Hide & Seek, Coventry Hotel, 6th of July 2017
The second phase of my artistic research consisted of the re-enactment of the physical play events through dance improvisational practice. In this phase, the archive became a source for the creation of new work. A selected set of imagery was handed over to a professional dancer or a group of professional dancers who tried to grasp the affects, intensities, and forces that were still present in the imagery. The goal was not to imitate or copy the original play event but to grasp the affects, intensities, and forces that were still present in the work. In this way, the body of the dancer became a resonating channel, a passage through which affects, intensities, and forces could travel that were then expressed in movement. Re-enactment was here understood as a performative practice in which the body, with its own movement history and experiences, became the frame through which the dancer could access affects, intensities, and forces that were still present in the selected imagery. The improvisation sessions with the professional dancers were also captured with the camera. This led to a second set of images that was laid over the original set of images, in a process of doubling that never really became a doubling (since only differences were produced). Visual analysis was used to expose and critically reflect on several aspects of participatory sense-making in both physical play and dance improvisation.
'Re-Enaction of Hide & Seek', 5-6 July 2018, Berlin
In addition to the re-enactments, I also initiated the Touch Project. The Touch Project was a bit different than the re-enactments since it started with my own artistic exploration which was then extended to a three-day workshop at Chester University. The re-enactments gave me useful insights on different aspects of the participatory sense-making process in physical play and dance improvisation – specifically on how affect, attention, and action worked together in order to make sense of self, others, and the world. But I also felt that something was still missing. In the artistic process, I noticed that touch seemed to play a vital role in both physical play and dance improvisation. However, in the literature on embodied cognition and enactivism, not much attention was paid to the role of touch in the participatory sense-making process. I thus felt the need to explore this area a bit more. Although I could have organized a fourth re-enactment, I decided at this point that working with dance experts would provide me with in-depth information on the deeper layers of touch and on how touch constituted a we-space. In contact improvisation, there was much knowledge and expertise on interpersonal touch. I contacted Malaika Sarco-Thomas at the University of Chester, an expert in contact improvisation, and I organized the Touch Project around it. Even more, the exercises and tasks in the Touch Project served as input for the development of the ‘Touch and Tactility’ workshop for children.
The last phase of my artistic research entailed the development of the ‘Re-Move/Re-Play Toolkit’, an educational toolkit for children between the ages of 4-10 years old that consisted of a creative card deck and three additional workshops. In this phase, the process of re-enactment was reversed since children were now going to re-enact existing artworks (within the field of performance art and dance). Each workshop has a different theme: one is dedicated to touch, the other to creative movement exploration and the third one to working with objects and materials. The goal of the workshops is not to copy or imitate the dance or artwork, but to use it as a creative source for movement exploration. You can download the materials on 'PhD: thesis and materials'.