What is qtopia?

qtopia is an on-campus group devoted to the creation of relational performance pieces that are as much social work and group therapy as they are art. Through our work, we aim to generate encounters between the atomized parts of society (that’s us – all of us) and tap into the power of the social sphere.

Our practice is based on Darren O’Donnell and Mammalian Diving Reflex’s work with social acupuncture. Social acupuncture is a style of theatre/performance art that “blurs the line between art and life,” impelling people to come together in unusual ways and make brief-but-meaningful connections. Social acupuncture represents O’Donnell’s and MDR’s movement to create an aesthetic of civic engagement: an avenue through which social edifices like public space, schools, and the media can be used as the armature for the mounting of work that “takes modest glances at simple power dynamics and, for a moment, provides a glimpse of other possibilities.”

qtopia intends to follow in their footsteps, while laying down some tracks of our own.

Why?

Traditional acupuncture theory posits that one’s health is contingent on a natural, uninterrupted flow of energy throughout the body. A blockage or obstruction in the flow can result in painful ailments – from headaches, to constipation, to plantar fasciitis. The goal of acupuncture is to regulate the flow. And while the practice can cause initial discomfort (needles are scary, right?), it ultimately has an ameliorating effect.

Social acupuncture is grounded in the application of acupunctural techniques to the social, rather than the physical, body. The social sphere has energy of its own, and when its flow is disrupted or dammed up, the consequence is a world imbalanced. This can mean poverty. It can mean racism, classism, heterosexism – a whole bouquet of iniquity causing painful disparity, disenfranchisement, and disconnection.

The goal of social acupuncture is to identify blockages in the civic body and, through encounters that are always atypical, initially uncomfortable, and eventually FUN, break them down and re-evaluate them. These positive, fruitful intersections between art and civil society are designed to make the spaces we inhabit feel safer, friendlier, and more joyful.

The society of which we are a part is ill. But it can be healed. It can get better. This might be a start.




(All quotations from Social Acupuncture: A guide to suicide, performance, and utopia by Darren O'Donnell [Coach House, 2006])