“Skeleton Boat on an Ocean of Organs” and other stories: understanding and evoking posthuman relations through site-based dance, somatic practices, performance writing and artist-books

ABSTRACT

Excerpts of performance writing from three dance research projects are at the heart of this article. It explores relationships between bodies, sites and ecologies and offers methods for documenting creative inquiry through a posthuman/new materialist paradigm. Projects discussed include the interdisciplinary art/science installation Fluid City; a dance research process entitled Moving, Writing, Living – Experimental Documentary Practices in Site Specific Dance Research and the site-based dance workshop Into the Fields.

KEYWORDS:

• Somatics
• performance writing
• artist-books
• new materialisms
• site specific dance

Acknowledgements

This article is indebted to many collaborators who have enabled the research articulated here to occur. Deep thanks to Paula Kramer, Jan Burkhardt, HZT Dance School (Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin), Ufer Studios, SommerTanz Berlin, Jeffrey Holdaway, Charlotte Šunde, SCANZ; Water Art Peace Residency 2015, Sasha Matthewman, Karen Fisher, The University of Auckland, Carol Brown, Clark Ehlers, Katie Fitzpatrick, Kathy Waghorn, Gary Brierley, Rosemary Martin, Val Smith, Mike Joy, Mike Holdaway, Rosalind Holdaway and Elena Holdaway. The lecture demonstration “Skeleton Boat on an Ocean of Organs” has been performed in different versions at two conferences, the Oceanic Performance Biennial, Auckland, N.Z., and at the Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry, U.K.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.