BODYSCAPES as LANDSCAPES

[movement research workshop on somatic architecture]

Starting from the idea that the spaces we inhabit can form our identities and shape literally and metaphorically our bodies and minds, I wanted to reflect on what were the forced or chosen environments we inhabited during the lockdown.

How were our experiences in our physical spaces as well as in the virtual worlds we found ourselves in?
How did these spaces affect the perception of our own body, our space awareness, the feeling of group connectivity, or disconnectivity through virtual interrelations?
What new did we learn from this period and how conscious are we of the changes that occurred on the architecture of our own bodies?

According to J. Palasma, we can see the world with our skins, and we can think with our hands.

Touching the world makes our bodies evolve through time, building step by step our bodily intelligence. Manmade or natural Architecture reveals to us part of our inner landscapes-our mindscapes, once we get in touch with them.

These images arise inside our bodies to show us what we are familiar with, what scares us, what feels warm or distant and these are all evidence of our past experiences. These experiences have already shaped us, they have given us the form we have now, the body as we own it, our current BODYSCAPE.

But how could we be the architects of this body?

How can we create a picture of our future BODYSCAPES?

Active touching and space awareness can give us the tools to influence our bodies with the right information and become our own body-sculptors.

In my work, I am interested in the movement that rises when one interferes with objects and spaces in an attempt to achieve self-understanding.

It can be a chair or a tree, a forest, or a neighborhood, one could say a natural environment or a manmade construction.

In this workshop, we will let the body discover connections with materiality and follow the impulse to move. It's a clear feeling happening in the moment of connection and disconnection with materiality and in this workshop series, I am looking at the cause of body movement, from a phenomenological point of view, when we TOUCH materiality.

What are we looking for:

In this post-CORONA workshop/meeting, I invite you to reflect with me on the moments of the lockdown by exploring together bodies-space and mind by asking some of the following questions:

-What is my skin like and how do I touch?

-What do I see with my hand?

-How do I move into a tactile world?

-When I see myself moving on the screen in an attempt to connect with other bodies on the screen, do I sense my body?

-Is there a distinction between the physical body and the virtual body or is there a state in between? What I call: the VRysical BODY*

-What makes that body move after all?

KEYWORDS:

-physical body: a body or fragments of the body that can shape seen and unseen realities, using senses as stimulation for brain activity.

-virtual body: the full body or fragments of a body appearing in a virtual, non-tactile environment.

-VRysical body: the physical body experiencing itself as a synchronous presence in a physical and virtual world.

You will NEED:

for those who can attend physically...

- a phone or laptop charged, with camera and ZOOM downloaded as we will try to be connected physically and virtually at the same time. If you don't have, no worries, join anyways.

for those who can attend virtually...

- a phone or laptop charged, with a camera and ZOOM downloaded as you will join the practice from wherever you are. Make sure you chose a place in nature for the days we will be in nature and an urban spot or your room for the days we will be in the city.

NOTE

This WORKSHOP is not funded or sponsored but I thank all the people who, during CORONA Quarantine, helped me keep my research going and my brain stimulated.

Taking under thought the difficult financial times I don't ask for a FEE, but if you wish to support an independent artist here is how:

come physically or connect virtually and give feedback on your experience.
share this event to someone else
join the workshop and buy some of my artwork on the spot or via my website [my handpainted clothes and printed T-shirt collection will be out soon]
donate if you can/ what you can with PayPal or Bank transfer [more on the donate campaign on the button which takes you to the gofundme link]