"In the place of the polarity of prefigurative self-generating nation
"in-itself`" and extrinsic other nations,
the performative introduces a temporality of the "in-between".
The boundary that marks the nation's selfhood interrupts the self-generating time of national production and disrupts the signification of the people as homogeneous."
Homi K Bhabha (1994. p212)
Welcome to A Hybrid Nation Practice Research Project 2025
A HYBRID NATION
Stevie, ‘Spike’ Mc GARRITY-ALDERDICE
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy
Kingston University
April 2025
A HYBRID NATION
Stevie, ‘Spike’ Mc GARRITY-ALDERDICE
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy
Kingston University
April 2025
This practice-based project investigates how hybrid costume can be situated in performance practice to articulate questions of national, religious and sexual identity. I argue through my practice and accompanying text that hybrid animal costume opens up spaces for audience engagement and artist self-reflection that expand our understanding of the possibilities of costumed performance.
This research uses a methodological structure, where I have developed a process of deconstructing and reconstructing costumes both practically and theoretically to access what Homi K Bhabha refers as the “Hybrid Identity”. This was done to explore how the wearer of the costume might approach the complexity of multiple identities, adopting the term from Bhabha’s ‘third space theory’ to construct a new performative theory of the “Performative Third Space”.
The performative third space contributes to my neurodivergent practice, affirming a new performative approach. An accessible and inclusive space allows the wearer to participate in becoming a re-imagined self. This gives the individual direct experience of engagement within a social and cultural environment, that may or may not practice inclusivity and accessibility within its social and cultural frameworks. I argue that costumes become a way of recognising that there is space to reflect and embrace difference within a re-imagined multispecies context.
This contributes to the fact that there are other ways, especially within a performative and unconscious relationship, to the mythical and re-imagining of self as ‘other’. Butler's multiple gender identity raises the awareness of gender and cultural identity. With this in mind the Costume becomes the metaphorical bridge for people's sense of selfhood, that is trapped within an existential in-between space. I argue that the in-between space has an essential function of wellbeing within a neurotypical society, to embrace the neurodivergent way of seeing not as different but as the norm.
This research uses a methodological structure, where I have developed a process of deconstructing and reconstructing costumes both practically and theoretically to access what Homi K Bhabha refers as the “Hybrid Identity”. This was done to explore how the wearer of the costume might approach the complexity of multiple identities, adopting the term from Bhabha’s ‘third space theory’ to construct a new performative theory of the “Performative Third Space”.
The performative third space contributes to my neurodivergent practice, affirming a new performative approach. An accessible and inclusive space allows the wearer to participate in becoming a re-imagined self. This gives the individual direct experience of engagement within a social and cultural environment, that may or may not practice inclusivity and accessibility within its social and cultural frameworks. I argue that costumes become a way of recognising that there is space to reflect and embrace difference within a re-imagined multispecies context.
This contributes to the fact that there are other ways, especially within a performative and unconscious relationship, to the mythical and re-imagining of self as ‘other’. Butler's multiple gender identity raises the awareness of gender and cultural identity. With this in mind the Costume becomes the metaphorical bridge for people's sense of selfhood, that is trapped within an existential in-between space. I argue that the in-between space has an essential function of wellbeing within a neurotypical society, to embrace the neurodivergent way of seeing not as different but as the norm.
