Drawing the diagrams has been very illuminating and facilitated the thinking process (of course) (Connection; Out of Our Heads by Alva Noe)
In working through the trajectory diagram I realised the resistance in me to put pen to paper. On discussion with theoneandonly he clarified in my resistant babbling, "so it doesn't say what you want it to"?. Exactly. However in the by the 4th iteration I had clarified the groupings from 'what brought you here' as in both intrinstic and circumstantial occurences, to the ideas that brought me to the module and then to groupings organised around facets of myself as both the work and the worker in my career. The idea of scale was interesting; should it be bigger if the force of its pull is bigger e.g to be an artist or bigger if it represents a bigger the number of people in the network of involvement e.g the whole world, to collaborating, to teaching possibly. Or in terms of financial remuneration? (hahahha teeny bubbles:.))
All in all I grasped the idea of taking a position and a perspective via the diagrams in order to process and move forward. it doesn't mean you don't have multiple points of view but trying to occupy all simultaneously is overwhelming.
I tried to heed the advice "don't try and include everything'!. I reneged however in my "The Whole World' bubble in order to represent my standpoint when at my most passionate. The idea of connecting on a level of global level and also the influence of 'out there, in reality, in the furthest reaches of consciousness, in life at its most potent, complex and diverse, in a way that includes and embraces all things as informing and containing essential knowledge' is encompassed by the term "The Whole World'
Need to learn how to work the programme that draws diagrams so that I do not have to resort to prit-stick again, for shame ....I get the impression lo-fi is not as cool in S.T as it is in the artworld.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
TERRIBLE SPELLING, GRAMMAR AND READABILITY
This is public notebook to keep track. I apologise for the lack of proof reading but it is not a good use of time at this stage.
Walking as a relational dynamic (ACTIVITY RESPONSE)
Friday 15th Nov
First I thought about my answer without moving which I know is not the point of the activity but I as being lazy as I had settled into reading from the workbook. I imagined walking consciously across my living room. I recalled experiences of mindful walking from dance improvisation and from kinhin as resident at Zen Mountain Monastery by paying attention I would feel the weight transfer sequentially through heel to toe, if very slow the moment of falling in between foot to foot that becomes challenging to your balance and the proprioception in your feet and ankles. I would feel the push of the floor and supporting that the push of the earth back up to support me. I imagined the contents and layout of the living room wrapping in a curve into my periphery, I imagined a short route and probably a straight diagonal line as my preference is often for that trajectory when asking to walk spatial pathways. I remember when you move the mind reminds..'are you breathing?'
When I actually did it it was much different.
My hip is in spasm so my consciousness of my adapting walking pattern is sharpened by shooting pains up the hip socket and in my adductor. I picked a very short route and noticed the rhyming of walking becomes more dynamic and syncopated when you walk asymmetrically. I noticed the surfaces under my feet change from rug to bare floor to rug. I used the back of a chair to try and circumvent the frustration of a inefficient lurching walk but it had limited success. The whole body feels askew and ill at ease. I notice my posture and lengthen the crown of my head upwards to find lightness against a condemnatory mind state. (This moment is lesser, limited, not full potential, undesirable). I feel the curving of tense fingers cool air subtly slipping between each digit. I notice I don't look down as my pathway is clear and I know it in this situation, I notice I am looking forward but not really seeing as I am reaching internally for information to record this experience for homework. When i get the six feet to the nearest wall, I lean the front of my body and the side of my face into the wall to meet the boundary, to keep the body talking, for a bit of relief and stony comfort and its feels novel and then I stop.
I am very interested to find the term 'relational thinking' used in the study guide as opposed to linear thinking. I enjoy the differentiation. I think I am a relation thinker and reflect on the authors comment about suprise about how many don't reference the surface they are walking on. It gives rise to many memories for me, the day one tutor intuitvely coaching me on a rather stiff and anxious presentation of a movement phrase that I wanted to get right, that was supposed to be generous spatially and into the full reaches of the kinesphere. I am a tall long legged person so the far reaches of my kinesphere cover alot of space if I explore them. Janet Kaylo, the teacher said to me something like ' you do know the floor is holding up right?....and there will always be a surface underneath supporting you, so you don't have to hold your own weight all by yourself. This reassurance changed my conciousness, my level of tension and control, my ability to breath and release and therefore experience weight and therefore shift with momentum all beneficial in a way that has only deepened since that first 'a-ha' moment. It also make me think of the module on the absent body, that many people relate only to the body when it speaks to them through pain. I am not suprised that many people don't mention the floor or ground. This is not the predominant culture or source of attention in Western culture, even many discourses about engaging with exercise do so in the relation of imposing control and regulation on a undisciplined body (Foucault). This reminded me of another motivation to study systems. If the relational thinking is valued and is cultivated by body experience then there is counter argument to using tech to replace physical processes.
