Talk & Performative Comedy Event: “Surfaces, Traversals, Transformations, and Disguises—Or, the Intersection Traversed by Highly Personal Archives”

Featuring critic Izumi Enaga as a guest, this talk and performative comedy event brought together Asahi Konuta / ilya, qp (Nike Tobita + Ryu Kawamoto), Masayuki Yoshida, and TARKY Toshima. The event was recorded on October 30, 2024, and presented in video form. Please also refer to the pinned comment on the video, where TARKY Toshima has posted supplementary notes, particularly concerning Izumi Enaga’s Yuri Danshi ga Kowareru (literally, “Yuri Boys Falling Apart”) *1 and Jack Halberstam’s “low theory,” as well as corrections and annotations.

*1 Yuri Danshi (百合男子): Yuri is a Japanese genre of manga, anime, and other media depicting romantic, intimate, or sometimes sexual relationships between women or girls. Yuri danshi refers to male fans of the genre. The term does not necessarily imply anything about the fans' own sexual orientation. The phrase is also the title of a manga series by Uso Kurata.

Rather than fitting into the conventional divisions of labor expected of critics, artists, researchers, and actors, the critic performs and plays the fool, while the artist engages in discussion. As these roles become intermixed, the event might be said to performatively present “queerness.” The conversation ranges freely from manga, music, and light novels to queer theory, including the work of Leo Bersani and Jack Halberstam, while comic retorts and interjections get thrown in along the way: discussions that develop from them, and communication among odd people that unfolds quite independently of all that.

By the way, this event is also a new telling that follows on from last year’s talk-and-performance event, “Surfaces and Traversals.”
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“Surfaces and Traversals—Trans, Otokonoko, Genderqueer” [Talk & Performance Event] — Asahi Konuta / ilya, TARKY Toshima, Masayuki Yoshida (with support from qp)

“Surfaces, Traversals, Transformations, and Disguises—Or, the Intersection Traversed by Highly Personal Archives”
Chapters
00:00 Overview of “Surfaces and Traversals”
10:25 Enaga’s Impressions
21:54 Various Topics
25:56 Yuri Danshi ga Kowareru (Izumi Enaga)
47:16 ilya’s Talk (Wandering Son, Bokura no Hentai, Villain)
1:12:00 Feet and a Handshake
1:15:05 Enaga’s Talk (Various Animals, Bersani, Butler, Halberstam, Wittig)
2:01:46 Video Cuts Out for About Ten Seconds
2:01:57 Picture Returns (Conversation Continues)
2:04:33 Conversation with the Person in White
2:07:22 qp’s Talk (Distribution/Reception and Maker/Production)
2:38:52 TARKY Toshima’s Talk (Sex Pistols and Shinsei Kamattechan: Queer Temporality)
3:02:10 From a Mysterious Relationship to a Happy Ending