2013 Conference - Soundscapes and Territories
March 29-30, 2013
Philosophy Keynote Speaker: Ted Toadvine
Artist Keynote Speaker: Quartet Collective (Rachel Bernsen, Taylor Ho Bynum, Abraham Gomez-Delgado, and Melanie Marr)
Philosophy Keynote Speaker: Ted Toadvine
Artist Keynote Speaker: Quartet Collective (Rachel Bernsen, Taylor Ho Bynum, Abraham Gomez-Delgado, and Melanie Marr)
Ted Toadvine Bio:
Ted Toadvine is Head of the Department of Philosophy, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, and a Participating Faculty member of the Comparative Literature Department at the University of Oregon. He held the 2009-10 Robert F. and Evelyn Nelson Wulf Professorship in the Humanities, was a 2009-2010 Resident Scholar in the Wayne Morse Center for Law & Politics, and was Visiting Associate Professor in The Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College in 2010-2011. He is one of 13 recipients of the University of Oregon's Fund for Faculty Excellence Awards for 2012-2013, "chosen on the basis of their standing and impact within their respective fields or disciplines, their contributions to program and institutional quality at the UO, and their academic leadership."
Toadvine's research specializations are in nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy, especially phenomenology and post-structuralism; philosophy of nature; and environmental philosophy. Ongoing research interests include ecophenomenology, embodiment, animality, environmental aesthetics, philosophy of ecology, ecological restoration, and the role of the environmental humanities within interdisciplinary environmental studies. Toadvine is currently completing two book manuscripts: The Compass of Reflection: Phenomenology and the Resistance of Nature andRhythmic Life: Animality and Ontology.
Toadvine is the author of Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Nature (Northwestern, 2009) and editor or translator of six books, including The Merleau-Ponty Reader (Northwestern, 2007), and Nature’s Edge: Boundary Explorations in Ecological Theory and Practice (SUNY, 2007). He has published more than two dozen articles and book chapters, including recent articles in Research in Phenomenology, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, Investigaciones Fenomenológicas, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, and Alter: Revue de phénoménologie. He guest-edited the 2012 special 50th anniversary issue of The Southern Journal of Philosophy on the theme "Continental Philosophy: What and Where Will It Be?"
Toadvine is Co-Editor of Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies Concerning the Thought of Merleau-Ponty, directs theSeries in Continental Thought at Ohio University Press, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Philosophy. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc. and the International Merleau-Ponty Circle, and is a member of the Scientific Board of the Central European Institute of Philosophy (Středoevropský Institut Pro Filosofii) in Prague. He served as Secretary of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy in 2006-2008. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the journal Environmental Ethics andThe Pluralist's Guide to Philosophy.
Toadvine's research specializations are in nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy, especially phenomenology and post-structuralism; philosophy of nature; and environmental philosophy. Ongoing research interests include ecophenomenology, embodiment, animality, environmental aesthetics, philosophy of ecology, ecological restoration, and the role of the environmental humanities within interdisciplinary environmental studies. Toadvine is currently completing two book manuscripts: The Compass of Reflection: Phenomenology and the Resistance of Nature andRhythmic Life: Animality and Ontology.
Toadvine is the author of Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Nature (Northwestern, 2009) and editor or translator of six books, including The Merleau-Ponty Reader (Northwestern, 2007), and Nature’s Edge: Boundary Explorations in Ecological Theory and Practice (SUNY, 2007). He has published more than two dozen articles and book chapters, including recent articles in Research in Phenomenology, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, Investigaciones Fenomenológicas, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, and Alter: Revue de phénoménologie. He guest-edited the 2012 special 50th anniversary issue of The Southern Journal of Philosophy on the theme "Continental Philosophy: What and Where Will It Be?"
Toadvine is Co-Editor of Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies Concerning the Thought of Merleau-Ponty, directs theSeries in Continental Thought at Ohio University Press, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Philosophy. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc. and the International Merleau-Ponty Circle, and is a member of the Scientific Board of the Central European Institute of Philosophy (Středoevropský Institut Pro Filosofii) in Prague. He served as Secretary of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy in 2006-2008. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the journal Environmental Ethics andThe Pluralist's Guide to Philosophy.
Quartet Collective Artist Statement:
Quartet Collective brings together four artists across disciplines as equal partners in a shared endeavor: dancer/choreographers Rachel Bernsen and Melanie Maar, and musician/composers Taylor Ho Bynum and Abraham Gomez-Delgado. The group investigates principles of roles, crafts, pleasure, story, risk and meaning in performance, practicing spontaneous action as a way to experience and share composition and choreography live. The Collective puts all of the performers in new and different contexts than they’d be in as dancers or musicians; it blends disciplines in a space that adheres to the rules of neither but draws from both.
