Performing Space

This article discusses how the notion of performance provides impetus for the design of interactive digital environments. These environments can ultimately be regarded as user-spaces; a condition which replaces the "fixed" art-object with a configuration of interactions. Our understanding of space, as suggested by Lefevbre (2001), defines the "inhabitant" as a full participant, a user, a performer of space. What is at play when the installation artist designs environments that invite performative exploration? The issue of improvised performance in the inhabiting of installation spaces is exposed. Two interactive installations by the author and works by others in the field provide a context for discussion for discussion and analysis.

Haptic Sensation and Instrumental Transgression

Anyone who has ever played a musical instrument will certify the development of a particular type of relationship between the instrument and the performer. This relationship goes beyond a convenient coupling that is optimized for sound production. Every musical instrument defines ways in which to be touched, felt, activated. Music performance is dependent on bodily involvement that goes beyond the auditory and the sense of hearing. This article investigates the role of haptic sensation in the context of the performer-instrument relationship and draws on the writings of Georges Bataille to illuminate a discussion of the erotic in performance.

New catanionic surfactants based on 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium alkylsulfonates, [C(n)H(2n+1)mim][CmH2m+1SO3]: mesomorphism and aggregation

Anionic and cationic alkyl-chain effects on the self-aggregation of both neat and aqueous solutions of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium alkylsulfonate salts ([C(n)H(2n+ 1)mim][CmH2m+1SO3]; n = 8, 10 or 12; m = 1 and n = 4 or 8; m = 4 or 8) have been investigated. Some of these salts constitute a novel family of pure catanionic surfactants in aqueous solution. Examples of this class of materials are rare; they are distinct from both mixed cationic-anionic surfactants (obtained by mixing two salts) and gemini surfactants (with two or more amphiphilic groups bound by a covalent linker). Fluorescence spectroscopy and interfacial tension measurements have been used to determine critical micelle concentrations (CMCs), surface activity, and to compare the effects of the alkyl-substitution patterns in both the cation and anion on the surfactant properties of these salts. With relatively small methylsulfonate anions (n = 8, 10 and 12, m = 1), the salts behave as conventional single chain cationic surfactants, showing a decrease of the CMC upon increase of the alkyl chain length (n) in the cation. When the amphiphilic character is present in both the cation and anion (n = 4 and 8, m = 4 and 8), novel catanionic surfactants with CMC values lower than those of the corresponding cationic analogues, and which exhibited an unanticipated enhanced reduction of surface tension, were obtained. In addition, the thermotropic phase behaviour of [C(8)H(18)mim][C8H18SO3] (n = m = 8) was investigated using variable temperature X-ray scattering, polarising optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry; formation of a smectic liquid crystalline phase with a broad temperature range was observed.

Bridging the Gap between Ionic Liquids and Molten Salts: Group 1 Metal Salts of the Bistriflamide Anion in the Gas Phase

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry experiments showed that liquid Group 1 metal salts of the bistriflamide anion undergoing reduced-pressure distillation exhibit a remarkable behavior that is in transition between that of the vapor-liquid equilibrium characteristics of aprotic ionic liquids and that of the Group 1 metal halides: the unperturbed vapors resemble those of aprotic ionic liquids, in the sense that they are essentially composed of discrete ion pairs. However, the formation of large aggregates through a succession of ion-molecule reactions is closer to what might be expected for Group I metal halides. Similar experiments were also carried out with bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}amine to investigate the effect of H+, which despite being the smallest Group 1 cation, is generally regarded as a nonmetal species. In this case, instead of the complex ion-molecule reaction pattern found for the vapors of Group I metal salts, an equilibrium similar to those observed for aprotic ionic liquids was observed.

The Pontydian Performance:the performative layer

In this paper we reflect on the performer-instrument relationship by turning towards the thinking practices of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961). Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological idea of the body as being at the centre of the world highlights an embodied position in the world and bestows significance onto the body as a whole, onto the body as a lived body. In order to better understand this two-way relationship of instrument and performer, we introduce the notion of the performative layer, which emerges through strategies for dealing with discontinuities, breakdowns and the unexpected in network performance.

Dramaturgy in the Network

This article addresses challenges and opportunities posed by the design and production of network performance from the point of view of collaborative creative work. It examines strategies that, while referring to the network as a new medium for performance, make use of concepts from dramaturgy to better understand the relationships between artists, audiences and media. The author characterises three distinct models for dramaturgy, particularly from the point of view of collaboration, authorship, presence and environment.

Notating the Unpredictable

Notation can be seen to sit comfortably between theory and practice as it symbolizes practice, generates and implements theory, and produces practice. Historically, its presence changes in significance across the development of activities such as music or architecture. From design tool to canonic text, notational artefacts both solidify and formalize practice, as will be expanded below. How, then, does the role and function of notation change with specific contemporary practices, which are by definition ill-defined and feed off fluidity and change? What is the nature of notation in distributed and collaborative practices such as improvised music or network music performance?