Corporeal Architecture
Performance by Anela Dumonjic, Marco Magliozzi, Laura Stoib, Milan Wagner as part of the seminar on “Neuroarchitecture and Performance Art”, by Dr. Maria da Piedade Ferreira MSc, Technische Universität München (TUM) 2020. The seminar had the support of the program for Gender Equality and Diversity TUM (Frauenbeauftragte).
Students were prepared by following the “Corporeal Architecture” teaching method developed by Dr. Maria da Piedade Ferreira which integrates Neuroscience and Performance Art to teach design through embodiment and experience.
Students were given each day a series of tasks and instructions which were meant to develop their corporeal awareness (own body and body of others/proxemics), their sensitivity for space at different scales (interior, exterior, urban), their imagination and perception of affordances. These skills were applied in performances which explored through play the interaction between bodies and space, empathy, embodied simulation and aesthetic experience. The theoretical references for the performances were the research of Juhani Pallasmaa, Harry Francis Mallgrave, Alberto Perez-Gomez, Michael Arbib, Vittorio Gallese, Alessandro Gattara and Alva Noe.
The course was meant to make students access their creative process through embodiment by training them to be consciously aware of their body, surroundings, habitual patterns of sensing and behaviour and triggering other possibilities of thinking and acting. In this experiential way, students learned how to develop their perceptual and sensing skills in order to establish new connections
in the brain which are important to design and think about architecture and urban space
as embodied experiences.
The theme of the performances developed was DILEMMATA. A „Dilemma“ by definition is the paradox of having to choose one of two options, either equally pleasant or equally unpleasant. In the performances this idea was applied to consciously think about choice in action, integrating in the creative process the restrictions of COVID – 19, rules for social distancing and wearing a mask.
For more information on the Corporeal Architecture project please access this channel’s inbox and the image archive on https://corporeal.persona.co
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