Diagramming movement between the cartographic and the choreographic: research report

Abstract

"Diagramming Movement between the Cartographic and the Choreographic" was an experimental interdisciplinary research project, which in part was concerned with exploring a collaborative research methodology that had a heterarchical structure. Undertaken with geographer Dr Derek McCormack, from Oxford Univerrsity, PhD students and independent artists the project was strand of a larger research project, "Society of Molecules" run by the Senselab, a Research Centre with a global reach that was initiated by Dr Erin Manning of Concordia University, Montreal, and involved researchers from all over the world. "Society of Molecules" employed a global distributive participatory research model, which we echoed at a smaller scale in our UK 'molecule'. Each international molecule was invited to initiate aesthetico-political interventions. The theme that guided our research was the diagramming of movement between the cartographic and the choreographic, using Deleuzian-induced understandings of the cartographic, and introducing the notions of affect that emerged in Deleuze and Guattari's work. The research involved practice-based experimentations/interventions alongside readings of the work of geographers, philosophers and other theorists whose work addressed issues consonant with our concerns, conceptual traces of which could be detected in the practical results of the research experiment. The above are all described and reflected upon in this research report