medium (air) 108

were re-defined by atomistic philosophy as composed of tiny particles, air molecules and sound 30 1950s After the and the introduction of tape-based, electronic recording, another phonons. `particular' approach emerged in parallel with the theories of quantum physics, which re-defined 31 `mechanoacoustic sound as a phenomenonof vibration'. When mechanoacousticenergycausesa disturbancein a medium (for example, when a kettle drum is struck and its drumheaddisturbs the 32 is surrounding air), a sound produced. When an air molecule is displaced from its initial equilibrium position, the elastic forces of air tend to take it back to its initial position. But, because of the particle's inertia, it goesbeyond that original position, triggering elastic forces in the opposite direction, and so forth. These molecular local disturbancespropagatethrough successiveregions in direction: infinitesimal longitudinal distances, the sound wave while particles move along a (acousticperturbation)travels acrossspace/time.33 The number of vibrations passing for a point each second representsthe frequency of the frequencies Audio range from 20 Hz to 20kHz, which is the limited band of human sound wave. hearing and all audio devices, under and above of which we find unperceivable infrasounds and ultrasounds.Acoustical systems are accessedwith transducers,i. e. devices able to changeenergy from one form to another, such as a kettle drum changing the mechanical energy generatedby the mallet into acoustical energy, a microphone transducing acoustical energy into electrical energy,a loudspeakerreversing that processto re-createacoustical energy from electrical. In the sameway, our acoustic system works as a perceptual transducer through a complex apparatusof channels, vibrating membranesand bones,nerves and receptorsresonatingat certain frequenciesof the sound 34 wave and performing a transducing operation. The temporal processing of sound happens in microsecondsor milliseconds; in this time span,the perceptualsystemcan only detect single stimuli with no interrelationships. At a further level of acoustic aggregation, sound objects start to be consciouslyperceived,reaching the temporal threshold of human hearing as individual sonic entities forms the regular or irregular patterns of sensori-motor or combination succession whose 35 These sound objects derive from the combination of clouds of sonic grains with coordination. but between them, are still perceived as whole units through tone fusion, becauseof the silent gaps limited capacity of the hearing sensein relation to the infinity of microscopic events composing a sound. Stamping one's foot or clapping one's hands while listening to a cadenced sequenceof form is individual of synchronisation of a perceptual/motor sounds moments in which the periodical coincidence between movement and sound is accentuated by the temporal coincidence, the bodily between objects/beats and acoustic stimuli. Synchronisation is nevertheless simultaneity,

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different from the linearity of a simple stimulus/reactioncircuit, becausewhat elicits bodily reaction is not the actual acoustic stimulus but the interval between two successivesounds. With regular cadences of sound, synchronisation becomes possible because the body can anticipate the production of the successivestimulus, while more irregular seriesof soundsmake synchronisation 6 impossible. The tendency of the body to anticipate sound with its stepsdelineatesthe practically movement/soundsynchronisation as a processof continuous oscillation between anticipation and following. Sensori-motorsynchronisation on the basis of visual perception is more difficult and rare.37 The prevalenceof auditory perception in the synchronisationof movement and dance is due to the different nature of the photochemical stimulation process,and to the longer processof excitation of the visual sensorialreceptors: the temporal definition of a visual stimulation is always less precise than an auditory one. Furthermore, auditory perception leaves to the body a major capacity of head be the to while visual stimulation requires oriented towards the luminous source. movement, Vision appearsthus as a way to `logically' intervene on the unboundedfield of acoustic stimulation and immediate body/matter contact: to the stimulating function of sound with reference to the bodily dance, of movement and vision opposesan equilibrating function through synchronisation the recognition of objects and spatial coordinates,which is crucial for the adjustment of positional balanceand motor equilibrium. 38 Simultaneously with the emergenceand re-cognition of qualities and shapes,both acoustic and visual perceptions molecularise into a material multiplicity of micro-perceptions codified into into and action-reaction circuits of bodily coordination. But this perceptual and unitary visions integrity always relies on an unstableground. The conceptualisationof perceptionas a performative denseplane of energetic interrelations between different bodies also gives to the performanceof dance a totally new `unbalanced' aspect, where the material resonation of the body exposed to electromagneticand acoustic stimulation creates a sort of immanent non-conscious condition of microscopic `sensing'. Being defined by Massumi as a continuous hallucination, rather than a tool for rational knowledge and classification, the perception of sounds(or colours) interveneson the dynamic level its dance attraction exercising as a molecular on anatomical, postural and motor stability a sort of of dis-equilibrating vertigo. (2002a) Beyond the cognitive level of semantic perception (the interpretation or decodification of images and soundsas messages),and beyond the transformation input into this a sort of orientation device (the visual distinction of the whole bodyperceptual of image and other images as a tool for motor equilibrium, or the discernment of sound units or beats

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dancing body), it is important to highlight the existence of a level of the a of movements guiding attractions and affects interweaving

themselves and constituting

an intensive dimension of

perceptual sensibility. The immediate visceral registering associated with this perceptual con-fusion exercises a sort of disorienting influence on movement itself.

The autonomous organisation of sound and light molecules and their relation with the body field level the of as a of microscopic sensationsand infinitesimal contactsleadsthe molecular body towards a constant metamorphosis.At the same time, the dynamic efforts of the organised body are directed towards the ordering and structuring of this affective level: through sensorial channelling, and through cognitive recognition and elaboration, the human body becomesable to its dance direct Nevertheless, to the the steps of as a response external stimulation. organise interruption, dwelling, disorienting body, the the the shock of affect stays with suspension, its its immanent dis-equilibrated the of surface and side along whole representing resonating becomes following In The this section generative sense, affect of rhythm. choreutic virtuosity. highlights the more disorienting, shocking or disrupting but also creative effects of perception on the organisationof movement, also trying to delineatebodily movement and perception as different levels of organisation which are continuously put in variation, dis-ordered and dis-organisedby molecular interconnections.

3.3.2 Trans-rhythmicity [Sound and light particles] do not address the ear-eye but sweep over the body like a weather front. A flooding of neuronal networks, the sensationis of a heaving, searingmuscle throb - of sonic-somatic stickiness. Other effects, emotions, sensationsare secreted,other subjectivities sweatedinto being. (Ander 2002: 77)

Considering, as Heike Ander does, perception from Deleuze and Guattari's schizo-analytic it into `peopling', transforms a view, a tide of molecular populations crossing the point of ferment, flooding "swarming, intensities teaming, the tribes" channels, and of and perceptual ... Guattari 2002a: bio-physical (Deleuze 29) invasion, Against this and network. microscopic neural power builds walls, sensory surfaces as walls of resonancewhere the intensity of the perceptual bounces continuously off, crossing the body and provoking a relay between corporeal experience dimensions. (Massumi 2002a: 26) incorporeal As argued by Massumi, the composition of a and juxtaposition is a mere of concrete matter: nuclear particles (electrons, protons) are not wall never juxtaposed but accumulated while being always separatedby voids; no body really being able to

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but touch another only to approximate its virtuality, the concreteness of matter crumbling physically under its own abstractness. In this sense, the subatomic level of a body's bio-physical organisation is constituted by intense virtual events, encounters and contacts never fully realised, resonations in the void. Texture and modularity are only surface effects of what subatomic voids and relations either let pass or capture: a mutual holding in perceptual stability of myriads of incorporeal events builds the relative concreteness of abstract matter on the surface.39 Memories, perceptions and habits emerge from the interferences and resonations happening in the sensory gaps.

The virtuality of a concrete perception is a reality exceeding its own actualisation, an in latent Massumi's precipitate or, words, a residual energetic potential that stayswithin excessive bodies as their potential connectability:40 "That connectability is not of the order of action or thought-out anticipation and is therefore not in the mode of possibility. It is of the order of force. Each connectionis a sharedplug-in to a force emitted or transmitted by the "41The actual thing. ... from each singular perception (for example the loudness of a sound) are qualities emerging body's to the perceiving action upon the perceived body: the properties of the proportioned body are actually the properties of the action, of the connection, not subjective qualities perceived but tokens of the perceiver/perceivedreciprocal, material inclusion.42According to Massumi, two different modesof abstractionresonatewith the residual level of perception: feeling and thinking or, in his own words, `the impossibly potentialised' and `the expression of the possible': "Sensation limits feedback in into each other, are in excessover their their thought, at respective as as well and (2002a: " 93) These the two modes are concurrent but running in opposite over actual. experience: directions: one as a bodily tendencywhich can only be felt, the other as the thinking of alternatives for the active realisation of what had been only in tendency. The concrete appearanceof bodily (feeling the two where emerges and thinking) paths cross, and its coherenceor meaning movement depend on the functional and coordinated coming together of these two paths: sensationsbeing cognitively `perceptualised' and, together with their transduction into clear thoughts, being transducedagain into coherentactions. The motor transduction of sensationsand thoughts into conscious movement dependson bodily systems of filtering and selection: becausethe capacity of neural receptors to take in an infinity of stimuli exceeds the cognitive capacity of the human body to elaborate and recognise them, a large part of sensory inflow non-consciously registered never achieves conscious fusion Perceptual operatesas a selective filter on a molecular chaos, sampling and representation. forms, into (colours, them relations and actualising particular conscious perceptions extracting few Only in this swarm cross the threshold of consciousness:the others stimuli etc). objects sound

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subsist non-consciously, as infinitesimal perceptions, or a virtual bulk of micro-perceptions fading interferences, or in-between effects (affects) of a continuity ... differentiated as a continuous variation. " transitions rather than a collection of discrete elements ... (197) These virtual micro-sensations dwell in the body and are only felt as pure flux; at times, they into each other's "productive

can emerge on the conscious surface, taking the body into a state of delocalised and depersonalised 43 trance.

The pure empirical condition of molecular perception is a total disorienting field to which past experience,perceptual habit and automatism, the slowness and repetitiveness of conscious bodily movementsadd a `like-ness', a shape,a form.44Detailed perception and the discernmentof form are thus only acquired through an addition: to put order in the chaotic field visual or acoustic of perception,to obtain constancy and unity, perception productively adds objects that are not preformed. In this sense,as argued by Massumi, every perception is hallucinatory (hallucination being scientifically defined as the experienceof perceiving objects or events that do not have an external but only correspondto a physically storedmemory, or `engram'), and the selectiveprocessof source the perceptual apparatus (filtering of potential) results into a production of excess `seeings' (or `hearings'), a cutting out (of material potential) and adding (of form) which gives back "more to reality than it is given."45 Perception can only happen alongside coordinated, habitual bodily is "It bringing forth vision the movement of our bodies that operatesthe selection movement: ... [and hearing] from the vacuum." (2002a: 148-149) The possibility of `proper' normal perceptionis by the cross-referencingamong themselvesof the different senses(proprioception included), given while the lack of this cross-referencingis what leadsthe body to experience`true' hallucination. The sensori-motorcoordination betweenlinear repetitions of sound and body movements,its orientating function, its continuous action of reciprocal following (body movement anticipating or following sound) and its hallucinatory production (constructing unity and samenesswhere they do dance: hallucination as related to the production of the coincide with exist) metric aspect of not sequential repetitions of habitual movements and perceptual forms. According to Massumi, the difference between `normal' perception and pathological hallucination is the cross-referencingof its to own conditions of emergence,the self-referencing of experience as an ongoing experience hallucinatory fixity in the other words, and solidity of experienceis balancedby the chaotic event; field bodily the along perceptual of movement. On one hand, pathological hallucination variations can be paradoxically defined as an excess of solidity overbearing the abstractnessof the material field. On the other hand movement, with its multiplication of perceptual feedbackloops, enablesthe continuouscross-referencingof variations of experiencewith their own material field of emergence,

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hallucinatory from perceptual constructions solidifying and excessively concretising,or preventing formalising, reality. The linearity of movement as a succession of steps and positions is perceptually codependent on the clear distinction of external objects and spatial coordinates. The sensori-motor dancing body establishes a continuous feedback loop with the acoustic forms a coordination of (sound objects or beats) guiding and orienting its movement. As Massumi argues, the perceptual distinction of form is hallucinatory, and thus we can define hallucination as the perceptual basis of the dance performance. The body's self-image, its perceptions of sound and its anticipations of it through movement, are all part of a hallucination, a corporeal defence against material, abstract chaos. We might say that, with its steps, the dancing body concretely follows its own hallucinations.

Drawing on Massumi, we have defined perception as a form of hallucination, i.e. the distinction, or re-construction, of non-existing forms cutting and ordering the chaotic, molecular field of hearing or vision. In other words, every time a body perceivesclear soundsor visual objects it is hallucinating, its adding precise contours and coordinates to an otherwise nonway, on is kinetic This co-dependent with construction and reality. perceptual simultaneous navigatable into to the transformation and of movement a balanced navigation across an ordered orientation, in this sense,sonic and visual auditory with recognisable and visual coordinates: spaceprovided for become Dance is the anchorage of points performance movement. a perfect example of objects this hallucinatory condition, with its perception of successivesound beats as distinguishable sonic body in because the the the perceptionof synchronised performance of accompanying space, objects is isolated hallucination. units already apparently From this point of view and differently from most scientific or anthropological studies, we form hallucination distinguish (recognising the solid, and rigid geo-metric character stable of a can in from linked is its `trance', different time the and space) as a more repetition condition which and to the body's passages(rather than fixed states)and to its metamorphic capacity, a condition coming 46 hallucinatory periodic repetition of objects/beats/steps. From the repetitive after the prolonged, hallucination, as a creation of successive perception points of of reference and of a generator aspect 47 distinguish now a perception which acts as a catalyser of continuous variation While we can in its body dancing the the and moving, perceiving molecular continuity with concretely outside its in Massumi's de-formation a material abstractness abstractness, or potential of which, retains be in from "cannot " Differently (2002a: 177) than topological terms... conceptualized other words, form deriving from it, dis-oriented the the coordination and geometric of movement sensori-motor bodily de-formations and kinetic variations of the body can be topologically described by vectors

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between than two points there is always a third one, and variation only coordinate points: rather happens between points, positions, steps. This in-between of variation hosts the relation of rhythm and trance, as the site of a perceptual process more closely linked to the material field: acoustic below level below the the threshold of auditory perception units of sound objects and perceptual (having a duration of milliseconds and much lower frequencies), microscopic sound particles provoke the qualitative variations of the dancing body as a dis-orienting source. The moment of in-between clear perceptions and steps (the molecular affect of each micro-sound/neuron variation contact) provokes a `trans-e' state: the trance of the dancing body as a moment of suspension and of between difference hallucinations. sensori-motor emerging

In this sense, we can argue that

hallucination and trance are two different but associated moments of dance: while perception (already defined as hallucination)

is the creation of (acoustic, visual) units as reference points

drawing illusory Cartesian the three-dimensional space and the performance of an of an allowing oriented, balanced movement, the trance appears in the middle, in-between these points, as the dynamic or durational dimension of the dancing body, a hyper-dimensional, vectorial field of bodily variation which can be chemically or perceptually accentuated by drugs and/or sounds.

In the same way as hallucination (fixity) differs from the `transe' moment (of passageand from (the beat) be distinguished the apparent of sameness repetition sonic musical variation), can latter difference the the through either qualitative variations or as conceiving production of rhythm, lateral metric exchanges. The oscillation between qualitative variation and repetitiveness, hallucination and trance, is one of the main traits of recent (and less recent) dancemusic basedon the repetition of the drum beat, from tribal rituals to contemporarytechno rave parties (danceparties hours dancer is by into 10-15-20 Totally the the to trance). and more, where aim of captured go of a the sound beat, the dancing body of the `raver' is described by many conventional (and less conventional)analysesof dancemusic as a crazy, spastically moving body caught in a sort of trance. As soon as sound erupts, the raver-dancer raises her arms and starts a frenetic, obsessiveand following dance the path traced by the beat. The particular electronic sound of `techno', as agitated in by `urban is the these the machine musics' played main one of parties, characterisednot only beat, but 4/4 by frequencies, between high low the the of also alternation repetitiveness metric and hypnotic breaks, sounds and sudden while the dancer shifts from a sort of robotic style continuous danced marching, to an ecstatic condition of qualitative sensation and intensive travelling-in of 48 body-mind, by defined Having been thought, perception, movement and some coincide. which form `techno-shamanism', the rave's psychedeliadeploys the technology of electronic of raversas a

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sound and techno in order to perform a perceptual expansion and a therapeutic catharsis going through a sort of `danced-trance'. But how does this perceptual becoming work? Rather than simply affirming the antirhythmic characterof repetitive music, we can trace its rhythmic aspectsalong its frequencyand amplitude alterations and along its more or less differentiated soundscapeof breaks, silent pauses and metric shifts. Even more importantly, the rhythm of the repetitive drum appearsin its resonance with the dancingbody, its sensori-motortransductionand its transcoding into dance:in this case,we can seehow repetition `becomes'rhythmic through the different bodily resonationsgeneratedby the sameformal element (the beat). As argued by Massumi, "Resemblanceis a beginning masking the dimensions. " (Massumi 1987: 2) In this sense,the apparentresemblance new vital advent of whole and cloned repetitivenessof the drum beats masks and precedesa totally new and unpredictable dancing body's the throat or stomach,as singular moments of variation and dison effects seriesof orientation, the infinitesimal suspensionsand indecisions after each sound particle encountersa body molecule. At the same time, results are also unpredictable in the long run, and the stretched temporal duration of the dancerite leadsto unexpectedperceptualvariations. Being basedon difference and repetition (or a repetition of difference), tribal rituals display a level of repetitivenesswhich captures the body through an initial hallucinatory moment. In the specific caseof techno, the initial micro-fascist capture of perception by sound beatsand chemical drugs acts as a catalyser which induces the body to dance, pushing it towards a constant sensorifinds its coordination which extreme example in military marches.The continuation of this motor state can lead the dancer into what Deleuze and Guattari define as a `black hole', mono-tony and repetitivenesstransforming the body into a military organ of disciplined movement, or into a suicidal machine of chemical dependence.At the sametime, the duration factor and the prolonged formal the element (the beat) can also reveal its potential, taking the dancing body repetition of across a temporal threshold, changing its hallucinatory condition into a sort of trance state or itself, to perception starts alter moment of passage: and the movementsaccelerateand condense.On one hand, referenceevents/points positioned at regular intervals periodically orient the listener by hand, the on other refrains; repetition and pulse extended through time, together with constructing the repeatedspatial movements of the body, can induce trance. In this sense,every hallucinatory sequentiality is immanent to the trance-emergence of moments of singularity from the connectability and the transversal relations happening at the same time between sonic and human bodies: trance as a rhythmically induced state. Infinitely stretching itself up to the time of an infinitesimal instant, the dis-orientating and dis-equilibrating moment of trance appearsthrough that

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in intensity balanced falling, flying, is travelling the or or metamorphing, which a of sensationof dancing body repetitively stamping its feet on the floor, and whose extreme example would be this time the hysterical attack. Together with hallucination and trance, the last factor characterising the sensori-motor is invasion body by the the the material qualities of of sound molecular experienceof repetitive kinetic transe the the those textural condition, affect of and microscopic sound as an effect of immerse body into kinesthesis) (or the an ec-stasy49 pure without orientation, which variations beat, the the of prevail on conscious recognition and where the periodicity of where sensations into dimension a confused of continuous, un-coordinatedshifts synchronicity sinks sensori-motor 50 differences intensities and variations sonic start to reveal themselves of movement: and qualitative beyond the metric velocity of the beats, every single beat leaving its mark, or sensation,on the dancingbody and producing a different effect. The extreme example correspondingto this ec-static intensive different is All the the traveller. these aspects condition of spiritual sensation (hallucination, `transe', ecstasy)are neverthelesscoexistent in a dancing body, catching it into an different liberated between totally attraction; or captured, or points of motion poles never oscillating the body is simply dancing. Through ecstatically low frequenciesand hypnotic durations of the beat, the fascistic dimension of the drum's hallucinatory repetitivenessand its capture and hold on the body's movements,on its flows ("a desire desiring its own repression", in schizoanalyticalterms) (Deleuzeand Guattari 2000: 102-105)is simultaneouslypotentialised and dissolved. In this way, the flow, is duration the to the alternated a sensation and sound units of continuous repetitivenessof its dance into desire. Together the with of reversing molecular multiplicity of molar organisation formal aspectof regular periodicity despotically graspingthe body and inducing it to dance,we can body, drum keep distinguish tendency the the to a molecular of repetitive as a capacity put and also through interminable obsessive sequencesand simultaneous imperceptible shifts, into a state of perpetualmotion and mutation. In Deleuzo-Guattarian terms, hallucination, trance and ecstasy can be defined as sensori" both From interferences through the technological physiological cables. passing and motor acoustic percussionsand coloured masks of tribal rituals to phonographsand cine-camerasas the first instrumentsto reproduce sound and moving images, and then from the electrification of these techniquesinto video and audiorecordersanalogically modulating sound and danceas acoustic and digital to up contemporary waves, apparatusesof visual and audio sampling: electromagnetic beyond their progressive historical development, what all these machines share is a common intensified impact. in body to through the their amplified and states perceptual capacity generate 117

From acoustic to electronic and then to digital drumming, a series of different invasive machines hascarried and amplified rhythm acrosstimes and cultural contexts.52 Beyondtraditional criticisms of the technological disembodimentof the human,we can echo Kodwo Eshun's words, arguing that technical machines make the body feel more intensely and along a broader band of sensations: "Sonically speaking, the posthuman era is not one of disembodimentbut the exact reverse: it's a hyperembodiment Migrating from the lab to the ... Science it is itself Sonic talks cultural not only about viruses, studio, a viral contagion." (1999: 00002) In his analysisof electronic dancemusic, Eshun describesthe sound studio as a lab, a research for breaking down beat infinitesimal the the the of as sound molecule. In the lab, the centre Breakbeat is isolated and replicated, becoming the DNA of rhythmic science and the matter of multiple sonic and cultural mixtures. Through the digital sampler, a sequenceof sounds can be played for an infinite number of times, cut into small bits and re-ordered, acceleratedor slowed down. These sampling and mixing techniques can, as we have seen, elude the cognitive and decodingattemptsmade on the basis of a Cartesianbody-mind notion, disrupting the listener's and dancer's hallucinatory perceptions (stratified visions, hearings and organised motions) into a multiplicity of colliding sensations.Electronic sound runs as a flow: not an equilibrated sequence with its pre-determined harmonic and melodic structures but a mutating and non-hierarchical plateau of repetitions and also of rhythms which are never totally countable, fully organisableor is from It a unique static point. no more the case of a `hallucinated' listening subject perceivable tending his ear towards the linear development of musical sequencesfrom a determinatepoint in from body but `ambient directions, the of a multiplicity of sounds' coming all whole space, crossing and dispersing it into scattered sensations,with an effect in-between those of musical perception and the `pure perception' of white noise. This unfixed and contingent charactergives the machinic its from (in transformations acoustic and electronic to digital) the character of an system sound independentlyliving and mutating acoustic chosmosmoved by desire, as the enveloping field of a new technological trance-rite. Intensifying the connection between movement and perception, digital audio-technologies bio-technological example of another rhythmic amplification directly intervening on the constitute dancing body. bio-technological This of a process is not a mechanistic reduction of the capacities intensive dance desire. By but, by it is the aspects of movement and on more contrary, moved its infinitesimal digital to the technologies cut and codify, sonic material composition, reducing down, slow and reproduce and differentiate the material continuum of the sound wave, accelerate different development The sensori-motor of assemblages. acoustic and electro-digital performing

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audio-bio-technology reveals the senses as channels continuously crossed by uncontrollable information, flows human the the time of at same molecular capacity for control and undermining motor equilibrium. The digitalisation of the repetitive drum beat of tribal rituals into techno appears thus as an example of perceptual intensification, pushing all the hallucinatory, trance and ec-static dance infinitesimal the to their rite of extreme: all the prolonged coded repetitions, the aspects frequency, alterations of speed etc at the microscopic scale, and all the breaks and material scratching,silent pausesand hooks characterisingtechno as a digital sound assemblage,intervene on the rhythmic aspectof the sensori-motororganisationof dance.In other words, this thesis argues that, rather than representinga mere apparatusof repetition capturing and rigidifying the movements body, its dancing the technical techno the to thanks of machine sound-system of a performs, infinitesimal quantification and control, a bio-technological operation of rhythmic production and intensification, dissolving the synchroniseddanceinto a field of sensations. There is more than simple repetition in repetitive music: first of all, repetition taken to its extreme starts to reveal its qualitative nature. Think for example of Erik Satie's piano work Vexationsand its endlessrepetition of the samemotif: after a while, each single repetition appears as something else. "Repetition changesnothing in the object repeated, but does change something in the mind which contemplates it. " (Hume in Deleuze 2001: 70) The difference of each single instanceof a repetition is also linked, as Deleuze's quote of Hume shows, to a difference which is in by is It the the repetitive, `habitual' side of techno which paradoxically mind repetition. produced reveals a whole world of microscopic differences, allowing the dancer to become `bodily', imperceptibly, chemically aware of the more subtle qualitative shifts of sound, and to intensely flying somewhereelse, between one step and the other. This intense, nomadic travelling of the dancerwhile being solidly anchoredon the floor constitutesthe rhythm of dance,every microscopic variation taking the body away. With its dis-orienting effects, electronic sound has also been the acoustic material of contemporarydance concerts. For example in Merce Cunningham and John Cage's collaborations, the use of digital technology by both the choreographerand the sound artist allowed a separationof choreographyand sound, so that the traditional expressivelink basedon the interpretation and direct translation of music into physical embodiment through literal, step-for-note correspondenceswas totally dismissed.On its place, the autonomy and mutual coexistenceof two collaborative activities in-between, the space with an extension of the musical stimulus / bodily response maximised interval, and a delineation of rhythm as connection of all the in-betweensand discordancesbetween sound and dance.At the same time, the silent creation of choreographyamplifies the effects of the

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sudden acoustic assault on the unaware performers who only met the soundtrack for the first time only at the moment of the last rehearsal. Against bodily natural actions, dancers started to explore new motor capacities, while trying to find ways of dis-adaptation (or un-learning) of old habits, and of re-adaptation to the dis-equilibrating effect of unexpected loudness: a bodily-thought movement. In this sense, the effect of electronic sound on dancers put them in a `trance', a condition of passage in which thinking and moving were not physically and temporally separated but coincided.

The performance of non-consciously thought motions associatesCunningham's dancersto techno-ravers,transforming the dancing body into a singularity, a critical point in the autonomous wave of electric current crossing flesh, nerves and cables, loudspeakersand senses.As also the Stelarcian bio-technological performances show, dance traces a topological field of energetic accumulations in which head rotations, torso undulations and limbs contractions allow bodily flow to simultaneously and be cut, transforming the whole body into an energeticmap. For energy this reason,the raver is often described as hysterical, or crazy, and for this reason Cunningham's dancers also remind us of hysteria. The connection to the bio-technological apparatus of the electronic and digital sound system triggers not only a random composition of spastic motions, contortionsand agitations, but also a continuum of de-subjectified and unquantifiable sensations. In this chapter, we have tried to identify the linear repetition of steps as the metric side of movement and dance, where trans-coding (or rhythm) appears as an energetic passage and in-between is shift units, when a step about to be followed, and dissolves, into another. qualitative By analysingthe different genetic, anatomical and perceptualmilieus of codification of the moving and dancing body, we have highlighted the emergenceof rhythm as a modulation of energy, or desire,in-betweenthese milieus, in the interval where the genetic and cellular metric of the body is its to steps, and where the performanceof these movements and steps is synchronically combined woven to the linear unfolding of a sound.

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Notes:

1 "Thus the living thing has an exterior milieu of materials, an interior milieu of composing elementsand composed substances,an intermediary milieu of membranesand limits, and an annexed milieu of energy sourcesand actions(Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 313) ýperceptions" For an aestheticdiscussionof spastic hysteria in relation to the body's physiology and movements,and its appearance in painting, seeDeleuze 1995. 3 All bodily levels of modular organisation (perceptualand motor, anatomical, cellular) which form a humanbody and by balance its it to are a multiplicity of microscopic alterations and of own movements, composed control and allow non-consciousand uncontrollable micro-motions which give the body an intensive speed (of self-deformation and alteration).In this sense,we can say that rhythm is the duration of a body, the speed of change betweenthe different points of its spatio-temporalscanning.According to Bergson, on one hand the points and positions of movementonly derive from the perspectiveof humanthought and imaginationwhich, by freezing motion, transforms it into a succession instant, hand, On the continuously and imperceptibly, generatinga emerges at every other variation moments. of static rhythm of bodily and motor de-composition. 4 For is body floor in foot the the the alreadyan after repetitively stamping on emergence of critical moments a example, by in but in its the thresholds undergone gestural production, mere repetition not energetic example of rhythmic movement(for examplethe variations in the speedor pressureof the foot, or the passagesto different motor sequences). The floor/body tactile contact constitutesan energeticcontinuum where the floor surfaceand the anatomicalstructureof the foot act as points of passageand of formal actualisation of this energetic exchange.The floor/dancer connection forms a singular dancing body, a system cutting a continuous energetic flow at its different ends (the floor at one side, the foot at another) and giving it a form (movement). Only in and from repetition (the repetitions of movementand of form), variation (rhythm) can be generated,as the differentiation or de-formation provoked by the molecular passageof energy acrossall material motor formations, across bodies and movements. In Deleuze's words, the objective of all artistic expressionis to make perceptible invisible or inaudible forces of material de-formation. Echoing thesewords, we can identify dance with that particular form of dynamic bodily expression whose excessive functioning (like that of hysterical forces de-formation dance brings body in hysteria) the the as on surface electrical of of a motion: clinic expressionof an always varying and de-forming movement. s This idea finds its absoluterealisation in the most classicalconceptualisationsof ballet, but it is also at the basisof the most recentchoreographers'work. 6 This particular conceptualisation is very much related to a dance style such as `contact improvisation', a particular dancegenre totally based on the fluid continuity and on the active/reactive dynamics of weight and movement,on the phenomenologicalconsciousnessof physical relations and on concatenationsbetween different bodies (between two dancingpartners,or betweena dancer and the floor). 7 As Jose' Gil argues, forces are individualised, codified and vectorialised energies entering reciprocal relations of attraction and repulsion These virtual, topological heterogeneitiestie up the consistency of rhythm and its machinic functioning, as a tension between limited actualisation and unlimited potential, between matter and actual beings. See Gil 1998. 8 On the modification of the relation betweenmicro- and macro- levels of perception by digital technology,seeMurphie 2002. 9 On the Platonic conceptof rhythm as an essentialquality of humanmovement,see Fraisse 1979. 10The turbulent behaviour of the atoms generatesthe material formation of all physical individuals, as a rhythm of declinations and aggregationsor moments of unpredictable emergence.On substantialist and atomistic theories, see Simondon2001. On Democritus and rhythm, seeFraisse 1979.On Epicureanand Lucretian atomism seeParisi 2004. 11The conceptof the body as a `theatreof individuation' is more related to the production, than the imitation of life. See Deleuzeand Guattari 2000: 87. 12"Living substanceis not something which originated and exists distinct and separatefrom the non-living substanceof the world. It has evolved through cosmic time out of the physical matter of the universe and for its continued growth and evolution requiresnot only a supply of the world's available energy but the ability to respondto a rangeof changein the environment, mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electromagnetic." (Wyburn, Pickford and Hirst 1967: 2) Identifying rhythm with environmental oscillation and with the periodicity of the subsequent chemical reactions, classical by between the the on caused studies metric correspondence changes cadenced energetic -focus chronobiologicalplanetarymovementsand the endogenousbiological metersof living bodies. 13"Emotions are built from simple reactions that easily promote the survival of an organism and thus could easily (Damasio 2003: 30) in In Damasio's evolutionary theory of emotions, all unicellular and evolution". prevail multicellular organisms,from amoebasto human bodies, are capableof emotive reaction to energy, but the homeostatic becomes progressively more sophisticated.Most living creatures have no brain to feel or think: they machine organic

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"organisms `emotionally': detect them the to can produce advantageous of certain stimuli and respond presence only feeling deciding lead the unfolding of to to those that and even good results without without produce reactions, reactions thosereactions.And it is apparentfrom the makeupof those reactionsthat, as they take place, the organismmovesfor a certain period toward states of greater or lesser physiological balance." (51) Nevertheless,there is a tension between Damsio's concept of `emotion' (as the homeostatic reaction of an organism as a closed living system to maintain body be i. `affect', to Spinoza's the to the of of as a affect and affected, e. potential concept potential equilibrium) and transform itself, an intensive power which does not correspondwith either accumulation or preservationas equilibrium dynamics.Rather than preservation, affect is the potential of the body to change in its relations with all sorts of other bodies. 14(Margulis 1998:32) According to this theory, heterogeneousassemblagesof moleculesand compounds,unicellular 2004: invasion bodies. See Parisi bodies, though trading, cellular and parasitism, produce new gene and multicellular 15. 15"These little organelles are the sites where oxygen gas from the air reacts with food molecules to yield chemical energy." (Margulis 1998:22-25) 16(Margulis 1998: 29-37) From a field or plane of energetic attraction, non-nucleatedcells of bacteria with their own forming from the through organelles symbiotic relations, which the nucleus and the parasitical genes merged organisation of the eukaryotic cell derive (from the first microbes with nuclei to the eukaryotic cells of all other multicellular organisms). 17Bio-technology emergedin the late '70s and early '80s as a technique for deciphering, re-ordering and re-combining the geneticmaterial of bodies, and as a way to map genetic sequencesand make them manipulatableand reproduciblead infinitum (for examplewith Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen's experimentson the recombination of DNA molecules). On bio-technology,seeParisi 2004. 18According to Bergson, movement in itself is more, and less, than the assemblageof positions and their order. Less, becauseto assemblethe different positions of a movement you have to add an intelligence, a representationof the by determines because duration is More, the mere a variation, every a which not produced movement movement. juxtaposition of points. SeeBergson2002: 79 and Deleuze2002a: 36. 19When two opposing forces meet, the major one always leavesbehind a remainderwhich measurestheir power relation and their gap, as a precipitate appearingin residual form. SeeGil 1998: 105. 20"The improvising dancertakes back and forth betweenthe known and the unknown, betweenthe familiar/reliable and " (Allbright and Gere 2003: 3) Dance theory often puts the accent on the notion of the unanticipated/unpredictable. for dance itself improvisation distinguishing the to others style, a genre among as a particular as related unpredictability the lack of a pre-existing choreography. Yet, I would like to highlight how improvisation only succeedsto obtain level has the already been actualised, escaping the guidelines of of what of motion at macroscopic unpredictability from bodily habits, decisions. Rather, but the virtual capabilities and acquired subsequent still resulting choreography its in body itself threshold the the the to of with endowing potential and pass of every movement, mutate unpredictability be here. explored stratification, will anatomical own 21 "[I]is impossible to state exactly where one segment leaves off and another begins. The first reason for this indeterminacyis that the physical movementsof a particular moving body part glide or slur from one to another,so that often at no one instant could one cut the continuum... when the motion of two body parts producesa sequenceof two " (Balazs in Gil 1998: 112) segments...This results in an overlap of segments. 22For a brief accountof the physiology and culture of break dance,seeSommer2004. 23The electric field of movement is codified by the dancing body into vertical forces: oppositional forces of floor and feet, gravity and escapevelocity (as the speedat which a body overcomesthe gravitational pull of anotherbody, or the body's flight). The combination of all these forces is at the basis of static or kinetic balancealong a vertical axis always individuating a centre of gravity in the displacementsof the dancing body. Breakdance makes the local, peripheral journey of electric energy fly off this gravitational centralisation, by continuously shifting the body off its vertical uprightnessand allowing it to actually spin and rotate on all its available surfaces. 24"Since the external world is fairly stable, we are usually able to judge the position of an object in spacerelative to the horizon. This frame of reference provides a definition of horizontal; lines perpendicular to the horizon are defined as indicator is by body judge in Man A the the the position of objects provided position of second space. can vertical. it Since he is in his to to that the can cues, position. able upright maintain of visual own position even absence relative be assumedthat the earth's gravity is a major influence on the perception of the vertical." Murch 1973: 168. 25"The hinging of the proprioceptive on the visual in the movementof orientation is a synaestheticinterfusion. It is not the only one. Each side, for example, enters into its own synaestheticfusion with the tactile: a determinate,positioned bumps is by is the touch; tropism and twisting turning of proprioceptive and potential assisted and past a potential sight the tactile feedbackfrom the soles of our feet. There are many other synaestheticconjunctions, involving all the senses Although synaestheticforms are often called "maps," they are in various combinations, including smell and hearing ... lesscartographicin the traditional sensethan "diagrammatic" " (Massumi 2002a: 186) ...

