Focused Discussions
Movement and Mental Health: Performance-based Projects with Workman Arts
Focused Discussion Cara Spooner
Using two performance-based projects as case studies, I would like to talk about my experiences as the Education Manager at Workman Arts (an arts and mental health organization in Toronto) and about how my practice as a choreographer has been woven into my role through the experience of creating work with and alongside Workman members. Workman Arts supports artists who have lived experience of mental health and addiction issues through providing access to free multi-disciplinary art education, studio space, professional development and presentation opportunities. I would like to discuss the foundation and context that Workman Arts provided for two collaborative works I created with Workman members: Chorus (a site-specific performance at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health hospital) and You&Us (a 360 degree dance film for an audience of one). Both of these works aimed to dissolve distinctions between professional/non-professional, able/disabled and performer/audience through process-based performance and workshop facilitation. For this conference presentation, I aim to give an overview about Workman Arts, show documentation and describe the case study pieces, "screen" the 360 film and offer embodied examples of how the work was created.
This Body of Mine: For an Ontology of the Dancing Body
Focused Discussion Carolina Bergonzoni
In my paper, I will discuss my understanding of body knowledge as it arises from more than 15 years in the dance field; specifically, I will analyze my experience as a dance improviser and a dance facilitator in community context. Following Ben Spatz’s definition of body as a “wide territory” (2015, 11), I will argue that body knowledge is a reliable, yet different, form of knowledge. I will then consider improvisation as a tool for philosophical inquiry. In doing so, I will address questions such as: How is the body a methodological tool for understanding what we can learn from the body itself? As a dancer, a scholar, and an educator: How can I move from the dance to the writing, and from the writing to the dance?
Engaging Art: How Artists Contribute to the Development of International Norms on Human Displacement Related to Disasters and Climate Change
Focused Discussion Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat
Numerous artists address themes related to human displacement, disasters and climate change through community-based projects, exhibitions in art institutions, academic research, activist campaigns, and direct contributions to international policymaking processes. This presentation discusses on-going, practice-based doctoral research exploring how international relations theory, namely Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink’s theory of a norm life cycle, can provide a foundation for elaborating a theoretical and conceptual framework to analyze and better understand the impacts of these diverse forms of artistic engagement. By applying the framework to examine five case studies of artistic practice, the research ultimately aims to propose potential strategies artists could consider for engaging and contributing to international policymaking efforts to improve protection and assistance for people displaced by disasters. Discussion will be welcomed on the overall research question and approach, examples of artistic practice, and research methodology.
