Re: RAT Conference in Iowa???

[Mathew Bretz <mabretz@cbomedia.com>]

i hadn't heard about it but the last time i recall eric ehn posting a letter on
this list it was  about rats conveneing for a conference/non-violent protest at
the School of the Americas.  at that time a thread was spurred about the
relationship between performance arts and social protest. the mandate for the
conference described here seems to be of the same cloth.

infer away.

matthew

TimNGail@aol.com wrote:

> Has anyone else heard anything about this?  It was passed on to by another
> colleague, but I hadn't heard anything here on the RAT list about it.  Info,
> anyone?
>
> tim
> funkopolis
>
> >Please come to Iowa this February
> >The University of Iowa is hosting a meeting of the Rat
> >Conference Thursday, Feb. 17 (7:30 PM) - Sunday, Feb. 20
> >(4 PM). The Rat Conference began at a winter meeting in
> >Iowa four years ago, and like all homecomings, this
> >gathering presents an opportunity to look at distance
> >traveled and the way of the road to go. The event will
> >also be itself, and as usual, a remarkable group of
> >people is drawing together.
> >
> >The subject
> >Theater and War: Uses of Art. Guests are coming from
> >Belgrade, Belfast and Buenos Aires, to explore means of
> >sustaining life and a receptive sensibility in the face
> >of atrocity (atrocities new and historic, subtle and
> >overt). Guests' local situations provide our meeting
> >with touchstone questions. They guide and also
> >participate; they are artistic peers who will represent
> >their work in a communion of laborers. Rat has focused
> >in the past on esthetic borders and state borders. Let's
> >go further now to talk about the congress of art and
> >justice, across international borders.
> >
> >Questions
> >How is art co-opted and made complicit with oppression?
> >Do theater artists crave crisis (is conflict essential
> >to our dramaturgy)? What beyond mere survival
> >constitutes success? How are our rehearsal methods
> >innately dissident? Do ghost dances work? How may an
> >assembly of theater artists effectively witness for
> >peace? Agitate for peace? Cause peace? Can artists
> >communicate globally without participating in the
> >development of a global monoculture? What are effective
> >models of exchange under duress (so not simply how do we
> >work, but how do we work together, when resources are
> >scarce)?
> >
> >Dissembling: "I have never been in a war. Or I have
> >fought in wars by simile, by metaphor"
> >a) If you pay taxes to or otherwise support a government
> >that trains or arms foreign militaries, if your
> >government sustains an overwhelming threat of force
> >(perpetuating militaristic syllogisms), then you are at
> >war. Neutrality, too, can be a battle position. (The US,
> >e.g., trained Guatemalan and Salvadoran officials
> >responsible for documented cases of rape and torture
> >through the School of the Americas in Georgia; world-
> >wide we are involved in disarming by violence those we
> >have armed.) If there is a war anywhere in the world,
> >then the world is at war?
> >b) I for one don't believe war is properly used in a
> >simile or metaphor, and I want to check my rhetoric
> >constantly, to ensure I support a drama of fact and not
> >of sentiment. I am in a war, yes, but I have never
> >walked under a bomb or suffered fear of absolute
> >disappearance. Still, there is much of immediate,
> >concrete, tactical value I stand to learn from those who
> >have endured mortal peril.
> >     All of us work with strong wills to bring a private
> >sense truth to a common art. We often work to the point
> >of exhaustion, confused about the identity of our
> >communities, our proper relationship with them, and our
> >level of effectiveness. Sometimes our public successes
> >represent a perverse dislocation of our original
> >inspirations. These difficulties manifest vividly where
> >body and spirit are further challenged by raids,
> >sanctions and deep coercion. Barter and cunning,
> >strength in exile, precision in chaos, rehearsal in a
> >culture where authentic performance (enactment,
> >expression) is repressed... are disciplines I need in my
> >life-school.
> >
> >Good Guys versus Bad Guys
> >Dijana Milosevic of Belgrade's Dah Theater draws our
> >attention to an article by Fintan O'Toole (see reading
> >list under "War and Aesthetics," below). O'Toole reminds
> >us that art's capacities are as often used on behalf of
> >corrupt authority as they are to critique it. Our craft
> >is not de facto virtuous.
> >
> >The Deal
> >Make your way to Iowa City and we will feed you and
> >shelter you by means of hospitable donation. I do not
> >take lightly the trouble you may have in finding
> >transportation; do not take lightly the earnestness of
> >my invitation. I am contacting you, and asking you to
> >make this sacrifice, because I have faith in the value
> >of this particular intersection of talents.
> >     Housing may mean a spare room in someone's house,
> >or a sofa (preference list follows). If are able, or
> >would prefer to secure your own lodging, suggestions are
> >also included. If you cannot make the trip at all,
> >please feel free to contribute to the shape of the
> >agenda, and to participate in the dialogue that will
> >follow the meeting.
> >
> >The Rat Conference is...
> >A loose affiliation of theater artists committed to
> >sharing work and ways of working. More of an ethical
> >network than a professional one, we put ourselves in one
> >another's presence under grace of hospitality (we are
> >mostly broke in many senses, and rely on a loaves and
> >fishes route to abundance). Our common esthetic is
> >roughly Big-Cheap - "big" in the sense of blissfully
> >impossible, and unstoppable. "Cheap" as in impecunious
> >as well as tawdry (the quality so effectively championed
> >by Mac Wellman). "Rat" doesn't mean anything; anyone at
> >any time bears complete responsibility for its
> >direction. Define it by contrary means in conversations
> >with strangers; we must not be found out, even by
> >ourselves.
> >