Final Projects: "Body Practice" (4/30)

Final Projects in Body Practice

Due 4/30-with presentations in class

“We know not through our intellect but through our experience.”

(Merleau-Ponty)

How does learning to both move the body and move it differently change our experience of the world? This change is the process of “rehabituation”.

It is based on the premise that the body is the principle vehicle for experiencing the world, and through these experiences we gain a sense of “self”. It is this sense of self, which informs us in our interactions in the world.

Timeline for Final Projects

By February 1:

            Choose a “body experience” that is “new” for you to dedicate yourself to over the course of this semester. You will be required to participate in this body experience for two hours each week and observe and write about these new experiences in your body (learning to move a new way) and in society.

           

By March 1:

            Document your body practice by keeping a journal of your practice and your experience of it.

Self Image:

-----Who are you in your body? How has this sense of self been altered as you learn a new way to move. Discuss these changes in detail.

-----Do you move about differently in your social world?

            Relationship to your body:

            -----Has your relationship to your body changed? If so, how?

            Cultural Definition of you as your body:

            -----How does culture define you according to your body? Does culture have expectations (roles, etc.) for your body experience? What are they?

            -----What is the relationship between your mind and your body?

Presentation and write-up      Due April 30