I also was reminded of a day doing rail balancing for hours when I was Parkour training. The focussing of attention that caution or even fear gave me gave rise to me thinking something along the lines of ..'
as I walk the rail makes an impression into the surface of my feet, I have a tactile picture via touch of the 3-D proportions of the rail, reading the rail like sonar measuring depth. When my feet are tense, my balance is worse as the sensitivity and the dialogue between me and rail is lessened. The richness of info about the rail reflects the openess in my body. So the rail tells me about me, as a mirror reflect you back to you'. To which I concluded in my musing-I need to connect to environment to experience self.
First I thought about my answer without moving which I know is not the point of the activity but I as being lazy as I had settled into reading from the workbook. I imagined walking consciously across my living room. I recalled experiences of mindful walking from dance improvisation and from kinhin as resident at Zen Mountain Monastery by paying attention I would feel the weight transfer sequentially through heel to toe, if very slow the moment of falling in between foot to foot that becomes challenging to your balance and the proprioception in your feet and ankles. I would feel the push of the floor and supporting that the push of the earth back up to support me. I imagined the contents and layout of the living room wrapping in a curve into my periphery, I imagined a short route and probably a straight diagonal line as my preference is often for that trajectory when asking to walk spatial pathways. I remember when you move the mind reminds..'are you breathing?'
When I actually did it it was much different.
My hip is in spasm so my consciousness of my adapting walking pattern is sharpened by shooting pains up the hip socket and in my adductor. I picked a very short route and noticed the rhyming of walking becomes more dynamic and syncopated when you walk asymmetrically. I noticed the surfaces under my feet change from rug to bare floor to rug. I used the back of a chair to try and circumvent the frustration of a inefficient lurching walk but it had limited success. The whole body feels askew and ill at ease. I notice my posture and lengthen the crown of my head upwards to find lightness against a condemnatory mind state. (This moment is lesser, limited, not full potential, undesirable). I feel the curving of tense fingers cool air subtly slipping between each digit. I notice I don't look down as my pathway is clear and I know it in this situation, I notice I am looking forward but not really seeing as I am reaching internally for information to record this experience for homework. When i get the six feet to the nearest wall, I lean the front of my body and the side of my face into the wall to meet the boundary, to keep the body talking, for a bit of relief and stony comfort and its feels novel and then I stop.
I am very interested to find the term 'relational thinking' used in the study guide as opposed to linear thinking. I enjoy the differentiation. I think I am a relation thinker and reflect on the authors comment about suprise about how many don't reference the surface they are walking on. It gives rise to many memories for me, the day one tutor intuitvely coaching me on a rather stiff and anxious presentation of a movement phrase that I wanted to get right, that was supposed to be generous spatially and into the full reaches of the kinesphere. I am a tall long legged person so the far reaches of my kinesphere cover alot of space if I explore them. Janet Kaylo, the teacher said to me something like ' you do know the floor is holding up right?....and there will always be a surface underneath supporting you, so you don't have to hold your own weight all by yourself. This reassurance changed my conciousness, my level of tension and control, my ability to breath and release and therefore experience weight and therefore shift with momentum all beneficial in a way that has only deepened since that first 'a-ha' moment. It also make me think of the module on the absent body, that many people relate only to the body when it speaks to them through pain. I am not suprised that many people don't mention the floor or ground. This is not the predominant culture or source of attention in Western culture, even many discourses about engaging with exercise do so in the relation of imposing control and regulation on a undisciplined body (Foucault). This reminded me of another motivation to study systems. If the relational thinking is valued and is cultivated by body experience then there is counter argument to using tech to replace physical processes.
I also was reminded of a day doing rail balancing for hours when I was Parkour training. The focussing of attention that caution or even fear gave me gave rise to me thinking something along the lines of ..'
as I walk the rail makes an impression into the surface of my feet, I have a tactile picture via touch of the 3-D proportions of the rail, reading the rail like sonar measuring depth. When my feet are tense, my balance is worse as the sensitivity and the dialogue between me and rail is lessened. The richness of info about the rail reflects the openess in my body. So the rail tells me about me, as a mirror reflect you back to you'. To which I concluded in my musing-I need to connect to environment to experience self.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Why call it head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes)?
Why head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes)?
This is well known song to adults and its gets learn as a child. I have done projects with under primary age children and I have used it knowing it will be familiar. From a dance perspective you name body parts and from that you can lead into initiating from those parts into a more creative tasks, it prefaces a basic body knowledge. At school you name body parts, in the early days of foreign language you learn the noun for 'hand' or 'head' in case you need to tell a doctor what hurts. Most young children I imagine would also understand they have skin, a brain, a skeleton maybe......
