Automatic Corporeal Gesture in a Flash: A performative theory of process

Abstract

My artistic practice and research explore automatic processes used throughout time that develop conceptual and physical aptitude in the performer; to transcend the status quo and experience alternative versions of embodied reality. In homage to Elvis Presley and the spirit of Rock and Roll, I define automatism as a process formulated as Automatic Corporeal Gesture in a Flash (ACG ) where I work to make art without fear from an inspirational sensation in my body. ACG is inspired, authentic action that I do in a creative act through some kind of plan or set of parameters to get a material result; it is automatic action through diffraction in an apparatus, to produce material with qualitative data that can be considered for its meaning after the performance. Like having a conversation with someone, this approach helps me to understand things as they are, learning about their qualities. In ACG I combine my vibration with the vibration of what inspires me. It is a relational act of co-agential meaning making. It is a performance process that uses perception and action intrepidly while in an apparatus to maintain corporeal balance, integrity and momentum during an event. Practising ACG changes qualities in material, which changes the way meaning is made from it. These changes are always particular to each event. Our senses are physical and extra-sensory. My imagination contains qualitative, empirical data. I am using my corporeal senses to perceive my imagination’s inspiration, as I would also use my other senses and their correlating extra-sensory capabilities to perceive the material world around me. The meditative groove of my ACG is a trance dance. Trance is maintaining the entrainment of one’s body to a frequency which focuses perceptive consciousness. How a piece is created carries discursive information. Qualities of the movement of the body and the marks it makes speaks about our corporeal condition as well as speaking of its perception of qualities through/of itself and its local and extra-local environments. I use ACG to learn about the qualities that experience has had in my body, and this knowledge increases my ability to be more responsible and accountable as a receiver and transmitter of discourse, which is the function of my relationality. ACG helps me to access my full body, and it allows me to coordinate and integrate all my other senses and their correlating extra aspects into my creative action. ACG is what keeps sparking the dynamic process in which I realize my creative potential, and where I can expand my abilities to perceive more of the qualities of life.