Graduate Research Workshop: Doubt, Pain, and Performance

REQUIRED TEXTS

*Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy
Amelia Jones and Tracy Warr, The Artists Body
Maggie Nelson, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
Kathy ODell, Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s
Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
*Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty (OC)
*----, Philosophical Investigations (PI)
*----, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP)

*Available in online course materials.

DESCRIPTION

When someone shouts, My foot hurts! are they expressing knowledge? Surely we
would like to say Yes, that people know when they are in pain. But can we doubt when we
are in pain? We would like to say not under normal conditions, but if pain (my own pain)
is not falsifiable, then pain is hardly an object of knowledge, and it makes no sense to say
we know we are in pain. We are thus forced to choose: we have made an error and in fact
can doubt we are in pain; we have made an error and need to broaden our concept of
knowledge; or we accept and attempt to countenance a non-epistemic dimension of pain.

This research workshop takes the final path. What would it mean not to know but rather
perform pain? The indubitableness of pain has problematized philosophers as well as
artists thinking about the body and representation. We begin with a prolonged
consideration of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgensteins influential writings on language,
consciousness, and knowledge. We read Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical
Investigations and On Certainty with the aim to develop a notion of performance
behavior on the basis of his concept of pain behavior. We then go on to consider some
of the further mass media, philosophical, political, ethical, and aesthetic valences of
doubt, pain, and performance.

Artists considered include: Marina Abramovic, Ron Athey, Chris Burden, Bob Flanagan,
Ana Mendieta, William Pope.L, and others.

This workshop requires around 95 pages of reading per week.

EVALUATION

Participation 40%

Come to the workshop prepared to talk about the material youve read.

Performance Research Project (PRP) 40%

In according with the notion of performance behavior, I ask that the research for
this project come from your own practice (as artist, designer, or critic). That is,
you will take seriously the questions and implications of your work and/or
working process, and you will articulate a relationship to them in terms of the
seminar materials in a 15-20-page, MLA-formatted paper, due the twelfth and
thirteenth weeks of the semester. After reading the papers, I will assign to each
person a term, concept or theme that they will be tasked with defining in a 4-5-
page paper. This definition may be a condensation of the paper, or it can be
personal, poetic, descriptive, etc., as long as it in some way captures the force and
resonance of the term or concept for you. These will be read aloud in the final
classes and compiled into a dictionary for each of us to carry forward.

Practice Presentation (PP) 10%

This is a 10-minute presentation of your critical and/or creative practice(s). You
should take this time to introduce us to work you have already made or are in the
process of making. See Remarks on Practice Presentation.

Process Presentation (PrP) 10%

This is a 15-minute presentation that responds to another class members Practice
Presentation. The gesture of response contains models of our own critical and
creative processes inside itself. You are asked to perform and speak to this
gesture. See Remarks on Process Presentation.

STRUCTURE

Week 1
0:00 - 0:50: Introduction to the Course + Letter Draw
0:50 - 1:20: Student introductions
1:20 - 1:30: Break
1:30 - 3:00: Remarks on Practice Presentation, TLP, and Wittgenstein

Week 2
0:00 - 0:10: Announcements
0:10 - 0:20: PP A
0:25 0:35: PP B
0:40 - 1:20: Remarks on Process Presentation
1:20 - 1:30: Break
1:30 - 3:00: PI 1-255

Week 3
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP C
0:25 - 0:35: PP D
0:40 - 0:55: PrP G
1:00 - 1:15: PrP J
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: PI 256-693.

Week 4
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP E
0:25 - 0:35: PP F
0:40 - 0:55: PrP I
1:00 - 1:15: PrP K
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: OC

Week 5
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP G
0:25 - 0:35: PP H
0:40 - 0:55: PrP M
1:00 - 1:15: PrP L
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Cavell, The Quest of Traditional Epistemology: Opening and Excursus on
Wittgensteins Vision of Language

Week 6
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP I
0:25 - 0:35: PP J
0:40 - 0:55: PrP B
1:00 - 1:15: PrP O
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Cavell, The Quest of Traditional Epistemology: Closing and Scarry,
Introduction

Week 7
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP K
0:25 - 0:35: PP L
0:40 - 0:55: PrP N
1:00 - 1:15: PrP F
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Scarry, Part One: Unmaking

Week 8
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP M
0:25 - 0:35: PP N
0:40 - 0:55: PrP A
1:00 - 1:15: PrP E
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Scarry, Part Two: Making

Week 9
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PP O
0:25 - 0:40: PrP D
0:45 - 1:00: PrP H
1:05 - 1:20: Remarks on Research Project
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Sontag

Week 10
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:25: PrP C
0:30 - 1:20: Writing Prompt
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Screen SICK: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist

Week 11
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 1:20: Jones and Warr
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Open discussion

Week 12:
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 1:20: ODell
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 3:00: Open discussion

Week 13:
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 1:20: Nelson
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 2:30: Open discussion
2:30 3:00: Remarks on Performance Research Project
PRP Due

Week 14
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 1:20: Nelson
1:20 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 1:40: PRP A
1:42 - 1:52: PRP B
1:54 - 2:04: PRP C
2:06 - 2:16: PRP D
2:28 - 2:38: PRP E
2:40 - 2:50: PRP F
2:52 - 3:00 PRP G

Week 15
0:00 - 0:10: Introductions
0:10 - 0:20: PRP H
0:22 - 0:32: PRP I
0:34 - 0:44: PRP J
0:46 - 0:56: PRP K
0:58 - 1:08: PRP L
1:10 - 1:20: PRP M
1:22 - 1:32: PRP N
1:34 - 1:44: PRP O
1:45 - 1:55: Break
2:00 - 3:00: Explanations come to an end somewhere