My Methodology 

 'Soft Eyes' in the Studio 

2. The research inquiry was conducted over 8 sessions of Mover Witness practice with 8 participants, in Aarhus, Denmark April-June 2022. The movement research centred on using 'soft eyes' discovered in the M________W experiments in the role of Witness. 

MW 

1.  My first research question: How do we hold Open Space between a Mover and a Witness across increasing physical distance? led to four research scores / experiments. These took place in and between South Africa and Denmark. The first of these, the M_______________W experiment, nested an almost imperceptible observation that led to further research inquiry.

Reading 

The 'soft eye' research inquiry into the ways of seeing for a Witness led me to read about:

• Eyes and Vision and Seeing -in particular as articulated by writers Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, Bayo Akamolafe.

• Forms and way of seeing: spectatorships (Berger 1972) and ontopower (Foucault 1967), the power of the gaze (Mulvey 1973), witnessing (Adler 2002, 2022).  

• Theories of perception including a-modal perception explained by Daniel Stern (2004) and referenced by Brain Massumi and Erin Manning (2014); embodied perception as explained by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen through the inquiry of Body Mind Centering (1993,2013,2015,2020,2022); Seeing as a perceptual system (Gibson 1967); Perception and imagination  (Ingold 2022) . This led to reading about Affect Theory and in particular the minor gesture as explicated by Erin Manning (2007,2009,2012,2014,2016,2020, 2023a and b).

• Constructs of perspective, ocularcentrism and aggressive vision as described by architect Jan Pallasma (2012) from a practitioners point of view. 

• Hemispheric specialisation as investigated by Iain McGilchrist (2012)  and Modes of Attention as researched by Les Fehmi (2008) in his theory of Open Space Attention.  

• The work in vision and seeing in the Tuning Scores of dance practitioner Lisa Nelson (2001), alongside Barbara Dilly’s original 5 eye practices (2020). 

• Read about 'De-linking' as part of the decolonial project of aestheSis as described by Walter Mignolo (2013) and Ben Spatz (2019) and re-orientation as proposed by Sara Ahmed (2007) in considering the socio-political implications of this finding. Lauren Berlant (2008, 2016, 2011, 2016) has also been a key thinker in reframing how I view my practice. 

Supportive Practices for Radical Reflection 

Parallel to reading I supported my  learning with weekly Thinking at the Edge sessions (Gendlin 1988) and Movement Exchanges where a partner held space for me as a witness and an active listener in order to think through the body. Donata Schoeller refers to this  'radical reflection' as an opportunity to 'face the fragility and sensitivity of thinking and articulting as responsive process' (Schoeller & Saller, 2017, p.12).

L_O_S_T

I propose 'Easy Eyes' as an embodied technique for reorientation of dance praxis as part of the decolonial project.

Finaly, I sought to hold Affect Theory and the Eye Practice alongside each other to consider the implications this practice as contributing to the project of decolonising dance praxis. 

I have always enjoyed the military acronym L.O.S.T. Looking Over Strange Terrain. For this one uses binoculars. This takes me back to the beginning of my research.

E/yes

The ‘easy eyes’ practice is holding direct looking with peripheral seeing at the same time. When we do so, we invite a refinement of attention and an intensification of awareness. ‘Easy Eyes’ is an embodied unit of practice at the reflexive place of the eye - the pivot in the lemniscate of witnessing others/inner witness, between open and closed structure, between knowing and the unknown.  It’s embodied nature leads me to think with Ben Spatz (Spatz 2020) and consider the eye practice - situated within reach (Sara Ahmed 2006 )- an embodied technique. It is a small, quiet door our body can open and close without effort. I propose it as a  ‘boundary object’ (Star and Griesemer 1989) as part of a battery of techniques needed for unlearning (Carrie Noland 2009, 2021), cripping (Marsh 2023), de-linking (Mignolo 2007 ) and re-orienting (Ahmed 2006) dance praxis as part of a decolonial project (on any axis).

For further insights please read here

DEFAMILIARISATION

4. A nexx step focused on  semi structured interviews with artists and somatic bodywork practitioners. I ask about how they used their eyes/seeing in their practices. The following interviews were conducted:

 A) Barbara Dilley (Dancer, Originator of Contemplative Dance Practice): "It cuts the grab."

"when there is a transition, it is very helpful to have some kind of discipline that we can give our sense perception, in our, you know - knowing-ness"

B) Barbara McCrea (Feldenkrais Technique Practitioner) "They are seeing whole".

C) Lucia Walker (Alexander Technique and Contact Improvistion Teacher)

 '..Of Ready'

D) Sean Wilson (Photographer) 

E) Amanda Dinan (Landscape Painter) 

MwWMwWMwWM  Mover and Witness cycle roles on Watsapp digital platform. Time not shared, Witness with 1) drawing & 2) words. 

MWMWMWMWMW  Mover and Witness alternate roles on Watsapp digital platform. Time not shared. 

