Embodied Lines

Abstract

Three major components of our experience are our mind, our body, and our environment. This practice-based research investigates a new way of looking at these three categories through dance and movement practices in order to find a common language between them. The study of lines offers that link. Our body creates lines. It creates lines when moving by leaving temporary traces, as when we dance or swing our limbs. Our mind creates lines when we imagine events along a timeline or when delineating conceptual borders, like between nature and nurture. Our body also visually and sensually perceives lines in our environment, organizing the world around us in straight and organic lines. Through our body, lines become a fundamental part of our experience. In this research, lines are the topic, the research method, and the data. This in itself is a complex and hypnotizing land- scape to ponder. Besides contributing to the new field of Linealogy, this research is carving out its own territory by defining the term Embodied Lines as a specific way to approach the topic of lines. Each chapter presents theoretical insights combined with artistic artifacts of embodied knowledge. Main theories approached around the topic of lines include: Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson), Affordance Theory (Gibson), Asymmetry Principle (Leyton), Material Engagement Theory (Malafouris), Linear Design and Linear Pattern (Sheets-Johnstone), and Vitality Affects (Stern). In turn, lines are proposed as a way to think of and create situated moments that bring awareness to withness knowledge, a term proposed by John Shotter.