Abstract

Phenomenological reflection sets in motion a process of translating, transposing, or transgressing lived experience into writing. Usually writing, I should say. Sometimes a phenomenology first produces drawings, scribbles, murmurs, or gestures. My contribution to this edited collection on performance and phenomenology opens up a phase of the phenomenological process that is less polished, less complete, and almost always overlooked. I examine closely the transition from raw experience into scholarly writing. Occurring between live performance and philosophical presentation of text, it usually exists only in a performer’s personal journals or notes shared with collaborators as part of a working process. It is an essential part of enacting a phenomenology, and is frequently what those new to this methodology miss when they seek to understand and implement it for themselves. Relying on Alfred North Whitehead’s understanding of process philosophy and Jean Luc Nancy’s words on listening to provide a philosophical grounding, these phenomenologies come from my own and others’ experiences of capturing experience in note form, fostering a respect for the interim phases of constructing academic argumentation.