Unless you independently seek out physiological knowledge you may not progress very far from this conceptual of body and one that is crucially about units rather than systems. This summer at Impulztanz Festival, Vienna, I was studying a module on Myofascial Reflex; The Psoas Connection with Kirsten Kussmaul. It is the most in depth I have progressed to far in my physiological knowledge in connection with exploratory bodywork or 'experiential anatomy'. The first tangible step to arriving there in Vienna started 13 or so years ago. Pain is an amazing teacher and having my first full time training dance injury explained systemically to me by my physiotherapist (Paul O'Hara= amazing) made me realise with excitement and renewed respect the complexity and intelligence of the body. Furthermore, the proximity of these systems as the reality of the environment of the body revealed itself further when one day I was confused as to why lower back pain, period pain and digestive trouble were appearing at times in isolation, as clusters or a pair that progressed to all three, I was reminded that all these three areas of the body rest next to, inside or around each other. There is problem in the neighbourhood. It seems to obvious but in actuality it was a paradigm shift from seperateness to connectivity.
It occurred to me at Impulztanz that perhaps our conceptual of our physical self would be very different if we sang a different song at school. That perhaps this amazing body of knowledge would be sought out more hungrily if it had not been limited by the idea of perfunctory units. I have tried (and failed:.)) to conceive of a catchy song involving circulatory, skeletal or limbic systems, or indicate the organs or fascia as no less key players by virtue of their lack of visibility. That one end of the body is intimately and directly connected to the opposite is a paradigm shift that is enabling and humbling.
For me this paradigm shift that uses the body as a source of wisdom and knowledge, that uses the body as a metaphor for bigger ecologies and that acknowledges connectivity and interdependance creates a world that moves away from I think therefore I am, I think therefore I am better, I shop therefore I am and I shop therefore I am better than you to a sustainable community in good health.
This is well known song to adults and its gets learn as a child. I have done projects with under primary age children and I have used it knowing it will be familiar. From a dance perspective you name body parts and from that you can lead into initiating from those parts into a more creative tasks, it prefaces a basic body knowledge. At school you name body parts, in the early days of foreign language you learn the noun for 'hand' or 'head' in case you need to tell a doctor what hurts. Most young children I imagine would also understand they have skin, a brain, a skeleton maybe......
Unless you independently seek out physiological knowledge you may not progress very far from this conceptual of body and one that is crucially about units rather than systems. This summer at Impulztanz Festival, Vienna, I was studying a module on Myofascial Reflex; The Psoas Connection with Kirsten Kussmaul. It is the most in depth I have progressed to far in my physiological knowledge in connection with exploratory bodywork or 'experiential anatomy'. The first tangible step to arriving there in Vienna started 13 or so years ago. Pain is an amazing teacher and having my first full time training dance injury explained systemically to me by my physiotherapist (Paul O'Hara= amazing) made me realise with excitement and renewed respect the complexity and intelligence of the body. Furthermore, the proximity of these systems as the reality of the environment of the body revealed itself further when one day I was confused as to why lower back pain, period pain and digestive trouble were appearing at times in isolation, as clusters or a pair that progressed to all three, I was reminded that all these three areas of the body rest next to, inside or around each other. There is problem in the neighbourhood. It seems to obvious but in actuality it was a paradigm shift from seperateness to connectivity.
It occurred to me at Impulztanz that perhaps our conceptual of our physical self would be very different if we sang a different song at school. That perhaps this amazing body of knowledge would be sought out more hungrily if it had not been limited by the idea of perfunctory units. I have tried (and failed:.)) to conceive of a catchy song involving circulatory, skeletal or limbic systems, or indicate the organs or fascia as no less key players by virtue of their lack of visibility. That one end of the body is intimately and directly connected to the opposite is a paradigm shift that is enabling and humbling.
For me this paradigm shift that uses the body as a source of wisdom and knowledge, that uses the body as a metaphor for bigger ecologies and that acknowledges connectivity and interdependance creates a world that moves away from I think therefore I am, I think therefore I am better, I shop therefore I am and I shop therefore I am better than you to a sustainable community in good health.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes).
My second blog.
However, I have been urged to do this one for 'school'. I will be open about my reluctance prefacing this blog. Blogs are time consuming, your develop through the writing of them, you hold yourself accountable to your opinions in principle by publishing them (even if no-one reads it), you inquire, reflect and this evolving trail of awareness is endless. Extensive writing can give rise to a sense of participation in issues where actually you are cocooned, as sense of communication whereby only your senses of self are the only elements in discussion with each other and a sense of progress that cannot be without the key term 'action'. I fool myself easily that I am 'doing' and this makes me afraid as I believe deeply in the physical, in real movement and purposeful activity through which you open doors, engage with the worlds (plural) around you and with the present. I am afraid to lose myself in the writing and look up and find the world moved on without me.
