FUSE#4

FUSE #4
da:ns LAB
groom ourselves, how we organise our meals and schedules around meals,
apologising for our bodily presence, apologising for an unpronounceable
name, politeness, trying to save situations, thinking in silos, how to love.
After the unlearning activity, Martin shows a video of a Body Weather
performance with farm animals that was respectful of their presence and
input. He leads the group to practice this approach by selecting an object or
machine in the room and scanning it visually then responding in movement, to
test our relationship with objects and devices, so as to be outside ourselves.
On scanning and seeing,
Bernice notes that during the “scanning” exercise, she was trying to not see
other people and trying out not wanting to be seen, so that the movement
would not be about what it looks like from the outside. Susan is interested
in how the scanning could go beyond surface and engage different levels
of seeing. Chloe reflects on the attention to materiality in the scanning exercise,
as material objects were already very privileged and that we needed
to deprioritise materiality and its vicious cycle so that we could look deeper.
Martin responds that he will revisit whether “scanning” is the most appropriate
word.
Daniel asks if role-playing instead of speaking as ourselves can allow
us to suspend judgement. Kai responds that she understands that speaking
in public is already performing, and that she tested what she was saying by
saying it. Aparna appreciates Martin’s call to not be so judgmental about
what’s being offered. Referring to the “scanning” exercise, she related it to
her traditional practice where one regularly observes and borrows from the
natural and animal world - a deep, complex and valuable practice.
Jacob highlights traditional societies’ methodologies in coexisting with
the environment that might address the climate crisis and social-political crises
led to by neoliberalism and industrialist history. KC is interested in how
to follow up on da:ns LAB so as to make a material change in how we work,
and strategies that will allow the change to have a multiplier effect.
Kai asks how we know when we have listened, and whether hearing
something uncomfortable makes one listen deeper, and potentially change
one’s views.
Top: Image courtesy of Martin Schick Bottom: Image courtesy of BlueFactory
Respondents:
Shawn invites us to dwell on the word “failure” and to be careful about
how we use the word. How do we situate failure as a practice? Failure
of what, in what context, unlearning in what context? Judith Halberstam’s
Queer Art of Failure describes a strategy that queers the normative logics
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