Traversing the succession of space to place to home: a kinesthetic comprehension of the body as it forms an epistemology of space

ABSTRACT

This research investigates how the kinesthetic body forms knowledge of an environment and how that knowledge transforms with the involvement of participants. A Practice as Research (PAR) methodology employs the body as primary agent in cognition. Choreographic and improvisational movement devices assist the task of tracing cognition in participants’ home environment. These devices include haptic and visual perception tasks, spatial behavior, spatial patterning, and habitual movement analysis. Research participants include professional dancers and students within a university setting. The experiential learning theories of John Dewey, David Kolb, and Alice Kolb shift a spatial paradigm of one to a group, egalitarian paradigm. Illuminated through this research is the body’s significant role in forming theoretical and practical knowledge. Body and environment exist as one.

KEYWORDS:

• Embodied cognition
• experiential learning
• performative studies
• phenomenology
• practice-based research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Matzke

Sarah Matzke is an artist, choreographer, and professor of dance at Texas Christian University and The University of Texas at Dallas. Matzke holds a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Jacksonville University and a Bachelor of Arts from Southern Methodist University. She is the co-founder of a non-profit organization that equips leaders in developing countries to use somatic movement for healing and community reconstruction. As a guest artist, Matzke has taught in the United States, South America, Southeastern Asia, and the Middle East. Her research focuses on embodied cognition, architecture, and the roles of experiential learning theory in education. (www.sarahmatzke.co).