(PDF) Unknowingly, A threshold-crossing movement

idea journal co-constructing body-environments vol. 17, no. 02 2020 the journal of IDEA: the interior design + interior architecture educators’ association vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing 2020 body-environments idea journal co-constructing body-environments vol. 17, no. 02 2020 the journal of IDEA: the interior design + interior architecture educators’ association vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing front 03 2020 body-environments matter about membership IDEA (Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators’ Association) Institutional Members: was formed in 1996 for the advancement and advocacy of education Membership is open to programs at higher education institutions in by encouraging and supporting excellence in interior design/interior Australasia that can demonstrate an on-going commitment to the architecture education and research within Australasia. objectives of IDEA. www.idea-edu.com Current members: The objectives of IDEA are: AUT University, Auckland 1. Objects Curtin University, Perth Massey University, Wellington 3.1 The general object of IDEA is the advancement of education by: Monash University, Melbourne (a) encouraging and supporting excellence in interior design/interior Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane architecture/spatial design education and research globally and with RMIT University, Melbourne specific focus on Oceania; and University of New South Wales, Sydney University of South Australia, Adelaide (b) being an authority on, and advocate for, interior design/interior University of Tasmania, Launceston and Hobart architecture/spatial design education and research. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney Victoria University, Wellington 3.2 The specific objects of IDEA are: Affiliate Members: (a) to be an advocate for undergraduate and postgraduate programs at a minimum of AQF7 or equivalent education in interior design/interior Affiliate membership is open to programs at higher education institutions architecture/spatial design; in Australasia that do not currently qualify for institutional membership but support the objectives of IDEA. Affiliate members are non-voting members (b) to support the rich diversity of individual programs within the higher of IDEA. education sector; Associate Members: (c) to create collaboration between programs in the higher education sector; Associate membership is open to any person who supports the objectives of IDEA. Associate members are non-voting members of IDEA. (d) to foster an attitude of lifelong learning; Honorary Associate Members: (e) to encourage staff and student exchange between programs; In recognition of their significant contribution as an initiator of IDEA, a (f) to provide recognition for excellence in the advancement of interior former chair and/or executive editor: Suzie Attiwill, Rachel Carley, design/interior architecture/spatial design education; and Lynn Chalmers, Lynn Churchill, Jill Franz, Roger Kemp, Tim Laurence, (g to foster, publish and disseminate peer reviewed interior design/interior Gini Lee, Marina Lommerse, Gill Matthewson, Dianne Smith, architecture/spatial design research. Harry Stephens, George Verghese, Andrew Wallace and Bruce Watson. vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing front 04 2020 body-environments matter publishing idea journal editorial board © Copyright 2020 IDEA (Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators’ Dr Julieanna Preston, Executive Editor, Professor of Spatial Practice, Association) and AADR (Spurbuchverlag) and authors Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand All rights reserved. Dr Anthony Fryatt, Program Manager, Bachelor of Interior Design (Hons), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia No part of the work must in any mode (print, photocopy, microfilm, CD or any other process) be reproduced nor – by application of electronic Dr Susan Hedges, Senior Lecturer, Spatial Design, School of Art and systems – processed, manifolded nor broadcast without approval of the Design, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand copyright holders. Dr Antony Pelosi, Senior Lecturer, Interior Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand ISSN 2208-9217 ISBN 978-3-88778-917-6 Dr Luke Tipene, Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia Published by Art Architecture Design Research (AADR): aadr.info. AADR publishes research with an emphasis on the relationship between Professor Lois Weinthal, External Advisory Member, Chair of the School of critical theory and creative practice. AADR Curatorial Editor: Dr Rochus Interior Design, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada Urban Hinkel, Melbourne. cover image IDEA (Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators’ Association) ACN 135 337 236; ABN 56 135 337 236 Animation by Jo Bailey (2020) of “Giacometti Strata, Bioscleave” (2015). Robert Bowen, Photographer Registered at the National Library of Australia online publication editor idea journal is published by AADR and is distributed through common ebook platforms. Selected articles are available online as open source at Dr Antony Pelosi, Senior Lecturer, Interior Architecture, Victoria University time of publication, and the whole issue is made open access on the idea of Wellington, New Zealand journal website one year after its date of publication. copy editor Dr Christina Houen, Perfect Words Editing design + production Jo Bailey, School of Design, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand correspondence Correspondence regarding this publication should be addressed to: Dr Lynn Churchill c/o idea journal Interior Architecture Curtin University GPO Box U1987 Perth 6845 Western Australia

vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing front 05 2020 body-environments matter co-constructing body-environments: reviewers for this issue provocation Charles Anderson Presenters at Body of Knowledge: Art and Embodied Cognition Conference Cameron Bishop (BoK2019 hosted by Deakin University, Melbourne, June 2019) are invited Rachel Carley to submit contributions to a special issue of idea journal “Co-Constructing Felipe Cervera Body-Environments” to be published in December 2020. The aim of the Harah Chon special issue is to extend the current discussions of art as a process of Chris Cottrell social cognition and to address the gap between descriptions of embodied David Cross cognition and the co-construction of lived experience. Rea Dennis Pia Ednie-Brown We ask for papers, developed from the presentations delivered at the Scott Elliott conference, that focus on interdisciplinary connections and on findings Andrew Goodman arising from intersections across research practices that involve art and Stefan Greuter theories of cognition. In particular, papers should emphasize how spatial Shelley Hannigan art and design research approaches have enabled the articulation of Mark Harvey a complex understanding of environments, spaces and experiences. Susan Hedges This could involve the spatial distribution of cultural, organisational and Jondi Keane conceptual structures and relationships, as well as the surrounding design Meghan Kelly features. Gini Lee Contributions may address the questions raised at the conference Marissa Lindquist and explore: Alys Longley Olivia Millard + How do art and spatial practices increase the potential for knowledge Belinda Mitchell transfer and celebrate diverse forms of embodied expertise? Patrick Pound Remco Roes + How the examination of cultures of practice, Indigenous knowledges Luke Tipene and cultural practices offer perspectives on inclusion, diversity, George Themistokleous neurodiversity, disability and social justice issues? Russell Tytler + How the art and spatial practices may contribute to research Rose Woodcock perspectives from contemporary cognitive neuroscience and the philosophy of mind? + The dynamic between an organism and its surroundings for example: How does art and design shift the way knowledge and thinking processes are acquired, extended and distributed? + How art and design practices demonstrate the ways different forms of acquiring and producing knowledge intersect? These and other initial provocations for the conference can be found on the conference web-site: https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/bok2019/cfp/. vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing 06 2020 body-environments in this issue 06 in this issue 08 introduction: unknowingly, a threshold-crossing movement Julieanna Preston 13 enacting bodies of knowledge Jondi Keane Rea Dennis Meghan Kelly 32 ‘how do I know how I think, until I see what I say?’: the shape of embodied thinking, neurodiversity, first-person methodology Patricia Cain 58 how moving is sometimes thinking Shaun Gallagher 69 movement, narrative and multiplicity in embodied orientation and collaboration from prehistory to the present David Turnbull 87 ‘stim your heart out’ and ‘syndrome rebel’ (performance artworks, autism advocacy and mental health) Prue Stevenson 105 gentle house: co-designing with an autistic perception Chris Cottrell 121 sympathetic world-making: drawing-out ecological-empathy Pia Ednie-Brown Beth George Michael Chapman Kate Mullen 144 shared reality: a phenomenological inquiry Jack Parry 163 embodied aporia: exploring the potentials for posing questions through architecture Scott Andrew Elliott 180 embodiment of values Jane Bartier Shelley Hannigan Malcolm Gardiner Stewart Mathison vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing 07 2020 body-environments 201 sensing space: an exploration of the generation of depth and space with reference to hybrid moving image works and reported accounts of intense aesthetic experience Sally McLaughlin 215 sound, silence, resonance, and embodiment: choreographic synaesthesia Lucía Piquero Álvarez 230 musicking as ecological behaviour: an integrated ‘4e’ view Michael Golden 248 everything of which I was once conscious but have now forgotten: encounters with memory Mig Dann 265 re-presenting a dance moment Ashlee Barton 275 hidden worlds: missing histories affecting our digital future J Rosenbaum 289 is my body out of date? the drag of physicality in the digital