Thinking Through The Body is an interdisciplinary research project exploring the use and potential of movement, touch and proprioception in body-focussed interactive art and design…

For 14 days between July 2008 and July 2009, eight practitioners working across the disciplines of art, design and somatic bodywork came together over the course of three intense workshop-events to discuss and explore new approaches to ‘the body’ in contemporary art practice – with a special focus on the phenomenology of body-focused interactive experiences in art and somatic bodywork.

Developed in response to a call from the Australia Council for the Arts, Inter-Arts Office, for open-ended ‘blue sky’, interdisciplinary research and development projects (Art Lab initiative), our aim has been to create a laboratory for the creation of hybrid practice-based research work combining approaches from interactive art, somatic bodywork and experiential aesthetics.

At the final ArtLab-funded workshop at Performance Space (Sydney, July 2009) we presented a collection of interactive art experiences (The Sensorium Gymnasium) – devised as ‘offerings’ to an invited audience. These prototype artworks and the collaborative processes we have used to devise them, provide the foundation for our continuing explorations.

This website documents some of the work undertaken during this 12 month period, along with artworks, projects and workshops that we have developed since July 2009. The original research team (2008-2009 was: George Khut (Director), Lizzie Muller (Facilitator- Curator), and participants Jonathan Duckworth, Somaya Langley, Lian Loke, Garth Paine, Maggie Slattery and Catherine Truman.

We welcome new opportunities to collaborate with other practitioners and researchers interested in exploring connections between art, body-focussed interaction, subjectivity and somatic-bodywork. Please contact George Khut (george at georgekhut dot com) to discuss your interests in this area and potential partnership arrangements.

.Acknowledgements

Thinking Through The Body – Art  has been supported through the Australia Council, Inter-Arts Office’s ‘ArtLab 2008′ initiative, and generously supported by Campbelltown Arts Centre, The Bundandnon Trust, and Performance Space.