Franks, A. (2012) Coffee Cup Ecologies: Some reflections on gathering. Performance Research, 17(4), pp. 42-48. (doi: 10.1080/13528165.2012.712251)
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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2012.712251
Abstract
In this article I explore how the emergent ecology of a popular education workshop resonated not only with the environmental and social justice issues which participants brought to the table, but with our capacities to survive, learn and care beyond the workshop's walls. Central to this resonance is the act of gathering. Using the work of Vikki Bell, Timothy Morton and David Crouch to theorise the act of gathering people as an ecological process, I focus on two incidents that occurred during the workshop, one involving coffee and the other the making of a group drawing. Collectively these theoretical and field note reflections posit that the act of gathering itself, of shaping -- at times forcing -- relations in spatially-defined parameters, is constitutive of the potential ecologies engendered, and that practical techniques of gathering, in this instance creative popular education methods, are central to this act. Framed by the thematic clusters of dissensus, community, and intentionality, and interiority, affects and aesthetics, I situate the workshop space and the activities it affords within a more conscious implication in its already present ecology. I conclude with the notion that techniques of gathering are primarily techniques of engendering faith in the face of uncertainty, perhaps even adversity, and that such techniques might work to engender faith and faithful relations in the context ‘outside’ of the interior workshop space as well as within.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Franks, Mr Aaron |
| Authors: | Franks, A. |
| College/School: | College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences |
| Journal Name: | Performance Research |
| ISSN: | 1352-8165 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1469-9990 |
| Published Online: | 16 August 2012 |
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