Bodies at Burning Man: Heterotopia, Temporality, and the Creative Act as Embodied Revolution
說明
305 p
附註
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 77-02(E), Section: A
Advisers: Lynette Hunter; Simon Sadler
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2015
Concepts of revolution are of great concern in the current field of Performance Studies. Because social change is arguably one of the top priorities in this field, there is an increasing need to critically examine early, modern notions of revolution that often result in duplicating the same conditions they seek to subvert. This repeating cycle of means and ends within historicized, event-based revolution is conceivably perpetuated by its linear ordering of history, for such a narrow view of the past encourages similarly linear predetermination of the future. A past that is only revealed through a rationalized structure of events and transitions, even when radical change is desired, places limits upon an otherwise limitless future by bringing it into what is already known. This repetitive model of establishing goals in relation to obstacles undermines the potential for new value-making, for attainment of an ultimate goal presumes an ending rather than a becoming. Radical change can only occur when bodies are able to perform in ways previously unimagined, when artists and activists rehearse behaviors outside of familiar, reactionary, ideologically-contingent habits
This dissertation situates Burning Man, loosely characterized by its set of "Ten Principles," as a temporary heterotopia---a space of physical and temporal otherness---where participants commit alternative acts through which cultural and economic hegemony might be positively destabilized. Communities of support are essential for most artists and activists in order to alleviate the alienation that often goes along with exposing injustices and calling for change, and Burning Man's community not only does this but goes a step beyond, by offering a culture that does not require closure for the spaces that it opens. In a temporary society that disappears and reappears, creative acts remain in the realm of rehearsal that continually evolves rather than performance that resolves. Founded in the spirit of ludic pranksters and characterized by transformation through fire, the event has evolved from a relatively small celebration on Baker Beach, in 1986, to a worldwide cultural phenomenon. I believe this is due in large part to the ways that Burning Man radically changes participants when they enter the gates of Black Rock City, leaving familiar ideology and ecology behind, and allows them to find value in creative acts rather than provable results. The ten chapters of this piece, framed by Burning Man's Ten Principles, interrogate the prospect of removing revolutionary action from deeply textualized structures of power, and locating it within radically changing bodies
