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DANCE FIRST, THINK LATER!

How things grow, how things know
Background image: Greenwich Great Park, 2011, film still and photography by Rachel Henson, post production and compisiting by Neil Manuell

Movement Ecology

=on all scales, the how, why (foraging, dispersal, migration, for fun), the when and where of creaturely movement.
Movement as '...a fundamental organising mechanism of perception and understanding.' (O'Gorman,2018)
The idea that we are 'becoming' not 'being.' (Haraway,2016)
Diverse changing environments are resiliant. Moving is fundemental to life.
​​From a tumbling bacterium (Dr Marie Hale’s lecture, Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, May 2023) to growing cells, to children learning to walk, to rivers, to galaxies: this is how life perceives. 

​Evolution is 'Dance first, think later' is also 'tentacular,' tentare, trying things out and therefore resilient.

Of lightning: 'It goes one way, then another way. It moves. It doesn't know. It tries it out.'

(Thomas Nail's lecture, Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, May 2023.)

'You can't just think hard, you have to do it.' (Professor Thomas Nail's lecture, Ship Studio, May 2023)

The same goes for growing cells...

​
"...cells continually sense their local environment and adapt their behaviour...this complex dance unfolds across time and space, from molecules, cells to tissues."

(​From webpage description of Bently Lab, Cellular Adaptive Behaviour Laboratory led by Dr Katey Bently)
Satish talked about 'starting something small with others' as a way to move the change. He talked about 'yes, and...' in conversations to keep dialogue moving. (Satish Kumar's lecture, Ship Studio, Dartington Hall, May 2023) This is also the principle of theatre improvisation. The scene dies if you 'block.' 
Other notes on Nail's lecture: Monoculture on all levels makes things static. The anthropocene prevents more-than-humans dispersing energy.
Specific/constellation
reductionism//generalism
reciprical//extractionist
Indigenous//settler
antibiotic //probiotic
direct//peripheral
defensive//accepting
holding on//moving through
​
diverse//monocultural

References

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

Nail, Thomas "Being and Motion" Oxford University Press, 2018

Lorimer, Jamie "Rewilding Bodies and Ecologies for a Probiotic Planet" Podcast Episode 310,
greendreamer.com/
  • 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