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26The Third Hand becomesable to pinch, grasp,releaseand rotate its wrist at 270° (clock-wise and counterclock-wise), and is provided with a tactile feedback system providing a rudimentary sense of touch through the stimulation of electrodesplaced in the arm. SeeBell and Kennedy2001. 27According to Damasio, "We humans, least.... By to to can strive control our emotions, some at extent wilfully ... controlling our interaction with objects that causeemotionswe are in effect exerting some control over the life process and leading the organism into greater or lesser harmony, as Spinoza would wish. We are in effect overriding the tyrannical automaticity and mindlessnessof the emotional machine." (Damasio 2003: 52) But for Damasio control mechanismsact on the organic homeostatic machine, therefore distinguishing his conception from the open body contemplatedby Spinoza's `affect'. 28 In perceptual psychology, the sensation/perceptiondichotomy refers to a peripheral/central schemaof perception. This sensation/perceptiondifference is taken further by Bergson, who distinguishes between the actual nature of affections (what perceptual psychology seesas sensation),and the virtual nature of perceptions as that which gives the body (or living being or subject) the senseof its capacity, and so the possibility to act. Affections (or sensations)are not unextendedbut vaguely localised. The distinction of sensationsand the evocation of different images of sensorial impression is then related to different perceptual qualities and the translation of affections into sight, touch, ý9 roprioceptivedata, as their correspondingideas.SeeBergson 1991. "Now we may well ask whether the electrical stimulus does not include different components,answeringobjectively to sensationsof different kinds, and whether the office of each sense is not merely to extract from the whole the its it from body, it Now the that that soand use of each of concerns results nature our as shall see, we component ... called sensoryelementshas its own real action, which must be of the same kind as its virtual action on the external objects which it usually perceives; and thus we can understandhow it is that each of the sensory nerves appearsto vibrate accordingto a fixed mannerof sensation." (Bergson 1991:48) 30"What is a wave? In acoustics it is defined as a disturbance (wavefront) that propagatescontinuously through a medium or through space.A wave oscillation moves away from a sourceand transports no significant amountof matter over large distancesof propagation." (Roads 2001: 49) Democritus' atomism and Lucretius' notion of the `clinamen' were the basisfor a tradition of corpusculartheories of sound: in 1616, Beekman's theory of soundarguedthat vibrating in in directions, in its light; into flame then, the the same projected all way a candle air particles spreads cut objects 1907, Einstein argued that the sonic vibration occurs at the quantum level of atomic structure, individuating acoustical quantaof energy:the phonons.(51) 31 "Today we would say that the wave and particle theories of sound are not opposed. Rather, they reflect complementarypoints of view. In matter, such as water, waves move on a macro scale, but water is composedof moleculesmoving on a micro scale. Sound can be seenin a similar way, either wavelike or particle-like, dependingupon the scaleof measurement,the density of particles, and the type of operationsthat we apply to it." (Roads2001: 55) 32The disturbanceconsists of regions of pressureslightly above and below the equilibrium atmosphericpressure.The mechanismseemsfairly simple: the drumhead is activated and it vibrates back and forth. When the drumheadpushes forward, air molecules in front of it are compressed.When it pulls back, that area is rarefied. These multiple motions trace a sinusoidalcurve, as the fundamentalwaveform of all simple harmonic motions. 33The physical description of sound used here is taken from Alton Everest, 1996. 34 The outer ear is composed of the pinna (the part we actually see) and the auditory canal or meatus.Sound travels down the meatusand causesthe eardrum, or tympanic membrane,to vibrate. These vibrations are transmittedthrough the middle ear by three small bones,the ossicles,to a membrane-coveredopening (the oval window) in the bony wall of the spiral-shapedstructure of the inner ear - the cochlea.Acoustic stimuli are perceived through the organelles(or cilia) of the mechanoreceptivecells of the internal ear, and through a process of progressive diffusion of mechanical vibrations (of auditory receptors) and electrical excitations (of neural cells). See Wyburn, Pickford and Hirst, 1964: 50 and 117. 35The definition of `sound object' used here is different from that of musical note, heterogeneityand homogeneity(of pitch, timbre, duration) representingtheir respectivecharacters.To the non-static and variable nature of sound objects (objects with different properties and forming different classes),traditional western music always preferredthe invariant 2001. limited for its See Roads transitional their theorisations possibilities, and of notes, and productions. p6roperties According to Paul Fraisse,synchronisation(especially with fast sequences)constitutesan autonomousand involuntary reactive systemof the human body, a motor induction forcing the body to produce its beats in accordancewith sound. SeeFraisse1979. 37On the physicsof light and vision, the referencetext here is Murch 1973. 38The recognition of objects depends on their position and orientation, therefore providing a basis for the parallel body: "Perhaps some objects are recognized in a single orientation becausethey are almost always the of orientation encounteredin that orientation. The recognition of other objects normally viewed in a variety of orientations is not impaired by such rotation." (Murch 1973: 126)

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39According to Massumi, "When you place bricks together to build four walls and then put a body inside, something similar is happening.The memories,habits, and tropisms the body carries with it in the associated,intensiveevent space of incorporealor abstractmovement ... constitute an aggregateof relation. All the goings-on and passings-byaroundthe building constituteanother aggregateof relation: a sea of movements,each of which has a potential effect on the body, capableof modulating which determinatethreadsare pulled from the relational continuum it carries." (2002a: 204) ao As stated by Massumi, bodies only exist implicated into each other as differential plug-ins, poles of the same body from its is "What the apart extensions of each other. a perceiving sum of perceivings,actual virtual connectability, is its being-perceiveds, " is from A What thing thing the and a perceived apart sum of actual potential? and possible? only its being-perceiveds,a body is only its perceivings.(2002a: 95) 41(Massumi 2002a: 92) Every actual perceptual connection is the actualisation of only one among a myriad of these body be known: but forces implicated in the totally singular can never colours outsidethe visible each plug-ins, potential flower different be flower bee is large The forces the too to to. too a or connected a sees not small, or subtle, spectrum, human sees, but they are only two different, particular selections from the singular multiplicity of the thing as a complexity of potential connections. 42 Accordingly, we can define perceptions as bodily actions in a latent, or virtual, state, "the registering of the 98) 2002a: in " (Massumi the connection actually connections singularity of under way. of potential a multiplicity "fallout from perception.Endo-fallout: pure mixture, the in-mixing out of the most-mixed. A receding into a latencythat is not just the absenceof action but, intensely,a posing for more: an augmentation." (93) 43(Massumi 2002a: 146) As shown by the scientific experimentson the Ganzfeld (total field) of vision undertakenby Gestalt psychologists,the pure field of vision (pure retinal stimulation by light particles) can only be describedas an indefinite, distance fog determinate an measure, or any attribute: or a shape, other of no precise unfocusablecloud indeterminate,ambiguoussensationwith no clear object. In this sense,pure vision appearsas a vacuum perceptionor, in its At disappearing the terms, most of particles striking chaos. a appearing and retina: perceptual random physical concrete,visual perception is white light on the nerves,an objective physiological and physical basis coinciding with a never totally realised,pure perceptual abstraction. In its abstract,virtual character,this pure field of perceptionappears because it is infinitely but Except "a that that a point, not curve approaches never point a reaches. attractor, as a physical The curve moves toward the abstractlimit as if its concrete experiencedependedon it. As it it can never be arrived at ... does.The limit, though abstract, is not unreal It is virtual. It is reality-giving. Since the reality it gives is a movement ... or tendency,the limit may be called a virtual attractor (borrowing once again from chaostheory)." (146) as"Perception involves the processingof very complex stimulus patterns; due to the volume of incoming stimuli, some kind of organization of input is necessary.Consider how chaotic the visual world would be if each stimulus and the dimension of each stimulus (brightness, color, form, etc.) required serial processing. Also, in light of the limited capacitiesof the sensory register and in particular the short-term storage, the establishmentof relationships between input and organization of pattern would be required in order to sample more than a minute detail of the environment. [Gestalt]'s major tenet was that perception involves the organizationof sensoryinput into wholes or units ratherthan the processingof separatesensations." (Murch 1973: 118-119) asIn psychologicalterms, many factors can combine to bring about hallucinations, also among `normal' people, such as through sleep deprivation or hallucinatory drugs. Other factors causing psychotic, hallucinatory reactions can be hereditary and cultural predispositions, excessive arousal in anxiety or panic, auto-intoxication through stress, from dissociative impair information dehydration, distort that the a and mechanisms or of and reception exhaustion frightening social environment. As for the chemical factors (or `psychedelic' substancessuch as LSD, Psylocibin from from impair input by decreasing the transmission of nerve the they peyote cactus), sensory mescaline mushrooms, impulses,or by increasing it and disrupting the orderly input of information and `jamming the circuits'. Hallucinations by jamming input be induced the through circuits overload produced mechanically, bombarding the sensory also can for bright intense flashing lights loud Massumi, According this to stimuli, example with and with noise. system hallucinatory responseto an excessively intensestimulation correspondsto the normal, habitual reactionsof the body to lack `pathological' forms hallucination the of and evident, of a more chaotic reality, of only results are already an feedback of this form of `artificial' creation with the continuous variation of movement. In this sense,the excessive forms is the perceptual solution of the body to an excessof affective potential: to orient and of non-existent creation balance itself in a chaotic material field, the body can only hallucinate, creating constant objects where there is only See it the that to reality. and acoustic points of visual reference an ever-changing will allow navigate confusion, as Massumi2002a: 155. 46Hallucination and trance have been the objects of different kinds of studies in different disciplines. In physical terms, trance is defined as a bodily expression of the unconscious,or subliminal level of the psyche. The first, most ancient it trance as a spiritual (divine or diabolic) phenomenonof possession.The origin of thesestudies considered on writings is to be traced back to Hippocrates in the 4`hcentury BC (but also the New Testament),and the sametheoriesremained in (like first Sydenham in 1780) From the the their theories. physicians exposed a spiritual phenomenon valid until (therefore to a phenomenonof an instinctual nature), the trance began to be seen in more rational shamanism relation terms, as a form of hysteria. From 1780 to 1880, Mesmer's) theory of magnetismreducedthe trance to a quasi-physical

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eventto be cured with exorcismsof different kinds or, from a more scientific point of view, with hypnotism. From 1880 to 1900the CharcoterieSchool proposed a new method of hypnotism for hystero-epileptics,and theseeventsled to the modern hypnotherapies,while simultaneousbeliefs attributed the trance to phantasmaticpresencesand still recurredto mediumship. At the beginning of the 20`h century, the British Medical Association and the first Freudian writings introduced a new, more materialist approach to the subject, until the 1945, so that the phenomenonstarted to be analysedin terms of a syncretismof mind and the brain. The term used by psychotherapistsand psychoanalystssuch as Georg Groddeck, Carl Jung and Morton Prince was `co-consciousness'.From the 1945 to 1989, the psychological materialist approachof schools such as behaviourismwas predominant,together with the reduction of the phenomenon to autism of psychopathologyby psychiatrists.Neurologists were also dealing with phenomenaof hysterical epidemics, and also anthropologistsdealt with it from a 'culturalist' point of view. At the sametime, a seriesof parapsychologists proliferated. The main definition of trance today is that of a particular state of mind beyond consciousperception,a sort in body the of which thought and action coincide, with a total oblivion of one's surroundings, movement of automatic "with an internal senseof rightness - it is not merely mechanical,it is not only spiritual; it is somethingof both, on a different plane and a more remote one." Arnold Palmer quoted in Inglis 1989: 7) In this work, trance will be considered as an in-between,a sort of moment of passageto a plane of immanence,and will be differentiated from hallucination history For a of trance studies,seeInglis 1989. ecstasy. and 47In this continuousemergenceof variation, the very distinction betweenthe outside of light or sound particles and the inside of the human body appearsas a hallucinatory product. Only back-formed, the body appearsas a moving object among others, and all spatial distinctions (inside-outside,distance)are 'artificially' derived from molecular movements and variations. 49My analysis does not go beyond a generic definition of techno, and does not deal with the historical and cultural developmentof techno in different times and places (Chicago and Detroit, Ibiza and Italy in the '80s), nor with the different definitions of `acid house', `house', 'techno', 'breakbeat', 'elektro-techno' etc, used to differentiate the different sub-genresassociatedto techno's metric and qualitative variations. What this work is interestedin is mainly the fundamentalreliance of techno as a particular genreon one main element,the beat, and its play of alternation with other sonic elements, as an example of meter/rhythm shift: a difference-generating repetition. For a history and a contextualisationof techno, seeSalvatore 1998 and Reynolds 1998. a' As `pure motion', this term is used here in the senseof an ec-stasis(from the greek `stasis', meaning stasis,stop), thereforeof being without stop. 50From a sociological point of view, the samecapture of techno as a revolutionary genre created in the counter-cultural is its its black into Detroit's through transformation and shift ghettos operated, of a white music prevalently atmosphere towards those hippie tendencieswhich are also associatedto commercialisation and capitalist monopolisation. Rather than differentiation (sonic but also social, ethnic), the repetition of samenessbecomes the main leit-motif of much techno production in both the USA and Europe. In the most experimental cases, a social differentiation is revealed betweenthe mass(as an object of standardisationand commercialisation) and the pack, through a sonic creation which is able to have an impact on many people while leaving enough space for difference to emerge. For a sociological Salvatore 1998. techno, the of see of origins analysis s' On technology and hallucination, see Scelsi 1990: 73. According to Paul Virilio, with visual technologies, from telescopesand lenses to cameras, eyes were reduced to a state of rigid and invariable structural immobility, while instantaneoussectionswere seized by the photographic or cinematographiclens. Confronted with the new velocity and intensity of information, sight started to be considered as incapable to grasp things, so a technical machine became necessaryto block vision and select images.With "the deregulationof perception came a different kind of diaspora,the longer believe their eyes,when their faith in perception becameslave to the the could when mass no panic of moment ... in other words, the visual field was reduced to the line of a sighting device." The faith in the technical sightline ... conjunction betweencommunication technologiesand totalitarianism determineda re-direction of the perceptualnow, a logistics delocalising of perception and micro-political geometrical optics, in this way exercising an micro-physical affective control. (Virilio 1994: 13) 52For a history of electronic sound,see Shapiro 2000.

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4. Anthropo/cultural

machines and dancing packs

This chapterarguesthat the transduction from the bio-physical to the socio-cultural stratification of dancehappensas a processof `overcodification' ("a certain way in which experiencefolds back on itself') (Massumi 2002a: 181) of the biological, anatomical and perceptual traits of a moving and dancing body. The first section of the chapter explores how the anthropological organisation of dancein spatio-temporalmilieus is basedon the overcodification of bodily stepsand gesturaltraits beat-step into (for the their the territorialisation as signs, example sequences) and on of expression dancerite as a systemof collective individuation with its own rules and patterns,its own metersand codes.At the sametime, the rhythmic aspectof rituals emergesfrom this metrics as a transversal energetic transmission between different components (sounds, colours, bodily movements). The second section focuses on the propagation and organisation of rhythm and dance rituals in linear diffusion kine-graphic tracing map of a across populations of the same geographic space, ethnic and cultural pool, but also individuating the rhythmic contaminations cutting acrossthem. The third section follows the diffusion of rhythm across time, distinguishing the chrono-kinetic, linear progression of ritual tradition from the non-linear temporality of rhythm and the reby of old ancient contemporarytechno-raves. rites actualisation Re-actualising an old, classical genre such as ballet in the modern kinetic territory of dance its and of combination with electronic sound, Merce Cunningham's contemporary form its linear from deviate a codified of performative expression choreographiesmake very historical evolution, subtracting it from its static fossilisation and at the sametime generatingwhat Roger Copeland defines as a "distinctive form of contemporary classicism." (Copeland 2004: 104) According to Copeland, the main feature distinguishing Cunningham's `modern classicism' is the independencebetweenthe composing elementsof his dances,for example of movement and sound. As Copeland argues, "He was the first choreographerto embrace the conditions that characterize the second half of the century: the ever increasing dissociation of sound and image; information bordering digital impact the the complexities on chaos; perceptual overload; of electronics; (106) Rather by " than so on. expressive or representationalcorrespondences,the revolution, and in dance the participating performance are only associatedby a common sonic and visual elements compositionalprocess:chanceas the main generativemethod sharedby the choreographerand John Cage,a method with producesan apparently random behaviour with its own, unpredictablepatterns. As examplesof "wild disorder embeddedin stable structure," (JamesYork in Copeland2004: 109) these choreographiescreate, as already suggested,a con-fused and unpredictable combination of lights and sounds that are not in an expressive or pre-choreographedrelation with the steps and, 126

being only joined in the last rehearsalor in the first performance,suddenly appear in the ears and balance dancers, the their as a veritable assault on capacities.As Carolyn orientation and eyes of Brown, a previous member of the CunninghamDanceCompany,recollects, Usually we would hear the music and feel the lighting in the first performance. I will not pretend that this is not extremely difficult for the dancers. Loudness, especially unexpectedloudness,affects the inner ear, the seat of balance, of equilibrium. Continual loudness can make one irritable, nauseous,even faint. Brilliant light which comes on suddenly can momentarily blind and disorient the dancer and that too affects the balance, and makes quick-moving exits hazardous; darkness cripples one's sense of space and therefore the fullness of movement itself. (Brown in Copeland2004: 149)

Against the direct music/dance accompaniment, Cunningham's choreography takes the dancerinto a condition apparently different from that of the techno-raver, a condition of resistance to external stimuli and of exclusive immersion into the performance of movement: in other words, but different be to two or phases thinking and moving cannot separatedand attributed moments kinetic In in this way, the choreographer condition of ec-stasis. of non-conscious a sort coincide takes the ballet performance beyond the main traditional charactersof the genre (music/movement be in dancers kinesis that the only can condition of which ecstatic absolute expressivity), putting dancing beyond their supposedspontaneousand emotional characterand to tribal rituals, compared beyond the hallucinatory capture of the body into the metrics of the sound beat. As already argued, the hallucinatory condition of the dancing body following the beat as a sonic guide for its into in by is the an ec-static entrance state of sensations which rhythmic changed movements differencesare felt. In both cases,counting or following the beats is impossible, and the rhythm of in in body. distribution And dance to the the of movement only starts appear along an autonomous both cases,what the experience of absolute movement achieves is total, pure kinesis, a going beyond one's self and one's consciousperceptionswhile moving, a condition which is provoked, in the two apparently incommunicable territories of Cunningham's choreography and of tribal dance, by a total immersion into movement. In other words, theatrical dance performance can be a much dance, is be, that thought to tribal experience as commonly non-conscious while more ec-staticand by dimensions, is of an unusual combination of characterised metric and rhythmic see, we will counting and sensing. As Claudia Zavlaskys argues, in almost every culture number words and systems of by being be (objects to standardised paired off gestural patterns are accompanied counted counting for examplewith the digits, fingers or toes, of a person's body), and in the past these systemswent ' in belief the special significance, and power, of certain numbers. Despite the together with the 127

presenceof numerical calculations as part of everyday trade and other practical activities, numbers discusses following The to the simultaneous associated magical chapter were power. and counting in bring `disciplined' light `free' trying to to the and way aspectsof rites, mathematicaland magic, is de-codified dance. From this point of view, the codified and stratum of on cultural which rhythm the sound/light/movementassemblageof the dance ritual and its trance-effects are defined as an in becoming differently actualised by the choreutic traditions of continuous and abstractmachine different times and places. The chapter also traces a rhythmic cultural map non coincident with national confinesand showing the relations, rather than the closure, of different spatial and temporal level between happen The does the these communication actualisation. zones on not points of ritual have (i. bodies, the the that signs of rituals e. objects, movements of cultural codification, and become through this and symbolic codification) qualitative, non-signifying traits acquiredsemiotic be times, that and places or cultures, on a material social reduced people, cannot plane connecting to the physical or the organic. The main examples,or componentsof this spatio-temporal,cultural map are the Moroccan `gnawa' deriving from the deportation of Nigerians beyond the Sahara;the Italian `tarantism' as another ritual variant originated in South Italy after the first landings of the Maghreb populations; the rave parties appeared,since the early `80s, all around the globe as the latestexamplesof the time-travelling abstractmachineof ritual dance. As Paul Gilroy suggestedin his book The Black Atlantic, long before the invention of the long-playing record, ships were the most important conduits of communication across the sea. (Gilroy 1999: 113) In this sense,navigation and nomadism,the continuous crisscrossingof the sea, the desertor the mountains by rhythm, were associatedto the territorialisations of different rituals. And it is the crossing of particular `worlds' such as the Saharadesert or the Mediterraneansea,but also the Atlantic and other terrestrial or aquatic spaces,by traditions and sounds of different times and continents, that allows us to understandthe working of rituals and their spatial or temporal becoming: in Gilroy's words, the becoming of rhythm and dance has no roots, but routes. The by book do traced this not correspondto precise confines but, "On the contrary, geographicalroutes the racesand cultures designateregions on [a body without organs] - that is, zones of intensities, We fields. fields of potentials. Phenomenaof individualization these are pass produced within ... from one field to another by crossing thresholds: we never stop migrating, we become other individuals

departing becomesas easy as being born or dying." (Deleuze and Guattari 2000: and ...

85) As Deleuze and Guattari argue, becoming does not belong to history (or geography),which fixed have be designate in that to conditions overcome order to become and to create only 77-107) In (2002b: other words, the chronological and geographicaldifferentiations somethingnew. 128,

of rites are not enough to show the becoming and the creativity of the abstract machine of ritual. On the contrary, dance drags time and space in a line of de-territorialisation, which is what makes us go from the movements of old tribes to the contemporary theatre performances, through immanence. The various territorial re-ritualisations are therefore all linked to a common immanent form which, in Deleuze and Guattari's words, is able to cross the seas. The ritual, as an abstract machine, delineates a territory. It does not have any precise object, and therefore it can have a past, present or future form. But despite the heterogeneity of the different modes of realisation, the concept of an isomorphy of these modalities with respect to the ritual's

abstract machine does not simply

is becoming its This but differences temporal through and spatial routes. produces accompany is it. falls back into it, but It does have beginning history by or end not of any and part not generated but only an environment, and in this sense Deleuze and Guattari argue that becoming is more it is history historical. But time, the the than at same set of conditions which make geographic is it. for that to always escaping experience something us possible

The conceptualisationof a becoming of the danceritual as having routes, rather than roots, is also exemplified by Cunningham's conceptof danceand choreography: As a result, Cunningham's dancers, unlike earlier modern dancers, rarely appear "glued" to one spot; and they never treat the floor as a metaphorical substitute for "the earth." Cunningham has criticized the earlier modern dance choreographers' comparatively static treatment of space. (Copeland 2004: 142)

Whilst most modern dance, especially in the first half of the 20th century, was often fixed location in in Cunningham's spatial unique, sacred or point, a performancesspace performed becomestotally decentralisedand stagecentre does not representany privileged position: no single him `rooted' for is than the others. At the same time, this sacred, powerful or more spot Martha dancers `primitivist' the overcomes as conceptualisation such attitude of choreographic Graham, and their definition of the ancient dance ritual as an origin, a historical root, of modern Cunningham's for Copeland On dance the contrary, conception of rejects roots what performances. defines as `global village collages' (for example the 1982 performance in which he danced in his New York studio accompanied by a sound score transmitted live over the telephone line from Texas): "The deep rootednessof the tribal village gives way to the relativism and simultaneity of the global village."2 Through this decentredconception of cultural communication, a densenetwork dance different Earth, thus the time, maps a motions vision of and of where space and of sounds from historical depart but do geographic or not roots, are rhizomatic territorialisations of a rituals is in It defined Cunningham's be ballet this that sense as re-actualisation of can virtual rhythmicity. 129

a rite. Notions of spontaneity, emotionality and naturalnessof movement as the universal dance in be found to primitive rituals and linearly transmitted through generations,are replaced principle by that of an engineering and codification of motion and dance produced by different artificial, or transversal,conjunctions. One of these transversal rhythmic encountersanimated the coastsof South Italy in the I Ith became 12`h those coasts when a point of attraction and contact betweenthe natives centuries, and and the Saracens,a North-African Islamic population coming from the Maghreb desert. The mixture of the two ethnicities catalysedthe spreadof a cathartic dance ritual (which was practiced for almost ten centuries and up to the 1950s and '60s in Apulia) related to the belief that the illness bite be the of a spider was cause of an which could only cured through a particular poisonous music and dancerite. At the same time, the coast startedto be infested by a strangemulticoloured in local dialect defined the as `tarantula' or `taranta'. Caught into the web of these spider, began to show the symptoms of a strange new syndrome relations, people arachno/human bursts fever, by depression, sudden of aches and continuous trembling and characterised 3 by bite: hallucination, as the symptomatology provoked the taranta's the syndromeof tarantism. In bring back the `tarantata' (the bitten person,often to and social order and physical order re-establish infected healthy body had dance, from blood her the to to the a state, sweat and a woman) purify dance, In codification of words, a new movement other and a new cathartic ritual, was poison. from did disposition from but the encounter any not originate natural which resulted engineered betweenthe biological and cultural componentsof two worlds. In this sense,the tribal rite of the Saracensdoes not constitute a primitive origin but a different actualisation of the abstractmachine (or common immanent form) of a ritual which, after the encounter between various components (people, animals, sounds), becomes a different assemblage,with a different code and a different territoriality. In the machine of the `tarantism' ritual, the tarantata's hysterical performance was becoming her body into for the temporary to of an attractor, a point of aggregation connected forces of pathological transformation (from melancholia to the physical and social and subjective hysteria individual and collective provoked by famine or plague epidemics). The spastic, cultural, hysterical behaviour of the tarantata's body clearly showed how rhythm, sound and dancebecome the generating current flowing across limited social contacts: together with viruses and bacteria, bacillus In the the repetitive codification of everyday social viral of exchange rhythm. also people (work, its ) migration, actions and rituals etc. where each group or population constructs movements dance function. In times the spaces, trans-coding and ritual performs a other pre-determined own, limited be it that the argued spaces and the circular temporalities of everyday can words, 130

disrupted and re-organised by the rhythmic event of the dance rite. Events (for are movements example dance events) are never purely chaotic, spontaneous or random, but always show their own forms of re-organisation. The irruption of difference on the spatial and temporal autocatalytic is disciplined by the ritual dancing thus the social group simultaneously and of revealed milieus body.

