Relational Poetics: crafts within archipelagic moving-thinkings in creative practices / Flora Baltz (2023)

This dissertation has fragments of writings using auto-theoretical and academic methods, composing an archipelago of registers, from a practice-as-research done throughout two years as an international student at Trinity Laban, coming from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Drawing from the Martinican poet-philosopher Édouard Glissant’s concept of archipelagic thinking (1995; 1997), that brings the aesthetics and reality of the Antilles as an analogy to create relations open to the diverse and to multiplicity, I explored methods for creating and organizing spaces to facilitate collective experiences, in performance and in participatory laboratories. These investigations incorporated Glissant’s concepts within somatic practices influenced by Angel Vianna, Lygia Clark, and Janet Adler. Central to the explorations were elements such as dynamics of listening, as “labour of care” (Lacey, 2023), employing the use of clay as a supporting tool. Furthermore, I introduce my approach to documentation, emphasizing its role as living materials rather than static archives, challenging conventional storage and categorization practices. Expanding on my investigation of somatic practices and the creation of spaces for collective experiences, I explore my work with clay as a material that provides me with a sense of support. Articulating how the relationship with the material informs the lens through which I interpret both my lived experiences and the world around me, drawing a correlation with Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1987) notion of “New Mestiza Consciousness”.

Key-words: Archipelagic-thinking; Poetics of Relation; Opacity; Errantry; Listening; Somatic practices; Auto-theory; Coloniality of knowledge; Tactility; Hierarchy; Multi sensoriality; Global South.