ARA Podcast - Researching the Arts of Movement - a conversation with Prof Jane Taylor

Arts Research Africa Dialogues

In this dialogue I speak to Professor Jane Taylor, who, together with Nhlanhla Mahlangu, gave the opening performance and dialogue, at the ARA2020 Conference, which was held here at Wits University in January.
Jane currently holds the Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape where she heads the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects. A highly regarded academic, Jane is also a playwright and author and is a frequent creative collaborator at the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, where she has directed a number of their seasons. Jane has written several plays for puppets, working with the artist William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company, notably the internationally celebrated Ubu and the Truth Commission. She has also written a puppet play for the American Renaissance scholar, Stephen Greenblatt, a work interrogating the early history of neurology. Her second novel explores the complex politics of heart transplants in South Africa.
Amongst the topics explored in this dialogue are the significance of a Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance at UWC, a university which historically has not had creative arts disciplines. The research questions prioritised in the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects. The challenges for accepting creative arts as a form of thinking. Aesthetics and a virtual future.
The links which support/extend our discussion are -
The website of the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO):
https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/research-platforms/laboratory-kinetic-objects/
NYT video on the Japanese funerals for robotic family dogs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QYDpbLQ-To
Video documentation of the complete performance of Pan Troglodyte at the Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg.
https://vimeo.com/303661812
Jean-Luc Nancy, Being Singular Plural (Stanford University Press,2000)
Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter (Duke University Press, 2010)