I have undertaken a module with The OU titled 'Managing Systemic Change: inquiry, action and interaction'. There is that holy trinity that allays my fears; inquiry-action-interaction. The fig 8 shape that Marion North (former Director of LABAN) drew in the air one day earlier in my dance training shaping the transactions that flow from inner to outer, from you to me can apply to this course also. The module asks for us to map our own journeys, starting points, diversions and confluences. This is wonderful, it values the first person experience, it values the personal perspective. Unlike my first blog I will not be reporting on physical Parkour activities but instead on conceptual journeys. However, the participation, communication, and progress I seek, as other's do, will use this blog as vehicle to join the virtual community in this distance learning course. It will also involve technology....and the term cybernetics has popped up many times. I am exploring what would be unthinkable territory for me years ago.
My usual holy trinity is person - creator - performer.
Or perhaps Audience - Performer - Transformation.
All of my academia so far has used a physical act as the starting point and all of my processing has been via the body as site and source of our lives. I do not wish to dwell on Parkour as in physical measurable terms I am undeniably terribly at it!. Parkour is another systematic approach to movement, as was training dance with Cunningham Technique, Release Technique and the technique I now teach Graham Technique. Aikidio, Yoga, Meditation have all been systematic tools to engage with the world, understand fundamental truths and create transformation. It just so happens the previous blog was on that discipline but it could have been any of the above. I have always been reluctant to undertake study if I felt the transactional nature would be limited to a thesis being plucked off a dusty bookshelf. In all fairness I have utilised the thinking that emerged from my B.A and M.A almost everyday.
The hope in undertaking this MSc module is that I can find a language to draw together the learning derived from these physical processes. I hope to challenge myself to articulate links beyond the circumspect or tenuous that advocate the need and utility of arts practice and of physically educated, aware and expressive beings. I hope to be able to engage with a community beyond my usual scope of exposure or influence. I hope to one day be able to champion causes or policies that I believe in beyond the confines of the studios I teach in. These are not my only hopes but this is a good beginning.
However, I have been urged to do this one for 'school'. I will be open about my reluctance prefacing this blog. Blogs are time consuming, your develop through the writing of them, you hold yourself accountable to your opinions in principle by publishing them (even if no-one reads it), you inquire, reflect and this evolving trail of awareness is endless. Extensive writing can give rise to a sense of participation in issues where actually you are cocooned, as sense of communication whereby only your senses of self are the only elements in discussion with each other and a sense of progress that cannot be without the key term 'action'. I fool myself easily that I am 'doing' and this makes me afraid as I believe deeply in the physical, in real movement and purposeful activity through which you open doors, engage with the worlds (plural) around you and with the present. I am afraid to lose myself in the writing and look up and find the world moved on without me.
I have undertaken a module with The OU titled 'Managing Systemic Change: inquiry, action and interaction'. There is that holy trinity that allays my fears; inquiry-action-interaction. The fig 8 shape that Marion North (former Director of LABAN) drew in the air one day earlier in my dance training shaping the transactions that flow from inner to outer, from you to me can apply to this course also. The module asks for us to map our own journeys, starting points, diversions and confluences. This is wonderful, it values the first person experience, it values the personal perspective. Unlike my first blog I will not be reporting on physical Parkour activities but instead on conceptual journeys. However, the participation, communication, and progress I seek, as other's do, will use this blog as vehicle to join the virtual community in this distance learning course. It will also involve technology....and the term cybernetics has popped up many times. I am exploring what would be unthinkable territory for me years ago.
My usual holy trinity is person - creator - performer.
Or perhaps Audience - Performer - Transformation.
All of my academia so far has used a physical act as the starting point and all of my processing has been via the body as site and source of our lives. I do not wish to dwell on Parkour as in physical measurable terms I am undeniably terribly at it!. Parkour is another systematic approach to movement, as was training dance with Cunningham Technique, Release Technique and the technique I now teach Graham Technique. Aikidio, Yoga, Meditation have all been systematic tools to engage with the world, understand fundamental truths and create transformation. It just so happens the previous blog was on that discipline but it could have been any of the above. I have always been reluctant to undertake study if I felt the transactional nature would be limited to a thesis being plucked off a dusty bookshelf. In all fairness I have utilised the thinking that emerged from my B.A and M.A almost everyday.
The hope in undertaking this MSc module is that I can find a language to draw together the learning derived from these physical processes. I hope to challenge myself to articulate links beyond the circumspect or tenuous that advocate the need and utility of arts practice and of physically educated, aware and expressive beings. I hope to be able to engage with a community beyond my usual scope of exposure or influence. I hope to one day be able to champion causes or policies that I believe in beyond the confines of the studios I teach in. These are not my only hopes but this is a good beginning.
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