.permeate
.permeate (2018)
performance by George Greae
digital video by Cemil Hamzaoğlu
Musical performances and the environments that they occur in have a bilateral relationship. It is not possible to suggest that performance is the performing body’s act of music making alone.
But then, what entities constitute a performance? Where do the boundaries, if there are any, between a performance and its surroundings stand as the performance develops? How can an ever-changing flow of experience in the act of music-making or spectating be examined? How can the feedback loop between a constantly changing environment and a reactive performer be understood?
Investigating these questions, .permeate is a re-constructed work from Hamzaoğlu’s recent ethnographic research that attempts to understand these unseen boundaries.
.permeate probes the conceptual and experiential shifts across the physical body (Körper) and the felt-body (Leib). Through an investigation into the improvisational spaces created within sound artist George Greae's live performances, Hamzaoğlu questions established anthropological perspectives on intentionality and agency.
Most importantly, .permeate seeks to shed light on a challenge that anthropologists studying performance and ritual have long-faced: how can an ethnographer follow the state of flux and movement where the performance and the environment come into being simultaneously and evolve together over time?
Cemil Hamzaoglu
Hamzaoğlu (MSc Digital Anthropology, UCL) is an anthropologist, musician and active member of UCL MAL. In the past Hamzaoğlu has produced scholarly works that explore the materiality of sound, performance, identity and the transformative effect of digital technologies on creative landscapes in sound production. Most recently, Hamzaoglu embarked on ethnographic research amongst the busking and independent sound artist community in London.
instagram: @chamzaoglu
