Jo Machon

Josephine joined the academic team at Brunel in September 2007. Prior to this she taught at St. Mary’s College, Twickenham where she was responsible for setting up and leading the Physical Theatre Programme, the first undergraduate degree of its kind in the South East of England. With a first class BA Hons in Drama and English, a PGCE in English and Drama and a PhD in Contemporary Performance Practice, Josephine is committed to the creative exchange that occurs within her undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and her research. Since May 2010 Josephine has been a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy.

Research Interests

Josephine’s research is concerned with (syn)aesthetics and immersive theatres and involves an ongoing enquiry into ‘the visceral’ in performance. She is the author of (Syn)aesthetics – Redefining Visceral Performance with Palgrave Macmillan (2009/2011). This contains original interviews with cutting-edge practitioners including Punchdrunk, Akram Khan, Naomi Wallace, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Graeae, Curious and Shunt.

Josephine has written extensively on the work of Punchdrunk and is currently working on a second monograph on ‘Immersive Theatres’. She is the Co-editor of The Palgrave Macmillan Series in Performance and Technology with Sue Broadhurst. This series includes her co-edited collections Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity (2006), Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance (2009). Jo is working with Sue on a new edited collection for this series entitled, Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of Empowerment, Embodiment and Technicity (forthcoming, 2011).

Teaching Activity

Josephine teaches across a range of subjects at all undergraduate and post graduate levels. Her specialist interests include:

immersive theatres; physical and visual performance; embodied theory and practices; contemporary dance practice

new writing for theatre; the writing of Caryl Churchill; creative writing processes; physicalising the text

the expressionist inheritance in contemporary physical & visual performance practice; Artaudian theory in contemporary practice; Samuel Beckett and the expressionist impulse – metaphor and minimalism

feminised theatre practices

As a practitioner Josephine has a broad range of experience, which embrace exploring her research interests as writer and director on a variety of student-centred performance projects. Currently she is in the initial stages of a collaborative project which will explore the play with(in) and between locational and virtual space, dance and written text, examining the process of healing on an immediately human, connecting this with an exploration of healing in a wider ecological context.

Jo has been a member of the planning committee for the Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA) Conference since 2008. She is the Sub-Editor of Body, Space & Technology and a member of Brunel’s Centre for Contemporary and Digital Performance; Brunel’s Interdisciplinary Network for Gender and Sexuality and on the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media.

Josephine is a Member of the Trustees for Punchdrunk’s Executive Board.

(Syn)aesthetics - Redefining Visceral Performance : Paperback edition due September 2011:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Syn-aesthetics-Redefining-Visceral-Performance/dp/0230221270/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277111000&sr=8-1

http://us.macmillan.com/synaesthetics

Performance and Technology Series:
http://us.macmillan.com/performanceandtechnology
http://us.macmillan.com/sensualitiestextualitiesandtechnologies

Punchdrunk:
http://www.punchdrunk.org.uk/

Flesh & Text an interactive document by Bodies In Flight:
http://www.bodiesinflight.co.uk/index.php?page_id=32

Brunel's School of Arts on-line Journal: Body, Space & Technology:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/bst/

 
Brunel Interdisciplinary Network for Gender and Sexuality:
http://www.sexgendernetwork.com/index.html

International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Intellect Press:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/Josephineurnals.php?issn=14794713

Publications

Journal Papers

(2011) Machon, J., Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance, CONTEMPORARY THEATRE REVIEW 21 (2) : 232- 233

Book Chapters

(2010) Machon, J., (Syn)aesthetic writings: Caryl Churchill’s sensual textualities and the rebirth of text. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance. Basingstoke : Palgrave-Macmillan 201- 216

(2010) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Introduction. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance. Basingstoke : Palgrave-Macmillan 1- 6

(2006) Machon, J., Introduction: Body, Space and Technology. In: Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. eds. Performance and Technology. Palgrave MacMillan -

Books

(2012) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity. Palgrave Macmillan

(2010) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies: Writings of the body in 21st century performance. Palgrave MacMillan

(2009) Machon, J., (Syn)aesthetics: redefining visceral performance. Palgrave MacMillan

(2006) Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J., Performance and Technology: Practices of virtual embodiment and interactivity. Palgrave Macmillan