An Overabundance of Signifiers: Derridean Play in Hans-Joachim Hespos’ Weiβschatten

Abstract

An interwoven reading of Hans Joachim Hespos’ Weiβschatten and Jacques Derrida’s ‘Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences’ (Writing and Difference, 1967). I examine the impact that improvisation has on performance and consider how an information overload creates shifting layers of reference. I explore the ways in which Hespos combines information systems, and infinite, or ‘overabundant’, chains of signifiers, which allow the space for collaboration and performer agency, thereby keeping the performer/composer/audience interface in constant movement.