This chapter traces the passage from the bio-physical to the cultural organisation of a dancing body (which we have already defined as an anthropomorphic, bipedal and erect, animal 4 dance becomes body), while a ritual. The main argument is the codification of movement into dance as a human activity based on particular rules of synchronisation and imitation: dance as a kinetic form of socio-cultural organisation of human societies.' The bio-physical structure and capacity for sensori-motorcoordination and synchronisationcharacterisingthe human body become the substratumfor the cultural stratification of rhythm, through the re-production of gesturesand into formed bodily signs ordered semiotically substancesof symbolic expression. stepsas This cultural organisation of the rhythmic body/energy relation works through three main dance the milieu where a compositional ritual representsthe aggregate,or the cell, of the milieus: larger social body crossed by rhythm; a spatio-temporal milieu (milieu of migrations), where the is body by the of social rhythmicised a horizontal exchange across bodies and cultural structure (milieu invariance linear temporal traditions), the time of a of a milieu where or populations; interrupted and varied by the passageof rhythm. The milieus of the dance cultural structure are ritual are composedof periodic repetitions: the regular patterns and codified movements,gestures (e. the the choreutic modules of as ritual g. the tarantata's small jumps and rotations); the steps and distribution of the ritual as a seriesof copies or reproductions from an original geographic particular for its historical persistence.At the the and of recurrent periodicity ritual matrix; allowing ancestral the same time, a spatial and a temporal milieu of regulated motor sequencesdistribute these These to temporal and a precise perimeter according specific on and rules. modules numerical distributions larger also are reflected on a scale: the motor habits of specific ethnic spatio-temporal historical in kinetic give moments a particular codification and territoriality to these groups passagesand exchanges. Transducing the bio-physical dynamics of dance onto the socio-cultural level, we can point habits linked kinetic how to particular ritual traditions compose an almost static grid the out it the circulation of rhythm and giving codes and territorialities. On a first level, energy moulding (as soundor colour) pushesbodies to dance in particular ways, times and spaces:in this sense,we have defined the ritual as the cell (or minimal aggregate)in the cultural organisation of rhythm. The immediate (as feel impulse the to rhythm motor and the automatic motion following the capacity 131

perception of another movement or a sound), is usually connected to a particular disposition for dancemanifestedby only some populations belonging to a certain genetic pool. (D'Aronco 1983) The genetic physiological factors (such as rhythmic disposition or excitability, and physical resistance) associated to ethnic groups are usually considered as the bio-physical content of forms kind different between traditions, of choreutic and of contact every or particular relation traditions is suspiciously considered as a false reproduction, an unsuccessful imitation by dancers different born land, in different different therefore on a raised a environment and were acquired who bodily featuresand capacities, qualities and habits. (D'Aronco 1989: 15) At yet another level, the dance the segmentations of study of recognise a gradual evolutionary hierarchy anthropological betweenless and more refined practices, as an indicatory classification of the degreeof civilisation of a population along the chronological line. (1989) At the sametime, we can define rhythm as the becoming of the ritual dancing body through the lateral transmissions and contagions occurring across geographic and cultural segments,as a trans-coding of kinetic codes, or as a retro-viral temporality disrupting the chronological linearity of tradition and heredity. According to Simondon, the processof cultural codification leading to the gridlock of predeterminatepositions and movements,behavioursand actions is ontologically precededby a social borders, dimension the no as with of emergenceprior to all natural/cultural and also relationality individual/collective, distinction. (2001) For Massumi, this field of relationality is an emergentand in-between becoming) (or a moment of rather than a sum of relations between already generative individuals, parts or units; accordingly, we can use rhythm to conceptualisethis void inconstituted betweenbio-physical organisations and cultural functions, as a space of potential and change.6 In other words, the cultural over-codification of bio-physical processes entails a continuous transformation and becoming of movement and dance: the passagefrom nature to culture is not a be in to understood hierarchical terms, but a continuous rhythm of reciprocal univocal relation influences, of genetic, motor and perceptual elements influencing the socio-cultural disposition of humanbodies and populations, and of cultural and kinetic codes influencing the physiological level of a moving body. Disturbing social equilibrium and spatio-temporal or kinetic habits, rhythm acts as a virus whose social propagation is often linked to critical moments of epidemic diffusion across a continuum of `populational' contacts. The pathological, hysterical excessesof a ritual dancing body, and its simultaneous ordering into a coded system of disciplined gesturesand steps to be imitated or passeddown to successivegenerations,makesthe parallel forces of cultural aggregation and dis-aggregation(the `power' and `puissance'of a dancing body) clearly perceptible. On one hand, reducing dance to the pre-supposedspontaneity of the socially dis-aggregated individual transforms dance into a supposedly free subjective movement successively codified 132

through cultural rules and laws. On the other hand, considering the code as an a priori, a principle of intersubjectivity from which individual kinetic realisations derive, transforms it into a series of individual positionings within an intersubjective frame of possible gestures and steps. Neither of these conceptualisations succeeds in taking into account the material/energetic aspects of rhythm as individual identifications distinctions: in-between, a web of relations coexisting with or social an rhythm as "the unfounded and unmediated in-between of becoming. " (Massumi 2002a: 71) From this immanent relation (in which movement is ontologically prior but pragmatically simultaneous to the moving bodies or parts), distinctions between the individual sphere of dance realisations and the collective dimension of their cultural codification, emerge. A dancing body can thus be defined as a for transducer, the transformation of a.physical movement (sound a a channel node of expression, into dance the of air molecules) another energetic mode (collective ritual). The channelling of and this potential into a ritual corresponds to a sort of collective sensation, a flow being partialised by the individual (dancer) / collective (spectators) separation, while heterogeneous levels contract into itself kinetically. body expressing singular a

The passage of rhythm across the ritual is given by the resonation of heterogeneous qualitative elements(sounds,colours, even perfumes)triggering simultaneousprocessesof affective becoming and sensori-motor coordination. The ritual's sensations constitute a form of visceral is linked dancer's to the of processes energetic passage, and which which associates relationality individual her (even beyond level to that the the spectators), of all other participants of sensitivity level, dance At this the affective ritual establishesa common ground of proto-social performance. is level to the connected. and energetically of sensation. which parallel proto-physical relationality After the immediate, material viscerality of rhythm, cultural re-elaboration coincides with the kinaesthetic system of music motifs or metric schemes, but also of symbolic of a codification behaviours dance and steps,a stratification but also a becoming, a transformation objects,actions or of rhythm in spaceand time. Beyond this conscious level, beyond the cuts and holes or the linear continuities emerging its diffusion, draws beyond the time, geographicaland chronological plane of spaceand rhythm on intensive diagram for and gradations of coagulations, example through the affective qualitative frequency drumming, beyond its different the of and speed archaic or contemporary, qualities, African or Europeanritual realisations. Different dance rituals are therefore characterisedby a particular machinic assemblage(of distillations) in which technology (not only acoustic) instruments, chemical objects, musical factor important de-codification. catalytic of anatomical an and semiotic codification and represents In the tarantism ritual, for example, the musical instruments of the therapeutic orchestra (street 133

organs, violins and, most importantly, the tambourine or `tammorra'), together with the coloured objects chaotically disseminatedacrossthe danceperimeter (pieces of fabric or ribbons), and with the hormonal secretionsof the dancing and sweating body (the taranta's poison), createda flow of molecular matter and energy, of sound and colour gradations, a rhythmical wave which linked different ritual codes (from Africa to Italy) and traditions (from ancient Greece to contemporary Italy). Cultural dis-continuity across time and space is gelled by a wave-like continuum of bodily intensities. sonic, chromatic, Rather than focusing on the linear transmission of traditions and on past forms of ritual surviving in contemporaryphenomena,this chapterhighlights how the presentof more recentdance rites acts back on the past. Technology plays an important role in the ritual re-actualisation,for example through the passage from an acoustic to an electronic and digital apparatus of sonic production and the transformation of the qualitative aspectsof sound and dance. Interrupting the linear transmission of a ritual tradition between populations of the same genetic or cultural pool, technologyprovokes an emergenceof ritual momentsin different times and places(for examplethe 20th 215 dance from its the the of and centuries uprooting parties experience pre-determined rave it distributing throughout the whole surface of the Earth). Considering and geographiccoordinates the evident spatio-temporaldistance of thesedancemoments,what is it that allows us to think of a linking differenciation? Evoking the common condition of trance a superficial continuum rhythmic bodies links is the the to today's of ritual past ravers, which not enough: we need a more material explication and unfolding of potentials and qualities, tracing them in the rite as an abstractmachine different (different bodies its assemblages with different technologies, different musics and along different forms of dance, different bio-physical realisations and different cultural codifications of dis-connection The apparent revealed by the spatio-temporal distribution of the rites movement). (the diverging forms and substancesof rites developed along geographical and chronological is linked by transmission) a material thread of qualities, of particular sonic frequencies milieus of and bodily speeds,a particular combination of repetitive beats and emerging differences, generated in the dancing body's encounter with different technical machines (from wood and skin drums, to digital drum machines).

4.1 Rhythm in anthropology: the ritual as a system of collective individuation 4.1.1 The codesand meters of rites Dance rituals are generally considered as discrete performancesof discrete human individuals (or 7 homeostatic function discharge. From this groups)with a physical, psychic and social of energetic 134

human body enters,with its own regularities the the autopoietic anatomical system of view, of point and periodicities, a further level of organisation where the alignment of bio-physical moving aggregates(of body molecules and cellular components,limbs, etc) is echoedby the repetition of a Nevertheless, behaviours the actions. set of relations, and movements actualised in the codified danceritual cannot be thought as actions performed by already existing bodies (the individuals of a but to a conforming pre-established set of rules, group) as relations prior to the social individual/social separationand to the structural determination of rules.8 According to Simondon's theory of social (or group) individuation, individual and social are coexisting instancesthat operate towards inverse directions, and thus determining the illusion of their fundamental difference and 9 A `normal' social life positions the individual in-between the excessiverestriction or separation. dilatation of its social personality in relation to the group: social life is realised thus through the demarcationof a precise territory. Simultaneously,every group can be consideredas an individual: individuals is human (neither body the somatic of a mere agglomerateof cells or not an agglomerate but it is believed in biology), individuals. a classical superposition as of psycho-somatic molecules, This processconstitutes itself as an auto-poietic group individuation in which the individual beings Simondon the the and agents of what environment calls a social `syn-chrystallisation': the represent individuals, individual is determined of many without any or previously a syn-crystallisation group individuals its brings individual Perfect cannot complete enter a group; own and every group. tensionsand potentials, tendenciestowards the formation of a collective structure. With their magical, religious and therapeuticlevels, rituals are linked to many dimensionsof this group individuation. Reorganising the totality of the social mechanisms which have been interruptedby the appearanceof a corporeal symptom, rituals integrate the individual and the social body. In this sense,the metric combinations of different elements, the numerical series of these kinthe sounds, perfumes, gestures and steps colours, of of a an event rite constitute elements, from the passageand resonanceof a tension crystallisation a ritual emerging expression, aesthetic leading to the formation of different layers (dancing body, spectators,players, musical instruments, fabrics, incenses etc) and to the passageof different thresholds, or transductions: sounds,coloured from particular colour or sound gradations,to the movement of the dancing body, from its frenetic forms itself the to the of of a group participants/spectators, coagulation whole as a residue speed rite Cultural laws (such as the individual/social separation these parameters passages. and energetic of behavioural do from determination from it, but the the the of rules) not pre-exist ritual emerge or All of rhythm. physical and cultural codifications (the separationbetween pre-social relationality the individual dancer and the collective group of participants with which it coordinates its imitation its the the aspect of physical performance or and symbolic as an codification movements, 135

of the possessing spirit), appear as the back-formations of rhythm. At an anthropomorphic social scale, rhythm works as the non-linear diffusion of a creative process of ritualisation, an energetic propagation which the rituals of different places and times transduce into different codes (different numbers and forms of sounds, dances, steps etc). In this sense, we can argue that it is not the form of a rite that is transmitted but a tension generating different forms, or a rhythmic in-formation. From proto-social relations (such as those between sound particles and human body molecules), the collective individuation of the rite is in-formed through different modulations and compositions of qualities.

An important element in the dance ritual and its precise codification of movement and gesturequalities is timing and counting. An example of this numerical aspectis given by the Indian Bharata Natyam, an ancient dance technique evolved in the South of India and practiced in the 10 highly Shiva dance templesof as a specialised with very precise and rigid codesand conventions. The technique consists of 64 basic principles of coordinated hand, foot, face and body movements performed to the accompaniment of dance syllables. The dance is composed of 6 main parts. Its five is to time beats (Jethis'), which may be 3,4,5,7 one of meter set

or 9. The time-keeperbeats

his the with cymbals ('talas'), while the drummer produces a variety of sounds.The out measure dancer also adds to the cadencewith her feet, preserving the beat.' 1 At the same time, the rigid codification and harmony of gesturesand their relation to a melodic line is also linked to a social codification which allows only certain families in a particular district (Tanjore) to perform as inheritors of the craft ('nattuvans'). In this example, a particular choreographic composition determines the metric periodicity of

identical or compatible gesturesas units of behaviour, and the repetition and counting of theseunits allows the whole social system (group or village) to develop stable temporal patterns. With a regular cadence,every week or month or year, the samerite will be inevitably repeated,this regular repetition of events becoming the vehicle for a wider insertion of the ritual into a more general landscape;in this way, periodicity allows the performance to be codified, integrated and accepted into the cultural system of a particular society. In this way, the irreversibility of time is suspended and restored to cyclical time, through the constitution of a behavioural metrics made of multiple 12 codes. Through the circularity of its form and intention (the recovering of an antecedentcondition between dynamic social parts), the ritual machinery suppressesthe irreversibility of equilibrium of transformation:(Gil 1998: 68,9 -76,7) Now, if one examinesthe ritual in the context of each of the[... ] two stagesthat come before and after it, one notices that it could in itself be considered a passage,an intermediate stage between two periods. One where the problem emerges,

136

the problem, as Turner says, that requires institutional methods to be fought against; and the other, after the ritual, where the social tissue is reconstituted and order reestablished. These three stages must be seen as being inside an ensemble, because they are effectively linked. The three stages that I have noted for this ensemble, which could be called the ritual context, follow a cutting up of space and time (corresponding to three moments of the transformation of forces); impotence (sickness), action of potencies (process of cure), power (healing). (Gil 1998: 63,4-64,5)

As Gil argues,through rituals, tribes divide time into different phases.Across thesephases they distribute numerical sequencesof colours (the chromatic ritual code), temperatures(thermal human different (vegetal bodily (social code), of participants sexes code), plants and ages code), dance (postural movements and code), paths and spaces (topographic code), and positions medicines(chemical code), sounds(musical code). All physiological homeostatic operations(from blood flow, heart beat and hormonal secretions to bodily perceptual reactions, contractions, from drives joy the to to movements, such as and need play emotions and sorrow) are of relaxations thus directedtowards a final state, "so what we can say about the ritual spaceis that it is a spaceof 13 " transformationor a site of metamorphosis. In this cyclical elaboration of energy, the danceritual balance illness keep between death, between life to an stable apparently and and order, manages betweenthe desire or energy of a pre-individual and proto-social tension and its codification into a dancing (echoing body the acceptable condition and socially of release, oscillating psychologically a Freudian definition of the body's energetic management)between the two extremes,betweenthe Eros and Thanatosof the ritual perimeter. In both physical and social senses,a ritual dancing body does not only segmenttime but it form, it impressing in it the trace of its own movement and creating new gives a also models space, in configurations: other words, the ritual dancing body createsa territory. (Gil 1998: 123,4) All the posturesand movementsof the body, all its space-timerelations in the ritual perimeter, imply what Gil defines as bodily `exfoliation' (as a movement which, etymologically and concretely, is coextensiveto the foldings and invaginations of the bio-physical individuation), setting into motion inducing immediate form the and precise spatialisations, an organs affect and spaceof particular of the body provoked by the body's connections.As a way of the body to turn into things, into space, is in becomes that condition of communication a constant exfoliation particularly manifest pathological or magical situations. A non-verbal basis for the constitution of meaning, bodily exfoliation crossescodesand contexts, operating through the transducing capacity of the body: There is, betweenbodily forms and the form of things, a complicity that the exfoliation of the space of the body is going to make good use of ... Now this relation of complicity

137

conditions and directs the way in which contingent factors are suppressedto form the unity of rhythm, or even better, it is the corporeal forms that "objectify" spaceby imposing themselves as such on natural forms. (Gil 1998: 135,6-136,7)

The site of negotiation for this ritual exfoliation of the body is the membrane (sensory surface,skin surfaceof drums, fabric of dresses,scentof incenses).In the sameway, the membrane (skin, veil, hand-drawn line or wall) established as social limit between the individual entities divinities) delineates into (performers, differentiation the spectators, ritual a region of participating in bodies between become the these things material contacts and expressed and articulation, where 14 its In forms the the the other material condition of words, ritual performance, of symbolism. its basis the the transformation temporal all very of and spatial circumstancesare at of concrete for bodies, into bodies for other objects, other signs, objects standing standing qualitative elements to be de-cipheredon the basis of a common preverbal relationality. The interaction with sound is imitation, in in becomes for dance terms the a mime: of ritual perimeter and understood, example, dancing her, taking the the the the the spirit, or god place of which spirit, possesses mimicking herself from its influence, kinetic liberate the time to tries at same signs that can producing woman her, between her: by the the spirit and people surrounding acquiring spatial connection a establish 15 body directions, movements also start to make sense. The bio-physical expressionof rhythm (the its biological beat hormonal the to to sound and relation secretions, perception and counting of body drives biologically beat being heart to and and movement, emotions, as already cycles such as for becomes form the content another, symbolic coded), of expression,this time and anatomically imitated into defined fluidity be incorporated to the a spiritual presence and of rhythm capturing body. This function the of cultural particular symbolic structuration acquires own with one's in it individual the that the tracing and sense contributes, with clear of and preservation, stability between forms behaviour and their a particular association and with codified of confines, cultural images, different transmission to the the of same ritual generations, practice across symbolic related its to preservationamong the membersof a specific ethnic group. and Guiding the ritual performance and transmitting it to different generationsor ethnicities, the is by behaviours (particular code of rituals strings represented of repetitive perceptual/performative feet basis torso the or arms or of the ritual movements) precisely counted as particular motifs, sonic into The translation the these performs cultural code of units semiotic elementswith periodicity. functions, image to associating every single gesture a or meaning and particular symbolic distribution. its its At the time, same spatio-temporal apparently unitary and rigid guaranteeing bodies of structured and actions, of spatio-temporal meters of energetic metric composition immobile the of a multiplicity microscopic shows rhythms animating apparently codification, 138

by classical anthropological and ethnographical studies. A conceptual reanalysed surface proposition of the material field of the danceritual (as ontogenetically preceding its symbolic level) be based Simondonian on a analysis of the ritual as a performative territory generatedby can only thesemovementsof rhythmic (transductive) expression,and on the substitution of static notions of divine possessionand symbolic imitation with more dynamic concepts of rhythmic alliance and becoming.

4.1.2 Ritual rhythms. Becoming acoustic-chromatic-molecular.

The `mluk' (plural of `milk', spirit) of the Gnawa tribe are part of the wider landscapeof African `zars', or `djinns', a vast population of good or bad deities inhabiting the Maghreb, Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti, India and Pakistan, "invisible beings capable of occupying the body and functioning the psychological of a person or a family with the goal of obtaining a controlling from human beings. This compensationcan take the form of an offering, a sacrifice, compensation " (Nathan: 1) The `Gnawa' people (whose name derives from `Guinea') are cult. a an altar, or even from descending Africans Mali (mostly from Guinea, Senegal, Black tribe sub-Saharan nomads of a by brought (the Morocco, Tunisia Algeria Niger) the to were enslaved sultan and who and and Maghreb) to work as soldiers and entertainers at the beginning of the 15`hcentury. Being also brought Gnawa is them the with a particular still very ritual of which possession musico-therapists, popular amongthem today. In the Gnawa ritual, the sick person (usually a woman) dancesa mime-dance in which she imitates the behaviour of the possessingspirit and trades her identity for that of the `milk', while dance her, final the around also until recovery. (Lapassadein Nacci 2001: 27) Gnawa other people interplay double (composed by is two beats) and triple rhythms (with three of rhythms music an beats). The main instruments used to perform these rhythms are the 'qarqaba' (metal castanets double-headed `tbel' (large drums played at double rhythm) and the the triple rhythm), played at `ginbri' (a lute whose strings are plucked at double rhythm, and whose skin is tapped at triple rhythm). Every particular rhythmic combination is associatedto a different colour, and also to a different perfume: "the Ethiopian and Sudanesemastersof zars are [also] mastersof perfumes."16 Every `milk' has its own rhythm, and negotiation is obtained through the individuation of the right be Once to the right rhythm (i. e. the right combination of sounds,colours sound played. and rhythm found, body been has the of the `majnoun' (the person under the control of the spirit) and odours) trance-dancesall night, until the `milk' is satisfied. From the point of view of classical anthropology, the gesturesof the sick person and the homeodynamic her leading to cure represent processesderiving from cultural codification and steps 139

death' in both individual body. In the the the of sickness and and social our at prevention aiming analysis, we take Handelman's suggestion of a concept of the ritual as autopoietic homeostatic it from disentangling from its its further, thermodynamic aspect and organic presystem determinations, and analysing it as a far from equilibrium event: (Handelman 2004) not a homeostatic system made of lived physical and organic experiences, but a system of virtual tendencies(kinetic attractors) and material realisations: ritual as an in-between moment of relation inorganic bodies. This is between conceptualisation already potentially and organic and change in Handelman's analysis of the ritual's actual and virtual aspects,the material virtuality and present being for fixed functions the the the ground meanings and successivelyattributed to rite opennessof it: the rite as a matrix of potential from which meaningand function derive. The morphogenesisof each tribal collective develops itself around some virtual kinetic foundations that the constitute rhythmic of particular dance rituals. As points/speed attractors linear is founded the trance the the of with state on relation ritual not exclusively already argued, but (for drum beat) trait the example of single element or on polyrhythmic of one repetitions in do link different layers developed but These connections simply are not of sound, connections. the encounterbetween sonic, chromatic, chemical and bodily elements.The trance state inducedby the rhythmic interrelations of all these chromo-acousticand chemo-kinetic elements,envelops and its into it body becoming to transferring threshold the a a net of vibrations, of which mutates entices Working those the through the modulation of this rhythmic and of whole group. shape/actions dance in kinaesthetic the the of assemblage ritual realises, machinic a collective movement, energy, the body's magic (or virtual) potential to act, to affect and be affected, to give and receive bodies. from other movement being possessedderives from a As Jose' Gil has pointed out, "It has been shown that ... training; that the gestures,words, or cries of the possessedare coded; that the beginning of the crisis is governedby a set of rules." (1998: 136,7) Despite the clearly learned and constructedaspectof Gil's is find dance, to the critical point of a ritual's dynamics, i. e. to the aim of analysis main ritual behind that the trance of the possessedand the `symbolic efficiency' of the persists mystery unravel the whole rite: in his words, given the training of possession,"How can a discourse act on a body is How "remote its this control" possible?" (136,7) Gil's `molecular' semiology organs? and into its transforms the that than text ritual something what more a suggests or a semiotic structure, finite and closed nature and possibilities into a system of unpredictable potentials, its meters into between link bodily forces is developed during the performance,the the the the signs and rhythm, investmentof energy imposed by the body on symbols.17 The magical `efficacy' of rituals happens through a series of physiological assimilations: adopting Gil's approach, we can understandhow 140

actions do not only acquire symbolic meanings but set autonomous forces into motion that also 18 On the one hand, the conscious phenomenal emotions associated with the ritual. exceed forces are symbolically overdetermined; on the other hand, those of the sick body are supernatural also excessive; by making these two vectors converge, by putting the `excessive', possessedbody in relation to an overwhelming greater force, and by establishing differences and distances between objects and living beings, by counting, and recoding, regulating, separating and reordering, the `normal' codes of social behaviour and life are restored. Working as a de-coder, the body-operator transforms the semiotic signs and symbols coming from both its own movements and those of the divine presence manifesting itself in the environment, into a-semiotic signs and forces (vectorialised energies), and vice versa:

The movement from one regime of energy (and regime of signs) to another assumesthat (1) an operator works on the code and the energy in a particular way, a work that implies the possibility of separating energetic fluxes according to signs and, in reverse, the possibility of condensing several fluxes into one (this is the illness as the manifestation of raw uncoded fluxes of energy); and (2) that there is a condensation and displacement of energy invested in the signs presupposes that the latter are translated from the one to the other. From this point on we can understandthat all the codes that come into play in the ritual can act (thanks to the energy they carry) at the same time, immediately and directly on the body; and that the cure is brought to completion through their regulation and their rule-governed relationships according to the mediations acting in regular life. (Gil 1998: 81,2-82,3)

Through a the creation of multiple relations between instruments, but also animals and different (such trans-coding of sensory codes a as colors, smells, forms and sounds) and plants, different channels(verbal, musical, choreographicand visual) is operated,re-distributing forces and signson a common level sharedby all the participants.(Gil 1998: 137,8) This re-coding and de-coding operation is performed through movement: becoming in in-between (between the different regimes of gestures are caught expression, an of materials signs undergone by the body) where they ceaseto construct spiritual representations(which are body to the the capacity mimetic of and to the symbolic function of dance),translating related only the logic of meaning into that of movement in itself: rhythm for itself, or in Gil's words, the `infralanguage' of multiple micro-variations in a pure, or potential, state. As Gilbert Rouget put it, "No matter how important its nature as a sign may be, or its symbolic function, esthetic power or is dance finds that still a motor activity possibilities, ascetic an end in itself." (Rouget in Gil 1998: 165,1)Maya Deren defined this particular quality of the ritual dance as the quality of the `sacred', the attitude and manner of the sacred dance as being independentfrom its subject matter, from its 141

19 from dancer. investment The the the skill of even energetic of the body into the symbolism or divine gives it that peculiar selflessness,that discipline, that depersonalisation which Deren from `abstract' its distance the the character of social meaning or function, and rite, consideredas its potential to produce new autonomousconfigurations and codifications. It is what Gil defines as the emerging `intelligence of the body', the composition of its molecular variations and the topological distribution of rhythm acrossits parts: The impossibility, as we have already seen, of reducing gesture to a language (in clearly defining the indivisible elements and the laws of their composition) demonstrates the existence of a limit to the absolute "formalization" of gestures, as well as the emergence of infragrammar in the system. So all dance, even the most formalized, coded, or academic,lets escapea residue that is not formalizable. The very continuity of a dance spinning out its "story" rests on this "sliding" of corporeal movements over each other ... The "articulation" of one dance movement with another and the passagefrom one sequenceto another are, by definition, unanalyzable. Dance would thus be the expressive form of the impossibility of reducing the body to a In a parody of linguistic systems,and in the "gesturology." ... flash of immediate liaisons, it wipes out at one blow laborious constructions like "figures." Dance is the quintessential mockery of signs and forms that set themselvesup in the place of meaning or the body. (Gil 1998: 169,0)

If the body's `gesturological' grammar still allows operations of counting and imitation, semiotic and symbolic constructions, that presupposea corporeal and mental hierarchical relation dominates directs `infragrammar' the the of and ritual, concept an of consciousness where Never introduces a continuous emergence of non-analysable aggregates. micro-gestural movement identical to itself and always outpouring with diverse and contrasting tendencies, the grotesque body-imagedrawn by this gestural proliferation exfoliates, outgrows itself and transgressesits own limits, with all the destructuring effects ethnopsychoanalysistalks about (loss of the senseof direction through confusion of the balance mechanism, disorientation and distressed feelings of space and time, and so on). Dance exfoliates the body space itself, it dissolves the body in the physical space it occupies, thus preparing the body for a metamorphosisfor a becomingother that will be possession.The latter will thus result from a quick restructuring of these exfoliations in a unique spatial form, according to the shapeof the incarnatedspirit. (Gil 1998: 167,8)

In ancient dance rituals (like the Gnawa), this high degree of bodily de-formation and abstract malleability was associated to a supernatural possessionor spiritual exchange between 142

human and divine instances,transforming the dancedimitation into a sort of pact, an alliance and a 20For Deleuze and Guattari, spiritual negotiation can also happen through a form of negotiation. dance-mimewhich, from a micro-gestural point of view, is not to be consideredas an imitation, and but intervening `domestication', `becoming' as a alliance, contagious on the as a material not even body's rhythms and provoking unpredictable mutations of its potential, in which the parasiting human host bodily divine between and guest generates new movements and new relation (a bodies/particles (sounds, As an a aggregate population, or pack) of excited conformations. is bearer divinity "the the of a speciespresenting specific or generic characteristics not etc), colours in their purest state;nor is it a model or unique specimen;nor is it the perfection of a type incarnate; it has is The individual is it term the anomalous of a series ... neither an nor a species; eminent nor feelings, it has familial neither or subjectified nor specific or significant characteristics only affects, [it] arrives and passesat the edge spreadinglike an infectious disease " (2002a: 244) The ... ... ... divine-human,as well as the colour-sound-movementcombinations, constitute thus an assemblage, dimensions by line defined, line be This using all connected a viral of of rhythm. can a multiplicity Deleuze and Guattari's terminology, as a fiber (the materic fiber of drums, coloured fabrics etc) human divinity, imperceptible. from to then to to the and molecules and particles, up stretching Echoing Erin Manning's words in her description of Argentine tango (a dance with no symbolic from divine love), human-divine transcendental that to the apart alliance entity, of a attribution happensas an embrace that quickens the molecules composing a body, and an adaptation that intensive form-forces them a coming-together as a combination an of re-compose, with makes is body. (2005: 1) the that the composing more-than-one a movement passage, The passage from a multiplicity of micro-perceptions to the social dimension happens through a threshold of symbiosis and becoming, in which the molecular dancing body (that we by defined is infected of cells as a population moving and microscopic a rhythmic rhythms) already itself both as a pathological expression manifests of uncontrolled and controlled virus which de-forms body it This (dance). its the rhythmic virus and stretches confines, pushing movements towards a tight, molecular contact, an intimate dissolution into the social multiplicity: "In fact, the 1A door, becoming between body dancing is human "2 two threshold, a a multiplicities. self only a becomes divinity, divinity becomes its a and a a particular sound or colour, and a changes nature dis-memberment body condition a of reaches and imperceptibility, all along what collective Deleuzeand Guattari define as an `imperceptible, molecular becoming'. (2002a: 248) Beyond the essential forms and determined subjects, beyond the individual and social identities to be successively distinguished, the accidental bodies-forms of the ritual are different degrees (of bodily heat, color, sound frequency, dance speed etc), each degree constituting a 143

different individuality. This individuality enters into composition with other degrees,forming other individualities, in a wave-like, continuous propagation of transformation, the degreesleading to a becoming-imperceptible:

Nor is there a preformed logical order to these heterogeneities Of course it is always possible to induce ... ... an order of resemblance [for example between human and divine, or between individual and collective]... but the resemblance remains quite secondary ... Between the two [elements of the resemblance], there is threshold and fiber, symbiosis of or passage between heterogeneities... Not following a logical order, but following alogical consistencies or compatibilities ... Everything becomes imperceptible, everything is becoming-imperceptible ... which is nevertheless precisely where the imperceptible is seen and heard ... the abstract Machine of which each concrete assemblage is a 22 becoming, multiplicity, a a segment,a vibration.

