Video of dancer exploring multiple auditory perspectives through movement scores
https://youtu.be/Nx4hTi2QU-8
Edited Audio of Score 1 https://youtu.be/JQ8IQSdpZlA
Edited Audio of Score 2 https://youtu.be/LbYfqmDsSIU
Score 1: Attentive Pedestrian Walk.
a. Choose a starting point on the street.
b. Start walking forward. You can also choose to walk in a zigzag pattern.
c. Do not walk fast, do not bend down
d. You can look left, look right, look up, look down, turn clockwise, turn anti-clockwise in any combination you wish. But focus on looking.
e. If you see something interesting, pause.
f. What is it? An object or a perspective.
g. Take a photo of it.
h. Take a moment to observe it - go close to it, move away from it, turn etc. but do not bend down. Stay at your standing height.
i. Take out your first sticky note. Write down in a few words or in 1-2 sentences what you saw.
j. Find a second starting point on the street and repeat b-i
k. Find a third starting point on the street and repeat b-i
Video of dancer exploring the visual perspectives through movement scores https://youtu.be/O2WtFmrjxOg
Edited Video of Score 1 https://youtu.be/dbYeV96iqmE
Edited Video of Score 2: starts from 19 sec https://youtu.be/R0813nkhjBE
Edited Video of Score 3 : https://youtu.be/tUftXK6vsbg
What I used for Live Experiment with dancers - GoPro Camera, a piece of black fabric for blindfold, a sound/voice recorder (missing from the picture), movement scores and sticky notes.
- What did you see/hear as a regular pedestrian?
- What was your experience of seeing like in score 1 compared to #1? Did using the body help explore more perspectives, new things that you did not see in #1? What did you do when something interested you visually?
- What was your experience of seeing like in score 2? How was this perspective of seeing different from score 1? What did you discover about the street from this perspective? What did you do when something interested you visually?
- What was your experience of seeing like in score 3? How was this perspective different from score 1 and 2? What did you discover about the street from this perspective? What did you do when something interested you visually?
- What was your experience of hearing like in score 1? How did movement change your hearing perspective in score 1 compared to #1? What did you hear? What did you do when something interested you auditorily?
- What was your experience of hearing like in score 2? Did movement generate new perspectives of hearing the street floor? If so, how? If not, why not?
- What narratives/names would you give to these public streets based on your perspectives of seeing and hearing?
Poster designed for 'Sense Lab'.
This poster will be used in the future as well for 'Open Calls' to take
part in Live Experiments
Reflections:
Use of the body as a device to move as we see public streets helped me and the participants liberate the vision from dominant Cartesian visual perspectives. It revealed more detailed, more nuanced and surprising visual narratives of the street. For instance, one dancer mentioned ‘when crawling like a child I became more observant, more curious and even excited at the sheer amount of details and new things I was seeing. I lost most of my inhibitions and took pleasure in what I saw. Everything felt large, more wonderful and enveloping. I felt less restricted because now I could go upto things that interested me and fully enjoy them.’ From the self experience as well from the live experiments, it was evident that this attentive and multiperspective way of engaging with the streets, did not keep the experience limited to the eyes. It seems to unconsciously stimulate the other senses too which MerleauPonty describes as totality of experience when he suggests: My perception is not a sum of visual, tactile and audible given. I perceive a total way with my whole being: I grasp a unique structure of the thing, a unique way of being, which speaks to all my senses at once.’
It seems to have generated a different narrative of the public streets compared to those from attentive seeing. As described by the dancer: it was a contrast to what I saw when I was not blind folded. I saw old houses far from the city surrounded by nature. But when not seeing anything, I felt I was in an industrial compound, the sounds from the city, from the plane worked like a dome.’
This auditory perspective was not too obvious when I ran the live experiment with the professionals. Their auditory perspective of the streets did not seem to have been dominated by these industrial sounds. It made me wonder, perhaps when not blind folded the hearing gets guided by the hegemony of the vision.
Score 1: A Blind Walking
a. Blind fold yourself or simply close your eyes. I will be there to guide you.
b. Hold my hand and walk slowly.
c. Hold the voice recorder with your other hand. The voice recorder will record your narration.
d. Pay attention to your hearing
e. What do you hear as you walk? Narrate it
f. If you hear something interesting, pause and explore hearing it by slowly moving your body. Moving can include – slowly walking towards the sound, moving away from it, sit down, get up, stand, bend, roll, turn in any combination. Narrate how this moving affect your hearing perspective.
g. Pause.
h. Continue walking again.
Two dancers who participated- Imran Noor Mohammed (left) and Christine Samuel (right). Imran investigated Embodied Attentive Seeing while Christine investigated Embodied Attentive Hearing.
Email Invite sent out to
dancers in early October
Email with further
instructions sent out a few days prior to the live
experiment date.
Score 2: Crawl like a child
a. Choose a starting point on the street
b. Start crawling forward slowly. You can also use a zigzag pattern for crawling.
c. Look right, look left, look up, look down in any combination. You can also turn. For instance: crawl, sit (you are facing opposite direction now), roll and return to the crawling position. But focus on looking.
d. If you see something interesting, pause.
e. What is it? An object or a perspective?
f. Take a photo of it.
G. Take a moment to observe it - go close to it, move away from it, turn etc.. Stay at your crawling height.
h. Take out your sticky note. Write down in a few words or in 1-2 sentences what you saw.
i Choose a second starting point on the street and repeat b-h. j. Choose a third starting point on the street and repeat b-i.
Score 2: What is the sound of the street floor?
a. Blind fold yourself or simply close your eyes. I will be there to guide you.
b. Hold the voice recorder in one hand. The voice recorder will record your narration.
c. Lie down on the street with your back touching the street floor.
d. What do you hear? Narrate it
e. Turn over. Your chest is now touching the street floor.
f. What do you hear? Narrate it.
g. Roll on the floor slowly changing your positions while maintaining the touch with the street floor.
i. How does it change your hearing perspective? Narrate it.
j. Pause. Slowly stand up.
k. Walk to a new spot on the street and repeat c-i.
Score 3: Freestyle movement
a. Choose a starting point on the street
b. You can start standing, sitting, lying down as you wish
c. Move between these positions slowly in any freestyle way you prefer. You can also jump while transitioning between different movements. But focus on looking.
d. You can walk with the movements, or you can stand in one spot while you improvise.
e. If you see something interesting, - an object or a perspective - explore it through looking while improvising – going close, moving away, looking from under, looking from above, jumping. Whatever you see, keep moving. But move slowly. The goal is to generate perspectives of seeing while moving. Stylized dance is not necessary here.
f. Narrate in words as you explore your interest above.
g. Take a photo of the object or perspective.
h. Pause if you need to at this point.
i. Choose a second starting point and repeat b-h.
