Chris Grobe
@cgrobe.bsky.social
460 followers 300 following 800 posts
Theorist/historian of performance. ART OF CONFESSION (http://bit.ly/2BALZDt). Now writing on tech and the arts, politics and performance.
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cgrobe.bsky.social
(Nods sagely) The Three vs. The Many
cgrobe.bsky.social
In a nutshell the modern actor is someone trying to ditch bad forms of “mechanicity” (basically, that of the clockwork automaton) in favor not of “organic” “human” expression but in pursuit of a different, refined “mechanicity” (that of cybernetic, “responsive” machines). Welcome to my TED talk…
cgrobe.bsky.social
There’s nothing strange or “hypothetical” about this notion in a theater context. The idea that self-consciousness is the enemy and that actors need to travel some via negativa to strip it away — this is the post-Romantic consensus in actor training and acting theory.
tedunderwood.com
Kleist "On the Marionette Theater" hits different in the chatbot era. Thirty years ago the notion that expression might be more fluent and graceful *without* self-consciousness was just an amusing Romantic-era hypothetical. Now, it's part of our daily routine. 15orient.com/files/kleist...
And the advantage that this puppet would have over a human dancer? The advantage? First of all, a negative one, my excellent friend, namely, this, that it would never be self–conscious. For self-consciousness arises, as you know, when the soul (vis motrix) is situated in some other point than in the centre of gravity of the movement. Now, as the operator has absolutely, by dint of the wire or string, no other point in his power than this one: all remaining limbs are, as they should be, dead, pure pendula, and so follow the simple law of gravity; an excellent characteristic that one looks for in vain among the greatest part of our dancers.
cgrobe.bsky.social
I don’t call it triage, but I absolutely sequence edits in stages based on how important/transformative they are. Working in several “passes” allows me to focus on the revisions I’m doing, and not get bogged down in changing everything simultaneously. I picked this up from a fiction writer.
cgrobe.bsky.social
Submitted revisions of articles on back-to-back to days. As sports commentators would say, "He's on pace for 365 publications by July 15 of next year!"
cgrobe.bsky.social
First-year creative writer discovers enjambment while interning at local flour company
Reposted by Chris Grobe
pmckelveyphd.bsky.social
“Disability Works” turns 1 today! I’d like to celebrate by making sure it finds its way into the hands of even more readers. You can help by:

1) Requesting your library purchase a copy (link in bio)

2) Let me know if you assign it (I can zoom in!)

#disability #academicsky #historysky #booksky
cgrobe.bsky.social
Article submitted: my first essay on podcasts!
cgrobe.bsky.social
Sounds like your next season……..
cgrobe.bsky.social
On the dangers of making your work “relevant” to AI:

“Like LLMs themselves, which deskill human writing and pollute the corpus of text on which LLMs continue to be trained, AI-relevant research also risks eroding its own foundations in now unfundable and ‘irrelevant’ research.”
cgrobe.bsky.social
“Project Gatsby” — incredible.
cgrobe.bsky.social
I should clarify: I wrote what I did between undergrad and grad -- or maybe into my first year in graduate school. In any case, it was Yale English undergrad alums who wrote a lot of No Fear Shakespeare.
cgrobe.bsky.social
I’ve been trying to pitch this as the “private humanities”
cgrobe.bsky.social
what a way to find out that AI is trained exclusively on my writing
jeffsharlet.bsky.social
Working with a student on her story, I recommend using an em-dash. She says she can't, because professors will think she's using AI. She says that's a tell now. Is it? Is the hopeless race to outsmart AI causing us to lose bits of language and punctuation?
cgrobe.bsky.social
Lol, but actually...
cgrobe.bsky.social
No Fear Shakespeare was definitely Yale-adjacent. I and my nerdy friends wrote a bunch of uncredited stuff for them.
cgrobe.bsky.social
Coming soon (but hopefully with my name spelled correctly) ... "Too Much, Too Late: On Academic Responses to Generative AI"
cgrobe.bsky.social
NOTE: This year, we are accepting proposals for work in any format that fits your career-stage or the state of your research in this area.

Turning a term paper into your first article? Submit!
Polishing your book proposal? Submit!
Finishing the introduction to your book? Submit!
Etc.
cgrobe.bsky.social
APPLY! For the third year running, Shannon Steen and I will be co-leading an ASTR working session on "The Performance of Politics," this year around the theme of "institutions." Please spread the word.

site.pheedloop.com/event/astr20...
PheedLoop
PheedLoop: Hybrid, In-Person & Virtual Event Software
site.pheedloop.com
cgrobe.bsky.social
Typing out a text message to myself (my way of keeping certain things handy), I nearly jump out of my skin when those three dots appear. Someone is typing! (I am.)

Anyway, a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this.
cgrobe.bsky.social
If nothing else, this episode may finally help the public unlearn their wrong beliefs.

The humanities, apart from their obvious value to society, are also cheap and profitable to sustain.

STEM is expensive and unprofitable. That’s why the govt funds it in the first place.
cgrobe.bsky.social
The necessary antidote is this excellent op-ed by theater scholar (and dean of the arts) Harvey Young.

As he points out, the humanities are imperiled — on purpose — when the most expensive part of universities loses its funding.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/12/o...
cgrobe.bsky.social
Looking in vain for an acknowledgment that the humanities exist and matter — to society, to universities, to individuals — in this column written by people who clearly benefitted extensively from them.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...
Opinion | Colleges Are Under Attack. They Can Fight Back. (Gift Article)
This is a moment to trumpet the strengths of higher education and address its weaknesses.
www.nytimes.com