Living with objects to become anotherelse / Tonny Ajoup (2017)

This thesis discusses my research project ‘Living with Objects to Become Another Else’ which culminated with the showing of the live performance The Drumming Experience of OneSelf which, itself, was preceded by two short films Guinea’ 44 and Mali I.

With this thesis, I intend to address questions initially posed by this project; these questions revolved mainly around the relationships between objects and bodies and their nature, the potential emergence of multiple identities these relationships can provoke in the performing body and the impact of both parties’ personal details on the formation of their relationships. In discussing these concerns, I will analyse the key works that have influenced different courses of my research including Stuart Brisley’s DRAWN, Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures and Jerome Bel’s Nom Donne par l’Auteur. I will then draw on key arguments from Rina Arya, and Andres Galeano, amongst others, to expand on the growing importance of acknowledging the object and body’s physicality and of making physical contact to generate as well as to manage the relationships between the objects and the performer.

I will also address the importance of showing the two short films, Guinea’ 44 and Mali I, as an introductory encounter to the live performance and therefore as a bridge to questions of representation of the Black male body, which I allude to also in this thesis and throughout the live performance.