I joined Anya’s AestheSis ≱ AestheTic workshop, not as a participant but supporting facilitator. To warm up participants I did some arthletics exercises where we jumped around. I practised and performed the exercises that I’ve been developing with the first year Master Critical Fashion Practices students. We only did it for about 15 minutes. We were moving to chants I had recorded the previous day on my computer.
The feedback afterwards was mostly positive. I got some really great constructive feedback from the first year’s. The first year said they enjoyed the exercises, it was fun for them to jump around and do all the performative actions that we associated with getting dressed normally. I was surprised to learn this, I thought people would just think I’m crazy, but it does seem to tickle and awaken something inside people. I was surprised to learn that they would have liked to do it longer. Like I know I have unlimited amounts of energy, and I can jump around all day. But I often assume other people don’t want to get sweaty or be exhausted My original intention was to practice #artletics in 30 minutes to one hour workshops. The first years said they also would like to participate more in the exercise classes. They said they would prefer if the chants were performed live or said out loud, as opposed to a recording (honestly I just recorded it since I had not memorised the chants yet). Or if there was a recording, that there would be moments in between where I spoke out loud or asked questions. During the discussions process the idea of going back and forth between me and the participants popped into my head. I will incormporate it into my next workshop. The first years had good feedback on performative behaviour in general and how, while we are performing ‘dress’ we are simultaneously creating a new performance. There is scope to think about that dimension more, especially since I am also interested in agency and intr-relationality. A few days later, Chloe share some really interesting videos about people interacting with textile on a public square. I will incrporate something similar into my next exercise workshop. I was happy with all their constructive and overall positive feedback.
I’m also happy to be partnering with Anya. I think it’s gonna go well in the future for us to work together because there’s a lot of overlap in our research. We both want to work with the senses and with the body.
For the Arletics in the park aka parkletics, I gave everyone a piece of fabric to acompnay them on their embodied research journey. I asked them to have the fabric with them throughout the workshop. It was interesting how they all chose to wore it in a different place. I called this piece of textile the fabric friend.