Entering the Heart of Experience: First Person Accounts in Performance & Spirituality

In this paper, Middleton and Chamberlain introduce the inaugural publication of "Perspectives on Practice," which will be a new and ongiong section in "Performance and Spirituality" that will publish academically rigorous, first-person accounts of intersections between performance and spirituality. In this article, the authors take up arguments for the development of a rigorous first-person methodology for consciousness research and apply them to the study of performance and spirituality. They outline the implications of adopting and including the first person perspective in performance research, and then explore its applicability to the particular case of the enquiry into relationships between performance and spirituality. They argue that the promotion of rigorous and contextualised first-person accounts can provide this field of study with significant data; high-quality descriptions of what Varela and Shear called “The View from Within.” Such descriptions could provide detailed insights into, for example, the nature of the performative phenomena which yield spiritual experience. Further, we shall explore the extent to which the adoption of the first-person mode of enquiry can increase, as well as illuminate, the experience in question

Mapping Mindfulness-based Performance

In this paper, I report on the University of Huddersfield's Mindfulness and Performance Project (MAP)2, outlining the field of practice that the project was designed to profile, and exploring some of the implications of what we might call 'mindfulness-based performance'. Framing this work within the context of the growing literature on clinical and therapeutic 'mindfulness-based interventions' I explore definitions of mindfulness, and consider how contemplative science might influence and guide emergent work in the theatre. Noting the emergence of a new discipline of Contemplative Studies, I also suggest that mindfulness-based performance has a significant role to play in current research and practice regarding mindfulness applications in the broader culture

Buddhist Mindfulness and Psychophysical Performance

This is a very brief introductory sketch of some historical and cultural context for the relationship between Buddhism and western theatre practices in the early 20th century. As we’ve been asked to make sure that our presentation requires little specialist knowledge of our field, I will be simplifying and there will inevitably be important omissions and, perhaps some over-generalizations but, I hope, no fundamental errors

Growth and expansion in post-war urban design strategies: C. A. Doxiadis and the first strategic plan for Riyadh Saudi Arabia (1968-1972)

This dissertation resituates C. A. Doxiadis in Post-War urban design history with a detailed examination of how urban growth and change was addressed by urban design strategies as applied in the master plan for Riyadh Saudi Arabia, undertaken between 1968 and 1972. The Riyadh master plan commission is important within Doxiadis' career, occurring in the midst of his prolific writing projects and approximately eight years after he completed the Islamabad master plan, his most renowned project. Most Post-War architects focused on the socio-spatial components of urban life, elaborating architectural projects that intertwined transportation, infrastructure, and concentrated on mass housing strategies. This dissertation argues that Doxiadis' contribution to urban design theory and practice during the Post-War period was to define a rational scientific methodology for urban design that would restructure settlements to enable urban expansion and change while addressing issues of community building, governance and processes of development. The applied urban design for Riyadh Saudi Arabia strongly exemplifies Doxiadis' rational strategy and methodology as outlined in Ekistics theory and the conceptual model of Dynapolis. The comparative analysis examines how Doxiadis applies the Dynapolis model in the urban spatial planning of Riyadh to organize urban territory at the macro and local urban scales, define neighborhood communities, and connect the new master plan to the existing spatial territory of the city. The longitudinal analysis contrasts the Doxiadis master plan, Riyadh's first urban development strategy, to the most recent comprehensive approach MEDSTAR to understand how the Doxaidis' urban design has sustained its spatial continuity over time. This dissertation makes two significant contributions. The first is to broaden knowledge of Post-War urban design specific to the spatial problem of urban expansion and change, and second to resituate Doxiadis within the Post-War history of urban design specifically revealing his previously unrecognized project of the Riyadh master plan undertaken from 1968-1972.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Richard Dagenhart; Committee Co-Chair: Dr. John Peponis; Committee Member: Dr. Gary Hack; Committee Member: Dr. Perry Yang; Committee Member: Michael Dobbin

The theatre of affect

There is an extensive body of work in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and sociology which identifies a specific world view based on the following criticism of modern society: that people live monocerebral existences divided from their physical, emotional, and intuitive abilities. In this state, the capacity for affect -emotional response - is believed to be atrophied, and experience nullified. Such a condition - which may be loosely termed 'mind/body split' - results in a diminished ability to relate to other people, a sense of alienation from the world, and a pathological loss of human capacities. Many psychologists believe that this state prefigures neuroses, destructiveness, and schizophrenia. This thesis is concerned with the concept of 'mind/body split' and its relation to affective communication in the theatre. The subjects of my enquiry are theatre practitioners or companies whose work has directly addressed these issues: Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, The Living Theatre, The Performance Group, The Open Theatre, Peter Brook, and Eugenio Barba. My aim has been to re-examine the work of these seven in order to produce evidence of their concern for affect, heightened experience, and the healing of mind-body schism. I propose that an understanding of these concerns provides a major critical key to the appraisal of the practitioners in question

Adapting the Dharma:Buddhism and Contemporary Theatre Training

In this paper, we explore two examples of Western theatre practice which draw directly on Buddhist monastic dance. Examining Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Mudra Space Awareness alongside Mexican theatre director Nicolás Núñez's Citlalmina allows us to consider the ways in which aspects of Buddhism might be conveyed within performative form, and to consider these practices as translations from Vajrayana Buddhism. This discussion opens into a consideration of the ways in which Buddhism and theatre might be seen to be mutually enriching, and to share certain common potentials as vehicles for cultivation

Borderlands

An audio performance, co-created by Monty Adkins (music) and Deborah Middleton (text and voice) and presented by IOU Theatre in the audio-visual laboratory, 'Totum-One'. Middleton's work is presented under the pen-name, Deborah Templeton