Resurrecting the body: affect and agency in Artaud's theatre of cruelty, contemporary performance and immersive virtual space

I am interested in exploring Brown's conception of a resurrection of the body through creative transgressions and Sontag's notion of an erotics of art. Beginning with Antonin Artaud's conceptualization of a "theatre of cruelty", I propose to examine artistic embodiments of transgression and erotics in the works of performance artists such as Karen Finley and Vito Acconci, as well as in the virtual art of Char Davies. Transgression and erotics in popular culture will be explored through the performance style of Jim Morrison and The Doors. Using Nietzsche and Brown's discussions of the Apollonian and Dionysian conditions or states of artistic consciousness, I argue that a return to the senses or to the romanticist notion of the "deep interior" is required in order for the process of social healing and unification to begin -- Pages 2-3.