In the year and a half that the ensemble has been working together, they have explored multiple structures and developed a set of shared principles. They have worked rigorously in rehearsal and performance to find and exploit both commonalities and differences, developing a heightened collective consciousness; unmasking a transdisciplinary understanding of risk, exchange, relationship, dialogue, intention, and meaning. Included in this are considerations of time, space, and composition.
Artist biographies
Abraham Gomez-Delgado is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and performance artist. He leads the avant-salsa band Zemog el Gallo Bueno and co-leads the trans-idiomatic big band Positive Catastrophe with Bynum, and is currently developing a multi-disciplinary performance work called Isla de la Mona, a fictional creation myth concerning his self-made instrument called the EJE.
www.abrahamgomez-delgado.com
Melanie Maar is a New York based choreographer, dancer and teacher. Her work as a choreographer has been seen in New York at the Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center and has toured to San Francisco, Vienna, Lisbon, Glasgow, Oslo, Aarhus and Berlin. As a dancer Maar has worked with Luciana Achugar, RoseAnne Spradlin, Daria Fain, Levi Gonzalez, Luis Lara Malvacias and others.
www.melaniemaar.com
Rachel Bernsen is an independent dance artist, dance educator and certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. Her work has been shown regionally and internationally, from Dance Theater Workshop’s Fresh Tracks to Yale University’s World Performance Project to concerts in Belgium, Italy, Germany, and Holland. Rachel is the founder of the performance space The BIG ROOM in New Haven and curator of its interdisciplinary performance series, Take Your Time.
www.rachelbernsen.com
Cornetist and composer Taylor Ho Bynum leads his critically acclaimed Sextet and co-leads Positive Catastrophe with Gomez-Delgado in addition to numerous collaborative projects. He has performed with many of the leading figures in creative music, from legends like Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Wadada Leo Smith, and Cecil Taylor, to forward-thinking peers like Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jason Hwang, and Tyshawn Sorey.
www.taylorhobynum.com
Since coming together in 2011, the New York City-based interdisciplinary improvisational ensemble Quartet Collective has performed at The Vision Festival, The NOT Festival, The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church, Jalopy, The BIG ROOM's Take Your Time Series and internationally in Austria, Germany and Holland. “[Quartet Collective]… captivates with spontaneous, creative interactions with both space and materials” (Von Hartmut Schmidt, HNA, Kassel, Germany)
In the year and a half that the ensemble has been working together, they have explored multiple structures and developed a set of shared principles. They have worked rigorously in rehearsal and performance to find and exploit both commonalities and differences, developing a heightened collective consciousness; unmasking a transdisciplinary understanding of risk, exchange, relationship, dialogue, intention, and meaning. Included in this are considerations of time, space, and composition.
Artist biographies
Abraham Gomez-Delgado is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and performance artist. He leads the avant-salsa band Zemog el Gallo Bueno and co-leads the trans-idiomatic big band Positive Catastrophe with Bynum, and is currently developing a multi-disciplinary performance work called Isla de la Mona, a fictional creation myth concerning his self-made instrument called the EJE.
www.abrahamgomez-delgado.com
Melanie Maar is a New York based choreographer, dancer and teacher. Her work as a choreographer has been seen in New York at the Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center and has toured to San Francisco, Vienna, Lisbon, Glasgow, Oslo, Aarhus and Berlin. As a dancer Maar has worked with Luciana Achugar, RoseAnne Spradlin, Daria Fain, Levi Gonzalez, Luis Lara Malvacias and others.
www.melaniemaar.com
Rachel Bernsen is an independent dance artist, dance educator and certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. Her work has been shown regionally and internationally, from Dance Theater Workshop’s Fresh Tracks to Yale University’s World Performance Project to concerts in Belgium, Italy, Germany, and Holland. Rachel is the founder of the performance space The BIG ROOM in New Haven and curator of its interdisciplinary performance series, Take Your Time.
www.rachelbernsen.com
Cornetist and composer Taylor Ho Bynum leads his critically acclaimed Sextet and co-leads Positive Catastrophe with Gomez-Delgado in addition to numerous collaborative projects. He has performed with many of the leading figures in creative music, from legends like Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Wadada Leo Smith, and Cecil Taylor, to forward-thinking peers like Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jason Hwang, and Tyshawn Sorey.
www.taylorhobynum.com
Since coming together in 2011, the New York City-based interdisciplinary improvisational ensemble Quartet Collective has performed at The Vision Festival, The NOT Festival, The Poetry Project at St. Marks Church, Jalopy, The BIG ROOM's Take Your Time Series and internationally in Austria, Germany and Holland. “[Quartet Collective]… captivates with spontaneous, creative interactions with both space and materials” (Von Hartmut Schmidt, HNA, Kassel, Germany)
