#04 I
10:18

The soil from my mother’s garden crunches in the hand shells of snails accumulated grit roots as strong and delicate as greying hairs. Ground that welcomes rain and pushes between toes on bare feet leaving marks like the tide on the shoreline.

10:23

#04 II
16-12-20

Meeting starts online.

“Can you see me?”

“No, not yet”

“I can’t get my camera to turn on”

[sudden loud, harsh electronic noise]

Meeting aborted, whole mug of coffee spilt on laptop

#04 III
06-01-21

A looming disquiet as we attempt to adjust once again.

“What is good news and what is bad news?” … “It feels like an act of warfare to keep people apart.”

At least we can reconnect with what’s on our doorstep. We discuss Hito Steyerl Hyper local /global local.

Relating back to S/S/S practice … we would usually have a face to face element – sharing stories in real space and time. Is it possible to replace that process of interaction with cues of intonation and body language, and how? Then there is the dilemma of having so many conversations, and not necessarily knowing where to put them. How to archive/ document the learning? Continuing the conversations keeps it living. Becoming storytellers. Feeling through in which ways we can develop our practice, new methods, approaches, connections. Community art what is it?

Thinking about soil, one of us remembers seeing mud cloth (Bògòlanfini or bogolan) being made in Djenne, Mail.

The geometric patterns painted on cloth with fermented iron rich local soil communicate tribal narratives, mnemonics and values of the people, passed down from generation to generation.

The collective is about care and finding small pleasures

Hands – what do they know? what can they sense? The skin as our largest organ. Motor memory, seeing hands, feeling with prosthetic’s? Sense of self-hood.

Octopus brains in their limbs/Humans (neurons) transmitters, how knowledge flows the body(s)

How little movement in the house. The body needs to move, even visualising movement can slow muscle tone loss. Lifestyle fitness/ formal exercise, Exercise with purposefulness.

[many disconnected and connected thoughts]

Libertarianism and behaviours an epidemic necessitates, we are where we are.

Leap frogging resources

GG


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25 November 2020

Themes

Ranting, survival, health, trauma, recovery

Tentacles of enquiry

“I didn’t mean to start off with ranting”. Some of us needed to vent, to release energy and frustration.
..Processing is part of the process…
Coming back to the question: How to take care of ourselves within capitalism? Needing to look after ourselves, to slow down, eat well, move and rest… but we need to work. Can dropping out be seen as a kind of stasis? Some people had time to feel better, in a way going to work feels normal and motivating when things feel chaotic.
How does the body process trauma? As one of us undergoes PTSD therapy related to long term Covid we talked about muscle movement therapy whilst thinking about the trauma.
…drumming rhythms…
…whilst talking…
…activating long term memory sites in the brain…
We consider other kinds of rhythmic movement: walking, art, dancing, sport.

A member of the group sends us the words “I’ll share my memory as my body understands it”.
Movement, noise, ceremony, reminds us of church. The kinds of rituals we aren’t usually in touch with. For some of us, art is this thing that gives us a purpose to do something physical or repetitive … dropping out allows us to self-reflect whilst moving … gardening, painting a wall…
…and processing…
you don’t need long term memory in an emergency, you shut off those pathways so it bounces around and the body responds in the way it first experiences it …
In our collective practice we often do labour intensive pieces that involve hand traced words, poems, stories. Tracing the letters feels familiar as a kind of muscle memory. Many don’t even realise these pieces are hand drawn yet the act of making them feels grounding…
…and processing…

“you spend all day cooking it then you eat it in ten minutes”
Not being able to process injustice quickly enough…seeing behaviours that repeat but feeling unable to act quickly to intervene…bringing about change by addressing things in real time, how? How can we learn this? Feeling shame about inaction. Being heard doesn’t have to mean being aggressive, it can mean being vulnerable (as vulnerability defined as strength.) Considering this in relation to our method of conversation as collective research.
In relation to privilege: dropping out or unwillingness to drop out (or step out) or stand out?
Thinking of exercises in disrupting. It takes 300 times to repeat something to make a habit…if we lessen the steps to make it easier we remove the barriers…
“I can speak two languages, one is ours, one is dog. Can one of you speak two languages?”
Where do you hold tension in your body? Jaw, back, joints…(as much in the brain as the body) At what points can you intercept it? Human interdependencies … by asking for help we challenge this individualised problem. How to bring our commitments into every action we make, to exercise and practice?

Leap frogging resources

 

JW


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