is a two-day, immersive, somatic workshop for a group of 8-20 participants, taking place in total darkness.
The structural conditions of late-capitalism coral the body into regimes of perception. We are forced- as Alice Walker put it- into images. The optical apprehension of the body- be it in physical or mediated spaces- is underwritten by dominant hierarchies of capital value. Trans bodies, Bla(c)k bodies, Indigenous bodies, disabled bodies, fat bodies and sick bodies all navigate their being-ness in relation to volatile biases and polarities of majority perception: we are either hyper-visible, or entirely erased from dominant fields of vision. This experience generates unique forms of stress, as well as unique lines of sight.
Various subaltern canons of artistic practice have sought to return the gaze, and in doing so unseat these power relations at the level of representation. An alternate, but complimentary, range of strategies are offered by an inward turning of the gaze, towards the body’s field of internal sensation. Performance practices grounded in somatic, temporal, spatial and proprioceptive awareness, provide unique strategies: what generative or liberatory potentials might be activated through an intentional turn away from signification, towards the field of our inward perceptions? How do our innate forms and movement pathways- perceptible at the level of refined, subtle-body awareness- counterbalance the forms imposed on us? How might attenuating our awareness to the body’s sovereign interiority resource us for political and creative resiliency?
In this workshop, participants will be led through a series of physical explorations taking place largely in low light or complete darkness. Norman draws upon a diverse range of movement forms and embodiment methodologies that have formed the basis of his own performance practice and continue to support his work as an Indigenous, transgender artist living with multiple disabilities.
This workshop was first developed for the Project Third program at Pratt Institute, curated and commissioned by artists Carlos Motta and Cassils for a Pratt Graduate cohort.
The fee for delivery of this workshop is 1900 USD.
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