Performance: automatism and presence

Abstract

The idea that, alongside the automatism of the human machine, there is a “non-automatic nature” is central and permeates the entire text. We started with an approach to performance in which witnessing the automatism of the functions of moving, thinking and feeling as well the connections between them, could open a contact with a non-automatic nature in the individual. The text works with the concept of “restored behaviors” (Schechner, 2003), addressing repetition, training and error, and their relation with the non-automatic nature. Discusses the concept of “formativity” (PAREYSON, 1993), touching on issues of spirituality and style. Finally, it develops the concept of “groove” in dialogue with the idea of “proper time” and “temporal bubble” (ROVELLI, 2018), in which the relationship between events, the friction of their times, is what enables the emergence of the groove.