age Elly Clarke 326 seeing not looking Anne Wilson 335 dance as a social practice: the shared physical and social environment of group dance improvisation Olivia Millard 350 performance and new materialism: towards an expanded notion of a non-human agency Alyssa Choat vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing introduction julieanna 08 2020 body-environments preston introduction: unknowingly, a threshold-crossing movement Julieanna Preston Executive Editor idea journal It is in this special issue that the editorial board holds true to our promise to expand the horizons and readership of idea journal while reaching out to associated and adjacent art, design and performance practices and drawing connections to seemingly distant disciplines. The articles in this issue have provenance in a 2019 conference event, Bodies of Knowledge (BOK), which was guided by a similar interdisciplinary ethos. With an emphasis on cultures of practice and communities of practitioners that offer perspectives on inclusion, diversity/neurodiversity and disability, this conference, and this subsequent journal issue, aim to increase knowledge transfer between diverse forms of embodied expertise, in particular, between neuroscience and enactive theories of cognition. This brief description suggests that there are shared issues, subjects and activities that have the potential of generating new understanding in cross-, inter- and trans-disciplinary affiliations and collaborations. My experience in these modes of inquiry points to the importance of identifying what is shared and what is not amongst vocabulary, concepts, pedagogies and methods. Holding these confluences and diverges without resorting to strict definition, competition or judgement of right and wrong often affords greater understanding and empathy amongst individuals to shape a collective that is diverse in its outlooks, and hopefully, curious as to what it generates together because of that diversity. cite as: Preston, Julieanna. ‘Introduction: Unknowingly, a threshold-crossing movement,’ idea journal 17, no. 02 (2020): 08 – 12, https://doi.org/10.37113/ij.v17i02.412. vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing introduction julieanna 09 2020 body-environments preston The breadth of the knowledge bases represented within this issue necessitated that the peer reviewer list expanded once again like the previous issue. It was in the process of identifying reviewers with appropriate expertise that the various synapses between scholarly and artistic practices became evident. It is these synapses that shape sturdy bridges between the journal’s existing readership, which is predominantly academics and students in interior design, interior architecture, spatial design and architecture, and the wide range of independent scholars and practitioners, academics, and students attracted to BOK’s thematic call for papers, performative lectures and exhibitions. At the risk of being reductive to the complexity and nuances in the research to follow, I suggest that the following terms and concerns are central to this issue, aptly inferred by its title, ‘Co-Constructing Body-Environments’: spatiality; subjectivity; phenomenology; processual and procedural practice; artistic research; critical reflection; body: experience. All of these are frequent to research and practice specific to interiors. In this issue, however, we find how these terms and concerns are situated and employed in other fields, in other ways and for other purposes. This is healthy exercise. To stretch one’s reach, literally and metaphorically is to travel the distance between the me and the you, to be willingly open to what might eventuate. Imagine shaking the hand of a stranger—a somatic experience known to register peaceful intent, respect, courage, warmth, pressure, humour, nervous energy, and so much more. This threshold- crossing movement is embodied and spatial; it draws on a multitude of small yet complex communication sparks well before verbal impulses ensue. This significant bodily gesture sets the tone for what might or could happen. Based on my understanding of the research presented in ‘Co-Constructing Body-Environments,’ I propose that this is a procedure in the Gins and Arakawa sense that integrates theory and practice as a hypothesis for ‘questioning all possible ways to observe the body-environment in order to transform it.’01 I call this as unknowingly—a process that takes the risk of not knowing, not being able to predict or predetermine, something akin to the spectrum of ‘throwing caution to the wind’ and ‘sailing close to vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing introduction julieanna 10 2020 body-environments preston the wind’. My use of the word ‘unknowingly’ embraces intuition where direct access to unconscious knowledge and pattern- recognition, unconscious cognition, inner sensing and insight have the ability to understand something without any need for conscious reasoning. Instinct. The word unknowingly also affords me to invoke the ‘unknowing’ element of this interaction—to not know, to not be aware of, to not have all the information (as if that was possible)— an acknowledgement of human humility. I borrow and adapt this facet of unknowingly from twentieth-century British writer Alan Watts: This I don’t know, is the same thing as, I love. I let go. I don’t try to force or control. It’s the same thing as humility. If you think that you understand Brahman, you do not understand. And you have yet to be instructed further. If you know that you do not understand, then you truly understand. 