This event is free to attend and no registration is required. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis.

Speakers
Andrew Bowie, Professor of Philosophy and German, Royal Holloway, University of London
Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca, Reader in Theatre and Performance, University of Surrey
Andy Hamilton, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University

Chair
Shahidha Bari, Lecturer in Romanticism in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow

From Nietzsche’s dalliances with tragic drama and Adorno’s adoration of Schoenberg to Badiou’s writing on dance, philosophy’s love affair with the performing arts has been long and thoughtful. In this debate, we discuss the ways philosophy thinks about performance. Is the logic of philosophy in tension with the imaginative and improvisational aspects of performance? Or is there a place for improvisation in philosophical thinking too? ‘Jazz is like bananas—it must be consumed on the spot’, declared Sartre. Join us for musings and some music too. Bring your own bananas.

Image credit: Wassily Kandinsky, ‘Improvisation 26 (Rowing)’