The research project focuses on the idea of “corporeal reparation” and asks: Can reparations be demanded in the form of a corporeal transmutation, especially if the offence to the body is so grave that it can only be processed within the body itself? What is the best medium to demand reparations? Is it best articulated vocally, as through a public radio transmission, or can the body itself gesturally project a demand for reparations, as in the form of performance art or dance? In 1947–1948, the renowned theorist and artist Antonin Artaud prepared a radio broadcast in Paris, intended for an estimated audience of one million, in which he demanded reparations for the corporeal damage he had endured during incarcerations in psychiatric hospitals in France from 1937 to 1946. He envisioned reparations that would be assimilated within the body itself, generating, as he foresaw, a “body without organs”. The broadcast was censored and not transmitted, but survived. The project is intended to form an original theoretical advance into the theme of reparation, as well as an exploration of what exactly it means to demand corporeal reparation.
PROF. DR. STEPHEN BARBER
CURRICULUM VITAE
Stephen Barber is a research professor in art and film history in the School of Art faculty and is the director of the Visual Cultures Research Centre at Kingston University, London. He has also held research posts at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles; at Keio University, Tokyo; at the Free University Berlin; and at other art schools and universities. His research has been funded by a wide range of international foundations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the DAAD, and the British Academy. He is a novelist and the author of numerous research monographs that have been translated into many languages.