Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I DIFFERENT ANIMISMS
- Part II DWELLING IN NATURE/CULTURE
- Part III DWELLING IN LARGER-THAN-HUMAN COMMUNITIES
- Part IV DWELLING WITH(OUT) THINGS
- Part V DEALING WITH SPIRITS
- Part VI CONSCIOUSNESS AND WAYS OF KNOWING
- Part VII ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- 35 Nature in the active voice
- 36 Animist realism in indigenous novels and other literature
- 37 The third road: Faërie in hypermodernity
- 38 Objects of otaku affection: animism, anime fandom, and the gods of … consumerism?
- 39 The Dance of the Return Beat: performing the animate universe
- 40 Performance is currency in the deep world's gift economy: an incantatory riff for a global medicine show
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
39 - The Dance of the Return Beat: performing the animate universe
from Part VII - ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I DIFFERENT ANIMISMS
- Part II DWELLING IN NATURE/CULTURE
- Part III DWELLING IN LARGER-THAN-HUMAN COMMUNITIES
- Part IV DWELLING WITH(OUT) THINGS
- Part V DEALING WITH SPIRITS
- Part VI CONSCIOUSNESS AND WAYS OF KNOWING
- Part VII ANIMISM IN PERFORMANCE
- 35 Nature in the active voice
- 36 Animist realism in indigenous novels and other literature
- 37 The third road: Faërie in hypermodernity
- 38 Objects of otaku affection: animism, anime fandom, and the gods of … consumerism?
- 39 The Dance of the Return Beat: performing the animate universe
- 40 Performance is currency in the deep world's gift economy: an incantatory riff for a global medicine show
- Acknowledgements
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
OBSERVATION IN ACTION
The material existence of the universe can be seen as an improvised performance: an event that has not yet finished. When we episodically exercise our free will to improvise, reflect, organize and perform with expressive insight, we are partaking in the improvised performance that is the universe. Philosophically speaking, being, becoming and performance are the norms. By this I mean that just being alive, existing, living, playing, working, and so on, already constitute the universe's dance. This dance continues manifesting a flow of change or living flux that facilitates life itself. Being born, existing and dying are all part of a performed event, which started with the Big Bang, evolved into stars, the incubators for the more complex elements, and ultimately resulting in our existence and becoming. These are my initial assumptions when conceptualizing the significance of expressive movement when we work, play, dance and act.
We may be uncertain of the ultimate truths of the universe but we desire to find meaning through research, worship and improvisation as ways to find repeating patterns in the unknown. We reflect on our observations and understandings of the material universe by telling stories that explain the meaning of our present state regarding being, becoming and performance. However, how we understand our observations depends on collective models of perception that are constantly, in a transcultural sense, changing. These collective models reflect an approximate understanding of patterns in our perceived out- there- ness.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Handbook of Contemporary Animism , pp. 491 - 500Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013