”Vi var en rullator”: funktionalitetsmodus, krip-generatorer och skådespelarens materiella förhandlingar

Abstract

Situated within the field of crip theory and drawing on Deleuzian notions of becoming, this article introduces the concepts of modes of functionality and the crip-generator to examine the tension between the restrictive and the generative aspects of non-normative functionality within the craft of acting. Through conversations with five female actors, modes of functionality emerge as a relational phenomenon arising in affective encounters—with directors, fellow actors, or characters—where the meaning of the actor’s bodily conditions shifts according to the specific conditions of the space.

Within this tension, the crip-generator is activated to analyse how bodily noise, such as stuttering or tremors, operates simultaneously within and beyond the normative demands of the stage. The article articulates how materiality can be fixed in the role of representing a non-normative embodiment or be reduced to the event of a narrative tragedy, thereby limiting the actor to a reductive portrayal of their own functionality. Conversely, this noise can be transformed into a generative, meaningful force when detached from narrative explanation: the weight of a walker against the stage floor can be used to generate an aggressive affect or the specific temporality of a stutter can deepen scenic presence. Ultimately, it is by amplifying these specific noises that the actor can transcend individual representation to reach universal expressions of human affects.