TECHNIQUES

Embodying complexity

Use your body to explore and transform the personal limits we experience as we co-create.

Written by

Scarlett Kassimatis

Edited by

Carolina Roman Gonzalez, Fiammetta Wegner, and Gioel Gioacchino

Developed by

Scarlett Kassimatis, Carolina Roman Gonzalez and Marcela Arreaga Vela, with the support of Fiammetta Wegner

Stages:Community Building* Enabling Action

As part of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) training Recrear hosted in Barcelona (April 2019), we were asking ourselves how to exist as part of an alive and healthy system. We designed this activity to answer the research question, ‘What are my limits to co-creation?’.

We reflected that co-creating requires emotional attention and, most likely, working through some discomfort. Yet, understanding and sharing our experiences of discomfort cognitively can be very hard. For this reason, to explore our question we wanted to pull from the embodiment techniques that we had learnt during the course. We came up with this exercise to allow people to express and transform complex feelings, thoughts, and ideas through the intelligence of the body, without needing to define them first.

This technique allows participants to explore complex thoughts through the body, without demanding to express complex notions eloquently. The technique also allows for empathic and collective analysis of personal experiences, without requiring participants to be confident speakers in group situations. It also invites participants to explore possibly sensitive topics in the safety of a pair.

The exercise does require some level of confidence in order to achieve the most out of both the embodied parts and the debrief. The exercise is largely accessible, though it requires the ability to move and communicate in some way. We wondered how much of the activity to explain at the outset: we concluded that it may be better to provide an overview of the entire process before beginning. There is a challenge around note-taking/observing discussions: it can be off-putting to have someone observing your discussion but not participating. This should be communicated properly. If participants find the presence of the observer hinders discussions, working in pairs without an observer remains an option.

This technique can be used to develop empathy, feel the emotions of others in your own body. It can be used to explore internal and personal limits to situations other than co-creation.

Before you facilitate this exercise with a group, we suggest you run a trial session internally with your colleagues/friends and use it to reflect on your own challenges collaborating.

This is an exercise that needs to be run slowly and ideally in silence. Tell participants to communicate only through body images and wait for instructions to debrief.