M          Mover and Witness alternate roles on Zoom digital platform. Time is shared. 

W

M___________________W

In this experiment we were spaced 20-80m apart. The Witness used binoculars to see the Mover.

Enabling constraints: 

Mover: Notice what you notice, follow your attention. Hold an agreed ending position for a full minute of quiet breathing (eg. Hands touch above head) so the roles can trade over. 

Witness: Notice what you notice. 'Stay with' (find out what that means for you). Place binoculars on the ground before trading roles. 

Sites: 

Cedarberg, South Africa

Table Mountain, South Africa

Copenhagen, Denmark

Aarhus, Denmark

Berlin, Germany

Dance Partner: Hannah Loewenthal

Observations 

It was delightfull. It was possible to engage differently with the landscape - to be more available in the presence of a witness. To be immersed in a seemingly isolated place was a treasure to experience. As a Mover we felt profoundly partnered by the landscape and the site. The experience untethered from clock time and opened into a sense of sanctuary.

Witnessing with the aid of binoculars was beguiling. The binoculars helped physically focus attention. It was possible to scan around the landscape and at the same time re-find the Mover. Everything was interesting. With eyesight framed and guided by the external prosthesis of the binoculars, the ears seemed to accentuate their task of attending to the backspace and the periphery. I loved the witnessing most of all. I noticed that something dropped and settled inside of me. I knew that I was doing the right thing - I was holding up my part of the deal. I was focused on the Mover, the binoculars 'showed' that. And inside of the looking through, I could rest. It was my own hang-up, always questioning: am I witnessing correctly with enough non judgement?  Even though this question reveals a value assignment in iteslf,  the binoculars took the impossible-to-measure ' good enough' quotient out of the activity. This was tantalisingly interesting and freeing. 

My attention moved to the muscles of my eyes. I noticed how they changed when looking through the binoculars. In a similar way to sunglasses, my eyes settled and eased within the looking. The muscles softened under the eye and the eyeball felt like it centred a little back in the eye orbit. The eye was held in a quiet hammock. My breathing changed with it and eased.  These were such tiny changes- 'infra-thin' - and barely perceptible that they were almost disregarded and overlooked. And it is exactly here in the overlooked cracks of the ordinary that I was to find the potential for difference lies (Manning, 2020; Akamolafe, 2022).

MWMWMW  

Method

Hannah and I experimented with a Mover Witness exchange (MW) over distance. We used Whatsapp to send a video (max five minutes). The other witnessed and sent a video back. A maximum of three days could pass between videos. This cycle repeated 6 times. Hannah was in South Africa. I was in Malta and in Denmark.

Enabling Constraints

Mover: Move by following your attention. Notice what you notice. 

Witness: Notice what you notice. 

Camera: Choose one camera point of view. Any site. Any time of day. 

What Happened 

We maintained the exchange for 6 rounds. And found that it was not sustainable. We are not sure why. We suspect it was due to the split between MW. The act of witnessing lagged behind the event of moving. There was something for us about sharing the same time pocket in the MW relation that amplified the experience for us, and was not as strong in this structural arrangement. 

Other observations

There was something curious and quiet about watching Hannah disappear from frame, and to continue witnessing with the same open attention:  witness the wall, witness the sky, witness time passing across and through other things in view.

The figure/ground paradigm of occularcentrism shattered very quickly allowing other 'voices' to enter our perception. 

I was left with a feeling of fullness, as though the sky or the reflection, or the wind, or the wall.....was composing itself with Hannah. 

There was something else we held onto in this research, something mentioned by a friend and colleague Helga Arnalds: 'Our cultural bias is toward clarity. We learn to value and even cherish the slow, subtle and vague'.

M

W

In this score/experiment, Mover and Witness meet online using Zoom digital platform. The score allows each person to take a turn to move (about 20 minutes) with ten minutes for talking about the mover's experience before the roles reversed. 

We speak in the present tense, with the mover reflecting first and if wanted, can ask the witness for what they noticed. We keep this descriptive and plain. 

This format continued from the beginning of the research through to the final writing task. It is ongoing. I did not choose to analyse the method any further. It was clear that a resonance was felt in this exchange. It served the research project best by being a place for embodied critical thinking. And so it continued and gathered momentum. We now make an exchange twice a week at very early hours of the morning: 6am, Mondays and 7am, Fridays. Tossie is in Cape Town, SA and I am in Aarhus, DK. We record each session, title it and file it away. We record the movement as well as the discussion. The recordings began in year two. The titles, quickly chosen, include: Blanket + Dusting the Sun + Butterick Pattern + Abject + Foucault + Bedroom + Animal + Bird + insect + Star Trek + Capacity in the Chest + Deer + Grey Dress + Hands + Light + Rage + 'Sagte Ritme' + Suit + Teeth as CI and so on.

To the right are a few screenshots of recent exchanges overlaid by a transcript in red of what I said as a mover on Monday 9 September 2024. I highlight some of discussion in the transcript alongside.

