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CommunE-ication, Semiotics, language, validity

Embodied ecology is commune-ication. We 'become with' (Harroway, 2016) rather than simply observe, conscious of who we are, who they are and where we are: an empathic, 'kin-centric' relationship. We delight in side-along play with the rest of life. 
​
'From the point of view of the thing.' (Lecture by Dr Pavel Cenkl, Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, May 2023) A tick knows: acid, heat, light. Each living thing has her own sensory system and therefore her own umwelt, partly her own sensory apparatus and partly her encounters and entanglement with other life and the more-than- human.

MOVEMENT AS COMMUNE-ICATION
Mimicking is the first stage of learning a language or learning to dance. Performing with Oogly Boogly, we mirrored the movement of babies between six and eighteen months, a game they delighted in, an empathic communication.  Asking Dr Alex Jordan whether scientists had used ‘mirroring’ the movements of a non-human as a form of communication, he said that if something moves like a fish,the fish will respond to it as fish even if it doesn’t look like a fish.

Words matter

O'Gorman talks of a story as a tool to see things in a particular way, (O'Gorman, 2018), Abram of 'soundspell' and how words shape thoughts. (Abram, 1997)
Abram's descriptions are too close to my bone. I am porous and need to safeguard my own ecological self. At Sirona Horse Therapy, I had a shiver of recognition as Kate Ford spoke of how horses notice you long before you notice them, and need a lot of space around them. I am horse! Though we are predators we have also been prey. Some neurodiverse conditions entail a heightened sensing.
As a linguist, I know learning a language changes the learner. In the film 'Arrival,' (Villeneuve 2016) a linguist learns the language of a cephalopod-like otherworld more-than-human. I think of O'Gorman's jellyfish and Harroway's 'tentacular!'

Do other languages have better words to describe 'ongoingness'? The modal particle '了' in Chinese indicates change.

VALIDITY

I fear my words won't land: a pain point, information. Sam Alty's voice ecology workshop: you 'sound' your ancesters, the world speaks through you, a 'we' not an 'I', therefore less scary. 

SEMIOTICS: 'To the things themselves'

Bio-, eco-, proto-semiotics, can you ever get to ‘the thing,’ 'the experiential moment when one forgets what one is?' (Lecture by Dr Pavel Cenkl, Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, May 2023) I approach this by walking, 'the intentional act closest to the unwilled rhythms of the body...' (Solnit,2017)

​How to minimise the distance between representation and ‘the thing’ is something I have been feeling towards for years.
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Stephanie: writing does not get her further but photography and filmmaking do. 
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​Veronica: a painter friend tells himself to call the tree a cake, so as not to draw what he expects a tree to be.

EXERCISE

Picture

References

Abram, David "The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World,
Vintage (edition 1st), 1997

​O’Gorman, Róisín . “Can Your Jellyfish Sing? ‘Tentacular’ Moves From Individual Embodiment to the Planetary.” 
Global Performance Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2018

​Solnit,Rebecca "A Field Guide to Getting Lost" Canongate Canons, (edition 1st) 2017

Villeneuve,Denis(Director) Heisserer, Eric and 
Chiang,Ted (Writers), 2016 "Arrival," Paramount
  • Home
  • Work
  • Blog
    • How to make your own tools @ Blast Theory
    • Do biodiverse landscapes shimmer?
    • Raw nature being awesome
    • Green equals equigenic
    • XR Residency @ Fusebox
    • Residency @ Fabrica
  • About
  • Contact