In this abstractmachine of becoming-imperceptible,the acoustic technology (for exampleof drums and other musical instruments) plays a rhythmic (or de-codifying) role, dis-connecting the body from its behaviour habitual frequencies from its the of codified meters and and sensori-motor bodies, it different to to other and giving a rhythm, or a multiplicity of micro-rhythms relate ways 23 The cross-exchanges. combination of the rhythmic stimulation of sound, the sound-body and duration of time that a drummer plays a particular rhythm, the amount of repetition and the changes, by dancing body (increased lowering the thresholds the undergone adrenalin a of secretion and with blood sugarlevels), opens up a vast field of resonations,making the body go through trance and eclutes but burning Drums, incensesrepresentthe castanets, also voices, coloured veils, static states. technological apparatusfor de- and re-ciphering the bio-physical and cultural tensions, forces and in From de-codification, different perceptions and movements, the this rite. participating materials different different In the and cultural social relations systems, emerge. other words, use of and also technological assemblagesfor the production of particular sounds and movements allows a distribution of rhythm in the ritual space-time, as a compositional element of autocatalytic kinetic, social and cultural re-ordering. In this way, the sound and dancemachine of and perceptual rituals is able to control and capture subversive social instances, at the same time allowing an inversion of stratified ways to perceive and think, and an undermining of institutional power." The brought by body these about the amplifications machines a whole reveal rhythmic ritual as inhabitedby dancing bodies-moleculesshowing different scalesof material attraction, aggregation, Sound and colour, waves and vibrations transform the ritual into a consistent and stratification. bodies (assemblages) different inter-connect become, and where an `abstract machine of scene Guattari's in The Deleuze (or this and words. unity of plane ritual scene) comprises all waves', 144

inanimate and animate, artificial

and . natural, collective and individual

bodies: as a

it has design function, do form figure, to scene, nothing with and or analogy or multidimensional imitation, resemblanceor representation. Following the non-linear routes run by nomads and migrants, and also by acoustic technologies(such as the drum) and whole dancerites, we can seehow their re-territorialisation is associatedto places and times of populational contacts,conflicts and exchanges(such as the subSaharandeportation to the Maghreb), with their associatedphenomenaof psychological turbulence but also of microbial spread across seasand territorial borders. Between north and south of the African desert, the viral passageof sound, colour and dance becomes for example the common thread between different bodies-populationshaving the same ethnic root but two different dance `zar' Moroccan Nigerian `Gnawa'). (the the and rites

4.2 Rhythmic propagations in space 4.2.1 Kinetography The conceptualisationof danceas a meansto enhancesocial solidarity and communication is at the basis of the evolutionary study of anthropologist Mc Neill. According to McNeill, the evolution of human movement and its transformation into dance allowed human beings to distinguish their from those of animals through a complex synchronicity and coordination, performances transformingdanceinto a territorial marker: At first blush, the way birds, fish, dolphins, and perhaps other animals sometimesmove in flocks or schools each individual maintaining more or less the same position with respectto its neighbors- looks more like the human style of dancing together. Such schooling requires coordination of movement so that any change of speed or direction spread almost instantly, otherwise the formation would break up in confusion. But such coordination doesnot require keeping time to a regular beat. Humans establish a common rhythm for dance and drill by planting their feet on the ground simultaneously ... but birds and schools of fish have other (presumably visual, and for dolphins also vocal) ways of relating to one another that do not involve the maintenanceof a regular beat. (Mc Neill 1995: 14)

For McNeill, while animal movementstotally lack rhythmic character,human motion, even the simplest act of walking, becomesexpressivethrough the acquisition of rhythm (in the senseof a `regular beat'). The enactment and consolidation of social coordination through dance improved information in the of exchange communities, interweaving larger networks and and expanded 145

chains of transmission among the sensori-motor systems of larger numbers of individuals. Coordination, linearity and clarity of information transmissionbecamegluing factors in the social individuation of the human species,consolidating the bio-genetic separationline betweenman and borderlines between human the underlining compact and also coordinated groups. and animal, Danceappearedthus increasingly different from other collective animal behaviours (such as birds' flights or bees' rituals of communication), for the peculiar capacity to move and keep time together, coordinationalso acting as a referencepoint of formal differentiation between gesturesand gestural traditions. As a medium of socio/cultural individuation, dancetraces the first geo-cultural confines 25 between behavioural thoseconfines. rules and reinforces As shown by Elias Canetti in his physical analysis of social dynamics, institutional spaces, he (the `crowd', defines it) by it the mould social as mass giving rigid confines, and practices rules by assigningprecisespacesto its actions and events,and by limiting its exchangeswith the outside, is longer duration in to this that crystal a of established power systems: guarantee way, a mass so formed, as an exact replication of a social code, through a de-territorialisation and reterritorialisation of kinetic rituals. (1981) By drawing on Canetti's socio-physical study, we can its dance function) (i. form to the the codification of e. acquisition cultural of and relate territorialisation of the performance in particular spaceswith particular characteristics(from the linking to the theatre), this physical moulding to a precisemeter modern while also ritual perimeter or temporality. The natural tendency of a massto grow and evolve, expand and change,mutate and by is re-solidify, opposed a principle of closure and repetitiveness:in determinatetimes and places (e.g. on weekendsin theatresor danceclubs), individuals are summonedand de-territorialised from their everyday routines and, through the repetition of a habitual action (the repetitivenessof the bodyindividual (as the and mitigated re-unified many same componentsof ritual), are cathartically group). The tracing of geographic and cultural confines, together with the building of closed spaces for the performance of dance rituals, appearsas a significant strategy of social containment and discipline (a kinetic discipline which is only rarely fully realised and always bursts with rhythmic influencing In development the temporal the and while physically spatial of performance. potential), this way, reducing all bodily expressionto a seriesof predeterminedand signifying gesturesbased behavioural dance to the structures of an ethnic conventional group, cultural assign systems on (finally conducted to the over-coded level of a corporeal language) a `dialectal' place in the language it into institutionally the transforming of code or mass, moulded an communicative bodies different (between are the purpose emotional of a main communication whose practice dancinggroup) and information transmission (from the individual dancer to an immobile audience). Movement and dancebecomethe tools for the transformation of the rhythmically infected pack into 146

a well-behaving, equilibrated and balancedcrowd. The kinetic schematisationof dancecorresponds to a parallel enclosure of individual movement into its own corporeal limits: in Canetti's conceptualisationof the `crowd', the dynamics of the social individuation processare basedon the perpetuationand solidification of external limits but alsö of intersubjective distances,and on the bodily touch of and contagion. prevention Spatial confines separatebodies, mould and differentiate their motor habits. According to theatreanthropologistsEugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese,"Different cultures determinedifferent body techniquesaccording to whether people walk with or without shoes,whether they carry things on their heads or with their hands, whether they kiss with the lips or with the nose." (1991: 8) Betweendifferent geographical and cultural locations, in streetsand housesas well as in theatres, the body is always given a determinedconfine, a determinedposition and a determinedset of motor Studying the "socio-cultural and physiological behaviour [of human beings] in a possibilities. focuses " (8) frame theatre the anthropology on performance, of these performative principles or i. by the corporeal and gestural e. on patterns shared rules, people in particular places and times as the forms of expressionof particular performancetraditions. In this field, anotherbasic separationis drawn between(less controlled) daily life and (more controlled) performancebehaviour. Extra-daily performative techniques are identified with those movements which try to overcome the habitual conditionings of the body, establishing on their turn other non-functional kinetic habits more oriented towards aesthetic than towards productive aims. Performance and dance anthropology becomesthus a sort of kinetographic grid tracing impermeable socio-cultural confines (between East and West, for example, or between Africa and Europe, but also between home and theatre stage)and identifying the presence(or absence)of differently codified positions and gestures. The purity of a particular kinetic tradition follows the same transmission paradigm of biological meiosis (where only cells of the same speciescan combine to create offspring): cultural transmission and the interchange of traditions (such as movements and kinetic habits) can only happenbetween elements of the same ethnic and racial group, in a sort of meio-cultural process avoiding promiscuity. In this sense, we can argue that rhythm is biologically and culturally linearly transmitted, among the same populations. Codified gestures and steps and stratified, become the physical and cultural objects, or modules, of this double process of rhythmic stratification. From a structuralist/anthropological point of view, competencegives to actions their sense, as a standardisedschemaor a set of rules and regularities acquired by repetition and allowing both performers and observersto recognise the meaningful gesturesof the moving body depending on 'a where they are perfomed, while whole series of slips, errors, pauses,stammers,stuttering remain 147

totally unobserved.According to Massumi, the codification of cultural rules, as a counter-formation of power which usurps variation and potential, follows the emergenceof a proto-social tension or stimulation, which we have identified with a field of rhythmic propagation prior to the application 26 discipline. Habitual behaviours, predictable actions and roles, rules and of any performative categories,ideas and ideologies, forms and rites intervene on an ambiguous and uncertain zone of transformation, fixing a proto-social reality of indeterminate rhythmic relations into solid spatial structures. At the same time, this kinetic discipline reveals its own potential for rhythmic emergence.Analysing this process of kine-social organisation leads us to understandthe ways of solidification (rather than the already determined and solidified practices), the microscopic events interchange, the rhythmic contagions and proliferations codified by different social of cultural 27 dance rites. The equilibrium of society and its territorial coordinatesis communitiesthrough their always on the edgeof a precarious field of rhythms, but none of these two aspects,equilibrium and turbulence,repetition and difference, consistencyand chaos,territorial patterns and rhythms, would exist without the other. Or, as Murphie put it: Many analyses of popular music, even those that consider it in its territorial co-ordinates, consider it primarily from the point of view of pre-existing human subjects or social groups who are, before everything, consistentthrough time and space ... Being so, they seem to move through space with the ease of a solid knife through flimsy butter. Yet what if the knife were also madeof butter? What if the whole buttery mass was constantly melting and solidifying, even occasionally turning to gas, according to how much things were cooking? Put literally, what if human beings were just one component in a more general scenario of production in which humans, their society, the environment (which only begins with trees, animals and rocks) and technologies, all produced each other Further, what if the crucial component of all this was the ...? relation betweenthe repetition of a refrain and territory? (2001: 256)

4.2.2 Rhythmic contaminations Rituals territorialise or, in other words, they use lines, sounds,colours, to trace a territory which is always in relation to the movements that allow the body to escape from it, or de-territorialise (inwards or outwards, it does not really matter, as in the caseof rhythm and trance). Vectors of deterritorialisation coexist with a de-codification that allows a production of signs and a reaction to them acrosscultural confines. In this sense,viruses and bacteria are the only, microscopic bodies that are able to perform a universal vectorialisation of the geographic landscape: Biofilmic contagion spreads in hyperurban sprawls: multiple pools of bacterial populations joining together from very different worlds and environmental conditions, building

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up new architecturesout of viral encounters,forced migrations and parasitic coexistence.(Parisi and Goodman2002: 10)

As Luciana Parisi and Steve Goodman's description shows, at the microscale of bacterial contagion,cities and nations appearas de-formed blobs of sticky biofilms layering and transversally crossinggeographicand cultural regions. Spreadingthrough air and water and building bridges of contamination between otherwise non-connectible regions, bacteria link populations of different scales,species,lineages,places and even times. All populational encounters(such as migrations or colonisations)do not only put people in contact,but also weave a continuous thread of bacteriaand illnesses, weeds and plants, germs and animals, some of which (such as spiders) cannot be domesticatedand, therefore, totally re-define the eco-system of the region they enter. Genetic been has flowing through generationsand places,not only always a migrating component material in the form of human genesbut also of animal and plant species,more or less domesticated,more or lesshysterically acceptedor expelled. Simultaneously to the macroscale of human nomadism, the genes of non-human species 28 invade and conquer alien ecosystems. But together with people, genesand bacteria, symbiotically instruments beliefs of and sounds, and ritual practicestravel along continuous lines, as a a whole set flow human (and non-human) bodies in their migrations. One of accompanying parallel nomadic these migrations took, in the 10`hand 11`hcenturies, the frightening Tarantula, an eight-legged spiderwith a hugejaw and eight eyes,from Maghreb to the Italian coastsof Apulia. With her, were travelling the soundsand movementsof a frenetic possessionand dance rite. According to Ernesto De Martino, the largeness and bright colours, the subterraneanand nocturnal habits, the fast mobility and aggressivenesstransformed the zoological species of the Lycosa Tarentula into a bio-physical that gave a modality of discharge (through dance) and a cultural horizon symbol (throughthe symbolism of dance) to the non-consciousand consciousconflicts of the Apulian rural From Tarantula, (1961) the the `mythical mostrum' of the Taranta took its shape,although classes. the characteristicsof many other species(the more dangerousbut less visible Latrodectus spider, but also scorpion or snake)were unified in the symbolic image of a spider which bites and poisons. Among the symptoms of this poisoning were fainting and delirium, restlessness,sweating and uncontrollable spastic convulsions. This symptomatic condition evolved then into a particular state hysterical depression, or a melancholia, of epileptic crisis. At the same time, the irruption of this disturbancein the usual flow of individual life coincided with the collective epidemic diffusions of the medieval era, revealing the hysterical motion of the tarantataas a symptomatic condition where social integration and physical recovery could only be obtained through the ordering and control of

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movement. For the tarantata, the only known remedies were music and dance, the `accelerated music' and the rapid movementsof the tarantella. The explosion of the `tarantism' syndrome intervened as an irruption of subjective and personal feelings which disrupted the social mechanisms of small villages, assembling a. sonickinetic machine in which the obsessive beats of the drums and their dialogue with other instruments (violins, guitars and street-organs) weaved a multicoloured dance. (De Martino 2001: 190) In the tarantella (or `pizzica')

sonic machine, the tarantata's body occupies a nodal position and is

connected to sound and colour (the coloured fabrics and images scattered on the ritual dance layers describing thin the as a vibrant and multicoloured perimeter)

spider's web. In this

instruments, players and spectators, music objects and microcosm, sounds and colours become all elements of a polyrhythmic net woven between different bodies and resonant membranes (skin and sense surfaces, the skin of the tambourines, the colour of fabric), an energetic net in which the tarantata represents a critical point of perceptual and choreutic transduction. The rhythmic flows of forces between body/surfaces these across running and and energy are translated into muscular and sonic sequencesby the tarantata's dance. While the walls of her house become the porous confines of a physical and cultural continuum between the tarantata's body and its social outside, her become also surfaces of passage for chromatic and acoustic forces, for the sensorial membranes sound and colour gradations which stimulate her body to dance: beyond every archetypical imitation or identification (as those theorised by De Martino), in Deleuze's words the tarantella ritual represents a material becoming of the dancing body. In this sense, the crawling or oscillating motion of the tarantata, usually interpreted as symbolic imitations of the spider's movements, trace the topological moments of a qualitative transformation and becoming: the tarantata becomes spider, the spider becomes sound and colour. Like a virus, sonic and chromatic vibrations are transmitted by the animal to the dancing body and then spread to the audience.

The sonic and dancing assemblageof the tribal ritual weaves thus a series of proto-social between human and animal bodies, individual members or `prior the to' separation relations different groups, and to the creation of a subjective or group identity. Compared to the rigid and individual borders to the and cubicles delineated by the social gridlock of identity, class, closed race, the kine-topology of rituals works as a much more unstable filter, allowing uncontrollable different territories, disrupting the function of among contaminations people of rhythmic institutional as well as perceptualapparatusesof subjectification. The fractalisation of socio-cultural dynamicsinto myriads of ritual eventsshows human society as a transversally diversified body. The individuation of ritual events along different zones of the geo-social field highlights a model of 29 Goodman's be defined words, can rhythmic sociality which, echoing as `speed tribalism'. As

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Goodman points out, a body can be anything, and "This expanded definition is core, for a speed tribe, as we are conceiving it here, is a collective body composed around a certain speed of sound," a population converging on "certain compositions of sonic matter. " (2004: 5) As already argued, speed is not to be intended here as acceleration and fastness (the velocity of the beat), but as a relation between differential

velocities, between the deceleration and acceleration of particles,

between speed and slowness: lt is useful therefore to make a distinction between two senses of speed; on the one hand as connoting fast movement of an actual body, while on the other relating to the rhythmic consistencyof a virtual body... (Goodman2004a: 5)

The mapping of the individual/social (or nature/culture) continuum as an ecology of speeds "implies that bodies, including collective bodies are defined not as closed, determinate systems, formed, or identifiable merely by their constituent parts/organsbut more fundamentally via their rhythmic consistencyand affective potential." (5) This rhythmic micro-physics of dancerituals (which Goodman's analysis specifically relates to the emergenceof the `rave culture' in the late '80s and to its successivemutations) delineatesthe conceptualisationof a kineaesthetic continuum of rhythms coagulated in those particular regions become different follows A tribes to tribe the speed attached particular sonic qualities. where speed logics dissipation. As a far-from-socioculturalof vortical emergence, sustenance and physical it dense and circulates spirals around a system, equilibrium point (speed attractor) where the tribe forces. by These taken and centripetal centrifugal rhythmic attractors (speeds,textures and swirls, timbres) direct the flow of movement and dance towards a particular kinetic tendency as the in dance, and sound and as a point around which the tribe memberstend to a pattern of repetition gather; at the same time, rhythmic attractors are subject to continuous historical mutations and influences (the appearanceof a rite as a phasetransition, rather than a solidified tradition).30From this point of view, the more or less rigid and strictly codified character of the rite appears as temporary,meta-stableand energetically ex-cessive. Speed tribes are linked and then differentiated by imperceptible nuances or currents of divergent lines as striating the alignments of the social body and its more rhythmic composition, traditional axes (such as those of race, class, gender, and also geography, culture, time): "on this is full body, thus the possibility for going from one side to another, i. e., from the there sociusas a less the to of this molar aggregates social, production where are no side organized, other side, collective, where the molecular multiplicities of desiring-production are formed '... " (Deleuze and Guattari2000: 380) Goodman's analysis situatesthesesocial populations (or tribes) on a continuum 151

(or immanent both the to the ecology of speeds. the sonic material) and social, cuts across which Occupying a virtual plane of transformation which is continuous between the social level and the is human level limited band traverses the a of matter, rhythm plane of which vibrations of molecular body inhabits "In this the sensory system, polyrhythmically affective model, a virtual perception: (between " 2004a: 3) Rhythm be defined (Goodman the thus as a senses). can amodal composed and bodies, body, "The the collective gel shaping a-social aggregation matrix an abstract of virtual frequency; [a]s together a shared resonant pre-individual sociality as which gels audio collectives " (5) This a vibratory coalescence. pre-individual, rhythmic consistency, social tension) works through affinities

affective sociality (or a-

bodies different frequencies, between along emerging

human hosts bodies: becoming becoming the of sound of other particles parasites symbiotically body aggregates, or human populations becoming the hosts of other ritual traditions.

Along the linear and ordered passageof cultural traits along the same genealogical line, dis-ordered is transmitted through travelling of materials thus an autonomous and virally rhythm (the ritual instruments but also the qualitative traits generatedby them), inducing the symbiotic between is In different the this sense, same viral/rhythmic contagion spread populations. alliance of Moroccan Gnawa and Italian Tarantism, between bodies infected by different spirits (or animals), different colours (as we have a Tarantula Rubra [red], a Black Tarantula [the melancholic widow], a Yellow Tarantula...), and by the obsessivesyncopatedrepetition of double and triple dancerhythms drums, instruments (tambourines, by different street organs, castanets,violins, guitars or played 31 `tbel', 'qarqaba' and ginbri). The acoustic technology of rituals (drums and other instruments,but feet) fundamental in hands, this rhythmic trans-coding of space, a part or plays and also voices behavioural manipulation and generating the myriads of rhythmic and a perceptual performing fields. human force The the the trace that and soundscape sensosphere as vectorial alterations fundamentalelement of the tarantism ritual is for example the tambourine (the `tammorra'), which is composedof two elements:the skin (producing the low frequency sound at the basis of the metric beat repetition and of the regularity of the dance,as an ordering element to defeat chaosand guide the disciplined progression of steps inside the perimeter), and the metal disks around the edge, body impulses (like in irregular the the electrifying chaotic way, and exciting a most which move the metal castanetsof the Gnawa rite) that lead the body to ignore all kinetic and spatial laws. The interplay of soundsand colours composesthe virus of the dance rite as a polyrhythmic bodily in but bringing dancer her the also of agitation, a trance senses, outside of carrier of control functions, friends, but bodily body the and parts also or parts of social as such relatives statewhere lose their identities, positions and functions, disintegrating all traditional social bonds and all forms 32These rhythmic propagationsof sound and dance (the nation, crystals control. melt mass of social 152

the population, the village group or family) and their codes into more fluid tribal associations. Different from the `molar' mass or crowd of Canetti and Virilio's

theorisations, (Canetti 1981,

Virilio 1986) these tribal collectives are more resonant with Deleuze and Guattari's definition of the pack:

their practices must become molecular configurations of desires rather than solidarities between people or social groups. Impossible to locate on the dominant coordinates,they producetheir own axesof reference,establish underground, transversal connections among themselves, and thus undermine older relationships... (Plant 2001: 1101)

According to Deleuze and Guattari, the rhythmic ethology of the pack (or tribe) coincides with the dance steps which create a more or less elastic or malleable (or, in his own words, `inflatable, portable') played and danced territory. The rhythmic expansion and contraction of the territory delineatedby dancenegotiatespreviously determinedinterpersonaldistances,ensuringand regulating "the coexistenceof membersof the samespeciesby keeping them apart" or by gathering them around specific points. (2002a: 320) The rhythmic consistencyof each tribe correspondsthus to the delineation of a metastableand vortical territoriality marked by the qualities of dance and sound,asthe lines (or vectors) drawn on the reverseside of geographic,social and political maps. While travelling, replicating, mutating and fluidifying across space,rituals also realise lines of socio-cultural divergence and convergence,repetition and difference across time. Beyond the linear directions, two opposite of a social pressure towards conservation, and an conception individual tendency to change, we can theorise the ritual temporality in terms of a suspensionor hesitationwhich breaks the social/individual closed circuit open: in Bergsonian terms, like a dance beyond the and goes passer-by social pressure and individual subversion. Neither grabs which inside nor outside society, the ritual dancer's position is on the borderline, on the edge, an between is temporal and position spatial what always `still' the same and what has anomalous always`already' changed: In any event, the pack has a borderline, and an anomalousposition ... on the line or in the act of drawing the line in relation to which all the other membersof the pack will fall into one of the two halves, left or right: a peripheral position, such that it is impossible to tell if the anomalous is still in the band, already outside the band, or at the shifting boundary of the band. (Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 245)

153

4.3 Rhythmic mutations through time 4.3.1 Chrono-kinetics The formal similarities of rites have been the main object of analysis of diachronic anthropological developments linear temporal path in order to discover to trace trying parallel ritual along a studies the origins of particular cultures and of their ritual manifestations. From this point of view, a linear historical thread would give a chronological order to a complex landscape of cultural similarities leading from first initiation differences, the orgiastic of rites and

of ancient Greece (and their

African animistic parallels) to a medieval (and also modern) ritual like South Italy's tarantism. This cultural

heredity

confirms

Jeanmaire and De Martino's

mediterranean group whose ritual

hypothesis

of an archaic proto-

structures are shared by the ancient Dyonisian

cult of

Choribantism (in the whole Magna Graecia), by Tarantism, by African `zar' and `bori' and by Afro33 The phylogenetic relationship (relationship of descent) between cultural Haitian Voodoo. traditions (and therefore rites) is therefore parallel to that between genetic traits.

As all animal species,humans possessa complex system of cultural heredity to transmit follow Genetic behaviour the same to transmission successive generations. and cultural codes of biological (meiosis), diploid (with in transmission the two the cell of nucleus a process of models: sets of chromosomes) divides to create two new nuclei, each containing only one set of linear i. (haploid), the the cell sexual e. egg performing reproduction and guaranteeing chromosomes by In the the same way, processes of cultural meiosis conceptualised geneticpassageamong nuclei. linearity the of cultural transmissionas a direct cause-effectrelation and a anthropologistsgenerate chronological reproduction of the traditional ritual material. The distribution and replication of fission for from the an cell, of original example, the original proto-mediterraneanand ritual codes African ritual practice of choreutic catharsisbased on a metric system of sonic repetitions and of into its different division African, Afro-American and South-Europeanvariants gesturalunits, and that can only be linearly transmitted acrossthe same genetic/cultural line. In a diachronic sense,a is linked (such as rites) acrosstime by a processof cultural inheritance. sequenceof similar events In a synchronic sense,similar events dating to the same period and occurring in different places by Nevertheless, (homology). diachronicity linear the of ancestor concentrating on a common share lack these total transmission, conventional analyses a reveal of notions of virtuality and a cultural fundamentalincapacity to find the diagonal symbiotic line of rhythm. It has been argued by conventional anthropological studies that cultural transmission,in the form of a historical preservation of the essentialtraits of a population (cults, rituals and beliefs), is basedon linear processesof heredity that guaranteethe survival of a particular culture through time. 154

The Dyonisian cult, for example, with its Egyptian origins and its successivediffusion throughout the Hellenistic world, appears like a cultural tradition spread across different generations and geographic areas, influencing the whole landscapeof Mediterranean possessionrites, up to the Italian Tarantism. in frenetic The traits these the of essential persisting rites are modern versions maniaof the possessedbody manifestedas an irreprehensibleimpulse to dance,and the belief in the catharticpower of rhythm (intended as an orderedreiteration of sonic, chromatic and even olfactory motifs). The changing formal element is representedfor example by the god's different namesand morphologies (Osiris or Dyonisos, a spirit or even a spider), but the fundamental element of the is linearly from transmitted of rhythm as order and repetition one place/time to character curative another,along the successivedisplacementand the reproductive history of the proto-mediterranean geneticpool. On a historical line of development, such traits are chronologically passedbut can also be losing their purity and coming to an end through parallel processesof contaminated, culturally linear father-son While biological the transmissionand the and populational mixture. modernisation Y-chromosome learning inheritance in direct the terms, to of male corresponds, cultural parallel from one's parents,the lateral mother-daughterpassageof mithocondrial DNA would correspondto the oblique transmission of cultural traditions from membersof other families or groups. (Shennan 2002) The cultural transmission of rituals through time is therefore linked to a linear descent immutability, irruption to the their and of occasional episodes of change or guaranteeing Ritual temporality becomesthus linear and very, very slow. disappearance. According to Roy Rappaport, the temporality of the ritual is characterisedby a double aspect: not only the rapid and repetitive character of the performance, but also the changeless behaviours. Drawing and movements on Herbert Simons' discussions on the eternity of ritual temporal aspects of complex physical systems, Rappaport describes the three temporal regions drawn by the ritual as: a) a low frequency region of slow changes that cannot be observed or historical in the memory of one society or cultural group (cosmic region of long-term experienced frequency b) high by the rapid physiological fluctuations and region characterised a changes); in breathing, blood the such ritual, as circulation, hormonal secretion,nervous changesperformed reaction(organic region of molecular changes);c) a medium frequency region of social life counted in minutes,days, months, years and lifetimes (social region of short-term changes): In emphasizing the organic frequencies of ritual's rhythms we must not lose sight of their much slower frequencies. Rituals are among the most precisely recurrent of social events. Not only there may be repetition at organic frequencieswithin the ritual itself but there is recurrenceof the ritual as a whole from week to week or month to month, year

155

to year, death to death. That which is performed now will be performed again, a week or year from now, or when someone is again troubled by similar symptoms or when the pigs are sufficient to repay the spirits once more ... It is worth noting yet again the emphasis on punctilious performance characteristic of ritual, to underline further that that which is performed at rapid tempo and in tight coordination, and which through that tempo and coordination unites participants more tightly than they are under ordinary circumstances, is, in being punctiliously repeated from one performance to the next, experienced as never-changing. We observe in liturgical orders that which is at once both quick and changeless. (Rappaport 1999: 221-222)

The temporality of the ritual oscillates betweenthe organic vibrations resonatingin the rite and the frequency of social relations. What is invariant and participates in a more cosmic order of apparentimmutability or slowness,are the patternsof action and the behavioural code. At one and the samemoment, the tribal collective (or speedtribe) moves out of social time, entering organic is incredibly both in both cases, time where quick and changeless; and cosmic regions imperceptible. In a thermodynamic sense,the immutable order of the ritual is able to restore the forever lost history, from it its irreversibility to time that redeeming are and making episodes becomes For Rappaport, irreversibility homeostatic cyclical entropy stasis. rituals make recurrent: and repetitivenesscoincide, and the recurrent and periodic temporality of the ritual becomestightly t Immutability appearsas the quality of interconnectedwith notions of eternity and changelessness. is The its immobility, the thus that repetitiveness of ritual guarantees so that every repeated. all is identical in have to the past. that taken as other perceived performances repetition place singular This conceptualisationidentifies the immutability of the rite as a survival of the past in the present. Departing from a different point of view, we can associatethe repetitive and disciplined for to a potential productive difference, rather than to simple immutability and characterof rituals freezing. With its ordered chronology of traditions, history aims at providing a sourceof orientation into an otherwise inextricable, rhizomatic and disorienting web of rhythmic interruptions and (biological linear with no apparent or cultural) starts causality. The conceptualisationof new sudden development different, switches the rhythm of dance rituals to a model of non-chronological a in its the through present, which actualisation of a virtual tendency (a rhythmic causality reverse tendency), acts on the past and tends toward the future. Molecular biology describesthis model through the analysis of retroviruses' reverse temporality and its actualisation in the host cell; with the replication of cultural codes,this model is realisedthrough the actualisationsof a rhythmic virus in new tribal rites.

156

4.3.2 The rhythmic retrovirus

of the techno-ritual

Disrupting the genetic and cultural bonds which are considered to be the basis of the local and ethnic character of rituals, and occupying the global territory of the whole planet, non-linear links the oldest rites to contemporary techno-parties, while also overcoming transmission rhythmic the idea of a death of traditional ritual practices being caused by the replacement of `organic' and analog tools with artificial and digital ones. The continuous genetic (and cultural) phylum of the increasingly becomes tribe connected to the unpredictable developments of the machinic speed beyond in biological words, other phylum:

and cultural breaks or continuities, the technical

evolution from acoustic to electronic and digital sound tools provokes new articulations of the same viral rhythmic tendencies.

On one hand, among membersof the samespeciesor ethnic group, the replication of genetic de-coding (genetic through the works phylum) of the same DNA message by RNA and material through its successive translation into proteic synthesis; on the other hand, the abnormal replication in a reverse direction, with the viral RNA of retro-viruses works

genome and its `reverse

transcriptase' enzyme producing the synthesis of a DNA molecule into the host cell: this time, a from RNA to DNA. Instead of a pre-existing model the transcription carries genome reverse determining the final realisation, we have the very process of viral actualisation (DNA synthesis from RNA) acting back on a past virtuality that only emerges in the retropassage, with a consequent disorganisation in disorientation the genetic make-up, and of unpredictable mutation and of effect body. In becoming the of affected other words, echoing Deleuze and Guattari, we argue that, in and the linear genetic code and biological composition of a body, rhythm is what `changes direction' through a reverse causality: from RNA and its potential to become, to a synthesised viral DNA in the host cell. For Gabriel Tarde, one of the basic principles of socio-cultural life, i. e. repetition, or imitation, is based on the returning of a sort of virtual centre of gravity around which a series of 34 (for the example essential acts of a ritual). changes collects

In this viral model, the present does not derive from the past but affects and `re-creates'it. In this sense,we can argue that the passageof rhythm through different tribes does not work as a but linear transmission, genetic as the viral re-actualisation of a rhythmic schemainto of system 21" host In the the century, cells. cell of the new dance rite is the digitalised and new ritual amplified space of the techno-party. The model of a linear transmission of the ritual across idea the the or ethnic same racial group, of and generations of its disappearanceafter genetic and technical contamination, are reversedinto a different. schema,with new technologies acting on the past and creating a new ritualism with a totally different cultural, geographical and historical different technological element. contextualisation,and also with a 157

The technological context of the ancient ritual was represented by a webwork of musical instruments, together with dresses and objects, chemical substances and plants, but also writing and symbols. This technological web of tools and signs was tightly linked to the cultural/religious imagination of tribal populations: according to Erik Davis, magic and animism, mythology and religions, have always been resonating across rituals and various technical media (from hieroglyphs to books, from radios to computer networks), producing different technomystical realisations. In Davis's words, the main components of this techno-mysticism are `soul' and `spirit':

By soul, I basically mean the creative imagination, that aspect of our psyches that perceives the world as an animated field of powers and images. Soul finds and loses itself in enchantment; it speaks the tongue of dream and phantasm,which should never be confused with mere fantasy. Spirit is an altogetherdifferent bird: an impersonal, incorporeal spark that seeks clarity, essence,and a blast of the absolute. (Davis 1999: 6)

For Davis, on one hand, the spiritual quest is directed towards the overcoming of terrestrial hand, the soul the the a superior, of acquisition of abstract code expression; on other gravity and in Gil desire, bodies. Jose' in Drawing the the of and realm of world matter and on material remains Maya Deren, we have already pointed out how these two transcendentdirections converge in the bodily forces in (more investment than the through and a energetic psychic) respectively ritual impersonal disinterested, bodies ('soul'), the through and or abstract resulting and powers of dance. From ('spirit') this point of view, we can associatethe movement and of expressiveness hallucinatory forces be investment to to the the of rite phase of come possession, when energetic human forms, become animal or even sounds and colours animals and animals perceived under become divinities. On the other hand, the spirituality of the dance coincides with the ec-static implode into is becoming. Trance-dance and perceptions a movements molecular where condition the transducingoperation, the in-between,the passagebetweenthesetwo conditions. What Davis's analysis adds to theseconceptualisationsis a different perspectiveon the tight forces described by him between the transcendent the technology: of rite and as a vehicle relation for ghosts, spells and intuitions, the technical machine provides a launching pad for the way towards transcendence,with the two different mystical realisations of this transcendentalcondition (soul and spirit) respectively associatedto analog and digital media. The former is basedon analogy latter divides the the world between material content (acoustic and wave propagation, line information (binary digits). With its binary codifications, an abstract of particle/waves)and digital technology delineates a passagefrom the soulful, warm and hallucinatory condition of the interference its direct dynamics, blood with and sensori-motor circulation and nervous soundwave, 158

energy,to the spiritual and abstract condition of ec-stasy,a body beyond the consciousexperience from functions; forces its by dimension to and a world populated parts organic a of of inorganic, numerical potential of universal connectibility. The relation between these two moments, between the human sensoriumand the digital machine representsthe trans-passage,the analog virtualisation and re-actualisation of the digital code, the moment when bodies collide and become part of a 35 force field `crackle The invested by body them the which makes with energy'. energy continuous in technology, and the affective power of the latter on perceptions and movements, constitute the intended field technological the new as a machinic (rather than animistic or simply of ritual, virtual human/technological, that the overcomes organic/inorganic, alive/dead gap. potential mechanical) Beyond mechanistic conceptions of technology and phenomenologicalor animistic conceptionsof humanexperience,the rite appearsas an assemblageof different potentials. The technologies of the premodern world coexisted with a number of gods, sorcerersand forces: in indigenous societies, everything was woven together, gods, animals and tools, medicine into Bruno bodies/minds (what kin songs and weather, a collective and plants, webwork of and sex, Latour has defined as the `anthropological matrix'), where nature and culture could not be clearly divided, and "the world was seen through the lens of animism, a magical mode of thought that living field " (Davis the surrounding as a world experience[d] of psychic presences. and read... 1999: 12-13) Despite the successive nature-culture separation, the modern West never really left the anthropological matrix of potential connections which enveloped the ancient and pre-modern world. The linear temporality

of Western Cartesian rationalisation has always been diverted by the

technological capacity to simultaneously plunge into archaic times and ultra-futurism, making them converge into a new animistic tendency where the technical machine becomes part of the ritual force-field. In this techno-mystical coincidence, the word `demonic' often attached to the powerful machine suggests both the possibility

of an agency without subjectivity

and the power of a

(which becoming demonic idea The to technologies are proper all a of simulation). of metamorphic its association to technological simulation unsettles phenomenological interpretations and agency by attributing

a non-human

(and non-subjective)

agency to cybernetic

feedback systems.

