Critical Correspondence

MRPJ#19/all about release part 2: An Editorial Conversation

Editors: DD Dorvillier, Trajal Harrell, Sarah Michelson

An Editorial Conversation

The issue of exploring concepts of release through language primarily in the journal and the implications of that came up very often in our editorial meetings as did differences between pedagogies… distinctive bodies of work developed by artists and thinkers defining their pedagogies with their own language. The following is an excerpt from a conversation DD and Trajal had at one such meeting. – Sarah

DD: Stop using the word “release:.

T: Why? why?… it’s a powerful word.

DD: It sucks! Lumping a whole community under one concept…

T: I respect the fact that DD is limiting or not using this word.

DD: Well certainly not to address a community or large body of work.

T: I on the other hand want to offer the possibility that this word is constantly indeterminate, that the word is totally decentering and that can be a possiblity for it’s empowering usage.

DD: But if I saw that word on MTV… I mean what would they do for a 30 second spot? I hate that the word that is part of a specific pedagogy is used to loosely define something so general.

T: Then why do you talk? Stop talking. All words loosely represent something, I don’t think it starts in the pedagogies, I think it starts in the body.

DD: When I lie on my back I don’t think of the word “release”… I feel texture and sound, spaces, etc… I don’t think the word.

T: I do

DD: Well I don’t, it’s so out of the textbook for me… I hate ideas like, “come from a release background”, don’t ever describe me like that.

T: I just think that it is a useful and connecting word.

DD: It’s just not a graceful coinage for me… I would rather say Kung Fu.

T: I inherit release by being born.

DD: As a concept, yes.

T: That’s what I’m talking about.

DD: But the word, I hate.

T: The word describes the concept.

DD: No, I don’t think so, the word is so loaded and creates confusion. I don’t think it’s a healthy appropriation of the word.

T: It’s a question… can’t we leave it as a question?

DD: I think if we create an umbrella we are in trouble.

T: I am taking it under the body’s umbrella. We and the Senegalese all have an inherent connection.

DD: (Talks about Min Tanaka Body Weather Laboratory)

DD: I like contract/release… I don’t like release technique.

T: The commonality of the usage of the word “release” is what is powerful about it…it is a way people canrefer to a broad concept and be understood.

DD: I don’t accept that! Instead of them saying they know what it is, I want them to say that they don’t know what it is!

T: You have lost that battle.

DD: No way. Go ahead and use the word but don’t expect that I know what you’re talking about.

T: I want to show that the word is indeterminate… that they might be able to say that this is release and so is that! Language is a virus and we can’t control it.

DD: Yeah, but if you describe your work in lanuage as a mixture of release techniques that is lame and we won’t know what the work is.

T: Yeah, that’s lame, but that is how people think. I want to give people another way to organize their thoughts. I am not trying to be Mr. Release, that’s not my issue.