Body and Awareness

Description

20 contemporary approaches to the study and experience of embodied awareness

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Consciousness

Informations

• Publié par: Triarchy Press
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781913743017
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Published in this first edition in 2021 by:
Triarchy Press
Axminster, UK
www.triarchypress.net
This collection Copyright Triarchy Press Limited, 2021
Individual contributions Copyright the named author, 2021
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBNs:
Print: 978-1-913743-00-0
ePub: 978-1-913743-01-7
pdf: 978-1-913743-02-4
Front cover image: Greta Berlin ~ www.gretaberlinsculpture.com
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Dedicated to:
Suprapto Suryodarmo
(1945-2019)
A world without words is still in communication, but there are no words.
(Suprapto Suryodarmo, Bali, 2014)
Contents
Introduction
The Actively Imagining Body ~ Helen Edwards
The Alchemical Body ~ Hilary Kneale
The Changing Body ~ Paula Kramer
The Choreoauratic Body ~ Becca Wood
The Dreamweaving Body ~ Sarah Hyde
The Emanation Body ~ Anna Murray-Preece
The Enfolding Body ~ Kim Sargent-Wishart
The Imaginary Body ~ Alex Crowe
The Instrumental Body ~ Olga Masleinnikova
The Integrative Body ~ Elaine Hendry Westwick
The Intuitive Body ~ Margaret Kerr
The Moving Body ~ Sandra Reeve
The Pain Body ~ Jamila Rodrigues
The Poetic Body ~ Carran Waterfield
The Proprioceptive Body ~ Laura Haughey
The Psychodynamic Body ~ Sandra Kay Lauffenburger
The Signing Body ~ Sheila Ryan
The Transformative Body ~ Ditty Dokter
The Unveiled Body ~ C line Butt
The Vegetal Body ~ Ali East
Introduction
I am always interested in the spaces between.
In this book I have brought together an interdisciplinary collection of viewpoints and practices on the topic of Body and Awareness. Each author was asked to offer their own definition of awareness and to write from their own somatic/movement practice. This has created an anthology of stimuli, perceptions and experiences and a wide knowledge base to savour, to question, to explore further and a wonderful resource for those who seek to find a pattern of patterns of connections (Bateson, 1979: 18) 1 .
Back in 1979 Gregory Bateson maintained, for example, that somatic changes, provoked by the environment or by physiology, could precede a genetic shift, but that the genetic disposition at any given moment would also limit the adaptive potential of the organism (ibid: 178). This analysis brings together choice and a sense of proportional self-regulation of the system. These principles are clearly visible in movement. We can consciously adapt and transform how we move. On the other hand, our movement capacity is also limited by the characteristics of our own particular bodies, partially inherited, partially developed through our own environmental conditionings and presently influenced by our health.
I invite you to find your own pathway through these widely varied chapters, which can be read in any order. Follow your impulse. You can move between body and awareness within a therapeutic environment or as perceived within shamanic, healing and mindfulness traditions. You can savour body and awareness within a variety of performance contexts, within different somatic, walking and movement practices, within an artsbased initiative for children and within an autobiographical creative arts enquiry. You can experience body and awareness through movement and poetry as well as pondering its nature through an embodied philosophical exploration of body, awareness and the imagination.
Somewhere between them all you may find the words to share your own experiences of the non-verbal realms to enrich each of our ways of facing the unknown.
Sandra Reeve ~ Westhay, November 2020

1 Bateson, Gregory (1979) Mind and Nature , Hampton Press
The Actively Imagining Body
Body, Awareness and Active Imagination - Transformative Learning in Primary Education
Helen Edwards
Abstract
This chapter explores ways in which awareness is seen through the lens of the actively imagining body. Some thought is given to the development of sensory motor competence and the kinaesthetic basis of imagination. Vignettes are chosen from Story Makers Project, an arts-based initiative for children in Primary Education needing additional support with communication, and the adults working with them. The vignettes illustrate the immersion of the body in artistic process, the development of awareness and how this leads to engagement with imaginative, unconscious life.
______________________________________

