1. Contingency dialectics in fashion-opera
- Author
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White, Alastair
- Abstract
This research project is an attempt to think through the consequences of a non-Newtonian reality for a Marxist theory of aesthetics. From this, a compositional methodology is proposed in the realisation of a four-part "fashion-opera" cycle. It begins by contextualising itself against a historical misreading of Schoenberg, briefly showing the implications for this in the tradition of Marxist opera and contemporary political art music. Following this critique, it offers an alternative contemporary revolutionary context through concepts from Adorno (2006), Badiou (2013a), Jameson (1991), Lukács (1971), Meillassoux (2007; 2009) and Negarestani (2008). From this perspective, it combines aspects of the materialist and idealist traditions via the coming stage of capital as defined by what Dowling and Milburn (2003) have called "the second quantum revolution." This proposes a series of concepts: the fiction model, a materialist map of the individual's relationship to its world; the contingent dialectic, a form of maintained paradox; and the contingent subject, a trans-subjective agent composed of technology (ie. texts) and individuals. This allows for the establishment of a manifesto, which is later developed in an enquiry regarding choice and relation to propose two fundamental laws. These ideas are elucidated through analyses of the four operas - WEAR, ROBE, WOAD, and RUNE - alongside further theoretical discussion of their themes. This procedure determines the various founding dialectics of the methodology: plurality and immanence; spatialisation and temporality; autonomy and intervention; structure and contingency; and atmosphere and integrality. It concludes with a reflection on the politics of imagination, the inexistence of limits and the mysteries of theatre, as well as an assertion of the reality of "the space between" - and its emergent agency. more...
- Published
- 2023
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