Christel Stalpaert (editor) - Performance and Posthumanism: Staging Prototypes of Composite Bodies

Cover credit: inv. MC 1972/S - Peplophoros davanti a motore diesel Statue dressed in peplos in front of a diesel engine (Roma, Centrale Montemartini - Archivio Fotografico dei Musei Capitolini, foto Zeno Colantoni) Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali

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This book emerged from two research projects that were funded by FWO, the Flanders Research Council. The first was the FWO research project Capturing Dance Movements (20122016), which resulted in the Ph.D. dissertation The Motion Capture Imaginary: Digital renderings of dance knowledge (2017) by Laura Karreman. This project was supervised by Christel Stalpaert, Marc Leman and Katharina Pewny.

We also extend our sincere thanks to the collaborators on the grant, Marc Leman from IPEM and Katharina Pewny from S:PAM. They brought particular expertise in motion capture and deep insights into the project as a whole.

The second is the Ph.D. mandate by Kristof van Baarle, From the cyborg to the apparatus. Figures of posthumanism in the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben and the contemporary performing arts of Kris Verdonck (20132018), supervised by Christel Stalpaert, Rudi Laermans and Jean Paul Van Bendegem.

We are also grateful to everyone who participated in the FWO-funded conference, Does it matter?, convened at Ghent University, Belgium, in March 2015, and whose inspiring contributions made us realize that the topic of posthumanism and performance was worth pursuing in a publication. We want to extend a special thanks here to curator and researcher Pieter Vermeulen, who was a co-organizer of this conference, and who also played a crucial role in setting up our first plans for this publication.

We thank the authors for enriching this volume with their particular more-than-human perspectives and for responding so willingly to editorial negotiations.

We are also grateful to all photographers who gave us permission to print their work, and thereby helping to convey the rich and imaginative performance practices that are analyzed in this book in such a vivid way.

The editors also offer heartfelt thanks to Sophie van den Bergh, who meticulously scrutinized the texts for editorial details and delivered a carefully proofread volume.

We would like to thank Jack Heeney and Eileen Srebernik from Palgrave Macmillan for the patient guidance throughout this publication process.

Christel Stalpaert would like to thank all researchers at the research centre S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media) at Ghent University. They are a wonderful crowd, never hesitant to lend a helping hand. Their sparkling dynamism creates a stimulating research environment.

Kristof van Baarle would also like to thank his current colleagues at the Research Centre for Visual Poetics (UAntwerp) for the support while finishing this volume.

Laura Karreman would like to thank her current colleagues at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, and in particular her co-members of the research group Transmission in Motion, for the unceasing effort they put in creating the conditions for an inspiring research environment.