Thinking / Systemizing / Dwelling into it / Deep thinking
Beyond referring to the subject and that is deepening of the subject
Introduction / Body of text / Conclusion (standard essay)
What’s this about, what are the things that need to be there and what is the conclusion?
Think of your transitions… this plays a role in the text you want to write and construct
They can be tensions or ruptures
Paragraphs have purpose, what is the paragraph in your text?
Come with examples, contextualize the idea
Reflective notes: theory and concepts (don’t forget to define your concepts as they are not neutral, meaning be in dialogue with theory and the people you are in dialogue with)
Sometimes a little footnote helps!
1. Choose a topic, idea, question you would like to consider. It can be a specific detail or a broad concept-connected to your research material, art practice and project. (5 minutes)
Somatic engagement in the everyday
How can we work to acknowledge our embodiment? And can this develop our (urgent) responsibility to the landscape?
This can be incorporated with the idea of eco somatics (termed by Petra Kuppers), measuring the quotidian in the body, and other practices that deeper acknowledge our presence with the lived environment.
In my practice I call this urban embodiment. It is a term that is still in flow, and working to be defined further through physical exercises and writing.
2. Write (on paper or on a computer) non-stop on that topic. If you get stuck and don’t know what to say next, write “I’m stuck and don’t know what to say next…” or try asking yourself “what else?” Until another idea comes to you.
Do not concern yourself with spelling, grammar or punctuation. Your goal is to generate as much as you can about the topic in a short period of time and to get used to the feeling or articulating ideas on the page. (10 minutes)
Somatic engagement in the everyday is something we all participate in. As we move through the world, all of us are constantly relating. We unconsciously are exploring this notion of relating to place. It comes down to safety, relationships, friendships, partnerships, alienation, belonging, love, and other feelings that affect how we are and participate in space.
For me, I am interested in the relationship to the self and the land, and how this enviably results in many partnerships. These partnerships are a key part of how we understand, move through, and respect the land (and all of the species involved).
For a lot of people, we remove ourselves from nature. In some Cities or places, there is a natural (or forced) integration of nature into the urban. We see rives intersecting, ravines holding on, lots of animal and species taking to the city environment.
French-Canadian gardener Clement (sp?) writes and talks about this idea of the The Third Landscape. I understand this as a post-colonial world where plant life begins to emerge into the everyday places that hold colonialism. They live through the cracks, seep into the concrete sidewalks, cover the exteriors of buildings, and make way for the original world to surface (once again).
I wonder how these two things: Quotidian Somas + The Third Landscape come together in my mind.
Being. Nature. Built.
Nature. Being. Built.
These three ideas are obviously brought to the most simple of terms. That beyond these three words live an expanded world of many more threads. But only to see them, and understand them on a deeper level we have ourselves as this through line to experiences and memories tying us to this landscape.
3. Who? What? Where? When? How? And Why?
Think about your topic in terms of each question (or select two to three of the questions).
Somatic engagement in the everyday
How can we work to acknowledge our embodiment?
And can this develop our (urgent) responsibility to the landscape?
Why?
Practice into art. Art as an everyday practice. Maybe this practice can translate into ritual or habit through repetition. (Side note: in MemoryWork, we discusses what are the differences between those three ideas, and this could be where it all makes sense or where we give them a definition / contextualize them)
The eventual why is to react to the urgent climate change. To make little shifts in our engagement in the world, and this to me starts with developing your awareness and how you embody the world. The world being the connections you make with others (human, species, water, land, energies). If we look at a social or political approach to change, it does start with the individual which merges into a collective.
Who?
The who are those affecting the destruction of the environment. It is those making too much waste, or making an unsustainable relationship with the place we share: this planet.
I turn to writers, dancers, musicians, artists who are encouraging this behaviour to resist in bad behaviour. In the unsustainable.
How?
This is the question. How can I, and we, create accessible and tangible experiences or offerings where this sense of embodiment is something that wants to be shared (as physical or verbal knowledge) within community. As ongoing through purposeful meetups or exchanges, or through random oral transmission in the day to day.
In My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa _______ we see this offered beautifully. This is a book focused on healing through the lens of radicalized bodies. It is directed separately for Black, non-Black and white bodies. We see the writer offer biography (information about their history) and bigger histories followed by physical practice. In this step a transformation is made. I truly believe that in the practice of embodiment we tie what is absorbed in reading, writing or listening back into the body. We listen deeper with experience (dancing). These parallel embodied narratives are what enact change.
4. Once you have something on the page to work with, you can being the decision making process crucial to developing a coherent idea or argument.
At this point, you can choose with ideas most appeal to you, which ideas seem to fit together, which ideas need to be se aside, and which ideas need further exploration. (5 minutes)
APPEALING: (foundation) Somatic engagement in the everyday → How can we work to acknowledge our embodiment and embodied awareness?
FIT TOGETHER: Practices of healing → The Third Landscape → Can we develop our (urgent) responsibility to the landscape?
FURTHER EXPLORATION: all things need deeper references, meetings or talking with artists or people who work around these concepts
SET TO THE SIDE: I do feel the relationship to concept The Third Landscape, but it does feel a little far from the centre of this project. It could be a tangent once a foundation is formed.
What are embodied ways we can engage in day-to-day to develop our relationship to (this hurting) landscape?
Does it start with the self, or the self rubbing up against other things or ideas?
Is it that we only truly understand ourselves through the lens of the other?
5. Present your ideas, topic and questions. If it is still in process and abstract, present some thoughts, concepts and question that emerged while doing this writing exercise.
THE NEXT STEPS:
Write a full draft.
Turn your ideas into a five minute speech.
Make a sketch of the paper.
Make an outline.
[Introduction, body, conclusion… you could think of paragraphs as squares and block them on top of each other / maybe write keywords, subheadings / introducing things in a specific order that supports the reader and accordance to your question / what do you care about?]
→ This is your motivation to make + share the work you make.
Further advice_
Start with the easiest part.
Write the body of the paper first.
Write about feelings about writing.
Write with the screen turned off. Sometimes it’s important to avoid scenarios where you can edit or critique at this stage. Be nice to the writer within you! The write can be the third person. Get some distance from your writer self?
Write in alternatives (postpone decision-making). You might need to test out one or two ideas before you settle on one idea. It might take form as brief overviews. Which direction.
Write with a timer. It is very easy to postpone writing. The articulation of ideas is really important, and writing takes time.
→ You need to find a balance between researching, reading, writing and making. Sometimes you don’t know what you need to know, you’re made to into the library or the world. Who do I need to be in dialogue with? Maybe there is someone you can speak to.
The outline is sometimes not something you see right away.
Somatic engagement with the everyday
How can we work to acknowledge our embodied awareness?
What are embodied ways we can engage in day-to-day to develop these relationships?
And can this develop our (urgent) responsibility to the landscape?
Does it start with the self, or the self rubbing up against other things or ideas?
What do notions of place, belonging and alienation mean in relation to geography?
How do we bring language into a relationship rooted in embodiment?
Where is meaning here?
Using these particular cases to enter these questions…
Subjectivity, belonging / individual + collective