The point of the Matter: Performativity in Scientific Practice

Abstract

How is science performative and how do the arts make science perform? Performance scholar Bleeker and mathematician and philosopher of science Van Bendegem explore various examples of scientific processes that expose performative mechanisms resulting from the entanglement of technological tools and human agency. A dynamic that characterizes scientific practices such as the hunt for the Higgs particle, but also the presentation of proof and artistic practices such as that of Iannis Xenakis and Annie Dorsen. Van Bendegem and Bleeker enter into dialogue starting from a series of questions, concerned with the performative dimension of the generation, transmission and notation of knowledge in scientific practices. Thus going back and forth between areas of research in philosophy, sciences and the humanities, a surprising reciprocity with regard to these issues emerges.