Exchange partner: Nobonke / Tossie van Tonder

M__________W

Berlin April 2022. Two dancers.

Exchnaging roles to witness each other across disance using binoculars. 

1.

2.

3.

TRANSCRIPT: 9 September 2024

NICKY 

I came to a new place and need to speak about it

the close dancing ....close talking close listening 

close reading we know 

close talking 

is about 

about 

she (Donata Schoeller)references someone two hundred years ago 

Writer (Hendrick von Kleist) 

interested in the fact that their thoughts only completed in the presence of someone - in the act of speaking 

air the thoughts

in the thoughts in the speaking they completed themselves

he spoke to his sister

his sister just listened

mm

key things

the value gets put into the listening without interrupting, 

without being too quick to say something intelligent in return 

or to make small, or to trip someone up

it is to value the stutter and the pause and the vague

and to allow not making  sense, another would guess with words until you could check if they fit 

and  with relief say

exactly. (Talking about Mathematician and physicist Werner Heisenberg’s approach /inquiry culture to new problems BEFORE taking them to mathematics as reported by his assistant Hans Peter Dürr. He described this holding space as much like a ‘friendly ping pong game where the aim is to keep the ball in the game’ and the intention is to understand what the other is saying)

that is where close talking began - it links with focusing 

which I value very much

which is about asking your body about the situation 

and it will offer something 

from its whole experience

it will come - maybe it’s image feeling words.. and as you stay with in an open gentle way - it reveals and reveals itself more precisely 

there is an ah moment

there is a release into the body 

and the meaning carries forward 

into the next thing. 

The meaning meaning , the lived meaning, the thing that makes sense to everything so that we can carry on

and now as I was moving the idea of close dancing occurred to me 

and maybe this is what you frame as ‘genre’ in your own work 

But so much in me as I move today my mind was following for a while - feather oh bucket oh light and then I wanted to let my body do what it wanted and not to track 

and that is what you do for me 

 I really don’t need to 

but still I try track  ish 

I question 

am I falling into habits

really a stern tracking 

but more and more and more as it went on 

I could just look for the delight and stay with a 

whatever was arriving 

you know keep the door open 

I would say 78 percent open as the tracking is still there

but so many interesting things were coming 

like the hands 

hands hands

it was like I was

both coding 

electronically for the ether and also weaving something complicated for an invisible pattern

but I wasn’t instructing the hands they knew what to do 

they would do things

and what they would do immediately brought information from other places

like cat information 

not cat as in 

cat with a name a tail 

but more the quality of cat when it kneads. 

The information 

from the cat when it kneads

ssschoooo

or just stuff

and then 

I thought about 

well before I met you I had been writing to my cousin 

and that moment of doing all the morning things but it really task focused and I ask 

what is coming up the stairs with me

what what

and I realised it was the Horse

it was the horse

what horse

where the interview (Barbara McCrea semi structured intrview for this research) was about seeing and eyes

right at the end she mentioned the horse

and the horse was with me 

what about the horse

two comments

the first if you look over the jump you will get over the jump 

you look over and you and the horse are one thing and you go

at the end she talks about her riding partner 

very adhd loses things all the time 

when she gets back to the stables she realises she has one glove

so she says to the horse

Where is my glove

and he takes her -

Far away on the mountain to her glove. 

of course

so this 

this of coarseness 

comes now

well of course

the kneading slips streams the quality of cat into my body 

it’s a knowing that comes

and ….when I was with the feather at the beginning 

I was thinking about the quality of feathers that we don’t fully know because we don’t 

we know them in things

but we know some, but there is so much more 

or I was thinking about people 

who use feathers for divination 

that otherness of feathers 

aaaahhh what am I saying ????

wait 

there is so much in the between 

and I feel it because you are watching me and holding me and understand so deeply 

but what is the thing that one follows in all of it, is a question . 

And just seeing how as I go along how often I drop down like the horse, I look at the jump and fall out of the streaming of things

its my mind that says critical things

and I would like to bring the mind with me over the jump so I can say something else. 

TOSSIE  Can you now do a dance of 15 seconds ? About it all. 

Ja…

NICKY - anything to add?

TOSSIE

I only made screenshots of you

could not do anything else. Just to compliment what you have said. 

Dusting the sun, flights progressions……titles then I lost it.

M____________W in Cedarberg mountains. Two dancers.

Short videos. The first highlights the intrigue of looking for someone, finding them and then the sudden re-emeregnce away from tunneled vision, pulled out of the state of mind in the encounter to face ordinary reality again. The second video is an experimental  play with small mirrors to find out if they helped visibility. 

4.

5.

6.

Excerpt from the 6th exchange. We are aware that something is missing or too difficult to sustain across technology in this way. It is felt in the tone. I have a foggy sense that it has to do with the time not shared in real time. There is something about the presence of another person in shared time, that allows for a particular ease and interest together, an invisible assisance to find a certain atate of attention with little effort. This is a state in the witness. This is for another study.