Science at the Club: putrefaction as an artistic medium is part of Taboo - Transgression - Transcendence in Art & Science 2020 University of Applied Arts Vienna Austria

 

ABSTRACT

 

Science at the Club explores the architecture of the nightclub space as a nucleus for queer testimony, relating it to a judiciary courtroom well. This performance challenges legal doctrines of forensic identification and the binary of life and death, by transforming biological and forensic material into ephemeral essences within the performance of the dance floor. Divided into case studies surrounding my performances at nightclubs, research courses taken in human remains recovery, and visits to various burial sites of South Texas. I pull from a variety of interdisciplinary studies relating to queer death theory, building on José Esteban Muñoz’s notion of “disidentification”in relation to the human corpse, racial politics in science, and the biological arts in a nightclub context. Science at the Club creates a catalyst platform challenging racial and scientific histories of the body and land within the current U.S. political climate, while exploring questions of resurrection and disintegration with a focus on the language of forensics and identity.

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