Affect and the performing arts: Biopolitics, transformation and potentiality

In this article the author explores affect within the representational framework, which is questioned as the paradigm of the theatrical convention. In relation to affective labour, physical presence and the real, being the core of theatrical illusion, it explores the emancipatory potential of performing arts conceived through the presence of affect. Actual virtuality becomes the key term with which to signify possibility, constituted within the creative act, as operative in the symbolic (field). The implications of the presence of affect within the performance are examined through its analytical introduction into the Slovenian theatrical performance Mandićmachine.