Approach to Awareness
For the actively imagining body, awareness is approached through the senses in structured ways. Sensory motor skills enable a developing child to learn about and control their body. As the child learns to move through their environment, gathering sensory information and practising skills, the motor system learns to receive, interpret and respond successfully to that information. Sensations of movement and gravity, from muscles and joints, are integrated into developing postural security, motor planning, awareness of both body sides and orientation in space. These new experiences enable perceptual motor development, that is to say, more complex body schema: eye-hand coordination, visual-spatial perceptions and auditory-language skills. Developmental theorists propose that sensory motor integration - communication and coordination between the sensory and motor system - is the foundation for cognitive development, intellect and daily living skills. Bruner (1965) described a continuous development, whilst Piaget (1936) defined age-acquired competencies.

Table 1: Location and functions of the sensory systems (Tarakci Tarakci, 2016)
The actively imagining body approach places attention on sensory motor processing and integration. Problems processing sensory information that the brain receives, especially proprioceptive and vestibular, may affect motor skill development and underlie learning and communication difficulties. Children with poor proprioception (inability to locate and control body parts) and vestibular issues (inability to orientate and balance the body in space and gravity) may feel off-balance and out of control. They may withdraw from playing with objects and exploring movement which can then impede motor skill development.
Story Makers takes inspiration from sensory engagement with world-renowned collections and unique gallery spaces in Oxford Museums. In 2018 pupils from three Oxford Primary School groups visited musical instrument collections in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. Each school group (ten children, two adults and three volunteers) learnt about developments in musical instrument-making brought about by significant technological advancements in the Renaissance. The collections include the Stradivarius Messiah Violin and Kirkman Harpsichord.
Vignette 1
In the Education Studio a violin-maker demonstrates his tools and shares experiences of making violins and restoring the Messiah violin. Children handle the beautifully crafted violin parts and excitedly point to back and neck as we learn of their correspondence with the human body. We examine the wood and think about the Tyrolean spruce used in Renaissance violin-making. We reconstruct a violin from its parts and grasp how the instrument is made whole.
In the Music and Tapestry Gallery participants use their senses to investigate the gallery, the cabinets of violins and wall-hung tapestries, finally coming to rest on the floor. I invite the violin-maker to play his cello. As we listen to the musical sounds we notice ways in which their resonance and movement engage the body, sensation, feeling and any images that arise in the imagination.
We begin with games guessing what animal sounds the violin-maker is playing on the cello and go on to suggest animals for him to play and decide if they seem to correspond. Next are games naming feelings/emotions played on the cello and subsequently suggestions for emotions to be played, with participants discussing whether the sound does indeed resonate with the emotion. We build short sequences linking some of these sounds together as preparation for listening to longer passages of Bach s Cello Suite No 1 in G; Prelude, Minuet I and II and Gigue.
The focus on self-awareness continues as we listen to an introduction to Prelude with attention to feeling and sensation. Participants lie down and I suggest body parts to notice (head, neck, arms, fingers, legs, etc.) to support growing awareness of the body; as well as shape, position, contact with floor and sensations of gravity. I ask everyone to make themselves comfortable and notice their breathing. As the music begins, I invite participants to visualise a beautiful landscape and notice changes in sensation, feeling and images arising. I encourage participants to be patient and remember everyone s imagination will be different. As Prelude continues, I invite participants to enter and explore their landscape, noticing plants, animals and birds, and any possessions or people they would like with them. As Prelude ends, I invite everyone to say goodbye to their landscape and become aware of their body and the gallery space.
Participants now sit in pairs and introduce Story Makers dolls they had made earlier to each other. During the Minuets and Gigue they invite the dolls to dance whilst remembering their visualised landscapes. During Minuet I, one partner s doll is leader and the other follows. For Minuet II they change over. During Gigue the dance emerges and is co-created by the dolls as they mix and blend movements. Afterwards everyone has a large piece of paper and coloured pastels and creates a picture of their landscape adventures.
Sensation, Movement, Body Image and Intentionality
Vignette 1 illustrates the immediacy of engaging the sense