Chronic everyday life: rhythmanalysing street performance1

The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, taking inspiration from recent criticisms of non-representational theory, namely its over-valorization of the evental over the contextual, the paper argues for an ecological perspective on practices and performances, which is attentive to both the contextual and the evental. Secondly, and more specifically, this is approached through an examination of the hybrid temporalities of street performance through the gaze of Henri Lefebvre's ‘Rhythmanalyst’ as the performing body is choreographed into being in the admixture of pre-personal affects and non-human forces of nature (anxiety and frustration, sun and rain) in the playing out of performances. Rhythmanalysis is employed in thinking through the street performance ecology, and particularly the inter-relation of temporal prescriptions placed on performances in Covent Garden, London linear rhythms, and the natural temporalities of bodies (performers' and audiences'), the outdoor environment (sun, rain and day), and the performances themselves cyclical rhythms. This is pursued in relation to: trying to perform when a crowd will not form; a performance's encounter with rain; and performing in the July afternoon sun. I conclude by problematizing Lefebvre's ‘Rhythmanalytical Project’ and speculate on its usefulness in the elaboration of the small details of ‘chronic’ everyday life, both evental and contextual.