Knotting and Unknotting: Queries of Embodied Collaboration

Abstract

This study articulates a process-orientated approach to choreography concerning writing in an expanded field, with critical reflection generated through analytical frameworks. Three outputs of this research include:1 a 20-minute performance, 2 an artist book reflecting on the creative documentation of dance practice, 3 a thesis discussing the critical dimensions of this research. This research presents choreographic and theoretical modes of three key themes. These themes are: objects, environment and bodies. Choreographing Fibre Bodies involved interactions between human and non-human bodies (roped bodies) to explore how object construction can be considered a choreographic process. It engages in post-humanist questions, such as ‘what is a body?’ exploring the materiality of bodies and things (Cohen, 2012, p.6). The research engages with theorists Tim Ingold (Lines, 2007) and Timothy Morton (Hyper-Objects, 2013). In the choreographic and writing processes, this research has revealed that by engaging in play and inter-subjectivity between the lines of choreography, drawing, and writing challenge the roles of human objects and non-human objects to have an equal sense of agency, shifting the notions of what things are and how they seem in choreography. The significance of this research is the multi-modal exploration around fibred bodies and folding through shape, rope, objects, artistic collaborators, and light. This study considers the function of bodies in choreography and how multi-modal choreographic processes can alter the choreographic practice. The research offers a specific interpretation of artistic research through theory and practice, of use to students and practitioners of choreography, practice-led researchers, and interdisciplinary artists. This thesis provides research in both practice and critical thinking with a specific focus on how objects, environments, and bodies enable and stimulate choreographic possibilities.