Coutts’ contribution to the research symposium was a presentation themed around mimesis and attraction. It took the form of a reading (from a text for a publication in progress), an introduction to themes of mimesis and a screening, (of the film ‘All Rise’ – HD, 7’30, Coutts, 2015).

Examples of bindings (from the short story ‘The Bound Man’ by Austrian author Ilse Aichinger, the Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece with its cords attaching man to God and Coutts’ own experiences of handling Boa Constrictor snakes in the ring at a travelling circus) are re-visited to establish a ground, a literalism of the holding of ideas, from which proposed attractions are launched.

The origins of the word ‘attraction’ are then traced back to the idea of a poultice drawing an entity to the surface. Animals, humans, materials are described from instances of theoretical texts as being drawn towards, becoming similar, but never sharing in experience. The presentation overall looked at the potential role of attraction in mimetic acts, at the autonomous processes they house and those that remain subject to manipulation.