PhD Thesis: The Ecological Body ~ extracts

Proportion

Proportion only exists in a relational and comparative world.

It occurred to me that to be ‘in proportion’ with a situation, physically, mentally and emotionally in any given moment, and therefore appropriate to that moment could be one description of being present and in presence.

Proportions only exist in a relational world. The length of an arm may be laid along a fallen tree trunk, while the mover reaches up towards the sky with the other hand. If the mover literally pays attention to their physical proportions as part of a wider composition, then they may experience themselves in a relational world. Equally, the mover may enter a consideration of how much, how often, how visible or how slow in terms of an affective, proportionate, movement response to either a person or to the environment. An embodied and embedded proportional response gives any movement both volume and presence.

Being In Between 
The performers at the zoo worked with proportion, first of all body proportions, to feel how the different parts of the body interrelate. They then explored proportion by putting small stones in the space as part of their movement sequence (how much strength? how far? how fast?), thus creating a shifting pattern of stones, with the instruction to maintain an awareness of their moving body as part of the constellation that they were creating, rather than seeing themselves as outside the composition – an exercise from Amerta Movement. They explored how their sense of self shifted in relationship to smaller and larger objects. They played with proportion in relation to the environment, in terms of weight, space, time and flow: for example, making a gesture heavier, amplifying or reducing it, accelerating the rhythm, restraining the movement or entering it with abandon. Through play they extended their movement vocabulary, placed each action clearly in the space and also stimulated different emotional states which they could then express in the different modes.
Door Handle in Diminishing Proportions

Reach out to turn handle and open door.
Using appropriate level of energy in proportion to force needed
to move arm forward, push handle down, and push door open
means that nothing happens in the world but a door opening.
Excess energy in that action carries the full force of all my fears, my anger, my need, my hate – out into the world.
Multiply that by all the humans pushing open all the doors in the world,
and you have a world of devastation.

Reach out to turn handle and open door.
Using appropriate level of energy……nothing happens in the world but a door opening
Excess energy carries full force of fears into the world
Multiply that….and you have a world of devastation.
Reach out …. open door
nothing happens but an open door 
Excess force…..world of devastation.

(Jenna Kumiega : text for Proportions in Motion)
(Dave West: photos for Ignition Point)

Thesis pages