Most of
the work that goes on in the Centre for Rural Economy involves the brain rather
than the body. You might hear
conversation, the tapping of keyboards, a kettle boiling, a clatter of cups. We connect via spoken and written words, using
all kinds of communications technology, or meet face to face over cups of
coffee. We may move books and papers
around, but none of this requires a great deal of physical effort. So when Claire Pençak, who has been our
artist in residence over the past year, came to talk to me as part of her evaluation
of the residency, I wondered why I hadn’t taken more advantage of her presence
in CRE. Claire uses choreography and
visual art in her practice, while I use words.
Suddenly the idea of bringing these together to consider “connections between
choreography and social science” seemed like a really interesting idea. I always favour the surprise element in any presentation
or event so this was an opportunity to shake my colleagues out of their expectations
about what a seminar is. We decided that
this seminar wasn’t going to be about brain work alone. Claire and I devised a very simple
format. I asked the participants to
write down three words about connections.
Then, without sharing these, everyone took part in a choreography
exercise, led by Claire. We worked in
pairs, balancing bamboo canes between us.
The trick of is to learn how your partner moves, to push forward and
give way in time with one another. In
doing so, each pair keeps their bamboo canes aloft; if one person exerts too
much power or fails to respond to their partner, the canes fall to the ground. Then, when we had (more or less) mastered
this, everyone in the workshop worked as a group to balance the canes between
them. It’s a fascinating exercise in
respecting others’ space while working together to achieve an objective. Afterwards everyone wrote another three words
about “connections”, and shared both sets of words with their colleagues. It was interesting to see how this second set
of words was subtly different from the initial thoughts: words such as “peace”
and “friend” and “interdependence” and “reciprocity” appeared rather than “email”,
“buses” “wires” and “links”.
Finally,
everyone wrote a few lines on the theme of “connections. This is one example:
Sensing the direction
through new pathways
knowledge at our
fingertips
yet poles
apart.