Chapter Five: Modern Designs and Modern Networks
Intertwining art history, philosophy of embodiment, and practice-as-research, the previous chapters have shown that the Cunningham uniform facilitated a mode of dance embodiment that was informed by anarchist social philosophy. This chapter and the next focus on the design’s relationships with realities outside of Cunningham’s works. Considering two stories by Brown in lieu of Actor-Network-Theory, it becomes clear that, despite techniques of artistic abstraction, the Cunningham uniform remained a node in a particular social network. This point sets up a discussion of the relationships among minimalist dance costuming, functional beauty, and popular fashion.
Roaratorio (1983)