Practice-as-research and the Problem of Knowledge

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Russell summarises 'knowledge by acquaintance as follows: 'We have acquaintance in sensation with the data of the outer senses, and in introspection with the data of what may be called the inner sense – thoughts feelings, desires etc.; we have acquaintance in memory with things which have been data either of the outer senses or of the inner sense. Further, it is probable, though not certain, that we have acquaintance with Self, as that which is aware of things or has desires towards things' (1967: 28). 2 Russell makes a distinction between 'knowledge by acquaintance' and 'knowledge by description', the latter involving 'some knowledge of truths as its source and ground' (1967: 25) where 'knowledge by acquaintance' involves direct awareness 'without the intermediary of any process of inference or any knowledge of truths' (1967: 25). 3 Though there are difficulties with recordings of live performance, the AVphd forum is exploring the possibility of circulating recorded image material (film/video/net art) for peer review. Theatre depractice-asresearchtments in South Africa are conducting a pilot scheme of peer review for live performance though, even in a relatively small and geographically proximate, community, there are logistic and economic challenges. 4 Callois distinguishes between paidia, free play, and ludus, rule-governed 'non-serious' behaviour. For a range of summary accounts of play, see Schechner, Citation2002: 95–101. 5 Lester Embree, editor of the Encyclopedia of Phenomenology Citation(1997) distinguishes four tendencies in the history of phenomenology of which existential phenomenology, derived from Heidegger, is just one. See, http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/phenom.htm). 6 Since inaugurating his own company in 1994, Felix Ruckert has developed a 'dance as encounter' practice and in 2004 he initiated the annual festival, 'xplore – sinnliche extreme/extreme sinnlichkeit' (sensory extremes/extreme sensuousness) of which he has since been curator. Practice-asresearch PhD projects which have engaged in 'encounters' include those of Anna Fenemore (2000), Jane Munro-Beveridge (2006) and Rita Marcalo (2006). 7 This experiment, involving a collaboration between the universities of Bristol, Dundee, Southampton and York was popularly disseminated in one of three BBC2 documentaries on complementary medicine in January 2006.