Nevertheless, explaining all functions in terms of power, awareness and agency, even without life, fall back into the phenomenology of old techno-mysticism the to new seems presupposing animistic conceptions.

According to Deleuze and Guattari, every tool or organ cannot be considered as an independentobject, but only as that which its connections make it become, according to the it they and rest make enter, and to the way these relations combine or split relations of movement For is from "This them, those other organs. of not animism, any more than it is mechanism; off 159

is it by immense a plane universal machinism: of consistency an occupied rather, abstract machine occupied by an infinite number of assemblages." (Deleuze and Guattari in Fisher: 6) Without hyper-rational it transcendental power, any miraculously autonomous agency or with any endowing Deleuze and Guattari's machinic conceptualisation individuates the connections and relations of an human-technological beyond the the view of a technology connection considering assemblage, extending our own creative powers or amputating our more natural gifts.

From drumming to electronic drumming, the acoustic assemblagesof dancerituals realise a de-personalisingand de-subjectifying becoming of the dancing body through perceptualand kinetic amplification, and through a bodily submersionamong an excessivemultiplicity of data (sensations as perceptual information overload). Beyond traditional claims for cultural roots and beyond the lack electronic music's of authenticity and naturalness,material qualities and rhythm criticism of 36 by Very the technological soundscape. new soon, electro-sound ended up are emphasised involving be bodies to of and actively a warming people multiplicity eager millions of entertaining suckedinto the new sound system of turntables, mixers, amps, speakersand DJs, actualising their kinetic potential through new dances.Today, the collective and immersive kinaestheticsof digital in by digital drum is assemblage a sonic of computers, sequencers and machines sound actualised danceparties and raves, on those dancefloors that have become the labs where the social nervous flow itself. into These electro-acoustic experiments a web of uncontrollable social systemassembles dance. The the travel geographic and cultural milieus where people restlessly and across movements draws the geographicmap as a tapestry of trajectoriesand of urban ravers population contemporary highways trans-national to roam, outside transition, of a series streets, avenues and of points drawn by destinations, the strangeattractor of the party event. only and everydaygoals Rave parties are semi-clandestine places, spaces usually outside of the city centre (like 37 by ravers' tribes. Without any abandonedwarehouses)systematically occupied and transformed for low frequencies panels or any porous absorption, these spacesgeneratestates resonancesystems intensity but high the amplifying contamination, also intensifying the repetitivenessof sonic of is [the bpm "as through the material a viral rhythmic which codified only] metrics sound,producing filter whosefine grained mesh distributes audio populations.s38Through this sonic filter or grid, the infection of the rhythmic virus spreadsamong the dancers,passing through the beats,the silences bass bubbling the of techno music and engenderingthe condition of trance. This `trance' altered and by induced is the sonic-chemical assemblageof the techno-rave ritual, as a mixture of sound state Ecstasy, Speed (mainly Ecstasy), drugs MDMA (the and amphetamines). of active principle and it be in its to therapeutic allowed effects sold as a substanceuntil prohibition whose empathetic 1985,is the drug most frequently associatedto techno and raves, and its effects are more related to 160

the emerging of a collective

trance condition, than to any solipsistic

form of hallucinatory

perception. Being described as "an empathogen, an entactogen, a drug of empathy and touch, " (Plant 1999: 165) Ecstasy intensifies sounds and images, colours and tastes, smells and tactile sensations, transforming every experience into an infinite and continuous plateau with no spatiotemporal restrictions: dancing becomes flying. Sadie Plant describes this tight chemical/sonic interrelation as dependent on the particular technological apparatuses of contemporary sound production,

particularly

on the synthesiser (associated by

Deleuze

and Guattari

to the

molecularisation of sonic matter) and on digital acoustic technology. The sound produced by digital machines sets to modify, in symbiotic combination with MDMA,

states of mind and perceptions,

bodies and brains, dissolving habits and objects in a chemico/acoustic combination that recalls the drumming. (168) In Plant's words, the drug is the music, trance experience and of ritual rhythmic and the music is a way to engineer and explore its effects through dance. (166-167)

Dancers, audio-technological apparatuses and drugs become the components of an assemblagecrossedby energy and engenderingan infinity of microscopic perceptionsand motions. This human/technical/chemicalassemblagedistributes the content and expression of the cultural its dance bio-physical level: the and relation of with stratification when loudspeakers,humanbodies and Ecstasy are connected, perception and movement become the bodily content of a form of choreutic expressionbasedon repetition which, on its turn, becomesan acquired habit of the body (the repetitive periodicity of the techno-rave in the week-ends becoming one of the laws of Finally, the assemblageis in contact with the plane of consistency, culture). contemporaryyouth dance the the machine of abstract ritual through the manifestation of an ec-staticcondition. and with Changing the course of popular music, drugs and technology are thus the main components influencing themselvesin their effects. Ecstasy,together with digital the reciprocally of assemblage, technology, has profoundly affected the way sound is manipulated and listened to, opening the sealed confines of musical structure to sonic chaos. Recording it within separate tracks and digital it in linear time, technology ties sound to a rigid temporal grid following the replaying infinitely dividing it into microscopic standardunits as the technological times of clock, cadenced the granular material of sonic composition. The repetition of sonic aggregates,the looping of discrete segments and the absence of musical crescendo or progression provoke a tension, a itself perfectly to what Plant defines as the pre-orgasmic plateau of the suspensionwhich adapts MDMA high. The constant repetition of the beat appearsas the more significant elementof techno, asin a regularly broken sonic carpet made of continuities and interruptions, of syncopatedtimes and different juxtapositions, interferencesor resonationsof the main beat with other sonic segmentsand definition dream, fantasy itself. Beyond the of with or hallucination, repetition and metric discipline 161

induce a trans-experienceof technological-acousticalliance, an anonymous state of the body, a becoming-beat,becoming-speed,becoming-rhythm, a dispersion beyond individual limits in which the body is solely traversedby desire and drawn by peaksof sonic intensity. In the rave party, the fascist and disciplined repetition of the beat is the initial condition before the ec-static de-subjectivation of the dancing body through a `trance' passage.In other words, it is the extremely rigidified metrics of techno, rather than any presumed spontaneity of dance, both dancing body to become imperceptible and that the allows sound and music and imperceptibly linked. This imperceptible link is then territorialized, i.e. distributed along spatial and temporal axes, by the becoming of the body's microperceptionsand micromovements into signs, i.e. perceivable and performable aggregates,gestural components"used for organizing a space ... The forces of chaosare kept outside as much as possible

", (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 311) the ...

let in be include lines bodies, to to the territory out order open and other or to go towards gestural the others. The syncopated motions of the raver become signs, "action-perception condensates" (315) expressing,with their spatio-temporaldimension (temporal constancy and spatial range), the dance. From this `qualitative' point of view, the repetitivenessand rigidity the particular quality of her body in-between ballet dancer (herself the to the techno-raver the of associate movements of fluidity and interruption). In this sense, the expressivenessof the dancer is clearly revealed as forces, between bodily time/space and much more than on a clear unfolding relying on a connection in dance). 20`h (as century's much modern of meanings Moreover, the techno and the ballet sceneare also both inextricable connectedto a technical dimension which is linked to the generationof their particular forms of expression.Again, it was ballet, more than the symbolic and purist pantomimes of modern dance that, in the days of the modernist avant-gardes,encounteredthe sonic/visual technical machines of performancessuch as OscarSchlemmer'sTriadischesBallet or Massine's Parade: Andre' Levinson, in a wonderful essay called "The Spirit of the Classic Dance," poses a relevant question: "You may ask whether I'm suggestingthat the dancer is a machine? But most certainly! -a machine for manufacturing beauty." Levinson's answer only makessensewhen we realize that he's It's no coincidence that we talking about the ballet dancer ... routinely speak of the "Ballet Mecanique" ... (Oscar Schlemmer's best-known Bauhausdance is titled "Triadisches Ballet.") (Copeland 2004: 102)

The surface (or the territory) of the dance is drawn by the `syncopated' quality of the ballet Cunningham's Merce performances are the best contemporary examples of a movements: dancein which, beyond any senseof `natural' flow or organic perception, the body looks `like a 162

wooden marionette having difficulty

in expressing emotion. ' (Paul Taylor in Copeland 2004: 114)

What is important for him, together with the `marionette-like' aspect of movement (which is the ballet dancing from differentiates the tribal that the of condensate machine rhythmic qualitative by for Martha Graham), is its indifference to the expression of emotions. imitated example rituals Rather, the dance becomes an expression of sensations and forces and of the ways they pass between body and environment, or between different bodily parts, or between bodies, across space and time: dance movements as vectors of these transmissions. In this sense, the non-linear temporality of his performances (as complex accumulations of different gestural sequences and of different velocities) and the non-geometrical management of the stage space (as non-frontally direct but by like the composed of all equally a series points valid) are centralised, oriented or its distribution the temporality of and of contaminating of reverse rhythm actualisation qualitative in itself, its interest for Cunningham's choreography, with exclusive movement across space. transforms the body into a pack, a multiplicity

bodily by bodies section every crossed energy, of

becoming a soloist and moving in opposition to the others, while being connected to other human difficulty bodies. The technological and

in some of the positions and transitions. performed by the

dancers expresses the rhythm of these performances, as an infinitely de-forming potential which is in is in It the this times that sense we encounter, and spaces. given anatomically reasonable technologised dance rituals of the streets and theatres of our times, a disguised or camouflaged, a de-forming the same rhythmic and potential or tendency that took the masked actualisation of Choribantic youth packs in ancient Dyonisian cults two thousand years ago and made them roam in the streets, of course with all the stylistic differences due to the different `territorial' circumstances: but difference. imitation formal their a of movements, return rhythm with a of qualitative not a

163

Notes:

As Zavlasky argues, the bodily origin of numbers and counting is evident from most of the numbers names. See Zavlasky 1999:38. 2(Copeland2004: 142) For a definition of the `global village' of electronic technologies, see Mc Luhan 1989. 3 For an anthropologicalanalysis of Italian tarantism, seeDe Martino 1961. 4 In Leroi-Gourhan's words, "The developmentof the body social, forms the prolongation of the anatomicalbody." ... After the appearanceof Homo sapiens, specieswere paralleledby ethnic groups, whose physiology is foundedupon the group's collective memory. This sort of social prolongation is developedthrough the substitution of cultural memory to the biological apparatusof instincts. (1993: 20) s "Community dancing occurs only among humans,if by that phrasewe mean a form of group behaviour whereby an indefinite number of individuals start to move their musclesrhythmically, establish a regular beat, and continue doing so for long enoughto arouseeuphoric excitement sharedby all participants, and (more faintly) by onlookers as well." (McNeill 1995: 13) 6 Between the ritual forms of different times and places, what is exchanged is rhythm, as the viral spreading or transversalweaving of soundsand dancesacrosssociety's codes,a continuous energetic relation which is physiological to the cultural organisation of life, while behavioural regularities are decentralised and de-formed by the intensive molecularmovementsof a collective dancing body in continuouspassageand change. 7 SeeSpencer1985:4. This function is performed by the ritual through to its highly rigid, fixed and determinedform of behaviour, as "a kind of patterned activity oriented towards the control of human affairs, primarily symbolic in character with a non-empirical referent, and as a rule socially sanctioned' `... actions exhibiting a striking or incongruousrigidity, that is, some conspicuousregularity nor accountedfor by the professedaims of the actions. Any type of behaviour may thus be said to turn into a "ritual" when it is stylized or formalized, and made repetitive in that form'. " (Definitions respectively by Firth, Leach and Nadel, in Lewis 1980: 10) Also defined in Freudian terms as `libido' this conceptualisation of energy as excessto be releasedis totally different from the deleuzian notion of a distributeddesirewhich, we will see,is much more valid for the analysisof music and dance. 8 As argued by Massumi, "Is it possible even to conceive of an individual outside of a society? Of a society without individuals? Individuals and societies are not only empirically inseparable, they are strictly simultaneous and consubstantial.It is an absurdity even to speakof them using notions of mediation, as if they were discrete entities that enter into extrinsic relation to one another, let alone to wonder which term takes precedence over the other in determining stasis and change. If they cannot be seen as terms in extrinsic relation, then perhapsthey can be seenas products,effects, coderivativesof an immanent relation that would be changein itself." (2002a: 71) Every individual being is constituted as a series of relations: the human being is therefore social, psychosocial, psychic,somaticat the sametime. In reality, as shown by Simondon, society cannot be consideredas the product of the co-presenceof many separated individuals, neither is it an external reality to be super-imposed to them. A group representsthus the social body of the individual, whose social personality extends up to the confines of this group, and this expansionis enabled by the ideas and beliefs that glue the different group members. See Simondon 20001: 143149. Seehttp://www. webindial23. com/dances. "Bharatanatyamtechnique may be discussedunder two broad heads,namely nrtta and abhinaya.The nrtta aspecthas to be understoodas a technique of human movement. In Indian dancethe human body has beenconceivedof, as a mass divided be along a central median. Further movement is determined by the nature of deflections from equally can which this median.It is only when the weight is equally divided that the completely balanced(sama-bhanga)position emerges. In poseswhere there is only one deflection, the slightly imbalanced(abhanga)position emerges.In posture with more than two deflections on opposite sides of the central median, the thrice-deflected (tribhanga) position emerges. Bharatanatyamconceives of movement in space mostly along eight straight lines or in triangles. The head forms the first unit and lateral movementsof the head are common. The torso is seenas another unit and is hardly ever broken up into the upper or the lower torso. The lower limbs are seeneither as straight lines or two sides of an imaginary triangle in space.The upper limbs either follow the lower limbs or weave circular patterns along spacewhich is covered by the lower limbs." All the positions and combinations of these bodily parts follow patterns which try to achieve a seriesof triangles in space.Numerical timing and geometry are thus the main guiding principles of this particular form of Indian dance.http://www. webindia123.com/dances. 'Z "Irreversibility tends to create irremediable gaps betweenthings, gaps that are difficult if not impossible to structure into a totality, becausethe constantreproduction of the new impedesthe perception of isomorphic forms, analogies,and the formation of structures. In fact, because the gaps in a structure are differential, these differences create the beginningsof a set of relations that can only be establishedon the basis of identity (complementarity, isomorphism, symmetry, inversion, and so on). Absolutely irreversible diachrony prohibits, by definition, a regular arrangementof differences,since the gap between one point in (past) time and another (past or present) cannot find another*basisof

164

comparison with the gap between two other points differently situated in time - time being irreversible - so the formation of a structure is impossible. the gapsceaseto be relative and becomeabsolute." (Gil 1998: 66,7) ... 13(Gil 1998: 65,6) "Boundaries are drawn on the ground in a precise fashion, differentiating it from profane spaces. And at the sametime the boundariesdesignatea spacefor the metamorphosisof the body, a spacethat it cannot leave. Everything happensas though the objective spacewere circumscribed in the beginning only to serve as a basis for the spatialization of the space in which the mutation of the body will happen. What emerges in the rite of possession... remainsenclosedin the circle where the trance begins.On the outsidenothing should happen." (124,5 - 125,6) 14The bio-physical codification and territorialisation of rhythm is thus accompaniedby its cultural articulation: at the same time, the non-conscious development of coherent patterns between the musical structure and the performer's actions is transducedon a conscious level of metaphoricalexpressions,and the trance state induced by the bio-physical sound/movementcorrespondenceis translated into a spiritual possessionthrough an operation of cultural symbolisation. Nevertheless,the symbolic form of the rite is not imposed but emerges from its material/energetic system. For an analysisof the formation of signs in relation to their `concrete', material circumstances,see Pierce 1960. 13In somecultures, for example, "the drum representsthe body of a spirit. Then in ritual, the drum head is beatenand the body of the spirit vibrated thus causing the spirit to speak.And in a metaphorical sense,when a spirit talks, every "body" listens. physiologically and emotionally affectedby what is heard." (Turner 1992: 194-195) ... 16In relation to this rite, "Another interesting series of words is derived from Ria', which has the same meaning as jnoun [djinn] but evokes very different associations.The singular word ri'ha means "smell", ri'h means "breathe, (in Hebrew, (Nathan: " 5) to the soul refers roua'h). and roh wind", 17"At the centre of the question of power there is the question of the body's potency, of energy, and of circulatory regimesrespondingto different power organisations.In the various systemsof power, there is also an amount of bodily power involved: what can a body do there? Besides,the essentialrole of rituals in the question of power relates no doubt to the possibility of capturing the free forces that traversebodies. Power thus becomes,first of all, the power to control the effects of such forces ... The tribal therapeuticritual constitutesa way of thinking and acting on a "free" or "haphazard" causality. From this point the other causality - be it economic, political, or social - can be included and overcome." (Gil 1998: 84,5) 18"Rather, the body analysed in ritual is transformed by different systems of power, where tribal systemsallow for forces formation between the and which avoid of more despotic significations and meanings." There is a signs relations manifest relation between signs and the forces which underpin them, and "signs appear to be shot through with particularly intense investments of affectivities, to the point where one is tempted to take their affectivities as their for function " Whatever "symbols, the the their traits. case, one cannot neglect, unique signifying of characteristic by buildup that them them, in other words the relationship between to the of energies carry and are carried relation semiologyand an economic theory of signs." (Gil 1998: 88,9) 19As Maya Deren argued, the particular kinetic quality of the ritual body's movement cannot be consideredas a skill learnedand accumulated in a people's limbs and muscles,and cannot be reduced to the particularly stylised form or 226-227. See Deren 1953: dance. a of meaning 20Ritual possessionthus cannot be interpreted in relation to a notion of blocking demonic possession,a notion that was generatedby the Italian, French and Judeo-Christiantraditions, but as a divine contact accelerating the appearanceof bodily potentials and unknown tendencies. In the religious spiritual climate created by traditional `exorcist' theorisations,suffering (rather than dancing) constitutes the main form of physical expression, and therefore the rite in its the total elimination of evil. SeeDi Lecce1994: 12-15. conclusion sees predictable 2' The subjectivity (or the `Self) of the participant and the collective identity of the group appear as thresholds of rhythmic passages:"If we imagined the position of a fascinatedSelf, it was becausethe multiplicity toward which it leans,stretching to the breaking point, is the continuation of another multiplicity that works it and strains it from the inside." (Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 249) 22(Deleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 250-252) For example, in the rites of passageof Liberia and Sierra Leone women, the becoming-butterflyof the female-chrysalis happensthrough a possession,or a trance state, induced by ritual sound and dancing; becoming-woman-butterfly, and becoming-sound and color, she reaches a molecular dimension where inaudible forces can be heard and imperceptible forces appear:forces of time flowing that make the naYvegirl grow and becomea mature woman, the play between gravitational and anti-gravitational forces giving to her dancing feet the levity of a butterfly's wings, the magnetic and mechanical forces of the air fascinating and attracting her body into a whirlpool of soundsand colours, voices, sensations... A multiplicity (of soundsand colours) after another multiplicity (the butterfly's movementsand sensationsin the ritual perimeter) after another multiplicity (the girl becoming woman light flight imperceptible impressions in herself flight. insect): keeping becoming the and through of an a while -woman In this ritual, the woman follows a continuous line (a rhythmic fiber) along which her multiplicities change,a unique fiber stretching from human to animal, and then to molecules, from molecules to particles, up to the imperceptible.See http://www. artsconnected. org/artsnetmn/identity/ace africa.html. 23As Neher has shown, "Rhythm compared with continuous stimulations [gives] time between pulses for nerve fatigue to dissipate.Nerves in the brain have a spontaneousfiring rate that is reinforced by a rhythmic stimulus of similar frequency." (Neher in Turner 1993: 196)

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24The dancing body itself, when inserted into this altered and metamorphosed(as well as metamorphosing)context, losesits harmonicproportions and stability and shows its microrhythmic composition reminding us, accordingto Gil, of the `grotesquebody' theorised by Michail Bakhtin as the focal point of the medieval taste for physical excessand inversion, "the "grotesque body" body," the latter obeying the rules "classical to the elaborated and opposed ... ... ... In body is no excess,everything is balanced and measured.It is a the there classical proportion of calculation and ... "complete body, rigorously delineated,closed, shown from the outside,un-mixed, individual"; whereasin the grotesque body, wherethe movementof life bursts forth, disorder dominates " (1998: 171,2). ... 25Confirming this conceptualisation,Hanna argues that "the visual, motional configurations of dance in simple and complexsocietiesmay serveto categorizesocial groupingsand thereby structure social behaviour." (Hanna 1987:6) 26This pre-social formation should not be consideredas a totally random and unorganisedmovement, but merely as a tendencytowards order. Order and repetition are not only imposed ideological models but also tendenciesof social in (and flux in Eraclitus therefore transformation, argued, elements people as well) are continuous and as processes: harmony, the time, their tendency towards at same realising order and stability and meaning while, and variation chaos (the movementfrom chaosto logos). SeeKranz and Lami 1991. 27For a physical analysisof social processes,seeDe Landa2001. 28On the biological/human scalesof invasion, seeDe Landa2001. 29Using Goodman's"materialist cartographyof sonic mutation in the ecology of speeds",we can point "to a continuum which connectsthe dynamics of sonic matter (both natural and artificial) to that which animates the social field of massesand packs." (Goodman 2004a: 3) This ecology of speedsin which speedtribes form is woven as a network of bodies and membranes,an acoustic environment connected with the virtual potential of the tribe as a reservoir of in interest its Goodman in As "[O]ur out, speedtribes, or vortical of actual points realisations. excess energy mutational is kind The does bodies, suggestion not of a of crude, chaotic, neo-primitivism. correspond with some not collective dynamic. On the contrary, we would emphasize a speed tribe's to rudimentary group earlier, more an regression intricate rhythmic consistency,and highly adaptive collective intelligence." (6) The mutations of a body thus happenat both individual and social level, where social mutation coincides with the individuation of a shifting, variable collective body, or a tribe, an off-centre and shifting aggregateof particles intensely occupying space.The tribal body-aggregate "is understoodas both virtual (an intensive systemof affective potential) and actual (composed by particle relations of intended latter (6) " the as the rhythmic composition, or consistency,of the tribe. seed and slowness), 3' At a particular density of rhythmic consistencyand potential, a threshold is crossed,producing a new collective body (Goodman " "operat[ing] the different affect tribe, on politics of creature and swarming a polyrhythmic speed as a ... 2004a:7) 31For a `musicological' or sonic description of the Gnawa rite, seeNacci 2001. 32SeeRev. Domenico Sangenitoin De Martino 2001: 188. 33 The conceptualisationof an original proto-mediterraneanidentity is opposed by De Martino to the idea of the Tarantismritual as part of the cultural identity of the Messapicpopulation, an autonomouslocal group living in Apulia in the Paleolitic, as the original ancestors of the Apulian culture. See De Martino 1961. For a history of cultural Greek (and Western) Bernal 1991. Greece, Afro-Semitic between the culture, and of origins of see ancient parallelisms "Since we have identified three major concentric circles of reality, the physical circle, the biological circle, and the have difficulty be distinguishing in could easily subdivided or synthesized we shall no which social circle ... - circles form dominates in form it. " form of which characterizes and a of repetition, and a opposition of adaptation, a each (Tarde 1969: 144) 's "Today, there is so much pressure on information - the word, the concept, the stuff itself - that it crackles with hints " (Davis 1999: 8) itself drawing to metaphysics, of arcane magic. mythologies, energy, 36"The importanceto twentieth-century music of atmosphericsound, its timbre and personality - indeed its `Ambience' ideas intertwined [and it] highlighted innovative how technological is musical with change. much a measureof in have been buried hiss. " in times tape that the would underneath gramophone crackle and earlier music qualities (Prendergast2000: 3) 37Differently from the limited and more physically and culturally, politically and economically disciplined spaceof the kind limitation form impose does to any of solid concentration, or any of not people's affluence or the space rave club, isolation to the movement of sound molecules through it's a-morphousbodies, walls and air. See Fumarola in Nacci: 51. 38This metric quantification of the bpm goes from the 75-110 of dub, reggae and hip-hop, to the 160-180 of drum'n'bass.SeeGoodman2004a: 2.

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5. Cyber-dance: technical machines in the crowded space of performance

In the previous chapter we introduced the passagefrom the bio-physical to the sociodancing body as an overcodification of movements and the of stratum cultural gesturesinto the elements of a ritual. In the following pages, we will discuss the technical stratification, i. e. the form and substance, the content and expression generated by different tools for the recording, manipulation and transmission of dance. The first section deals with the relation between dance and movement and its transformation from analogto digital. The secondsection discusses with video, and the use of interactive digital technology on stage,particularly in relation to the biotechnology of Motion Capture and interactive danceperformances.The last section is dedicatedto the mathematicalcodification of dancenotation and choreography,and to the shift from analog, hand-written forms of notation to the compositional software LifeForms. Merce Cunningham's choreographyHand-Drawn Spaceswas composedwith the Life Forms software in 1998,almost ten years after his first encounter with digital ' technology. At the same time, this work also representedhis first experiment with Motion Capture, which he undertook in collaboration with multimedia computer Shelley initial Kaiser Eshkar. In Paul the and phase of the experiment, two artists dancers (Jared Philips and Jeannie Steele) performed in front of a digital video light-sensitive disks (or `sensors') key joints to the attached wearing of their camera, bodies. Their movement was thus recorded as `points in space' and transformed into digital 3D files. The final version of the work was projected on large-scalemultiple In (intended here displacement) this the the way, movement as spatial screens. video (or from `captured') bodies: dancers Copeland the the extracted was performers' as of dance dancer. "Motion " (Copeland to the the aspires give capture us minus argues, 2004: 191) But how successful is this technical device in the `abstraction' of importantly, body-movement And talk the can more we about separation movement? into back idea falling immaterial image the phenomenological of an screen without `liberated' from the weight of flesh? Is the body the real obstaclefor the `abstractness' digital is be the technology to potential of or searchedsomewhereelse? of movement,

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The following chapter will try and discuss these questions, through an analysis of different forms of dance`digitalisation'. Cunningham's performances are not the only examples of a world-known digital tool. Bill T. Jonesalso experimented with the creative using a choreographer potentials of Motion Capture.24 markerswere attachedto Bill's body. Before starting the experiment, he looked at the markers, the lights, the cameras, the tripods, the screens,the whole technical apparatussurrounding him, and told the technicians he felt the strange sensation of transgressinga taboo. Dancers have a strange kind of he idea said, a romantic of the ephemeralcharacterof the performance:for religiosity, the purist performer, recording representsa blasphemous act. These declarations seemedto perpetuatean old fear originated by the magical appearanceof photography in 19`hcentury, the fear of being `captured' and, therefore, of losing one's soul. Ile asked how a few markers could record all his movements: his dance was it he explained, angular, was not only a question of the skeleton and its positions not but also of fluidity, undulations and palpitations of the muscles. He looked at the pictures that had been disseminatedon the floor as a sort of choreographic script, and improvised sequencesconnecting each pose to the successiveone. While his effort increased,Bill becamecovered with sweat and some of the markers started to come off his body. His dance formed waves that crossedhis body while his weight shifted from one side to the other, some of the movements being almost impossible to capture. The performance Ghostcatching, with movements captured from Bill T. Jones's dance, was presentedfor the first time as an 8'30" video installation at the CooperUnion in New York, January 1999. Since the first modern danceperformancesof Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller in 19'h and early 20th centuries, until the most recent technological experiments of Cunningham dance Jones, as and such performances have been the choreographers loci of different rituals in which the movements of the dancer's muscles are `transmitted' to the immobile spectatorsthrough a kinaesthetic communication and a dancing from the to the watching bodies, through the other bodies material contagion: (the technical tools and objects) populating the stage.Different bodily techniquesand different technologies participate in this transmission. In other words, the `technicality' of the dance performance(in both its gestural and technological senses) becomes a conductor of sensations and affects.2 On stage, different conscious or by the performer to physiological factors (such as techniques are applied unconscious 168

weight, balance,position of spinal column, direction of the eyes), in order to produce particular bodily tensions, these tensionsproducing on their turn an energetic quality which makes the body `alive' and attracts the spectator's attention before the appearanceof meaning. In other words, we can arguethat, before any representational or signifying process,the aestheticsof the danceperformanceis related to the material impact of the dancer's technique,on its production of material, gestural signs, but also on the use of various technical devices(from electronic light and sound to computers) to amplify them, in a body/tool assemblageof rhythmic transmission. To the dancer's use of her body according to extra-daily techniques, contemporary performances add a whole machinery of audiovisual recording, manipulation and projection technologies,associatingthe numerical operations of the digital machineto the bio-physical and cultural codifications of dance.In other words, in parallel with the anatomical techniquesof sensori-motor codification deployed by the performer and with the socio-cultural rules shaping the movements as signs, the binary code and the cybernetic rules of interactive technologies represent a further technique of rhythmic in-formation. Today, the spacesand objects with which the participants of the dance rituals interact, the audiovisual technologies performing the imaginative and kinetic amplifiers are also machines of digital role of perceptual, codification. Dancers, choreographersand scenographersare becoming increasingly interestedin digital communication and information technologies,while programmers and information engineers become increasingly curious and often inspired by by the movements of the dancers. The contemporary and creations choreographic becoming by is therefore technical devices of all kinds, from more populated stage video camerasand sensorsto computersand telematic systemsof connection. As part of a new assemblage of contemporary culture, the relation between dance and technology becomesthus a fundamental object of analysis: in order to leave behind development linear in dance, of and to bring to light the potential old notions influence of the future on our present, the discussion of technology and its intervention on the performance and perception of dance reveals its critical importance. Through these technologies, the movement of a dancing body is thus doubled, transferred onto a different dimension coexisting with its bio-physical and in levels. And this passagethings change again. But is this new course, of cultural technologicalconnection really transformative?

