Ventriloquism: Ecstatic Exchange and The History of The Artwork

Abstract

Privileging two voices not one, excluding writing by the nature of the act, ventriloquism is somewhere at the margins of phonocentrism. As performance, ventriloquism is associated with low art-from vaudeville to comedy clubs. In this paper, however, I treat ventriloquism as such-a rich historical practice with a complex logic of its own. Central to my analysis of ventriloquism is the notion of ecstasis, the ancient Greek word designating a being beside itself. I then attempt to apply a concept that grows out of that treatment-something I am calling the ventriloqual exchange-to an important art-historical idea, the work in progress. The history of art is most often taken to be the history of the finished work: how it is understood, how it moves through the world of galleries and museums. In the context of artworld history the prehistory of the finished work, including the work in progress, is usually neglected or devalued. I deal with the idea of a work in progress by drawing an analogy between it and ventriloqual exchange. In discussing ventriloquism I also turn to some brief applications in Plato's Ion and to some critical remarks regarding Foucault's work on the author.

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