Performance philosophy seen through Nishida’s ‘acting intuition’

This essay is in two parts – the first written by Japanese philosopher Mayuko Uehara and the second, written in response to the first, by the Swedish artistic researcher and vocal performance philosopher, Elisabeth L. Belgrano. In the first part, Uehara outlines the significance of Japanese philosopher, Nishida Kitarō’s concept of ‘acting intuition’ for performance philosophy. Moving beyond dualistic subject–object schemas, Nishida defines ‘acting intuition’ as “seeing things through action, with the thing determining me, at the same time I determine the thing”. Uehara then goes on to outline the key role that ‘negation’ plays in Nishida’s thought, drawing connections between this concept and the role of masks in Noh theater. In the second part, Belgrano enters into dialogue with Uehara through the shared interest in notions of Nothingness. Entangling Nishida with Karen Barad, Belgrano considers her own vocal practice from the perspective of ‘acting intuition’ and ‘negation’, inviting a consideration of the notion of ‘frozen moments’ through which voice is understood as a ‘formative-expressive-existence’.