Somatics

Jules Etienne Marey, Joinville Soldier Walking, 1883, geometric chronophotograph (Paris College de France)

"As Nietzsche will say, we stand amazed before consciousness, but 'the truly surprising thing is rather the body.'"

—Gilles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy.

What happens when we allow ourselves to be surprised by the body? This movement lab takes on that question in the context of phenomenological practice, the Feldenkrais Method, and bio-tensegrity structures. What happens when our move past the clunky body-image towards something more dynamic and surprising?

Expect to be gently moving, but no prior experience or skill needed.

Possible supplemental readings

• Feldenkrais, M. 1981. The Elusive Obvious. Meta Publications.

• Solórzano, S. L. de. 2020. Everything Moves: How Biotensegrity Informs Human Movement. Handspring Publishing.

• Todd, M. E. 1968. The Thinking Body; a Study of the Balancing Forces of Dynamic Man. Dance Horizons.

• Sheets-Johnstone, M. 1999. The Primacy of Movement. John Benjamins Pub.

Spinoza offers philosophy a new model: the body.... "We do not know what the body can do..." This declaration of ignorance is a provocation. We speak of consciousness and its decrees, of the will and its effects, of the thousand ways of moving the body, of dominating the body and the passions—but we do not even know what a body can do. Lacking this knowledge, we engage in idle talk."

Gilles Deleuze

Spinoza: Practical Philosophy