Abstract

The contributions to the first issue of volume 2, Figure of the sensible, explore discursive and bodily practices and aims to make sense of the nature of these sensible differences in articulation. The interplay of exactly the relations between signs and bodies emerges as figure of the sensible. A figure indexes the sense through its relation and context and more often than not this makes the sensation intelligible. For that matter the ‘sensible’ refers to what is capable of being apprehended by the senses in its double meaning: as a relation of sensation, and of sense pertaining to the ethical, representational and aesthetic regimes (Rancière, 2000). This intricate reticulation of meaning eludes simple placement or anchoring. Instead, this issue is a versatile collection of traces that elaborate the complex process of sense-making, effecting a profound investigation of the sensible between the lines of practice and theory.

An assemblage of five approaches to the “figure of the sensible” is introduced in this first special issue of activate, which weaves together a fabric of relational choreographic movements. Hosting a get-together on unruled pages, this issue is written to be read between the lines of practice and theory. In this collection of various text(ure)s, the topology of the sensible is opened 
for fragile interrelations, prolific contaminations, unforeseen revelations, and perhaps at times gentle provocations, always exploring the interplay of signs and bodies.