Of assemblages, affordances, and actants – or the performer as bodyworld: the case of puppet and material performance

Abstract

The concept of ‘bodyworld’ refers to the performer’s entangled engagement with the material world. It revises and expands the psychophysical notion of ‘bodymind’ that leaves the human–non-human dichotomy unchallenged. ‘Bodyworld’ is explained via the sociomaterial perspectives of what are termed the 3As: assemblages, affordances, and actants; i.e. bodyworld as mind–body–world assemblage whose constituent components offer a number of possibilities or affordances, some of which are actualized and/or transformed into performance material and which come to function as active socio-cultural elements or actants in the resultant multi-sourced/assembled product. The conceptualization of the 3As is informed by outlooks like Jane Bennett’s vibrant materiality that address the inter-connectedness of the social and the material in the organization of everyday life and practices. To exemplify ‘bodyworld’ reference is made to puppetry and material performance, which also serves to update the figure of the marionette as a metaphor for the performer’s work.

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