Analog era : from weaving rope to dancing objects : Yvonne Rainer’s carriage discreteness from 9 evenings

Abstract

In the article “Analog Era: From Weaving Rope to Dancing Objects: Yvonne Rainer’s Carriage Discreteness from 9 Evenings,” Yvonne Rainer’s Carriage Discreteness is discussed as a significant historical work and as a practice of resistance through feminist Science and Technology Studies scholars’ notions of agency, materiality, and subjectivity. In recent analyses of 9 Evenings, scholars have discussed collaborations between engineers and artists, the dichotomy between art and science, the role of technology, and, in particular, the focus and effect of sound. The main focus remains directed at the technology while the significance of the gendered body is left out. The incursion of technology in dance worlds builds off an existing gender dynamic, one that played out in the very terms of embodiment. In the era of early computational machinery, an impetus toward experimentation, a sense of ambivalence, and an emphasis on bodily awareness defined the realms of technology and dance. The discipline of computer science was yet to be fully developed and defined, and even so, the effect on gender was difficult to decipher, as computer code did not rely on any human identity to function. In questioning one of the most canonical collaborations between engineers and artists, the thematic concepts of Rainer’s dance speaks to the processes of effort, the materiality of bodies and space, and the dynamics of power backed by biographical, historical, theoretical, and phenomenological methods. Rainer’s work is a successful artistic intervention into queering technology, dance, and gender.