Critical Zones: Performative Video Tutorials

Mira Hirtz ist Teilnehmerin des Forschungsseminars »Critical Zones« an der Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe und wirkte darin hauptsächlich als Tänzerin und Performerin. Im Seminar befasste sie sich schwerpunktmäßig damit, wie theoretische und geopolitische Überlegungen durch somatische und performative Übungen sowie durch partizipative Performances auf eine lokale, subjektive Erfahrungsebene übersetzt werden können. So wurden Tutorials zum terrestrischen Dasein vorgeführt, Steine durch den Seminarraum getragen, Aufwärmübungen für Körper und Sinne abgehalten und Diagramme choreografisch umgesetzt. 

If we are lost on ecological, political and social levels, how to orientate? If our planet is incompatible with our globalized economy, how to define territory? Finding the right angle to address the global issues plays a pivotal role in the project »Critical Zones« – in its exhibition part, for the involved artists and thinkers and not least in Bruno Latour’s book »Down to Earth« (German: »Das Terrestrische Manifest«). How to get down to Earth (how to manifest terrestrially)? How to find answers to these urgent questions?

This is the start of a series of »video tutorials« to propose a playful way to deal with some of those questions. It bases on the belief that in order to shift our mindset on how we think about our subjective place on Earth, alternative ways of looking at questions can be helpful. The video tutorials use a performative, playful and somatic approach. What does that mean? 

The term somatics was coined in the 1980s and accumulates a variety of practices which are positioned between dance, art, therapy and holistic medicine. They all have in common that they train the subjective perception of the own body, taking into account that perception of the self is always in relation to other bodies, ideas, matter and world in general. It also takes into account that training is a fluid, playful and imaginative process. Can this play with perception, a bodily approach to awareness, speak to geopolitical concerns as well?

A tutorial explains you how to do things – in a DIY manner of sharing knowledge. Our video tutorials don’t give definite answers, but they ask: What if we would tackle some of the questions addressed by the Critical Zone exhibition with our playful, bodily and locally rooted creativity, in a way that we could learn something from it? What will happen? You can treat the videos as a screen to watch, as instructions to try out or as invitations to use your perception, your bodily knowledge as well as your image producing electronical devices in an experimental manner. And to invite your friends, objects around you and the many beings such as bacteria within your body as well as books, artworks and ideas as inspirations. For the tutorials, I will myself work collaboratively with others and be inspired by many voices and practices.

Ein Beitrag der Performance-Künstlerin Mira Hirtz.

Video Tutorial #1: Einen Platz zum Landen finden: Erdung

Video Tutorial #2: Die Dimension des Seins: Dichte

Video Tutorial #3: Über die Perspektive der Wesen: Faltung

Video Tutorial #4: On the state of flux: traveling through and with

Video Tutorial #5: On being part of the frame: Dwelling

Video Tutorial #6: On urgency: taking time to be productive