inevitably a part of it. Herein lies the
charm and the terror of ecology’
(Bateson 1987 [1972]: 510).
Part Two
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As I have asserted in Chapter I, contemporary urban life is often constituted in such a way that ‘nature’, or the more-than-human world, is regularly commodified and represented as ‘other’. From designated ‘green spaces’ in city planning to ‘natural’ food labels, nature is often construed as something contrasting to human life, which must be sought out. As Tim Ingold has written, ‘the distinction between environment and nature corresponds to the difference in perspective between seeing ourselves as beings within a world and as beings without it’ (2000: 20). In order to break apart binaries that conceptually separate humans from nature, we need to understand our relation as one of being within the material environment. Immersion then, or being within a world, is necessary to move towards an understanding of ecology, an ecological sensibility and the relationship between the human and more-than-human world. It is also the premise on which ecological phenomenology is based, theorising the relational exchanges in an ecological world in which we are always already immersed. Ecological performance may also provide an ecological phenomenological experience, revealing the way in which we are immersed within multiple ecological relationships. Immersion, I will suggest, is a characteristic of an ecological performance aesthetic, and provides a way of thinking about human relationships with the ecological world, which is the basis for further theorising of this aesthetic in subsequent chapters.
This chapter will explore the way in which site-based performance frames a space to mediate and foreground ecological relationships. This space is considered through reflection and analysis of an ecological performance aesthetic motif of immersion in the more-than-human world. This will include exploration of the concepts of space, temporality, environmental participation and embodiment in relation to recent ecological performance practice. I will begin with a discussion of ecological phenomenology, in which the concepts of immersion and participation are explored as the defining qualities of our relationship to the living world. Taking as my starting point Theresa J. May’s (2005b) concept of the potentiality of performance to create a space that can foster ‘ecological reverence’, I will explore how disclosure of ecological relationships can lead towards the recognition of the human connection to the more-than-human world. Chaudhuri’s conception of the materialisation of nature metaphors within the performance space will be considered with specific regard to contemporary performance practice. Then, Cless’ concept of the power of performance to mediate nature through phenomenological materialism is critiqued and put into conversation with ecological phenomenology. I will contend that the power of ecological performance within the context of this study is not the literalisation of nature metaphors on stage. Rather, it is performance that immerses the audience in the living world and by doing so, discloses ecological relationships. I will then discuss embodiment (following Merleau-Ponty) and the contemporary ecological perspective of David Abram.
In this chapter, I will examine how performance can be a space where the connection between humans and the more-than-human world is cultivated or uncovered, as well as challenged and critiqued. I will suggest that this connection is foregrounded in performances that immerse the spectator (or participants) in the more-than-human world. This concept will be explored through examples of practice including Nutshell’s Allotment (2011–12), La Grande Moisson (1990), Fevered Sleep’s Above Me the Wide Blue Sky (2013), NVA’s Speed of Light (2012), Baz Kershaw’s Earthrise Repair Shop Meadow Meander (2011–14), and Arbonauts’ Biped’s
Monitor (2012). This work will be examined through the lens of ecological phenomenology —
phenomenology with a focus on interpreting ecological experiences and relations. Sensuous immersion in the living world can act as a touchstone in contemporary life, grounding us in the present moment and local place (Abram 2007: 13). This chapter will explore how performance frames this interaction in a way that may remind us of our interconnection to the mesh of ecological relationships.
I employ the term immersion to refer to our relationship to the more-than-human and to a quality of performance. In the context of this study, these immersive performances broadly happen outdoors and tend to provide direct engagement with the living world for the audience or participants — in other words environmentally immersive work, rather than practices that immerse the spectator in the ‘dramatic action’. This type of immersive performance usually provides sensuous immersion in a way that conventional theatre does not tend to do. Or as Kershaw (2007) suggests, it has the ability to transform spectators into participants and in so doing bridge the perceived separation between humans and the living world (318). Immersion is identified by Jeanne Bovet (2011) as a characteristic of the sensorial perception of sound. While seeing is directional, hearing is omnidirectional, making it potentially threatening in that it is difficult to ignore. Though hearing is not my specific focus here, I suggest that sensuously immersive performance also has the potential to be threatening, and Speed of Light may be one example. I further suggest that direct engagement with the living world provides sensuous immersion (of more than just seeing or hearing) and has the potential to reveal ecological relationships, which may in turn redefine the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world.
Throughout this chapter, I refer to ecological phenomenology. By this I mean a specific form of phenomenology related to the experience, description, reflection and analysis of our perception and understanding of the material ecological world (or the world in its ecological aspect). As I will describe in further detail in this chapter, ecological phenomenology is employed to interpret and disclose the relationality that informs perception and understandings of ecological relationships, particularly within the frame of performance. It is a critical tool for analysing our relationship to the wider world in ecological terms. It is a variant of ecological thinking, as an ecological phenomenological position assumes that humans are embedded in an ecologically-material world, and it aims to analyse the meaning and effects of that embeddedness.
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In brief then, the focus of this chapter is theorising immersion as a characteristic of an ecological performance aesthetic through examples of some contemporary ecological performance practice. Immersion will be considered in relation to the claims and concepts of May, Chaudhuri, Cless, Kershaw, Merleau-Ponty and Abram. It will interrogate the ideas of performative space and the frame of performance in relation to ecology, embodiment, participation and the senses in performance. All of this will lead to the synthesis of immersion in performance as a way of bridging the perceived chasm between humans and the more- than-human world.