What is it about?
During the Pandemic the body became the center of public attention: the human body as seen from the perspective of medicine, the body as a virtual manifestation through Zoom, and the body as the bearer of our psyche. This is why performing arts such as music and dance were profoundly affected in that moment, because the presence of the body is essential in order to fulfill the artistic experience in their cases. The body is always a moving body, is always breathing, and it always has the quality of being animated (a word that, not by coincidence, sometimes means being alive). Most of us do not (re)search our bodies deep enough to cope with the tremendous feelings, memories, marks, and emotional layers it preserves. So, during the Pandemic, we were challenged by the reactions of our own bodies. This text is important because it attempts to explain this fundamental connection between the body, the impossibility of moving freely (in a social lockdown), and the virtualization of the body through music and dance seen from a philosophically original combination of perspectives (contemporary mimetic studies, posthumanism, critical theory). As an extra insight, I added a few descriptions of my personal experiences during some dance workshops organized in Bucharest (at Linotip and AREAL), to argue how the philosophical ideas are embodied in real practices.
Featured Image
Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Animation is a word that echoes the fundamental fact of being alive, and animation has a special connection to movement, to mimesis, and to expression. Posthumanism offers a contemporary framework for deepening these (already) ancient connections because it promotes an integrated, eco-logical, and embodied view of our sense of belonging into the world. This study in particular is a creative research attempt to connect these threads into a coherent thesis about animation, mimesis, and posthumanism through music and dance.
Perspectives
I love contemporary dance because through this practice I understood better the complexity and the raw natural profundity of my own body. Still, philosophical concepts, distinctions, and speculations bring a major contribution in understanding why and how this capacities of the body exist and function. While composing this text I was surprised to discover new theoretical ways to uncover the wisdom of the body... The theory of minor mimesis, as developed by the Homo Mimeticus project run by Nidesh Lawtoo, was of especially great help. This study is a personal intellectual milestone and the journey towards writing it will remain a beautiful memory. My hope is that this text will promote the importance of performance arts like dance and music, and the value of philosophy for our lives.
Andreea Stoicescu
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Animation and the Mimetic Posthuman: Pandemic Vulnerabilities Mirrored by Music and Dance, September 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004692053_008.
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