From-ness: The Identity of the Practitioner in the Laboratory

This voicing is a self-reflexive response to the following questions which I often find myself pondering: Where is identity located within an intercultural laboratory of performance research? How does one circumnavigate the stereotype in encounters with culturally familiar material? As a performer/researcher of auto-ethnographic performance with a training practice in psycho-physical theatre, I find myself being challenged by specific source materials such as songs, images or texts which are associated with specific identity categories. This piece traces that challenge across my work by meditating on songs as identity-associated multisensory cultural material. One particular song, ‘Şişeler’, which I extensively worked with in the context of Judaica Project, leads my discussion.