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Being defined by Massumi as a `combinatoric of the possible', digital technology systematisesrhythm through "a numerically based form of codification be that they a numeric way of arraying alternative states so can ... sequencedinto a set of alternative routines. Step after ploddingly programmed step. Machinic habit." (2002a: 137) On the one hand, we have defined the dancing body's

(zeros and ones)

discrete tendencies themselves schema an open of actualising as as potential movementsthrough qualitative variation. On the other hand, the digital determinesa discontinuous net of possibilities, a closed schema of numbers which can only be feed back through on the virtuality of a program and can only retroactively realised binary through a capture. choreuticrhythm The potentialising effects of this multiplication of coded possibilities appear bodies: in between different in the moment of the perceptual or the connection only human bodies between and technical machines, the multiplied creative encounter become digital transduction the and rhythmic of potential a motor of possibilities is (what Massumi's the an appearance countable and of actual as notion passage. is disimage its (what the the apparition rhythmic) of virtual as measurable)and of connects the open potentiality of rhythm from the limited combinations and has logic binary Os Is the the actual always already where of and possibilities of in its Digital the moment of technology only side rhythmic reveals appeared. `apparition' through the perceptual/creative process: "Outside its appearance,the digital is electronic nothingness, pure systemic possibility. Its appearancefrom the 138) " (2002a: At is limbo the same time, transformation. with analog one electronic images and sounds are always analog, while the digital coding is "sandwiched between an analog disappearanceat the recording and an analog appearanceout of " (138) The [and listening the end. virtual side of this processresides viewing] code at in the opennessof perception and creation, in the abstractnessof a body's tendencies Avoiding its incipient thoughts. the virtual/digital and actions and perceptions, and of but digital/disembodied the can we unravel non-coincidence also the equations, the digitalisation between the and virtuality, analysing material relation productive influence of digitalisation on the rhythmicity of bodily perception/creation, and its In for and notions of subjectivity performative creativity. contemporary significance discusses between digital dance, the technology this relation and chapter other words, digital but the trying to understand as synonymous with virtuality without considering

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its productive, intensifying or dampening effect on the more abstract level of a dancingbody's affective potential. As argued by Italian dancer and choreographer Ariella

Vidach, the

in `contact improvisation' circuits emphasised sensori-motor action/reaction are also in (Vidach in Menicacci the technological the with encounter partner. and at work Quinz 2001) While, in phenomenological terms, Vidach's performative creations (with focused this consciousness of relations physical another dancer, floor on remain different dynamics (implicitly the their technical and on of weights object), present or in the phenomenological perception of the mediated image as a light body), we human/technical In this the as a machinic connection assemblage. consider important is is not the phenomenological realisation of the assemblage,what duet its improvised for as solo, or a collective performance, a a example performance, or choreographednature, and the conscious perceptual or creative relation of the human subject to the machine. Rather, this process goes far beyond the notion of human body the and as a mirror of the self, a potential of technology as an extension discursivemedium or a tool of alienation and control. This analysis is based on Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the machinic assemblage,and on the conceptualisationof a collective machine of subjectification bio-physical, by technical cultural and constituted creation and performative This (de-codification). and concept reveals of codification apparatuses componentsor but i. also ontologically open, not only symbolically, e. constructed, subjectivity as The diagram, different from of components. or abstract a multiplicity assembled flow (or flow through this an energetic construction, runs a of machine assembling functions. different (Guattari different 2001: 46) with elements numbers) relating From this point of view, the cyber-dance performative assemblageis analysed as de-codifications: digital. Inby sensori-motor, semiotic, and codifications constituted betweenbodies-imagesand their codes,movement in itself, rhythm in itself, not on a different level but immanent to all of them. The affective qualities of dance emerge through the different processesof bodies-images-machines. by different On the the this other side rhythm of elaboration (or in the middle) of this cyber-danceassemblage,we find the de-codifying and reits body-machine the audience,with apparatusesof sensoryand cognitive of codifying between the dancer/viewer Occupying of mediating apparatus position a elaboration. de/coder between (considered as a a microscopic substratumof couple, the computer 171

forces and becomings and a macroscopic level of perceptions) performs a double from fluxes to their codification (numerical and perceptual),and a-signifying passage, vice versa. The technical machinesof cyber-danceperformancesmust thus be considered in relation to the corporeal but also cultural machinescomposing a performative event (dancing and perceiving human bodies, and the socio-cultural organisation of the theatrical performance as a ritual with its own code and a-signifying semiotics of Guattari, becomes beyond According "it to to the delimitation necessary go gestures). in include functional to the the sense ensemblethat associatesthem strict of machines " (2001: 39) In humankind through the philosopher's multiple components with ... but (or these are matter and energy, also signs algorithms), social components words, components,organic components(in relation to the neural impulses and the humoral ideas, by human body), individual investments the and collective components of `desiring machines'. The `diagrammatic virtualities' (i. e. the virtual polarities, the insides and outsides,rights and lefts, ups and downs and all other directionalities) of a level to of machinism without a well a collective connected more machine are defined, delimited unity and with different basesfor alterity and differentiation. Furthermore, each technical machine has its own plans of conception and from but the time these one machine to another, same are sent at assemblage, defines Guattari `diagrammatic rhizome' of relations of as a what constituting From themselves. this point of view, the machinic assemblageof among machines from dance diverges the archaic machines of performances contemporarycyber-dance developing different diagrammatic different and along a a machine, rituals, actualising different operationsof energetic and rhythmic modulation and machinic phylum with (rather different traits: than a assemblage modulating affective machinic with it. doubling (rather The than and reproducing) resonations movement, stimulating) implied by this processmake the body move, or travel, while being in one place. In the cyber-dance human-technical connection, the perceptual and motor bodies dancing interrupted by live linking the simulated are affect, a nonand circuits the across spreading movement-vision-interpretation, actionsensation conscious In digital the the circuits. same way, electronic senses-brain and reaction-interaction, into before broken expanded affective electromagnetic and resonations circuits are their codification into algorithms and binary sequencesand their formation as figures bodies (on In the the all and off screen, on and off stage,on assemblage, sounds., or 172

(such translations capacity which escapes an affective precise reveal as power) and off the translation of movement into numbers). Taking the concept of affect as its point of departure, this analysis addresses the kinaesthetics of cyber-dance in relation to non-linear processes of energetic its the suspend progression of a conscious which performance and resonation intellectual reading into a material vortex: from the conceptualclarity of interpretation to perceptual noise. In this way, the analysis of dance and technology attempted in this thesis changesits critical perspectiveand, rather than focusing on the performed figures and their representationalor phenomenologicalrelations pre-formed choreutic dynamics in by highlights it the the more volatile technology, set motion material with be basis different dance. This the thus analysis undertaken on of a will aspectsof im-perceptible, the un-channelled or non-sensorially-codified as notion of rhythm impressionof a dance. In his work Audiovision, Michel Chion puts the affect and qualitative in direct images Between the to audiovisual cinema and arts. relation of perception identifies `intersensory he image, of patterns reciprocity' complex sound and traversing the intensive space-time of a video or a movie. Chion's notion of intersensoryperception presumesa rarefaction of images and sounds that, instead of being seen as unitary systems addressedto particular sensory channels, become in different aggregates moving patterns and speedsand affecting molecular, cloudy the body in con-fused ways. According to Chion, "Some kinds of rapid phenomenain imagesappearto be addressedto, and registeredby, the ear that is in the eye, in order impressions in into be to auditory memory," and vice versa. (1994: 135) converted Rather than the perceptual impressions arising from a particular sensorial stimulus, in Chion's fundamental becomes analysis are amodal sensationssuch as speed what for dance, becomes detached The the sensation goes where of rhythm same or rhythm. from sensory channelling. In relation to the digitalisation of audiovisual media, the becomes linked different kin-aesthetics to of cyber-dance a rythm synaesthetic if is digital in its from the trans-coding codification: what rhythm undergoes emerging from to then the transduction another, meter/milieu of the choreographic one passage infinitesimal implies further level into the the numerical code computer of a of code qualitative emergence. Echoing Deleuze and Guattari's words, we can say that a code (the code of the digital machine) receives fragments of a different code (the code of the dancer's 173

movement). (2002a: 314) The pixellated screen actually implies that all kinds of be into transduced the binary code of the computer: it is as sequences may coded though the computer acted as a universal transducer, or de/coder, potentially in its codes all other memory. And this implication can be reciprocal, all containing the different stratifications in nature partaking of that codified, patterned character digital bends to them the microscopic action of modulation. The encounter or, which Guattari it, between Deleuze the the two patterns, would call and counterpoint as betweenbody and computer, is what gives us rhythm, digitalisation being related to differential from the the superposition of two different through emerging rhythm calculations (for example the choreographic pattern of the dancer and the digital decompositionsand algorithmic calculations of the samemovement). As we will see in the following chapter, this digital/body rhythmic relation is conveyed by numbers, functions de-stratification dance in all the operating stratification and of mathematical its levels (corporeal, technological and also semiotic) and subtracting the relation and its functioning from phenomenologicalexplanations. Undoing the channelled perceptual impression of dance audiences, rhythm lateral barrier, trajectories, the traverses, with performer/audience replacing also differentiations `passion' with an affective or perceiving/performing active/passive (not

but between feeling intensive bodies) is that of energy an passage subjective

'a The `passionately be notion of a numerical' rhythm will engineered. numerically deployed in this chapter in order to map the processesof transmission which link dancing human bodies and technical machines(such as Bill T.Jonesand the magnetic his body), but to sweating also connecting performers to their sensors attached intensity his (Bill technicians the the or sharing and spectators of audience Considering (which reality as a material construction, or stratification performance). is also what allows the continuous emergenceof the new among the folds, strata or is digital the thus to the the aim understand whether real), capture of synthesesof be interpreted its binary through code can also as a productive construction, reality be it if) (and If how to the said unfold can a creative relation with virtual. and from isolated be directly the that organic and semiotic elements are cannot computers involved in their working, the `human' cannot be easily extrapolated either from the it is part. technological net of which

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5.1 The video-scene 5.1.1 Analog mediations

As arguedby Valentina Valentini, the theatre of the 20th century was immersed in a by influenced the audiovisual media: ubiquity, simultaneity, speed strongly context distances features temporal the the and spatial of erasure were main and and 4 by later TV (and to radio, cinema, on computers) performance art. capacitiesoffered According to Valentini, the expressivedifference betweenreal performing bodies and is images by the conception of a unique principle of `mise resolved screen-mediated both body its by double: the technological the mise performing and shared scene' en (1999: 15) the the of real. production or scene, en Sincethe birth of the photochemicalapparatusof photography and its capacity to fix light on a material support, and since the first cinematic creations in 1872 after Edward Muybridge's chronophotographsof a horse's trot, one way to understandthe (mise has been to consider en scene) of audiovisual often media performance scenic' its function from a realistic perspective (such as for the documentation of motor 5 behaviour). In the cinematic machine, camera movement and perspective and, later fiction/reality the sound, and minimised gap and erasedthe on, synchronisedspeech traces of mediation, according to "the codes and the modes of production of "realism", [and to] ... ideological systems of recognition, specularity, and truth-tolifeness." (Comolli 1996: 117) In this context, the role of technology in relation to dance (from the first dance films) has been attributed to a documentary and archival function. In 1913, avant-gardefilm-maker Edison created the silent film Dance of the Ages with Ted Shawn. In the same years, Loie Fuller's dancing body found its in her the machine of cinema, counterpoint and technological metamorphic displacements,her choreographic passagesfrom shapeto shapewere `immortalised' by the Lumiere's and Pathe's cameras,frozen into a seriesof frames and then speeded incredible by her the the of velocity cinematic projector, which re-produced again up its first But in together with realistic aims, the cinematic movement mobile sections. was beyond that conveying perceptual experiences the already also went machine for frame juxtaposition theatre the stage, the allowing of example of spatio-temporal different accidentsand events in time and space.

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Thirty years later, Maya Deren started her experiments with the multiple in film to choreography, producing a series of shorts relation editing of possibilities following a staggering or camera accelerations, and motion where slow body,

created a vortex-like

rhythm,

while

multiple

the dancing

exposures, slow-motion,

just few a cameras were of the cinematic effects utilised angled and superimposition by the film-maker. Deren's camera followed the dancer's steps while she crawled, it knocked kinetic (At Land), fell, or operated a sort and of crept climbed, slipped, dissection of movement into different body parts (A Study in Choreography for Camera). In Ritual in Transfigured Time, motion freezing or slow motion were used by her as a way to transfigure time. Finally, in Meditation on Violence, the dancer's following by his the camera emphasised arms' movement were and play with gravity With its between different dives and its in body perspectives. the evolution, shifting dance, intermingled 'timeDeren's offering a performed a parallel, camera shaves, image, a duration-image, a change-image, a relation-image, a volume-image, beyond itself .6 movement

The appearanceof television (in 1936) and of electronic video technology and

. light 1956) (in transformed the and cinematic process of photographic tape recording its first Since 2001) 50 (Lischi light into appearances years modulation. one of capture body-art in be dance to with or technology combination used started ago, video Valentini's In dancers tool.? words, performances, as a recording and a creative luminous by body `in the dance their the transparency', energy crossed of to started functioning dynamic 35) As (1999: device. system creative without any a technical freezing, capture or interruption, video is more similar to sound than to film or field in that the never stops: an electromagnetic energy same elaborating photography, the electrons and electricity space, continuously cross waves way as radio in flow. Lischi in (Viola 2001: 25) The by an unstoppable move manipulated video defined; is image the on contrary, simultaneity, solid and well the not woof of incessantmovement, the abstract characterof the punctiform and vibrating woof, the the and codification re-codification of signals real-time of processes electronic 8 incessant of the with one creation. of representation model overcome At its 0 degree,the video image has a punctiform, decomposable,fluid nature image-woof luminous the this proliferation of moving and cells on woof, of signals, a image is decompositions transformations: the the and regime of video allows multiple Vaccarino Elisa As argues, video offers series a of peculiar metamorphosis of one .9 176

from it differentiate factor techniques: (real the temporal cinematic which aspects time), allowing recording and re-viewing without any intermediate passage or treatment; the simultaneity factor, i. e. the possibility to use various cameras and being (simultaneity different from instantaneity, in that the time the same at screens different between elements always produces a generative momentum encounter beyond the exact quantification of time, every unique instant always virtually 10 factor, the transformation world); another allowing the manipulation of containing images and perceptions in real time; the multiplication factor, with the possibility of dividing the screenin different sections with different images on them; the form and factor. (1996: 19) distortion colour With its saturatedor rarefied qualities, its material and dynamic nature, video does not only work in cinematic terms of framing and shooting, planes and camera but Being its continuous rhythm of of a material modifications. aware of movements, dynamic technicality and of its affective rhythmicity, Lazzarato describes video as a Bergsoniantechnology, much more Bergsonianthan cinema itself. The stratified time identifies Bergsonian the time-image analysedby video with co-presence of electronic Deleuze, a direct image (or a pre-figuration) of time in which all possible movements is, by Lazzarato, Its as argued a crystallisation of time. The video synthesis co-exist. image is unstable and constantly moving, an unlimited flow: as revealed by Paik's images television cinema works and space, while with and video words, and works " lines, interlacement. This lightness deal an artificial electronic electronic with only levity dance: its image in to the perfectly of the corresponds manipulatability video of its its transformability, time, and nature of an energetic transmission malleability real directly link video with the dancing body. The simultaneity of cause/effect, of the image transformation and transmission, of its recording and montage (and thus of duration (in Bergsonian the video gives a memory) sense),a speed,a perception and is decomposable individuation in discrete formation which not or units. In the time of danced by the temporality accumulation and electronically modulated of created new time, rhythm emerges. In the same years, the video-projector enteredthe dance scene,creating a duet between spaceand a dancer, a duet in which the camera is not merely an observant itself is but From the of creatively part performance. video used as a eye, sensitive (for documentation example as a replacement of -notation simple means of becomes form thus an autonomous video-dance of artistic expression, techniques), 177

from the scene to the screen and vice transposition the and rhythms of modes with is dance totally re-drawn on screen. Video-dance the that performance versa, so becomesthus a choreographyof the choreography, feeding the doubling and layering body, dancing dance the tension the energetic repeating of and its corporeal of dissolution into a schizo-rhythm (a rhythmic continuity infinitesimally cut, broken, dis-connectedand re-connected)distributed acrossthe multiple, simultaneous bodies behind and in front of the screen. The history of video-dance starts with Merce Cunningham and Nam June Paik's Merce by Merce by Paik (1978), a 30' colour piece in five segments,or with Merce and Marcel, where the `incrustation' technique (embedding of an object into dancing both body (often the the and scene a monochromatic another) makes 12 background) autonomous. As these (and all the other video-dance works framing during `80s `90s) the and show, while camera eludes the proliferating live its limitations `total' the of stage and points of view, montage perceptual dancers' impact the the transforms of movementsinto an analogousconcatenationof becomes `artificial' the another performer, or a realityeye camera perspectives: definition is The `dance (rather this than exact of artistic re-producer). genre producer for the camera' but here, in order to highlight the machinic quality of this technology/dancecombination (as an `assemblage',in Deleuze and Guattari's terms), its different it light `video-dance'. bring to to we will call coexisting components, and In this assemblage,the dancer's movements as bodily content are modulated by the its function light (transformation into tool signalling with of which, electric electronic between bodily form the the the and content relation of expression operates signals), work. of the Nevertheless, what appears on the flickering video screen is not a mere `transposition' of the live dancing body but anotherdancing image with a reality and a body) (living its technical and expression content and own: reciprocally rhythm of influence each other with their different forces (physical gravity, and the escapeforce video body into flow). In the transforming an the electric modulation other words, of bio-physical, by the anatomical apparatusesof performers the elaboration of rhythm (and viewers) is directly connected to a technical system of electromagnetic modulation. Audiovisual creations and interpretations have always been dominated by a for for the (Armes 1988: the the visual and aspects of realistic medium. predilection 178

F. "j ýý'j,. ýt;. 3) Iý

In thesemedia, the sound/imagecombination is predominantly basedon figurative

values working through synchrony and conventional verisimilitude, constructing what the sound and film critic Chion defines as `added value': a sort of musical 13 development of vision. accompanimentto the rhythmic, emotional and narrative Nevertheless, audiovision exposes us to a synaesthetic perception, moving the field Being the towards affective and visceral of axis sense. representational in all audiovisual creations as their very `nature' (even as a materially present in its `trans-sensoriality' its cinema, rhythmic and of silent aspect qualitative becomes background the new affect, synaesthetic perception, or noise), of underlining digital video, the cutting, codifying and manipulating machine taking this senseof following form. The its be thus to paragraph will perceptible most capacity sensual dedicated to the discussion of the modulation of the dance performance by the technical machine of digital video. 5.1.2 Digital acts As arguedby Armando Menicacci, the mediated body today is different from that of 20 or 30 years ago, coexisting with all sorts of digital machines modifying its linguistic but also its kinetic functions. (Menicacci and Quinz 2001) The concept of digital images as freely floating, falling, rotating, multiplying and dissolving entities body from life `real' (a independent the the time of the sort of same related and at is body transparent the video) now the main `abstract evolution' of of electronic differentiation. basic The basis to a mediated/live main perpetuate adopted theoretical dance is dominated digitalisation by to the still of theoretical approach practical and human body blocking `heavy', of a conscious presence and monopolising the its from feeling centralisedposition. everything experiencingand But are these `experiencedcircumstances'truly different from those of 50 or 60 years ago? Do the conscious subjective experienceof an analog video-dancer,and in difference kinetic bring it, true our perceptual about a and of our perception be found in in the The analysis of our personal experiences cannot answer modalities? it, in to since amazement,pleasureor front of the screenand our subjective responses disgust, fear or enjoyment of disembodiment,are still the samepoints of referencefor the the and of art work, astonishing audiovisual effects aesthetics phenomenological a from different by first the a digital the wonder generated are not moving creation of is It 100 only a material approach to the human and images more than years ago. 179

technical dance-machineworkings, and to their symbiotic, rhythmic combination, that is That to more. something reveal can -say, tools enter a symbiotic machinic bodies (dancer/audience), deterritorializing between two them both from assemblage their respectivepositions, usual functions and functioning. At the same time, it is a two-way relation of reciprocal alteration, and we can well take heed of Kodwo Eshun's conception of human ears, for example, as the sex organs of synthesizers. (1999) Our symbiotic relation with digital machines sweepsus into a much smaller dimension of matter. According to Lazzarato, images and sounds are produced by (organic, human or technical) machines that manipulate a material in continuous its (1986) Subjectivity from and production coincide, and modulation. a variation Bergsonianpoint of view, with a crystallisation of time, a contraction and dilatation, a temporal differentiation which technical machines automate. The codification of the introduces digital By subjectification. of machine new processes and electronic describing image production (perception) and subjectivity as a relation between between different Bergson flows, temporalities and rhythms, a relation material relates his work to that of Nietzsche, for whom man, as a particular animal species, functioned through fixing and simulation processes,organising his cognition as a fictional immobilisation and stabilisation of a continuous material becoming, contraction or crystallisation. Solid/liquid passagesare at the basis of the non-linear physics of fluids, and of the constitution of the whole world as a continuous contraction/solidification process. Bergson had described this world of forces and intensities as a world of images in body is image transmitting and movements, a world of a receiving every which in interacting (beyond them their the among all parts vibrations and perturbations limits of: selective apparatuses such as the senses). The Bergsonian notion of force, idea Nietzschian the of as both represent the body/image coincides with beyond the subject/object, for basis the event of a materialism conceptual towards the oppositions, notion of matter/flow and sensible/intelligible matter/spirit, constitution `dispositif. . Lazzarato as a concatenation, or a subjectivity of the distinction as a function of time, Bergsonian the theory this of subject/object connects in both technological to the of analysis processes: than other space, words, rather human and technical processesappearas articulations of time, which Bergson equated flowing from images ever matter. an to the creation of

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According to Lazzarato,the function of electronic and numerical technologies is to crystallise (synthetise) time, to accumulate nature as time and duration, rather than imitate it. In other words, thesetechnologiesare able to reproduce the forces and affects which produce subjectivity. (1986: 7) The electromagnetic flow of video becomes optic flow in telematics, and then numerical flow in informatics: the deterritorialisation and abstraction of copper into optic fiber and silicon, the light, and then its disappearanceinto a mathematical progressive channelling of language.For Lazzarato, the analysis of the body according to velocities, flows and contractions/solidifications is an important tool to understandnumerical technologies beyond the anthropomorphism which transforms them into a prosthesis of human organs and into an extension of the human senses.As a decodifying machine, the in computer works the sameway as human perception, through interruptions of flows, into further it inserts processes of re-codification through counting and which figures The images the constituting operations. produced by these algorithmic do interruptions they are a-signifying signs, not signify: particles-signs, machines or, in Deleuze and Guattari's words, `schizos'. At the same time, as Guattari points out, this breaking of material flows of energy by the technical machine is linked to a layers (semiotic, in components, social, organic, other or of addition to multiplicity the mental representationsand `desiring' investments) which, `diagrammed' by an lead (1995) the to of subjectivity. production abstractmachine, In their `machinic' modulation of cuts and flows, digital technologies simulate and automate the functions of human perception and intellect, as the capacities leading, together with a series of other components, to machinic subjectification. Rather than the old individuation forms (subject, object), temporalities (chronological languages by (signification) linear traditional cybernetic time), proposed and interaction, human/technology highlight the the new can we theorisations of in how digital this technology makes more relation, and produced subjectivities level between the the microscopic of matter and the relation manipulatable macroscopicdimension of our experience,or betweentheir gravity and celerity, speed Munster Anna As argues, and slowness. Perhaps the preoccupation with disembodiment or dematerialisation within some digital art results from riding roughshod over the differential speeds at which both digital technologies and human corporealities

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move. As Katherine Hayles has argued, the materiality of embodiment has a particular way of receiving and generating meaning that gives it a vector of movement that may be parallel to or out of sync with but definitively not the sameas vectors of digital information. (2001: 5-6)

Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's aesthetic theorisations, Munster defines this differential relation between the computer's calculations and informational human, blocs the the the velocity of embodied as creation and of of sensation velocity, basis is This between digital the the of aesthetic experience. at relation which and is forces "the to related proximity of captured in the production of corporealvelocities in by its possible viewers." the to those affectively produced works reception art work (Munster 2001: 6) In the singular moments when the performed movement resonates immobile body in front it, dance the the of rhythm of still, almost starts to unravel on itself. The dancing body's creative expressioncan thus be defined as a continuous reits habits two the aspects: constraint parallel of and the potential of its combination of tendencies, choreographic rules and rhythmic impulses, anatomical grids and from flows, this assemblage, the movements, sensations; perceptions, energetic dance of emerge. and rhythms qualities Inserting itself into this circuit, digital video technology re-defines perception infinitesimal dissection its the through of rhythm, mathematical reand performance elaboration and the multiplication of movements and effects, of choreographic With kinaesthetic their experiences. complex perceptual and alteration of possibilities the dancing body movement through the audiovisual apparatus of video (and vice (such Michael Cole's Hyper digital Alarm Dance, works video-dance as versa), Tracce's La fotocopiatrice, Antonin De Bemels' Solos, or video-choreographic Studio Roberto Castello Azzurro fuoco, Il 1 'acqua, as stage such and on assemblages 1'ombra, and La danza della natura nelle immagini di Andrej Tarkovskij, Rui Horta's Pixel or Klaus Obermaier and Chris Haring's Vivisector) correspondto the symbiotic Performative and resonating sensations. varying of and perceptual assemblage is fold in the thus the clearly revealed as more effect of an assemblage, a creativity flows, an event generatedby the contraction/dilatation of material flows and virtual bodies/machines different different by working at velocities. potentials In the digitalisation process,the linearity of both the video and dance rhythm (one step/frameafter another) implodes into a proliferation of microscopic mutations

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infinitesimal body/image. Acting the as an grid of combinatorial possibilities, the of digital granulation and codification of electromagnetic matter exercises a positive feedback on the field conditions of perception and movement. In this way, by determining a multiplication

images the of and sounds, the of possible combinations

codified parameters of computer software alter the perceptual conditions of the Drawing Massumi's on notion of perception and movement as material performance. processes of qualitative change produced by speed variations, (2002a) the audiovisual perception of video appears tightly connected to the sensible, and occurs when the body. by image is infolded the the perceiving of movement

The sound and colour contrasts,the vibrations and resonationsof digital video generate a material sense of connection with the movements of the image. The impinges intensity this audiovisual experience on the non-scopic elements of affective body interface body/mind, the through the the on screen as another molecular of body. limits This the thus vision overcomes phenomenological of a mainly molecular human into transforming point of view, and perception an appropriation subjective image: the audiovisual effects, tonalities, reverberations and of elaboration and intensities (i. e. the qualitative level of the digital image) impact before or beyond the level of subjectivity, through an aestheticsand a performativity of colour, psychic forces. feelings intepretations, bodily Beyond as conscious movement or sound, fugitive in is the transitional the moment which event materially represents sensation before being Digitally semantically qualified. cut and molecularised, screen, created, brain become body the the starts where porous membranes cyber-dancing sensesand to individuate itself, and to senseits own individuation. But that is only the start.

5.2 The stage as cybernetic assemblage 5.2.1 Interface and `active scene' An interface is a space traversed by forces of interaction between different `individualities', a mediating apparatusallowing communication to unfold in a double information filters, all contact membraneswhere the All surfaces, all sense. mediating internal/external relation unfolds in a double-way sense, can be defined as `interfaces', our sensorial organs and brain included. Thanks to this analytical and function, infinitely light the captures perception and of repeated vibrations selective

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heat, contracting them into unified sensations:trillions of external oscillations are 14 into a millisecond colour vision. This selective function of the interface condensed definition images Bergson's of echoes not as representations of reality but as selections,and subtractions,of matter, like cuts in a continuous flow. In Bill Viola's words, The spectrum of electromagnetic energy vibrations that make up the universe at large far exceeds the narrow band-with, or "window", open to us through our sensory receptors. As philosophers through the ages have stated, the human senses can thus be considered "limiters" to the total amount of energy bombarding our beings, preventing the individual from being overwhelmed by the tremendousvolume of information existing at 15 instant. eachand every

From this point of view, reality appearsas infinitely resolvable in ever smaller detail, resolution becoming a function performed by the sensorial interface and its interface Every Bergsonian temporal/material condensation. acts as a of operations into `converter', `trans-ducing', translating, velocity another, one or one reality different degrees into the and of clarity at which the another, producing movement material world appearsto us. This rhythmic processoccurs as a passageof energy, impulse or tendency, from one form to another. Borrowing from Massumi, we can define the functioning of the transducing processof the interface as "a continuously from impulse different that cross one qualitatively or momentum can medium variable Or light waves into vision Or into another. Like electricity into sound waves ... ... noise in the ear into music in the heart ... [Or, we might add, music in the heart into the body's dance] Variable continuity across the qualitatively different: ... transduction." (2002a: 135) With its bio-physical assemblageof trained cells, organs and limbs, the whole human interface, of anatomy structure constitutes an extended an ordered coordinated and organisedsystem of stable relations able to respond to the external world: in the its Universe, bodily attitudes, postures and movements the with subject relation of level further interaction individual transduction the the of a of perceptual of represent `character' its A from bundle habitual or a environment. subject emerges of with a behavioural schemeselicited by external stimulation, a limited set of pre-determined

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laws or habits determining the performance of every possible move as a selection from a repertoire.16These anatomical and psychological grids extract, select a series of precoded combinatorial permutations,positions or steps, from a virtual energetic field of potential, transforming the body's energy into a seriesof possible movements directions particular with and forms, routes and paths (retroduction). As a consequence,space becomes `homogenised' and `striated' by a series of fixed coordinates and physical laws where the anatomical organisation of the body can easily find its right position and direction, regulated and oriented by pre-determined, `automatically choreographed' decisions: the whole body as a pre-programmed interface ordering and striating spacewith its movements. In the number of different anatomicalrealisationssuggestedby choreography, digital technology representsthe possibility for a further `technical' transformation and multiplication of anatomic variables. Its entrance into the creative space of the dancer generatesa further interactive relation of the human body with its external interface. According to Massumi, this time through the technological environment, the notion of interface makes both `natural' and digital cyberspaceappearas external be in into dissolve to to managed, organised, order chaotic worlds programmed, not them. At the interface, the human dancer merges with the machine in a dialectical Cartesianrelation establishing clear boundariesand putting order into reality: "You human, "me" machine." (2002c: 1) According to this quite limited explanation, the information happens in transfer, or of passage, a double sense, blurring the human/technological (or user/tool) boundaries in a continuous feedback loop of interaction: the technical machine acquires the human directions and directives for action but, at the same time, the dynamics of human creative process becomes '7 determined'. In this double sense, the notion of interface makes us `technically understandthe dance and choreographyassemblageas a system of power: as a node in a control circle, the interface produces an illusion of space/time control, transforming technology into a further site of domination, of the `humanly' directed is (which apparently only recording human movement and receiving human machine instructions without producing anything new), or of the `technologically' invaded and limited dancer (the feared limitation of motor naturalness and freedom by the technical apparatus,and bodily dissolution into cyberspace). This particular conception of the interactive processdevelops itself, according to Massumi, in relation to a particular figuration of the self (or subject) in its 185

intended formless a surrounding space, space as a mass of information data in disfrom their original context and sense and, therefore, subtracted motion, oriented be to oriented and controlled. Raw data, the matter of cyberspace,is like necessarily the Bergsonian `pure' duration of matter, the continuous flow beyond the divisible and organisableaction of consciousperception.In order to avoid collapse, the human has to perform operationsof selection,processingand re-direction from the flow: The body must transform raw datamatter into ... -information squared. It must order and organize, it must form the formless, but to do so, it must shield itself from immersion in it The interface is a relay ... point in the dissemination of human ordering activity into space. Homogeneous space, at first invasive and threatening, is transformed into a realm of expansion onto which human projects its self, in coded-thought form... Their mutual transformer, the interface. The body disappearsbehind a technological shield, becoming a backstagedirector, an organizing desire Except that it loses its likeness. ... When it looks at its face in the mirror, it sees the interface, the display device. (Massumi 2002c: 1)

As a result of this ordering and homogenising attempt, human dynamic and kinetic creativity are apparently `neutralised'. In this Cartesian model ' of human/machinedialectic, the interface becomesanother striated spaceof regulation, a Euclidean grid of geometric ordering and, also, of `realistic' representation.As argued by Massumi, the subsequentanalogic relation of model/copy (for example `real' and `mediated' dancer) as a representationon the digital screenis still enclosedin a very is by its defined (Platonic) where a copy only major or minor resemblance schema old to the model. Against this representational screen/reality (and human/machine) `simulacrum', Massumi the notion of already re-conceptualised re-introduces relation, by Deleuze as an entity that bears its external resemblanceto the model as a mere into disguising dynamic it illusion transform more processeswhich surfaceeffect, an force becomes indication Imitation, different "an thus, reality. of a an entirely ... falsifier its toward the the unbridled expression of uniqueness ... a waypropelling difference. " (Massumi 1987: to the an unmasking and assumption of station en route 1-2) Without standing as a copy for an original, a `real' model of movement, the

