…the idea that consciousness is a culturally shaped phenomenon and gives some interesting examples of how different senses are emphasised in different cultures and therefore give rise to different understandings of the world.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
Openings (Thursday)
Our heat weary bodies gathered slowly, quietly in the day’s cooler opening to travel again to Bundenon. I hadn’t been looking forward to this second part of “The Situated Body” until to my great relief Jonathan invited me to join with him in the landscape … Read More →
The Situated Body: Listening in and out
Jonathan’s workshop ‘The Situated Body’ invited to develop a response to our experience in the land around us, based on the sensitivities we’ve been developing towards our bodily experience. I was interested structuring attention across internal and external environments, drawing on experiences of Feldenkrais work, … Read More →
The Situated Body – invitation, play and attention
We rose early in the morning to avoid the heat of the midday sun and travelled back to Bundanon to continue the Situated Body workshop. Equipped with cameras, water bottles, sunscreen and hats I invited Maggie and Biz to join me into the unknown and … Read More →
The world in my brain and my brain in the world
Maggie led a workshop today about attention and the brain. She described the way we create new neural pathways by actively bringing attention to something new. This is a big part of feldenkrais – but also very reminiscent of John Dewey’s idea of the “work” … Read More →
ASTRONOMIC TECHNICS (Wednesday)
Our afternoon, in my experience, was about MAKING REAL OF SENSING TECHNOLOGY. I was aware of the extent of preparation undertaken by each maker. Each one intently busy, doing, setting up, and I felt touched by this. We gathered around to learn about and interact … Read More →
Situated Body 2
This morning we had an unusually early start, rising with the sun and heading over to Bundanon to resume Jonathan’s workshop. I started off where I had left, walking up the Amphitheatre Track. I passed by the tall spindly tree but it didn’t call to … Read More →
The plasticity of the brain and learning
PALM TO PALM A seemingly simple exercise in pairs. Sitting opposite each other within arm’s reach, pressing palm to palm. Maggie’s only instruction. We wait … A listening … tremulous vibrations in Jonathan’s fingertips … tiny shifts back and forth. Maggie talked about the language … Read More →
Temporary intervention
The Situated Body workshop was lead by Jonathan…. and so we headed off in the direction of the Bundanon homestead to choose a site with which we could find a place that felt familiar, and carry out an intervention on the landscape.
Touch, making contact: fingers, palms, arms and pelvis…
Maggie introduced her Awareness Through Movement class this morning, with a presentation on neuro plasticity: the structuring of experience within the brain, and the influence of Brain-Derived Neutrophic Factor (BDNF). I don’t really understand how it works but she seemed to be describing a switching … Read More →
Body state
For the first time in weeks, no, months… I’ve had a day of being body-focused. although, its taking some time to switch out of previous work modes and into this one. this morning began with Catherine leading a session centering around the body. for the … Read More →
meeting other bodies
Today the iron wood ensemble who are in residence over at Bundanon’s other site came to visit. They are a group of classical musicians who are here to experiment and try out new repertoire and new ideas for three weeks. They are in a similar … Read More →
Con-Straining (Wednesday)
We enter a process led by Catherine, in which we are invited to work with clay to create a body. The sensation of drying wet clay on my skin is unpleasant, while the experience of a body growing beneath my hands is exciting. Sitting at … Read More →
Self Portraits
Bundanon is a great place to think about (and through) the body. Fresh air, horizon, river swimming, good food – all condusive to feeling pleasure in being a body in the world. Today I made two self portraits. Catherine ran a workshop that made me … Read More →
are you feeling yourself today?
Catherine blindfolded us today and asked us to make ourselves in clay. I thought of myself lying in bed. I always lie on my side. Unable to see what i was doing my felt-sense of the volume and shape of my body became very vivid. … Read More →
Machine sense and felt sense … playtime!
An opportunity to play with a range of sensor-based prototypes/tools and costume. The session was structured so that each person had 3 minutes to try out a prototype, followed by a quick group discussion. Somaya offered “Idio”, an apparatus that generates sound in response to … Read More →
Distinct Body 2
Working with clay – what a treat! I absolutely loved it. I felt like Auguste Rodin, shaping human form out of a lump of clay, so malleable, yet requiring physical force, an engagement of the whole body not just the hands. Imagining the flesh, the … Read More →
RIVERSDALE, BUNDANON, TUESDAY, BLISS
RIVERSDALE, BUNDANON, TUESDAY, BLISS Can aspects of Awareness through Movement® be applied in the creation of interactive artworks to broaden the scope of the artwork and expand the individual participant’s experience of the work? In our initial discussions about TTTB, fellow Feldenkrais practitioner Maggie Slattery … Read More →
Distinct and Situated Bodies
The first full day of the second TTTB comprised of the ‘The Distinct Body’ lessons with Catherine Truman and my own experimental approach, ‘The Situated Body’. Compressed, expanded, heavy, symmetrical, light, small, large….these are some of the words we have used to describe the raised … Read More →
Listening to the wind in the leaves…
…and thinking about observing my breathing. Attending to the sounds in the landscape, and realising I could bring the same quaity of openended attentivness to sensations inside my body. Observing breath (something I’ve been interested in with a previous interactive artwork ‘Drawing Breath’), listing to … Read More →
experiential anatomy and the situated body
EXPERIENTIAL ANATOMY In the act of drawing my own body outline and skeleton, i found myself ocscillating between drawing from the felt sense (how my imagination traced the edge of the body, the weightiness of bones and flesh pressing into the floor) and drawing on … Read More →
Drawing from the felt experience of my bones
This morning’s workshop with Catherine: Drawing a life-size outline of my body, then filling it in with bones as they felt to me. We were instructed to focus on drawing from experience, and not worry about what what we think it ‘should’ look like i.e. … Read More →
2 self portraits
Bundanon is a great place to think about (and through) the body. Fresh air, horizon, river swimming, good food – all condusive to feeling pleasure in being a body in the world. Today I made two self portraits. Catherine ran a workshop that made me … Read More →
Riversdale & Bundanon
Monday We converge at Riversdale, a place of retreat, generous offering, unbelievably beautiful.
Post-Bundanon Reflections: Some threads
Here are some threads that I’ve pulled out from my Bundanon experience, that Ive been turning around in my head over the past week since the workshop. ATTENTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES for an aesthetics of touch, movement and proprioception: having and/or developing the ability to attend to … Read More →