Radical Repetition

Radical Repetition ... such an interesting theme for thought around ... this conference panel for the London Conference in Critical Thought was conceived and organised by Dr Lee Campbell:

​"Andy Warhol once said, ‘I like boring things. I don’t want it to be essentially the same – I want it to be exactly the same... because the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel’ (Warhol 1980, 50). In contrast, Arthur Koestler asserts that ‘habits are the indispensable core of stability and ordered behaviour; they also have a tendency to become mechanized and to reduce man to the status of a conditioned automaton’ (Koestler 1970, 98), and goes on to suggest that ‘the creative act, by connecting previously unrelated dimensions of experience, enables him to attain to a higher level of mental evolution. It is an act of liberation - the defeat of habit’ (Koestler 1970, 98)

This stream aims to set up a discursive space to explore Warhol’s well-known love of repetition paired with Koestler’s seemingly condemnation of repetition. We will seek to theorise, articulate and demonstrate how radical forms of repetition can be creative, transgressive, disruptive, politicized subversion and acts of liberation within themselves."

In my session 'Repetition and Collaging of the Self' I talked about my filmmaking process - 'Repetition at 25 frames per second', alongside Shirley Chubb - 'Repetition as performance: from commemoration to constancy' and Sinead Kempley - 'Mining the same seam, dredging and composting: mythopoetic art practice and discard studies'. And many more presentations over the 2 day conference.