Motim: laughter's 'relational thinking' as contagion in a process dramaturgy

Abstract

This paper discusses the creative process of the street performance Motim (Mutiny) (2015) from the perspective of laughter as a bio-potent performative action. We discuss how the relational thinking emerged within the framework of a process dramaturgy (Kerkhove, 1997), conceptualizing creative thinking as a network (Salles, 2006). The collaborative creative process of Motim started with three ways of approaching the act of laughing: physicality, memory and contagion. By focusing on contagion, we will discuss how relational thinking was installed in the creative process of Motim and was powered by the investigative aspect of laughter as contagion.