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digital simulacrum enters different circuits, turns against the model and opens a new performative space. Through the interface, hylomorphism (the imposition of order and form for becomes hylomorphic the purposes) schizo-genesis, while model of a representational choreographer(and dancer) as creator becomean immersion into movement, and the continuous creation of the new, and the cyborgian control architecture of man/machinesuperpositionbecomesa cohesiveschizo-geneticdiagram. In this sense, the functional aspects of choreographic and cybernetic interaction (ordering, into be taking thought account the more without clarification, representation)cannot `creative' side of the whole process,digital operationsof binary counting and human for difference being the thinking prerogative and composition necessary of operations to emergefrom interaction. On the contrary, Massumi re-defines the interface (body, dynamic forces interaction between by `active "composed of space' screen) as an elements." (2002c: 1) Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, we can echo their quotation of Michel Serres'sdefinition of physics as reducible to two totally different sciences,and we can distinguish choreographyas a sort of `scientifically oriented' form of artistic creation, "a general theory of routes and paths" (or a closed system of interactions), from "a in Deleuze (Serres (or and theory creation). an open system of of waves" global Guattari 2002a: 372) To conceive this change,we needto shift from choreographyas the act of `ordering' the body's interactions with space and time (choreographic fixity body's based the the centre of gravity), to a re-conceptualisation of on control into (the direct dance complexity centre of gravity as a physical plunging as a of for In the singularities of to order search shifting and easily replaceable singularity). the dancing body as a `kinetic material' (rather than constructing its accomplished forms), choreography should be able to follow, rather than dictate, movement, `escaping the force of gravity' (and the body's anatomical obedience to it), `and for balance The field would thus constant order and stable need of celerity'. entering a be replaced by a `nomadic' notion of choreography: maybe not choreographic line becoming a of choreography, choreographic along of or a modulation anymore,a movement. In Deleuze and Guattari's words, every `nomadic' or `ambulant' space must into homogeneity: dancing body's be the a space of with entrance coupled always does have do to and celerity speed not with the construction of a conditions of 187

different, perhaps faster or more complicated, choreographic form, but with finding the `escaping',or `flying' potential, in all movements.In this sense,we can arguethat the dancing body "is [always] organized along two vectors, a deepening toward the bottom, and a thrust toward the upper regions mak[ing] coexist, first, the tendency ... find its lowest to of gravity of a system possible equilibrium where the sum of masses can descendno further and, second,the tendencyto elevate,the highest aspiration of a system in weightlessness ... "18 Rather than concentrating on the sequential displacementsof a body going from point to point ("even if the second point is uncertain, unforeseen, or not well localized," (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a) as in improvisation), invading space, controlling and measuring it with its steps, a `nomadic' choreographytakes into account the qualitative changesof a body, whose parts (or particles) occupy space without counting it, in a continuous folding, or alternation, of presenceand withdrawal. As a generatorof qualitative transformation, differential distribution) (or energetic works through the creation of resonance rhythm between the steps of a metric organisation. Choreography thus must ceaseto be a static design to become an exploration of excessesand deviations, or of rhythms, `by legwork', where points becomesimple relays along a trajectory of continuous creation 19 forms of expression. Dancetraining and choreographicscripts intervene then of new afterwards, as anatomical potentialisations, multiplying the physical possibilities of the dancing body and bringing to surfaceall sorts of motor and gestural combinations and virtuosities. In this machinic active space,mediation gives way to a mutual transformation 20 force. What crosses the (rather than control) along the transmission of human/machinegap is not form, order, control, information, but invisible forces of information; here, creation cannot be simply based on operations of resemblance, but becomes by "bracketed complex and arbitrary, analog gapsbridged analogy, copy 2002c: interaction invention. " (Massumi 2) inventively As a creative relation, with bridges the dance/technology gap, forming an assemblagebetween two different levels without erasingtheir heterogeneity:neither a unified, homogeneousentity nor a differences, juxtaposition but fusion different the of of multiple and conflictual into behaves an assemblage which as a singularity while remaining systems irreducible to a simple juxtaposition of elements. Creative and schizo-genetic heterogeneous in bring together elements continuous transformation: in singularities the human/technological assemblage, programming and creativity, choreographic 188

organisation and qualitative change, counting, measurement and differential distributions coexist as different statesof a processof reciprocal relay: "Everything is in relay, and every relay expresses,retains,and varies a difference in nature." (2) Beyond essentialist dreams of organic purity or beyond post-modern nightmaresof conflict (the hybridity of the cyborg), a becoming (not the becoming of likeness in the thing and resemblance of another, but a continuous one differentiation), a `two-fold deterritorialisation' expands the potential, creative capacity of the cyber-dance assemblage.We have already defined the creative dancing body a as a re-combination of two parallel aspects: the expression of habits its its tendencies, choreographic rules and the of of and potential constraint flows; from impulses, this assemblage,the anatomical grids and energetic rhythmic dance digital In this technology re-defines of emerge. machine, and rhythms qualities infinitesimal through the and performance perception

dissection and the

multiplication of forms of expression, of choreographic possibilities and perceptual individual, being Performative the supersedes more clearly creativity experiences. fold in flows, by the the the an event generated of an assemblage, a effect revealedas forces, dynamic by different kinetic and continuity/discontinuity of biological/technical machines. 5.2.2 Bio-technics of movement and the digital code: Motion Capture and interactive dance At the end of the 19th century, Edward Muybridge used successive-exposure different camerasalong a racetrackto measureand study the assembling photography, his locomotion. In horse's this way, photographs could capture of a continuity kinematics limbs information the the of about animals' and, after this accurate human he decided In to the technique to the same same apply motion. experiment, form diagrams Marey's Etienne-Jules another realised of visual capture of the years, horse. In Marey's experiments, pulsesof a galloping the diagram the chart or graph act[ed] as a translator or symbol transformer with explicit denotation [of] chronophotographic techniques. pneumatic and electronic sensors located on the animals him to allowed ... sequence his rhythmic exposures with the rhythms of the movements of the animal. Marey's traces of vector movement [we]re

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based on the inflection and curvature of motion paths and flows in opposition to the ideas of sequential traces. Together with the pneumatic and electrical sensors Marey also used reflective optical disks attached to key points of the body to capturepoints of motion, a technique that is still employed in contemporarymotion capturing devices.2'

In other words, the successiveexposuresand shots capturing different key points of motion were combined with the data provided by the electric sensors.In he same way, in order to study the interaction between a moving human body and its environment, and also in order to analysethe motion of different body parts, Marey used "pneumatic sensorsand pressurechambersconnectedto the soles of the shoes, foot, the the the accelerationof the head, and the spatial pressure under measur[ing] " (Allard, Stokesand Blanchi 1994: 5) the of pelvis. position In the 19`hcentury, Muybridge and Marey's chronophotographyconstituted a first form of technological motion capture. 150 years later, digital Motion Capture systemsconsist of infrared colour-sensiblecameras,dataglovesand magnetic sensors attachedto the body's joints and limbs, which do not reproducethe whole figure but its motion by tracking the position-angle-orientation, velocity and only capture infrared is Movement the sensors or markers. recorded as a set of twopressureof dimensional data relative to the body position and speed, through kinematic information obtained from the position, rotation and accelerationof the joints. In this Capture Motion transforms the physical, anatomical and perceptualconcreteness way, into body into lines of fluid the then multiple series of critical and moments, of 22 These kinesiological measurements quantitatively and qualitatively movement. describe the spatial motion of segmentsof the body's musculoskeletal system. The results of this capture trace the changesof spatial coordinateswith time (kinematics), forces the and moments associated with the motion (kinetics). The and calculate bio-technical a constitutes analysis of movement as being basedon two whole process main elements:the objective and accuratecapture of motion (such as that of Marey, 1873, and of Muybridge, 1887), and the measurementof the forces between the moving body and the environment. The result is a kine-diagram of lines and forces, of the kinetic (and kinematic) dimension of the moving body. MoCap technologies are widely used by choreographers and dancers as a Furthermore, they can also be used for creative and analysis. of notation means

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for for the real time control of live electronics, sound, visual example purposes, media, lights and the whole setting of dance performances. From the pioneering interactive performance of Steina Vasulka's Violin Power in the 1978, where live musical modulations orchestratedthe movement of video spaces and images (and where it could be said that the violin player was actually `playing the images'), (Lischi 2001: 25) we arrive to Merce Cunningham's Biped and Bill T. Jones's Ghostcatchingperformances,in which MoCap is useddirectly on the dancing body in order to capture its movements and transducethem into a graphic figure dancing on screen,or to N+N Corsino's film Captives, l er Mouvement, in which `live' dancers' 23 digital dance animation video. movementsare usedto createa According

to engineers, programmers and practitioners,

the aim of this

technology is mainly to augment the dancer's conscience of her own body in space, imagination in times stimulating anticipation and reaction and relation to analysing perception. In fact, what is synthesised in the process is not a whole corporeal image but a line, a kinetic flow, abstracted velocities that can be differently re-actualised by 3D animation or other interactive programs. Highlighting the kinetic microvariations into binary digits into transforms them the technical apparatus and preof movement, determined sets of combinatorial possibilities which, being successively de-coded and become through creative processes of composition, part of new interactive re-coded processes involving a proliferation

of perceptual and performative possibilities, an

accumulation of image/sound combinations and effects (like speeding-up and slowing down), and a multiplication

of critical moments of thought-movement resonances.

Rather than limiting this analysis to the criticism of digital Motion Capture and its failure in actually capturing the qualitative continuity of movement, we will adopt Deleuze's discussion of Bergson's `movement-image' in the book Cinema 1, and his analysis of the cinematic image as a perfect example of that concept (even going beyond Bergson's own criticism of the cinematic technology of `motion limitations trying to and combine reproduction), and potentials of this capture' technical apparatus.(Deleuze 2002a) In the 19`hcentury, Marey's graphic recordsand Muybridge's equidistant photos of a horse's gallop representedthe pre-history of form kinetic Starting a of capture, cinema evolved afterwards through the as cinema. frames, in to the the same way digital MoCap today addition of movement juxtaposition through the and `animation' of the data captured reconstructsmovement

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by sensorsor cameras,and through the creation of a new moving image which takesit into the field of cinematic animation again. As pointed out by Deleuze, in 1907 Bergson defined the bad formula of the cinematographicillusion as basedon two elements:instantaneoussections (images or frames) and an abstract movement contained in the machine and `moving' them. In the same way Motion Capture, in its old as in its recent versions, is based on the down, in its breaking constitutive points (the positions and of movement or cutting, into joints), data be translation their to the and on numerical of re-combined, rotations in order to give an `illusion' of precise movement reproduction. Nevertheless, despite its illusory Deleuze, to working through cut and re-assembled according frames producing the impression of movement, what cinema shows us is an image is but belongs it. In in intrinsic (as to added cinema movement which not with an Motion Capture), the illusion is immediately adjusted at the apparition of the image, immediate image-movement. becomes an which The way in which this mechanismworks is explained by Deleuze through the introduction of a new kinetic concept:rather than to the notion of `pose' or `privileged instant' as the pre-existing composing elements of movement (exemplified by Motion Capture dance `pose' cinema and and photography), are choreographed intelligible its `instants than to an synthesis of motion, whatever'; and rather related thesetechniquesperform a sensible analysis of its sections or points. In other words, the technical machine takes an organised line of movement to one point whatever; being in the these of moments of qualitative sense points, some are critical, among horse has foot difference (for the when one example on the emerging shift and is Continuity but two, three, three, then one, none). not pre-constructed, ground, factors instant. Thus, (and the the of cinematic main machine of at every constructed Motion Capture) are the instantaneous photo-moments, the equidistance of the moments, the transference of this equidistance on a material support, and a images In the this way, cinema can reproduce move. makes which mechanism in its in `moments and such a way give the continuity of a whatever', movement mobile section (movement-image). In their initial moment of apparition, all images and objects hide their true for (as Bergson), for Deleuze body the essence of an object or a never potential: but in its beginning In the this sense,the novelty of the always middle. at appears in its first days, could not appear apparatus when it was still too much cinematic 192

its imitation frames). (and Only to the through of perception working natural anchored introduction image the the of montage, with of cinema becomes mobile. afterwards, From this point of view, both Bergson and Deleuze's arguments appear as futuristic in its future developments. For us, the the potential of cinema prophesies about discussion of the two philosophers leads even further, embracing the technique of Motion Capturein its evolution (and in its relation to dance). In its most recent, digital instants Capture into Motion transforms the of whatever set of a movement a version, for infinitesimal from digits, launch binary the algorithmic operations allowing of set itself is in (which the the way which movement works anatomically). samematrix of In this sense,by multiplying the instants whatever and by opening them to infinite digitalisation the cutting of microscopic allows an and re-combinations, calculations fluid line detailed (or and abstraction of a presentation micro-photography) more even instants in itself, this a capture of multiplied number of and subtle of movement for in `jittering' be trembling the and effect example continuous seen whatever can due to the capture of microscopic details of a single movement by some hyperimperfect In MoCap the this representationof movement way, apparatuses. sensitive illusory the the characterof the the us a sense of giving machine, potential of reveals linearity of movement, and of its composition by myriads of other tiny movements happeningat the sametime: rhythm, as a continuous overflowing from a unique route by parallel lines of movement, is at least, if not totally captured and shown, given a intuitively be to perceived. chance What we understand,or sense,is that the order of displacement,or the line of is following the only a superficial ordering of the screen, on are movement we lines different unravelling at the same time and still constituting one multiplicity of in Deleuze's `mobile the the words, same section'. or, movement same and Furthermore, the multiplied montage and editing possibilities allowed by the digital de-codification of movement transform its very order (or form) into an `order disposition of moments-whatever chosen to give the whatever', a particular impression of a linearity and univocity of a movement which is never one and never totally `traceable'. The interaction and representationapparently characterising the dancing body's relation with the technical machine starts to reveal, to offer a glimpse, hidden difference behind the sameness and repetition, of the continuous of hidden behind of non-actualised potentials multiplicity a single gesture. proliferating This potential of revelation of some kinetic details, as well as the potential to keep 193

other aspects hidden and unperceived or, in other words, the extraction of clear perception from

a noisy and chaotic background and the re-configuration

of

microscopic and macroscopic perceptions, constitutes the `creative' aspect of the technical machine, as a transduction from one level of reality to another. In this way, Motion Capture technology movement, a perception

gives a sense of there being something `more' in

of movement through micro-perceptions

and micro-

calculations, a rhythmicity even exceeding the physiology and anatomy of a moving body and always escaping what we are able to see of it on a stage or screen, feeding back on the affect of motion and dance.

Dance videos or animations created with Motion Capture can also be transformedinto other forms of interactive danceinvolving the spectator/userthrough a direct participation in the choreographic process, either in interactive `live' performancesor in CD-ROMs. By letting the viewers draw on a series of stored imagesand alter their sequence,combination or velocity through a series of buttons, cursors or simple tactile interfaces, interactive dance directly involves them in the 24 choreographicelaboration. This form of interactive dance can also be uploaded on the World Wide Web, as either a simple animation directly accessibleby browsing, or as an interactive game; in both cases,rhythm is spreadthrough the Net, transduced and transformed by the open structure of a new bio-technical assemblage.Net.dance be interactive, like Richard Lord's Progressive 2 and Brownian can performances Motion, or like Carolien Hermans's Trilogy, or non-interactive, like the 100 short Mini@tures clips created by the Magali&Didier Mulleras dance company for the Internet. Furthermore, the real time streaming of a `live' dance performance on-line different another, realisation of this de- and re-composition of the represents kinaesthetic qualities of movement: telematic dance. In Yu Hasegawa-Johnson's Hummingbird, one dancer dances live in Los Angeles, while another dancer is dancing miles away, in a MoCap studio in Urbana:25 What is the motivation for using telepresence in a performative context? It is not the desire to jettison our real bodies: There is no, as Virilio suggests,"immoderate love of the virtual body" at stake in choreographic [but] telematics exploration with ... modulation ... There is a constant process of deciphering involved, a constant need to interpret the code of the movement received and to respond to the disintegrating and

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recombining physicality that is generated.... as if by innate understanding of the flow of electrical currents from plugs and leads to equipment we register the lines and flow of interaction through cameras, computers, modems, screens, light, eyes, limbs and imaginations. (Kozel 1998:23)

Only if we abandon every subjective desire for transcendence and metaphysical flight, the suspendedcondition of the Internet can reveal its material influences on the rhythmic experience of Net.Dance. This experience can be explained,borrowing Massumi's words, as a peculiar act of non-consciousnavigation in which sudden and unexpected appearancescatch the interest and re-awaken the surfer's consciousperception and reflection: Link after link, we click ourselves into a lull. But suddenly something else clicks in, and our attention awakens, perhaps even with a raised eyebrow. Surfing sets up a rhythm of attention and distraction. This means that it can fold into its own process a wider range of envelopmentsand reciprocities of sensation, incipient perception, and conscious reflection. The open architecture of the web lends itself to the accumulation of analog effects. The increase in image and sound content ... provides more opportunities for resonance and interference between thought, sensation,and perception. (Massumi 2002a: 140)

From this point of view, Net.Dance produces a different performative situation, in which the social opennessof the performance into a network event is associatedto the perceptual condition of surfing and, in Massumi's words, to the `cuts', the moments of suspension,which characterisethe Internet as part of a vast in by Immersed the avoided pop space avant-garde art, Net.dance culture. media distracted-attentive into a condition of slip peculiar surfing. The alternation us makes dis-traction (as (as a flow of deconscious subjective and a state) of attention defines browsing Web form as a attraction) of technological trance, or as subjectified 26 Internet In browsing situation, the disthe communication model. a non-linear tracted condition of the surfer is characterisedby a positive feedback loop where the trance of a metastable,`vegetative' state is continuously crossed by myriads of nonbetween body the micro-exchanges and the machine. In cybernetic terms, conscious feedback leads body/machine this metastable state towards a tendency to positive

change,engenderingthe unpredictable production of sudden shocks and of attentive, consciousperceptions. Directly linking the perception of the kinetic traits of a dance performance to the particular, non-subjective state of the surfing body, the Internet dissolves the traditional theatre audience condition of conscious, attentive spectatorship into a multiplicity of confused sensationsbeyond the consciousnessthreshold and before the images: in this way, the body reveals itself as abstract, inseparable,to of recognition use Massumi's words, "from dimensions of lived abstractness that cannot be conceptualizedin other than topological terms ... When we stare, barely seeing, into the screen, haven't we entered a "lost" body-dimension of abstract orientation?" (2002a: 177,183-184) On the Web, the digital decomposition of movement into kinetic particles (the motion capture of the dancing body image) is associatedto the fragmentation (as the states of user a of the perceiving subject's molecular consciousness),transforming dance into a molecularised performative event. In this event, the transformation of the body's performanceinto a proliferation of sound and light particles is linked to a de-centredand disoriented perception, an affective and non-focused state of attraction generatedby the appearanceof critical moments of in the kinaesthetic development of the dance. As perceptual qualitative change landmarks or magnetic poles vectorising the spaceof surfing, these moments trigger different headings of attention. Perceptualand motor linearity, together with dance's `alive' e-motion-alism or theatrical aura, are re-conducted to the molecular and cellular exchangesin and between bodies, as a series of non-conscious, non-organic connectionsbetweendancing body, viewer and technical machine. All these different cyber-dance examples show the limited possibilistic intervention (as pre-programmed image/sound the technological character of in video-dance, or as the pre-determined actualisations of Motion combinations Capture,or as the pre-arrayed movementsand stepschoreographedby the user of an interactive dance CD or by the Internet surfer). Nevertheless, despite these limitations, in the the perceptual cyber-dance rhythm of combinatorial emerges human bodies/machines, in the continuous technological and of assemblage fluid line a of movement, and in its simultaneous infinitesimal suggestions of dissections(for example acrossthe hyper-links of an interactive dance or the gaps of the Net), generating a schizo-choreography of organic and inorganic machines. Overcoming the essentialisationof `live' carnality and the fear (or celebration) of its 196

technologicaldissolve, cyber-danceparticipatesin a new performative processwhich delineates a heterogeneousre-definition of the body/mind, its perceptions and its 27 in movements, post-organicterms.

5.3 Bio-mathematics of dance 5.3.1 Numbered dancers and dancing numbers

Connectedto the computer, a dancing body is not afraid of letting its movementsbe translated,or expressed,by a set of algorithms that, by striating the infinitesimal space created by it, expose it to a risk of blockage. In fact, it knows that, as a form of expression,computers are nothing but another way in which difference can survive under the appearance of sameness,maybe producing a new smooth space of becoming,if the virtuality of movementhasbeenstrong enoughto resist codification. By digitalising the performative process in all its different phases (from the

choreographiccomposition to its transmissionand manipulation on-line), cyber-dance reveals the dance scene as a dimension whose consistency relies on a world of numbers. The technological expression of the dance performance through the algorithmic circuits of the digital machine intervenes on a material already numerically codified. Dance notation (as the written record of the dancer's body movementin relation to spaceand time) and choreography(as the creative processof joining movementstogether and of planning changesof speedand direction through a detailed script) operate a first form of numerical codification of the moving body, moulding the body/space/time relation as a kinetic content (the dancing body as formed kinetic matter). Being an organisation of movement material according to time, space and energy parameters, choreography utilises numbers as measurementtools for the identification of those parametersand then adoptspictures, abstractsymbols or letters for their inscription on paper. Since the 15`hcentury's appearanceof the first dance booksand the first written transcriptionsof choreographicscores,all systemsof dance notation and choreography have been based on numbers for the calculation and measurementof the combinations, tempo, rhythm and direction followed (or to be followed) by the dancer.28 The individual subject in-formed and kinetically coded by the choreographic script is already genetically, anatomically and cognitively endowed with the intrinsic 197

derive: its dancer from the skilful most virtuoso which movements extracts properties its kinetic ability and originality from an extremely amplified, but nevertheless predetermined set of anatomical possibilities. Selecting and arranging basic movement possibilities, dance notation and choreography in-form the body in its relation to space. In all performative situations, the performing subject is confined, in its rotations and contortions, into a precise numerical zone (for example 0-180' pitch, 0180' yaw for the wrist or ankle). At the same time, the body de-limits space through identifying it 180' (the the the of wrist also pitch clear coordinates numbers, giving two exact departure and arrival points of the movement). The continuous flow of movement is cut according to a series of points and positions, every single gesture fragmented into a juxtaposition of clearly discernible `states' (0': rest position - 180': hand at shoulder level). In the choreographic script, the function of numbers as quantitative meters is (1-2 One-Two to the schema to their counting as the associated proceeding according basic cadenced meter of a march steps) and to the distribution of binary distinctions 29 (A-B as departure and arrival points of movement) on a sequential milieu. Deleuze `numbered tool define Guattari a as the measuring and number used as a unitary its dynamics inscribe for instrument the to own movement the of subject number', an inert becomes from body inert the to an object of surface space, on an surface: inscription, rather than an active material element. As a correlate of metric, this between is to magnitudes, relations express complex used number striates space and establishing

a correlation

between geometry

and arithmetic,

geometry

and

is [the forms, in its "even exclusively numbered number] simplest choreography: 484) In Deleuze divisible. " (2002a: in the and cardinal unit exclusively character, and Guattari's words, this deterritorialised relation between body and space becomes an being the the segments of movement all with surface of movement, overcoding of taken up by a geometrical extension. On the stage/space, the main codifying force is links determination the number to the which of choreographic gravity, principle metric magnitudes, by transforming

into displacement spatial every

a mere

laminar lamellar its law linear Newtonian the and and of parallel, reproduction of model of speed measurement (falling as acceleration).

Nevertheless, this homogeneous surface hides something. As argued by Deleuzeand Guattari, a dropped body does not have speedbut developsan infinitely decreasingslowness: movement cannot be reduced to biunivocal relations between 198

two points, but to reciprocal relations between critical moments. In this sense,in addition to the possibility of standing and keeping one's body balanced while navigating space,the linear successionof numbersand the proceduresof counting and measuringare also the decisive factor for the appearanceof something different and unexpected:the numerical capture of movement is in fact a codified construction which allows a kinetic sequenceto keep its own consistency (and in Deleuze and Guattari's words to stand on its own, in the case of a dance piece as a work of art) while containing an uncountableand non-measurablevirtuality: together with affects and percepts, creation is based, according to the two philosophers, on a material possibility of architectural construction which overcomes physical (or anatomical) laws and allows the most acrobaticposturesto stand in equilibrium. (2002b: 162) The artistic becoming of movement and dance is an effort to modulate, to surrenderbut also bend,the anatomicalprinciples. In dance, this material possibility is given by processesof counting and measurement,which allow the dancing body to perform the most difficult and acrobatic of movements together with the simplest ones, or to fuse them, and thereforeto continually re-negotiatecorporealpossibilities. Corporeal possibilities are different from the infinite virtuality and true transformability that emergeevery now and then in moments-whateverof qualitative change,and that will never be seen.To these moments,a different kind of number is attached:the diagram of the energies and critical moments acting between the units/digits of a code, or between different codes, is composedby (and not of) numbers.Between the numbers/unitsof a code there is always another number (another micro-gesture in-between two gestures, another moment in-between two moments). And between choreographers and dancers,the scene/spaceis packed with numbers of a different sort. The crucial difference to be highlighted here is not a quantitative difference between numerical values, but a qualitative difference developed by the number in its own qualitative variation: for Deleuze and Guattari, from `numbered', the number becomes `numbering', distributive, ordinal, directional, nomadic,and it doesnot divide without changingnatureeachtime: The Numbering

Number,

in other words, autonomous, arithmetic organization, implies neither a superior degree of abstraction nor very large quantities ... These numbers

199

appear as soon as one distributes something in space, instead of dividing up space or distributing space itself. The number becomes a subject. The independence of the number in relation to space is a result not of abstraction but of the concrete nature of smooth space, itself being which is occupied without counted. The number is no longer a means of counting or measuring but of moving: it is the number itself that moves through space ... The more independent space is from a metrics, the more independent the number is from space ... The number is the mobile occupant, the movable (meuble) in smooth space, as opposed to the geometry of the immovable (immeuble) in striated space [It] has only a ... dynamic relation with geographical directions: it is a directional number, not a dimensional or metric one ... The numbering number is rhythmic, not harmonic. It is not related to cadence or measure [but to an] order of displacement " (Deleuze and Guattari ... 2002a: 389-390)

The different conceptualisation of the number as `numbering', rather than `numbered',is also at the basisof a different conceptof movement,in which counting disappears,or rather becomes something else, not detached but immanent to the moving body: distribution as non-consciouscounting operatedby a body-mind in the act of moving. The crucial event highlighted by Deleuze and Guattari's words is the fact that, rather than having a moving subjectmeasuringits own body, movementand spacethrough numbers, it is the number that becomesnow a subject, through the becoming-numberof the moving body. In other words, in its spatial occupation, or distribution of itself in space, the moving body spreadsits molecular composition, drawing a kinetic and dynamic diagramof affects and speeds,forces and qualities that cannot be measuredthrough numbers but generateand multiply `ciphers': the body becomesa cipher, rhythm becomes `ciphered'. The moving body of Deleuze and Guattari's numbering (or `rhythmic') cipher is never related to a unit undergoing the laws of gravity: immeasurablemultiplicities, molecular packs and their metamorphic potential rather than whole bodies, celerity rather than gravity, machinesrather than apparatuses,all appearin infinitesimal ciphers which generaterelations of becoming, rather than binary relations betweenstates.In this sense,ciphers make of the dancing body an anonymous, collective and impersonal function: `it' (a man, a woman, an animal,a molecule, a digital character,a number,all of them) moves,as an elementof

200

a nonsubjectified machinic assemblagewith no intrinsic but only situational and combinatorial(or connective) properties. The machinic and combinatorial nature of the body/cipher does not identify it with a numerical, statistic element (or a statistic aggregate of pre-existing units with pre-existing properties, as in the anatomical composition) but with a fractal complexity, a complex of ciphers, articulated and `assembled': the arithmetic unit is always an assemblage of heterogeneous distribution, the bodily gestural unit always being an assemblage of microgestures. This articulated, multiple cipher distributes itself in particular dispositions (assemblages), "between two articulations, [as ... what] ... is necessary in order to pass from one to the other ... "between" the two, in that instant, even ephemeral, if only a flash, it proclaims its own irreducibility. " (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 355) Rather than a measurement of the space from point to point, the rhythmic distribution of the number as a cipher happens thus in-between points.

In the body (rather than from it), movementbecomesephemeraland abstract, distributed between its parts, rather than being directed by a central point (consciousness,thought) guiding it according to anatomy and physical laws. In other words, the thought of movement is not separatedfrom it and situated in a different point, or temporally delayed, but coincideswith it in the moment of sensation/motion (act). This simultaneity of body/mind only appears in the distribution of thought/sensation/motionin the body, so that thought and action coincide in their bodily de-localisation.And how can a non-consciouslythinking-sensing-movingbody be said to perform such a precise operation as the conscious counting of its steps? Rather, ever-changing and non-consciousnumbers come out of it, composing the rhythmic assemblageand connectability of its parts among themselvesand with the external.An exampleof this delocalisationor distribution (as different from conscious gravitational displacement from point to point) is given by ethnic dance where, accordingto anthropologist RenatoTroncon, the movementis kept in the body, which vibratesand is tended as a serpent'sbody, and where the motion never abandonsthe body and does not distinguish between a centre (torso, or mind) and periphery (limbs). (1991: 116) The samecould even apply to a `gravity-oriented' form of dance suchas classicalballet, where the displacementof gravity and its overcoming through vertical `flight' is the main, consciousmotor of the movement,as in a puppetdance.

201

As highlighted by Deleuze and Guattari, in his treatise "On the Puppet Theatre", Heinrich Von Kleist transfers the `centred movement' of puppets and the continuousplay of the puppeteerwith the law of gravity (also defined as the relation of the arithmetic unit with its logarithms) into a `spiritual' realm where the `light' puppetsovercomeall gravity and do not even need to be guided by a central subject (the puppeteer) anymore (logarithms become autonomous). (Deleuze and Guattari 2002a: 561 note 80) In the human body of the ballet dancer, the same displaced condition coincides with what Kleist defines as the perfect `centring' of thought and action beyond conscience and reflection, i.e. with the de-centralisation and distribution of thought and movement in the whole body beyond gravity and weight. Consciousnessof movement as originating from one's own body and aiming at one particular point is thus always accompaniedby the continuous motion of an infinite, un-countablenumber of particles into a simultaneity of past and future tendencies.As the irrational numbersor differential quotientsof calculus,the numbering numbersof the moving body always appear betweentwo articulations, two gesturesor stepsas common points or critical moments between two tendencies,two vanishing series 30 limits with no exact In the mathematical branch of calculus, conscious arithmetic operations are replaced by numbers that are independentfrom both conscienceand function, and cannot be used for exact measurements.The movement of a body and its speed,i. e. the moments of minimal deviation and the vortexes generated in its spatial occupation, rather than its actual velocity, are related to `differential calculus', a mathematical function that allows to calculate the instantaneousspeed at every instant, and to differentiate ordinary and privileged instants, ordinary and critical singularities, and therefore to understand when a movement takes speed. As an addition or multiplication of these moments, distance appears as a multiplicity of changes,each small distance that composesit being different in itself. Rather than a magnitudewhere constantsand variables are distributed in order to quantify changes in an amountof space(movement in terms of steps),the relation betweenpoints is not clearly defined, and is not a merejuxtaposition but an accumulation,a fractal spaceof directional and qualitative changes. For this reason, geometric measurementsand arithmetic calculations are not tenable: the indiscernibility of points makes numbers sink into the infinite, or the infinitesimal. Integral calculus is the parallel, complementary idea of differential calculus, and calculates the sum of critical 202

moments (space) through a series of approximations approaching exact distance as a limit. In this sense, areas, lengths, volumes and statistics are revealed as approximate sums of small quantities.

