Sunday, June 6, 2010

Ecosomatics classroom prototype


Hello all,

I am building a collective of scientists and artists as a mobile experimental project that intertwines the fields of ecology, biology and other sciences along with dance and the somatic practice of Body-Mind Centering®. The project will be developed between my AOT residency, SEEDS Festival and the Walker Art Center's Open Field.

This collaborative classroom will function to implicate our very cells/selves in how we interact with and understand the environment. It will create the conditions for a new model of interdisciplinary learning across systems and as a result imagine alternate futures in relationship to the issue of sustainability through behavioral re-patterning.

For this project I will gather a collective of local scientists and artists who would facilitate sessions that focus on environmental issues through the sciences and somatic movement practices. We would use the micro and macro of lens of the body and world as our container and utilize movement as a way to embody and digest our learnings.

This experiment in social and environmental ecology will be a place for experts and lay persons to share knowledge and experience within the commons in a dynamic and messy ecosystem. A place for meaningful relationship through conversation, embodied knowledge and movement in a context in which everyone can participate. The general public would be welcome to join in at various points within our process.

This project will expand our understanding of systems, from parts to whole, from cells to human and animal bodies, to diverse ecosystems to physical principles of the universe. Systems thinking presents a different lens through which to understand the complexity of the world. Thinking systemically entails a number of shifts in perception, which lead to different ways to behave, educate and to different ways to organize institutions and society. Understanding how a pattern works in one natural or social system helps us to understand other systems that manifest the same pattern.

One key approach we will utilize to embrace systems thinking from an embodied perspective is Body-Mind Centering®. It allows us to holographically explore the human body through movement and hands on study through conscious and unconscious learning. It utilizes developmental movement as a model for learning and allows us to enter the mind of specific tissues and systems of the body (e.g. bones, organs, ligaments, fluids, endocrine, nervous system, senses and perception) to understand behavior, perception and choice making on a physical and physiological level. It is an approach to an understanding of how the mind is expressed through the body and the body through the mind.

Once i figure out the structure for the project there will be an open cal for your participation!

1 comment:

  1. Olive -

    This project looks awesome! I would love to participate. Please keep Tamin and I posted on how we can be involved.

    Cheers,

    D

    ReplyDelete