Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Amit S. Rai

Thesis: ON GENTLE TRESPASSING

July 2025

Abstract

This thesis is a reflection on and analysis of the artistic practice of Gentle Trespassing (GT). The concept of GT originally arose from a frustration of working with different people but being unable to configure structures or contexts within which those differences could be celebrated or even simply acknowledged. Instead, consensus appeared to be presumed, and agreement considered a given. In other words, the concept arose from a need to attend to the structured cacophony that working with difference brings. GT rests on the premise that crossing borders that separate communities, contexts, ideas, practices and institutions is a necessary act of co-habitation and one that we should mindfully practice. It is a call to embrace the messiness of encounter across territory. Bridging examples from my practice in the performing arts and its many hybrid formats with reflections from literary theory, contemporary anthropology, pedagogy, sociology, affect theory and activism the thesis blends thoughts on deviation as a tool of attending to a world in movement, generative non-productive togetherness, structured cacophony and not-knowingness but doing it anyway. The aim has been to dissect the concept of GT to open it up to nuance and deeper development so that in the future its elastic capacities are strengthened. The nature of the concept demands that it be lived and practiced to be experienced. This thesis should thus be seen as a pause in the continuum of Gentle Trespassing, a moment for the concept to catch its breath before launching into action yet again.

Author: Nada Gambier