In this talk, dramaturg and performance scholar Jonas Schnor will share their research into the politics of creative processes in the performing arts. In their work as a dramaturg and researcher, they are occupied with how the entanglement of lived life and experimental practices generate alternative ways of feeling, sensing and relating in performance. In their PhD thesis from 2022, Jonas proposed the notion of microdramaturgy to speak about the continuously unfolding dramaturgy of the process: the state of being persistently immersed in a tension, a question or sensation in search of something not-yet there, while being together and in touch with the lives of those present - inside and outside the studio.

Where dramaturgy tends to refer (only) to the composition and structure of the finalised performance, microdramaturgy refers to the constantly fluctuating dynamics of rehearsals and residencies and the way the (often subtle) affective and embodied interpersonal knowledge during the process keeps moving within the shown performance, perhaps even after. To speak about microdramaturgy is a proposal to speak differently about artistic research - not only as what comes before the performance but as something that continues to occupy it, animated by and through the bodies present, as an ongoing questioning of the living.

This edition of Conversations On warmly invites everyone occupied with process, residencies and artistic research to come and share their questions and reflections, as the intention is for the talk to turn into a discussion around the question of why it matters which processes give way to which kind of performances. 

ABOUT JONAS SCHNOR
Jonas Schnor is a dramaturg and philosopher working in theatre, dance and performance studies. They completed their PhD: Microdramaturgy. Between Practice and Event in 2022 at the Centre for Performance Philosophy, University of Surrey. As a dramaturg and artistic researcher, they have collaborated with choreographers, performance collectives and festivals across Europa and Brazil, amongst others Marcelo Evelin, Sisters Hope and Moving in November. Since 2023 they work as a freelance writer for bastard.blog and as editor for Peripeti - journal for dramaturgical studies. From May 2024 they are employed as a postdoctoral researcher at The Centre for Visual Poetics at the University of Antwerpen as part of the international research project Performing Ends.

Participation in AN HOUR WITH is free, but please book your ticket as seats are limited.

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CONVERSATIONS ON is a conversation and knowledge-sharing format created to make us wiser and add important discourse to the agenda. It is a space that opens up the conversation about the performing arts and artistic development bringing new perspectives into play.