Title: Re-sensitising the body: interactive art and the Feldenkrais method

Authors: Lian Loke; George Poonkhin Khut; Maggie Slattery; Catherine Truman; Lizzie Muller; Jonathan Duckworth

Addresses: Design Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia ' University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia ' The Australian Feldenkrais Guild Inc., 21 Ada Street, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia ' Gray Street Workshop, Adelaide, SA, 3000, Australia ' School of Design, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia ' School of Media and Communication, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia

Abstract: This article describes interdisciplinary research undertaken by a group of artists, designers, curators and somatic bodywork practitioners to explore a human-centred approach to the potential of touch, movement, balance and proprioception as modalities for interactive art. Somatic bodywork methodologies such as the Feldenkrais method provide highly developed frameworks for attending to these very phenomena. Re-sensitising the body through somatic investigations allowed us as makers of body-focussed interactive art to translate the subtle shifts in attention and nuances of felt sensation into the audience experience of sensor-based interactive artworks. We describe the results of a yearlong project through our experience of the making of one specific experimental artwork, surging verticality. We reflect on the conditions for audience engagement and the profound connections we experienced between Feldenkrais somatic bodywork and art practice as modes of enquiry into the world.

Keywords: aesthetics; attention; touch; movement; balance; Feldenkrais method; kinaesthetic sensitivity; body; experience; interactive art; perception; sensation; sensor; somatics; somatic bodywork; audience engagement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2013.058283

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2013 Vol.6 No.4, pp.339 - 356

Published online: 25 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article