02 Unknowingly also allows me to reference ‘un’ as a tactic of learning that suspends the engrained additive model of learning. Though I could refer to many other scholarly sources to fuel this concept, here I am indebted to Canadian author Scott H. Young’s pithy advice on how to un-learn: This is the view that what we think we know about the world is a veneer of sense-making atop a much deeper strangeness. The things we think we know, we often don’t. The ideas, philosophies and truths that guide our lives may be convenient approximations, but often the more accurate picture is a lot stranger and more interesting.03 In his encouragement to unlearn—dive into strangeness, sacrifice certainty, boldly expose oneself to randomness, mental discomfort, instability, to radically rethink that place/ your place/ our place, suspend aversions to mystery—Young’s examples from science remind us that: vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing introduction julieanna 11 2020 body-environments preston Subatomic particles aren’t billiard balls, but strange, complex-valued wavefunctions. Bodies aren’t vital fluids and animating impulses, but trillions of cells, each more complex than any machine humans have invented. Minds aren’t unified loci of consciousness, but the process of countless synapses firing in incredible patterns. 04 Figure 01: Meeting the horizon; A still image from Shore Variations, a 2018 In like manner to the BOK2019 conference which was staged as a film by Claudia Kappenberg that reimagines Waning, a 2016 live art temporally infused knowledge-transfer event across several days, performance by Julieanna Preston. venues, geographies and disciplines, I too, ingested the materials https://vimeo.com/user11308386. submitted for this issue in this spirit of unknowingly. The process was creative, critical, intuitive, generative and reflective—all those buzz words of contemporary research—yet charged with substantial respect and curiosity for whatever unfolded, even if it went against the grain of what I had learned previously. For artists, designers, architects, musicians, and performers reading this journal issue, especially academics and students, this territory of inquiry may feel familiar to the creative experience and the increasing demands (and desires) to account for how one knows what one knows in the institutional setting. ‘Explain yourself,’ as the review or assessment criteria often states. If you are faced having to annotate your creative practice or to critically reflect on aspects that are so embedded in your making that you are unaware of them, I encourage you to look amongst the pages of this journal issue for examples of how others have grappled with that task such that the process is a space of coming to unknow and know, unknowingly. vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing introduction julieanna 12 2020 body-environments preston There are a few people I would like to acknowledge before you read further. First, huge gratitude to the generosity of the peer reviewers, for the time and creative energy of guest editors Jondi Keane, Rea Dennis and Meghan Kelly (who have made the process so enjoyable and professional), for the expertise of the journal’s copy editor Christina Houen and Graphic Designer Jo Bailey, and to AADR for helping to expand the journal’s horizons. Okay, readers, shake hands, consider yourself introduced, welcome into the idea journal house, and let’s share a very scrumptious meal. acknowledgements I am forever grateful for what life in Aotearoa/ New Zealand brings. With roots stretching across the oceans to North America, Sweden, Wales and Croatia, I make my home between Kāpiti Island and the Tararua Ranges, and in Te Whanganui-A-Tara/ Wellington. I acknowledge the privilege that comes with being educated, employed, female and Pākehā, and the prejudices and injustices that colonialism has and continues to weigh on this land and its indigenous people. I am committed to on-going learning and practicing of Kaupapa Māori. notes 01 J ondi Keane, ‘An Arakawa and Gins Experimental Teaching Space; A Feasibilty Study,’ INFLeXions 6 (2012), accessed 29 October 2020, http://www. inflexions.org/n6_keane.html. lan Watts, Creating Who You 02 A Are (Video) (n.d.), accessed 29 October 2020, https://vimeo. com/76888920. 03 S cott H. Young, ‘The Art of Unlearning’ (2018), accessed 29 October 2020, https:// www.scotthyoung.com/ blog/2018/04/12/the-art-of- unlearning/. 04 Young, ‘The Art of Unlearning.’ vol. 17, no. 02 co-constructing 362 2020 body-environments vol. 17, no. 02: co-constructing body-environment out dec 2020 idea-edu.com/ journal the journal of IDEA: the interior design + interior architecture educators’ association