1

Beyond and between codes (for example between arithmetic units), numbers 32 but limits, level. All this can happen in reveal thus their also their potential extremely long or extremely short durations: between I and 2, in the intervals of our oral or kinetic calculations, other numbers spring. From this moment and until the next one, the number ceasesto function as an exact instrument of measurement, counting and translation of movement:rather than describing or predicting movement, it generatesqualitative, a-subjectivealterationsthrough its potential. In this sense, through the affective (rather than measuring) potential of numbers, choreography (as a mathematical discipline) also produces a meta-stable diagram of bodily capacity based on adjustments, indecisions and uncertainty, numerical calculations and indications anticipating efforts and tendencies, approximationsrather than accomplishedmovementsand results. Inducing efforts and anatomical systemic disruptions (going against habit), the choreographic numeral (rather than numerical) indication remains virtual, only concrete in its unpredicted consequence.In order to obtain this, a dancer must start counting; but what is important is that from the virtuality of the numeral indication, through the affective fact of bodily effort, the empirical and accomplished fact of a precise movement performanceonly emergesas an after-eventof reaction,after the affective event of the choreographicnumbering number. In this sense,we can associatethe affective and kinetic, rather than merely factual or anatomical, nature of movement and dance,to the affective nature of the number beyond subjective intention and action. The affective fact (aiming at, tendency) of the dancing body derives from the affective characterof the number, as a passagebetween codifying orders of a mechanismof operational linkage. Numbers are the component of passage,and dancers become circumstantial agencies of future-past reciprocity (in the sense of a non-realised future, an incipient future, as tendency or effort, acting back on the past of a choreographicscript). Being based on counting and clear cuts, rather than on the imprecision of analogdemarcations,digitisation replacesthe inexact quantities and fluid dynamicsof movementwith discrete numbers, submitting the indeterminacy of matter to a new possibility of codification and control operatingthrough the numerical discrimination 203

indeterminate digitalisation, With differences. of very small micro-variations (the minimum, infinitesimal difference of differential calculus) become macroscopically integrated binary digits, through the computer's integral calculations. In coded as other words, the importanceof the digitisation processlies in its highlighting of coded microvariationswhich are then only de-codedin the generationof turbulent processes of re-combination and analogue amplification: the `numbered digit' of the digital apparatusbecomes a creative generator of novelty only through its insertion into further assemblagesof numbering and creation.33One of these forms of transversal experimentationis the (relatively) recent encounterbetweenchoreographyand digital duplicated deployment of numerical apparatusesof movement as a programming, in-between, hollow dancing from spaces new which new control and codification numbersand new affective impacts on the performanceof movement, can emerge. The analysis of one particular example of choreographic experimentation with the digital will help us to understandthe relation of the technical machine with the nonfixed characterof movement. 5.3.2 Chorco-matics and digital code: Life Forms

In 1968, in his book Changes: Notes on Choreography, choreographer Merce Cunningham imagined the conception of a digital technology that could allow the later, Life Twenty Forms figures the 3D years screen. on a computer representationof hypothetical the to vision, choreographer software provides a pragmatic reply blending, by him and copying and to allowing createchoreography mixing, matching Since his of movements. and sequences pastingpre-existing or newly createdphrases first choreographiccompositions, the key word for Cunningham's work was the noninto its (i. fragmentation the e. movement) composition of of plane representational multiple composingelements: As you're not referring one sequence to another you can constantly shift everything, the movement can be continuous, and numerous transformations can be imagined. You still can have people dancing the same phrase together, but they can also dance different phrases at the same time, different phrases divided in different ways, in two, three, five, eight or whatever. (Cunningham 1998:29)

204

Two, three, five, eight or `whatever': as Cunningham's own words make evident, his numerical working method implies the creation and manipulation of different movements in different rhythms and, therefore, a multiplication of possibilities and a complexification of the whole dance performance. In this way, the classical conception of the stage/space seen through a frontal perspective is replaced by a more complex conceptualisation of all the different points of the scene as having equal value. Because the different points of the stage lose their reciprocal relations of correspondence, movement

can be constant,

and

innumerable

simultaneous

transformations can be generated (as in Riemann's fractal space). The same goes for time: different movements can be performed with different rhythms. In order to accomplish this complexification,

Cunningham's use of chance procedures (for

example the Chinese mathematical system of the I-Ching) transformed the mobility of 34 dancers its into the a sort of play with own playground and rules. on stage Techniques such as the I-Ching or tossing coins allowed Cunningham to decide what movements to be performed and where, or the number of people performing

them, avoiding

every subjective or emotional

intervention

in the

composition process. Through this practice, counting reveals its potential and becomes something else: the idiosyncratic phrases chosen by chance (the possibilities of the I-Ching becoming `numbering numbers' when combined with the anatomical algorithms of a dancing body) go against bodily natural actions and beyond human imagination. 35

In his first as in his latest creations,Cunningham's choreographicmethod has always implied an exploration of movement intended as an ongoing and a nonconscious,or non-intentional process,rather than a trajectory with a fixed goal; in this sense,his later use of the LifeForms software has allowed an extension of the chance procedureallowing both choreographerand dancerto discover how to make possible the impossible: on the computer screen,everything can be decided by chance: body partsselection,their number, and the typesof movement.On the Dance Forms screen, a series of algorithms visualised as `odd little 3D bodies' without organs, bones or muscles move and float in a sort of vacuum space-time with no gravitational or chronological restrictions, stimulating and suggesting all sorts of unexpected and unimaginedmotions. Although the use of LifeForms is generally consideredas a mere extension of the body's perceptual and kinetic training, the digital dispositif is consideredhere in its capacity to multiply the possibilities of gestural algorithmic 205

creation, allowing the choreographerto search and find new movements, to create something new: when movement sequencescreated on screen appear physically impossible, dancers can work to discover new ways of realising them, while the choreographerdiscovers new ways to think or find connections and new imaginative possibilities. From this point of view, LifeForms continuously pushes the body towardsanatomicalor intellectual thresholds. Movement sequencesare createdfrom key positions utilised by the computer to calculate and visualise intermediate images in a particular sequence.In this way, the computerautomatically createsa smooth movementin-betweentwo key positions defined by the choreographer.This interpolation happensas a mathematical function that calculatesthe missing value by using an averageof the functional values at its disposal. With the unlimited energetic resources provided by this algorithmic jump height, it dancer LifeForms at whatever the can can unrealistically calculation, fly and remain in the air; the possibilities of its energy, muscles, articulations and ligamentsare unlimited. In this sense,performanceobeys a casual,rather than merely habits the than of the trained acquired reflecting possibilistic, order: rather merely dancing body and its possibilities, chancebecomesa rigorous procedure to destroy them and obtain unforeseenresults, also highlighting the expressivity of movementin itself. The poetics of choreography becomes the auto-po(i)etics of computerised composition. In Cunningham's computerisedchoreographies(such as Trackers, '91, Beach Birds for Camera, '92, Ocean, '94, Enter and CRWDSPCR,'96 and the motion from his his Biped), the changes previous movements capturedperformance quality of becomes foot the main component of the tendencies: choreographic work performance, and the position and movement of the arms appears as an added element.The arms' movement is only added secondarilyand without any relation to the dance,creating a complex polyrhythm in the dancer's body, with legs and arms head's Torso their and movements appear as moving at own respective velocity. anotherstageof choreographiccomposition, again without any relation with what is happeningin the legs and arms: the result is an idiosyncratic, unnatural and difficult march. Deriving from the particular configuration of the computer screenand from the positioning of the dancing models on it (a positioning that highlights the legs' movementwhile making the arms somehowperipheral), this automatically acquired stylistic aspect gives the performance an awkward effect, exercising an affective 206

impact on the performers' style. By isolating all the different elements of the performanceas autonomouscomponentsof an assemblage,and by transforming the human dancer into one of these components,Cunningham reversesthe usual process of `humanisation' of the dance stage: this time, it is the human body going towards the inorganic working of the object, of the technical machine, this inverted relation indicating not only the idiosyncratic adaptationof the script by the human body, but also an a-organic becoming of both body and technology: human dancers are thus 36 `animated'by new modalities appearingon screen. As Copeland argues, "Cunningham [i]s a Pygmalion in reverse, choreographing dances in which performers seem... to acquire the emotional reticenceand palpable physicality of objects," (2004: 35) "And, at the same time, to "objectify" people [i]s also to reinvest them with what Robbe-Grillet liked to call "titre-la," a senseof sheerthereness,of palpable physicality" (36) beyond allegorical de-formation) (or beyond the transformation of bodies modesof representation,and into symbols and metaphorswithout materiality. Neither aiming at the naturalnessof its but `mechanisation' its the of on effect movement nor at simple robotic `abstractness',Cunningham's choreographicstyle could be defined thus as `a-organic' and consistentwith a kinetic order that rarely seemsguided by a natural senseof now in dancing body interest by by is logic. (42) It the an as a or anatomical merely guided moving machinewith infinite combinations.As an example of rhythmic transmission throughnumbers(from computer logarithms to choreography),LifeForms algorithmic impossible forth bring to apparently realise stimuli creations new potentials and new biological idiosyncratic that and anatomical go against movements and phrases discovery the of previously unknown capacities and possibilities,allowing exploration both dancers ideas beliefs the and audience. The of and and overcoming of past performer/audiencespaceis thus intensified and animatedby the surpriseand wonder dancers how do to the to technology suggesting chance and of an unexpectedevent: what they can do, with a reciprocal feedback between the technologically created different bio-physical by its the of each apparatus performer. scoreand actualisation Being basedon nuclear, or binary, operationsof genetic simulation rather than specular lines of reproduction and copy, technical machines (from compositional software and audiovisual technologies to cloning and prosthetics) perform a fundamentalcreative role. Opening up an infinite potential for viral propagation,these machinescontaminatethe sacred,untouchablerealm of the human body, overcoming 207

the essential idea of a predetermined organic, social and technological originality. This technical proliferation happensthrough the infectious spreadingof simulations at increasing velocity, miniaturisation and invasiveness,where the normal functions of the biological body, the productive and consumerist roles of technology, and the representationalmechanism of the mass media are undermined by the feedback of technical machineson the micro-physical level of matter. The proliferation of clones and images is therefore an example of the manipulation and modulation of material forces by technical apparatuses,and of their impact on genetic, behavioural and habits and conventions. perceptual

Notes:

For a description of this performanceseeCopeland2004. Z For a discussionof theatrical bodily techniques,seeBarba and Savarese,1991. 3 For a better understandingof the notion of a diagrammatic virtuality of the machine, we can mention here Guattari's explanation that "A pile of stones is not a machine, whereas a wall is already a static protomachine... " (2001: 43) For Valentini, the encounter of live performance art with technology and the media highlights the ontological problem of a clear distinction to be traced between filmic and theatrical specificities. See Valentini 1999: 37. s The aspiration of Westernculture to the multiplication of representationaland reproductive media and to the simultaneouserasureof all traces of mediation characterisewhat Jay J. Bolter has defined as a for i. 'hypermediacy': 'immediacy' the and e. need a transparency of realism combination of correspondingto a Platonic model of image/body (or fiction/reality) dualistic representation,and to a Cartesianperspectivewhere space can be controlled from a single vantage point with no alteration or distortion, giving immediate accessto the world (technology correcting the limitations and distortions imperceptible itself): becoming dictates "Immediacy time totally the that same at while of perception the medium itself should disappear and leave us in the presenceof the thing represented..." (1999: 9) Nevertheless,"The processof remediation makes us aware that all media are at one level a "play of signs", .... At the same time, this process insists on the real, effective presence of media in our culture." (9) For Deleuze and Guattari, the principle of 'mise en scene' is not guided by any Artaudian 'theatre is but "a the the the on model of of cruelty', on contrary, aim representational knows life, [it] from having lost is Far the what contact with to who closest to real. machine produce the beating heart of reality, to an intensepoint identical with the production of the real ... " (2000: 87) 6 See Brannigan 2002. On the difference between the movement-image and the time-image (as by Deren's first Deleuze by here the avant-garde camera, and see cinema experiments exemplified 2002a,2002b. 7 More precisely, Elisa Vaccarino distinguishes simple stage/studiorecordings from dance-on-camera re-works (i. e. cameramanipulations basedon an already existing choreography),screenchoreographies dance documentaries. define See (which `video-dance'), for the and as we will screen solely created Vaccarino 1996. 8 We can thus echo Virilio's words, when he asks "How can one fail to see here the essential characteristicof video technology: not a more or less up-to-the-minute 'representation' of an event, but live presentation of a place or an electro-optical environment - the result, it would seem, of putting " (2000: 1) by electro-magnetic physics? of means reality on waves 9 See Lischi 2001: 21-22. The critic links the manual aspectof video to the metamorphosesoperated hand, directly the the through of visualising the graphical sign. But on this point, gesture and controlled Lazzaratoarguesthat in fact electronic and numerical technologiesbring forth a regressionof the hand. SeeLazzarato 1986. 10On the unit, or individual, as virtually containing the world, see the discussion of Deleuze on Leibniz's notion of the 'monad' in Deleuze2003. 11On video as a Bergsonian technology and on Nam June Paik's work, see Lazzarato 1986. See also Lischi 2001. 12Another early practitioner of this genre was Van Manen, with its performancesMotion 1-Ill (based follows (where dancers). Live The 1980s the the camera the and motion) saw an of slow use on incredible proliferation of dance-on-cameraand video-dance works, such as the Italian Roberto Castello's Prologo a diario segreto contraffatto (1985, in collaboration with the video-art group Studio Azzurro) which creates on the scene, in real time, a dialogue between technology and the from bi-dimensional a pass physical condition to a three-dimensional continuously who actors/dancers, one, outside and inside the screen. In this sense,we can also talk of a camera choreography and of a dancers being both the camera compose performance, and movements script: punctuatedby shooting both being dissolves constructedthrough choreographyand montage. In other words, while and cuts or dance is decomposedin different segments,video montage, cutting and pasting give the performance N+N Corsino also startedtheir further continuities and discontinuities. The two dancers/choreographers technological experimentations with analog videos (such as Circumnavigation, 1995) and simple image decomposition techniques, multiplications in transparency, as well as other screen movement editing techniques,although with a still prevalent presenceof the narrative element.

13"Added value works reciprocally. Sound shows us the image differently than what the image shows alone, and the image likewise makesus hear sound differently than if the sound were singing out in the dark." (Chion 1994:21) 14In the 1950s,Henri Bergson defined the brain as a central telephonic operator: more than a centre of conscious representation,the cerebral membrane appeared to him like a switchboard letting only a small amount of information passthrough, while relaying the rest. See Lazzarato 1986. 13 (Viola 2002: 40) Visual detail (or `acuity') is dependent on the major or minor number of photoreceptorspresent on the retina, and on the large or small amount of information units let in; in `tele-visual' terms, detail becomes screen resolution, the precision and clearness of the image dependingon the number of the picture elements (light dots, pixels) in a given direction of the video frame. 16On the functional and structural approach to the psychological analysis of movement in psychokinetics, seeLe Boulch 1991:43-47. 17As a reciprocal transfer of information, interaction has been defined by Nicholas Negroponte as `genetic', in the senseof a transformative operation aiming at the mechanical reproducibility of the same.The feedback loop is therefore conceived as circular and automatic or, in other words, closed, always working through a basic mechanismof oscillating control: the personalisation of the interface becomesde-facing, and the human-designedmachine designsback the human, as a 'controlling' rather than `controlled' tool. SeeMassumi 2002c. 18(Deleuze2003: 29) Deleuze makesthis double sensecoincide with the Baroque style and Leibnizian philosophy, and we can translate this into the double, physical and metaphysical aspect of dance, as a 'Baroque' art. 19 Choreographic probing by 'legwork' is a definition given by Merce Cunningham of his methodology.SeeCopeland2004. 20 According to Massumi, the result is that "There is no either/or No: either homogeneousor ... What there is isomorphic. No: either immersion or imposition. No: either formlessnessor form ... insteadis co-adaptation." (2002c: 2) 21SeePiber. Seealso Allard, Stokesand Bianchi 1994: 5. 22Many different devices can be used to record movement: goniometers,electromagnetic and acoustic sensors,devices designed to measure the rotation of a joint, by providing a voltage-drop across the ends of a resistor, and tracking the change in the flexion angle of the knee. See Allard, Stokes and Bianchi 1994: 3. 23 In other performancessuch as Ariella Vidach's Daimoco, Opusif! and Buffers, body's gesturesand the speedof movement are transducedinto soundtrackchangesor used to interact with elementsof the dots dancers' luminous the activating at and accelerating suddenly passage.The sounds scenario: visual dancer's body is transformed into a mouse that createsand modifies in real time the visual and sonic images, it decomposes draws, text the and re-composes and writes, alters the performance: elementsof soundby distorting it through reverberationsand delays, modifies velocity and tone. In Beat BOX, the bodies interact dancers' devices by the the with the recorded sounds, capture on produced sonorities transforming the body into a sound generator. Being able to capture environmental voices and sounds and to reproduce them in relation to the dancers' movement through the simultaneous use of sensors and microphones,these devices allow a multisensorial fruition of the performance. In the same way, Mo-De is a choreographic project for five dancers utilising an interactive technology which body, The dancing the the the and audience stage. performance is conceived connects simultaneously as an interactive space, monitored by various cameras, where the spectators can move and their is dancers, the that together connectedto the generationof sounds. of with movement, 24By choosing different figures and positions and then moving and combining them on the screen,the viewer is allowed to modify the performance, controlling and animating the dancer's movements, in dance For direction their of video game. and velocity, as a sort example in Andrea sometimes ' Davidson's CD La Morsure, the hand-mousemovementallows to accessa5 acts performanceof dance hyperlinked, families in different 18 reciprocally with a total of 300 looping sequencescatalogued image sequences controlled by a narrative generator with semi-random selection.24 With its dynamics, La Morsure shows no linear different and movement perspectives combination of but looping score, multiple or musical sequences to be differently construction choreographic combined. The whole performance unfolds through successionsof minimal motions, as a multiply broken sequencemetrically re-arranged by the movements of the mouse through a pre-programmed sequentiality. 25The latter's movements are recreated in real time on stage in Los Angeles as a fully articulated fairy from baby interacting figure, to to robot and morphing with the `live' performer. They graphic

dance over, under, and through one another, through a combination of MoCap, real-time Internet connection, computer animation software and Internet data transmission. A new kin-aesthetics of interruption emerges,one composed of shifting, juddering and unpredictable crashesor adjustments, and of grainy image qualities 26On distraction and digital culture, seealso Bogard 2000. 27The use of the term `post-organic' here is used in order to refer to the material, molecular field of analysis which individuates a common ground of relationality between bodies and machines. Differently for example from Teresa Macri's use of the word in order to denote a flesh/technology juxtaposition altering pre-existent human and biological parametersof thought and perception, and differently from the phenomenological idea of an evolutionary enhancementof human and biological `post-organic' here digital field by brought the term to technologies, relates a of about potentials bodies, 'live' between between the organic, where connection and machines conjunctions and relations technical and biological constructions replaces the idea of a mere communication between different by the use of technology), with body (the and potentialised pre-existent whole as an organic entities that of a molecular feedback and alteration between different bodies-machines(the organic body as a See Macri' 1996. than whole). a essential unitary, rather construction, physical More specifically, in the composition of the dance script, numbers can be used for example to in dimensional limbs' describe three the the movement of orientation and calculate, measure (Euclidean) spaceaccording to the Euler angles (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) with an axis rotation, assigning to these parameterssets of three digit numbers from 000 to 360 (a full circle being 360 degrees) in for direction movement positive numbers, and upward clockwise with negative and positive numbers, be Numerical for direction downward the values can also used to ones. negative anti-clockwise and describethe path a movement takes and its direction (line, angle, rectangle, curve, circle, spiral, twist, dynamics (direct/indirect, to the movement translation), related effort or zigzag, release, arbitrary, for bound/free), these with numerical all properties values, measuring sudden/sustained, strong/light, is identified to These technically from values what to +10. give sets numerical example varying -10 defined as the body's `Degrees of Freedom' (DOFs), the limited rotational and kinetic possibilities delineated by anatomy. In the articulated anatomy of the human body, DOFs work at every joint, independent disparate (or in local system of un-coordinated) a coordinated movements generating laws limitations (gravity, by body frame limited by the the of physical and the of points connected massetc). SeeGough. 29As a molar entity of organisation, the non-divisible unity of the number (the One) accompaniesthe fixed, unchanging condition of the static body caught in a particular `state' and rigidly moving from its its displacements describe the to and quantify space of to numbers using point, while point fixed drawn `extensio' homogeneous becomes body/stage The with coordinates a space performance. body's divisible into (for immanent the of gravity) and centre centre example and organisedaround an homologousparts with symmetrical reversible relations. SeeDeleuzeand Guattari 2002a: 380-389. 30This definition correspondsto the irrational number, or differential quotient. SeeDeleuze 2003. 31On differential and integral calculus, seeDeleuze2003, and deleuzeand Guattari 2002a. 32In the cybernetic model of information theory, noise plays an important demonic role, as a physical for "Here, interfering transmission noise, stands an unaccountable the of a message: with process variation in a communication channel,the effect of contingencyon the processof communication, or as the intervention of random error in the transmission of information ... In the communication process, certain variations of signal are consideredrelevant while others are consideredas unrelated,or noise. In information theory, the receiver's statistical entropy is broken down into the quantity of transmitted information (signal) and the quantity of noise that is seen as undesirable from the receiver's in in the the term Noise, only receiver, this occurs channel not evaluative sense as an perspective. is in friction, Since distinction thermal always present practical systems, or noise, as such. making the information Therefore, have 'signaltheory talks of an error probability. always receivedmessageswill to-noise' ratios, as the relation between the power of the desired message transferred, to the interference.To protect signals flowing through a system from noise, they are encoded." (Goodman 2004b: 4) 33According to Lazzarato, in its impossibility to synthesisecontinuous qualitative durations and to from emergence as an unprogrammed of novelty circuit an openthe rhythmic virtual/actual reproduce digital field the neverthelessmanagesto simulate the processof actualisation at an potential, of ended infinitesimal scale, synthesising discrete numbers and multiplying their possible combinations. See Lazzarato 1986. 34 An example of this choreographic method is represented by Torse, a composition inn which hexagrams 64 by 1-Ching. The by the is decided the of chance, performance is compsedof everything

64 movement phrases,each one conceived as a number (for example the phrase one implying the performance of one movement, the phrase two of two movements etc), each shift defined by weight changes:standing on one foot counts as one, but bending a knee is two becausethe body weight shifts once, so that in the phrasenumber 64 there are 64 weight shifts. In the same way, space is divided in 64 squares. By tossing coins, the choreographer decides how many dancers will perform a particular phrasein a particular square.SeeCunningham 1990. s In Cunningham's danceperformances,the sound/movementrelation was also numerically realised in the form of two distinctive, autonomousand parallel series indirectly connected and without any linear stimulus-causeperceivable link. The sudden appearanceof the chance-guided sound score became noise for the dancers, a flow striking their perceptual apparatusand affecting performative linearity. John Cage's sonic compositions accompanyingCunningham's performanceswere often very rarefied, almost silent, but they could also become suddenly loud and aggressive,making it extremely difficult for the dancersto execute complicated rhythmic counts without having their concentration interrupted by random eruptions of sound (often introduced into the performance only during the last rehearsal, and therefore totally unexpectedand unknown). In these conditions, counting had to be replaced by a different, more 'trance-like' kinetic practice leaving numbers outside consciousness.See Copeland 2004. 36While for example in Asa Unander-Scharin's The Lamentations of Orpheus the computer generated choreography(developedwith the Motographicon software) moves an industrial robot by trying to give it a human-like, organic quality. SeeMenicacci and Quinz 2001.

6. Conclusion

As all other forms of perception, performance and creation, dance of the 21 S`century has also addressed the question of the digital, starting to share its own aim, i. e. the kinetic

generation of rhythm,

with

a series of technical

machines based on

Connected different to and calculation. counting machines of microscopic cutting, Capture, Life Forms, Internet), Motion (video, dancing the the rhythmic engineering body often inhabits a space of rhythmic

proliferation

where all sensations are

digital digitalisation This the through code. process of negotiated

has generated a

huge amount of debate among practitioners and critics of performance art: on one hand, the debate is embedded in structuralist theories reducing the body, society and linguistic to constructions and representations symbolic and a unique system of media hand, limits; biological the the on other other critical readings are more overcoming influenced by the assumptions of phenomenology about the centrality

of the

perceiving human subject.

In order to avoid this textual/phenomenologicalimpasse,this thesis moves the body, focus the the perception and movement, as a of materiality on analytical in field which specific corpo-realities and of emergence common and undifferentiated fuelled its In that this the main questions research other words, at emerge. positions beginning were: can we think the `mediatised' dancing body on screenas material and In `live' this conceptualise ways can we the one? what common performing as alive discuss In dualistic it beyond to these order questions, presuppositions? all materiality link transmission the to of rhythmic material which processes map seemednecessary dancinghuman bodies and technical machines,challenging the centrality attributed by it body human different the to the considering as only and one of phenomenology in (human bodies all elements assemblage which of a machinic of components dancersand spectators,computers, screensand other technical machines) share the dimension. samerhythmic The main componentsof the danceassemblageare three: bio-physical, sociodance-machine This dictates the technical. the composition of also cultural and is divided into introduction (after three thesis, the main chapters which an structureof discussing Chapter 3 biological, the map): anatomical and and a methodological dancing body, Chapter 4 the of on the codification and stratification perceptual

213

territorialisation of dance as a ritual in which the bio-physical aggregatesof kinetic become (gestures) signs, and Chapter 5, dedicatedto the exploration of the expression technical tools used for the modulation of the performance gestural content. At all levels, sequential metric processescompose the bio-physical meters of the dancing body (biological clocks, steps, sonic beats, as forms of biological its the organisation of cultural rituals (dance steps, their disposition in encoding), in time as a presignifying semiology) and the technical their and repetition space manipulation of its performances (binary digits and their algorithmic combinations activated by the signs of asignifying semiotic machines, or sign-points, such as the de-coded into dance being electric signals, and then recorded and gestures of a digitalised). These different strata entertain relations of reciprocal doubling, a fractal isomorphism linking the different scales, or dimensions, of the anthropomorphic dancingbody, its collective or social performances,and its technological doubles. Drawing on Guattari's conceptualisations,we can define this relation as an "alterity of scale,or fractal alterity, which setsup a play of systematic correspondence among machines belonging to different levels." (2001: 45) These relations allow a hierarchical (rather than separation)of strata, so that we conjunction and coexistence ca say that a dancing human body (as a bio-physical organisation of bodily parts) individuation from of organic as a society of molecules, cells, processes appears its determined in culturally movements, roles and functions; at organs, each already the sametime, a dance ritual (as a cultural organisation of bodily signs, either in its in its is theatrical the result of a collective, tribal and artistic version) or popular and bodies, motions and perceptions according to specific spatioof social ordering temporal rules, traditions and choreographies.Furthermore, each one of these two bio-technological from is to connected a apparatus, simultaneously strata genetic (as to technology sound machinic assemblagesdirectly and prosthetics engineering linked to the genetics, anatomy and perception/motion of a body), from acoustic and (as in dancerituals), the to assemblages stimulating video movement electronic sound from analog audiovision to digital and interactive media (as the different technologies in dance to contemporary performances).All theseapparatuses used record movement body its dance. the of a with rhythm and relation a particular entertain Rhythm is not created,containedor representedby any of these machines,it is in it does time or any place, and not stay with any body for not clearly perceptible longer than a moment. The most important aspectto be reiterated here is the relation 214

difference, to rather than sameness(for example the difference between an of rhythm analogwave of electromagneticenergy, an anatomical line of movement and a digital flow of algorithms, each with its own velocity, constitutes the rhythm of a videodancepiece). As argued by Deleuze and Guattari, rhythm works through continuous changesin direction (for example between the trajectories of two dancing bodies in the sameritual, or of two limbs on the samebody), always leaving its previous host to join a new body (for example always leaving air to become sound in a body's molecules). (2002a: 313) Or it stays in the same body, but only to follow its transformations,its metamorphoses,its becomings:in this sense,the repetition of one same movement also treasures its own rhythm, every step opening up a different world. For this reason,we cannot seerhythm, hear it or physically touch it anywhere, becauseit could not be contained by any sense,but we can sense it everywhere. It happens as a `transe', a metamorphic moment where the virtuality of movement its relation with actual manifestations. a reciprocal reveals This re-definition of rhythm as emerging difference is important in the kinaestheticsof dance as related to the rigidifying power exercised at the bio-physical, cultural and technical levels by traditional choreographicpractice and its metric and linear concept of movement. As a consequence of this conceptualisation, a fundamental binarism has always been delineated between a constructed and a between therefore and nature and culture, anatomy and spontaneousmovement, technology, individual performance and collective ritual, passive spectatorial and dichotomies. binarisms All these are simply ignored by a dancing active performative body: as any other moving body, the body of a dancer generates a continuous difference and always escaping, with its own concrete emerging of anomaly its its the of ground, of anatomy or choreography, because solidity abstractness, "When a body is in motion, it does not coincide with itself. It coincides with its own transition: its own variation. The range of variations it can be implicated in is not less in it in movement, given much any any position passes through. In present immediate, in is its body to an unfolding relation own nonpresentpotential a motion, to vary. That relation, to borrow a phrase to Gilles Deleuze, is real but abstract." (Massumi 2002a: 4) A body embracing its own virtuality all the time, and still only disciplined if it its to aspect, as were really making only one step at us more showing hysterical From this time. of spastic, point view, or epileptic bodies, with their a fullness, escapethe choreographic attempt and the bio-physical or cultural rhythmic

imperatives to conceive movement as a linear displacement either classifiable as frequent is dance. (or in It the the hysterical body's not only) not variation or motion gestures that gives rhythm to a spastic crisis, but its alternation between the immobility of catatonia and the abruptness of the fit, or its bodily split between limbs. it is jerking In by words, other only conceiving of dance as a and paralysed different of metric sections (body parts in reciprocal relations, stratified composition or movement in its relations to sound and colour perceptions, or to immobility), that forms in the of continuous passages, rather than linear we can sense rhythm (or Every critical moment) opens up a vortex in a of passage moment sequences. linear flow: rhythm is the multiplicity of perceptible and imperceptible vortexes if bending her dancer by twisting the and on as own back while secretly, entered walking forward. In the sameway, the linear argumentand writing of this thesis is continuously broken by continuous interruptions, potential introductions to a multiplicity of different subjects which would have implied too long digressions and divergences from the main development of the work. It is the rhythm of the thesis: a multiplicity lacks into transforming them to and voids and critical of sub-subjects pointing first The further lines to study. of and of these voids research up occasions open in for the methodological map, where a more comprehensive example appears from `autopoietic' `far and as equilibrium notions such explanation of scientific deeper have the thesis and more structured trans-disciplinary a given systems' would in incomplete Other the third chapter, where appear also parts somehow character. biology, the anatomy and neuro-physiology of movement and subjects such as illustration detailed description, a clearer while a more of the perception needed temporal and rhythmic aspects of molecular biology, virology, endosymbiosis_and bio-technology would have also contributed to the conceptualcoherenceof the whole thesis. In the fourth chapter, the semiotic analysis of dance rituals and the notion of kinetic sign have only been introduced as points of departure for further dance in in trans-coding to the the rhythmic of sound and relation conceptualisations but have benefited from would of movement, more time; cultural organisation arguments such as the psychological aspects of trance and shamanism, or their have for to the development of a constituted enough material would relation sound,

detailed different together a with more research, analysis of the various dance whole in rituals mentioned the chapter,and of electronic sound and techno. The somehow weak technical, aesthetic and historical analysis of dance as a performing art, together with technology and multimedia art, has derived from the deliberate choice to focus the work on the conceptual, philosophical aspects of movement and dance, trying to understand a complex and oversimplified concept such as that of rhythm, and to transform dance into one of its main, most significant, concreteexemplifications. Of courseexamplesalways need the right amount of detail to be dedicatedto them, but time has also played a crucial role here, not only as the main conceptualsubject which set the whole thesis in motion, but as the-main despot capturing all the possible digressionsthat could have sprouted from this experimental do in time to or say more. was not enough approach: other words, In the end, the subject of the thesis has acquired a more specific conceptual delineation, as the difference but also the reciprocal influence existing between the temporal organisation and the rhythm of dance. As Guattari argued, "A machine ordering, through its various components, tears away its consistency by crossing ontological thresholds, thresholds of nonlinear irreversibility, ontogenetic and heterogenesis " (2001: thresholds thresholds, and of creative autopoiesis. philogenetic 48) This continuous rhythmic threshold-passing by the ordering function of the machine indicates the coexistenceof discipline, or capture (in whatever form or code) and escape,fluidity and discontinuity, in all creative and perceptualphenomena.Since the main temporal codification of rhythm in all its different (musical, choreographic, technological) realisations happens through numbers, and since it is still through is (or that trans-codedand passessomewhereelse, a deeper rhythm ciphers) numbers have functions helped the discussion. also greatly would exploration of mathematical Considering subjectivity in a Guattarian sense, as a machine assembled through the combination of different organic, socio-cultural and technical elements,it by digital important the to technology as a also recognise role played seemed influential component of the perceptions and creations, aesthetic and pervasive Furthermore, of contemporary subjectivities. the and performances productions functioning of these machines directly dependson a complex dimension of numbers but interesting, a somewhat controversial revealing calculations, and maybe It is between this the limiting and the with rhythm. relation relation paradoxical, connective character of numbers that this thesis, particularly in the last chapter, has

tried to investigate.The machinic assemblageof a dancer, a computer and a spectator has therefore been analysedin all its different versions and in all its different ways to transmit rhythm among the various components; for this aspect, the mathematics of differential or infinitesimal calculus would have brought more clarity and a better in digital relation to rhythm and the infinitesimal algorithms of explanation differential logic of dance. As a way to conclude, we could point out how rhythm (in this particular case, the rhythm of a dancing body) does not entail total rigidity and order, but it does not dissolution loss total and a of coordinates of the body into an either mean a dance indistinguishable intensity from any that would simply make undifferentiated other movement. Rather, the microscopic and intensive kin-aesthetics of rhythm is its it is from detached the non-linear organisation: perceivable performed never relation between micro- and macro-scalesof movement which points to a different logic of dance. This re-conceptualisation has allowed the thesis to address new questions which have appeared as important, and which will be left, for a more how important is further future the coexistenceof to research: comprehensiveanswer, discipline, or codification, and rhythm in art? How can the definition of rhythm in terms of emerging difference be deployed for a different analysis of the digital binary for tool artistic creation?If the transmissionof rhythm is what code as a contemporary from follow detach bodies to to or each other, reciprocally or weave connect allows their movements, how is this notion important for an aesthetical understanding of social life?

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Glossary

Choreography:the design of bodily displacementsin spaceand time. Choreutic: from the Greek `choreuo' (to dance):an adjective used here with reference to danceand the dancing body. Dance: the evolution of a body in space and time through perception-movement synchronisation,and its simultaneousinfolding towards a virtuality of sensations. Movement,motion: the concept of movement used here is not limited to the spatial displacementand to the linear progression of a body from point to point, but is also consideredin the qualitative transformation always accompanyingit. Performance,performative: this notion is not used here in the sense of a cultural in identities opposition to the naturalness and spontaneity of construction of dance) in bodily (such but to act as which the potential of a body is a movement, actualisedphysically, culturally and technically. Rhythm:`the Unequal or the Incommensurablethat is always undergoing transcoding. [I]t ties togethercritical moments,or ties itself together in passing from one milieu to in homogeneous but by heterogeneous does It space-time, a operate not another. blocks. It changesdirection. (Deleuze and Guattari)

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