19. Hyphenated Thinking in Performance Processes

Building on new materialist and decolonial writings, performance philosopher Christel Stalpaert coined the term ‘hyphenated thinking’ in performance studies: the resurgence of knowledge in relationality and across multispecies, interweaving cultures, disciplines, and fields of study (art, science, and activism). She rehearses this epistemology with university students in close collaboration with performance artists. In this contribution she demonstrates a practice of hyphenated thinking through her long-term commitment with Natural Contract Lab and their ephemeral performance process STILL HERE—An Alliance of Care for the SZenne River (2023-). In co-creation with scientists, artists, activists, local stakeholders, and participants, the Natural Contract Lab group seeks to trace hydro-(ecological) matters of concern and to fabulate justice to compensate for the harm inflicted by ecocide on the hydro commons. The artistic practices of walking-with, sensory mapping, storying, Agoras, andGuardian Schools activate pluriversal and collaborative modes of knowledge production. Stalpaert describes the particular outcome of the research method of a hyphenated thinking in the university context of the arts department at Ghent university: as a way for unlearning eurocentric and anthropocentric modes of knowledge production.