‘Movement as Data’ was developed by Christy Zinn, with Grade 8 and 9 learners at the Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT school) in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Christy developed this technique as part of her master research, which explored how the organizational culture of a public school was embodied.
“The research was developed very experimentally and ‘free movement’ (the practice of moving freely as an expression of how your body is feeling in the moment) was our main source of observational data.
We played with various processes, from sharing stories of significant memories followed by ‘free movement’ exercises, to simply arriving at the session after a long day at school and going straight into ‘free movement’, only speaking about what came up in the exercise afterward. We also practiced ‘free movement’ to certain themes that were arising from the research about the organizational culture of the school, and we then imagined what the opposite movement would be like.
Through this experimentation, and as we became more comfortable moving freely with one another, we started to notice two things: 1) when we do free movement, often a phrase or an image comes up for us while we are moving (a metaphor), and 2) when I imitate the free movement of another, the body is able to sense the meaning of a movement far better than by simply observing another person’s movement; images and phrases come up even if we were just repeating the movements of others, without knowing anything else about their movement (whether it was inspired by a feeling, etc.).
We realized we could use our own body as processors of the data (the meaning-making of other’s movement) and we developed a way of ‘cross-pollinating’ data, through imitating the movements of others and speaking about the metaphors that would come up for each of us.
We embarked on various cycles of reflecting through the body, followed and verbal discussion with the intention of constantly connecting the two kinds of data (verbal/intellect with movement/body). This greatly enriched the analysis of data.”
This technique is based on the assumption that the body holds knowledge. When we don’t use the body, we deny ourselves the opportunity to tap into the wealth of our own knowledge and possibilities. This technique also has a large element of playfulness, which helps to establish a sense of comfort and safety among the group.
Most people have never asked their body for its opinion. Our body is a part of us that we are often not proud of, not prioritized, and not given attention. It might take some time to get comfortable asking your body, ‘how is this experience/thought/memory/situation making you feel?’, ‘what do you need to do in order to respond?’, ‘what do you need from me right now?’
The beauty of such a process is that, the more you do it, and the more you give your body the space it needs to express itself, the more connected you will become with your body, and the easier it will get to trust your body’s expression of your knowledge. This will help you become a more intuitive researcher (aware of your senses in context).
To expand on this, when I started working with school learners using the body, they felt 1) self-conscious, and 2) a sense of pressure to do it ‘right,’ as if there was a ‘right’ way of moving, or as if the purpose was to produce something aesthetically beautiful. Most of the learners simply didn’t know how to even begin moving. We needed to spend a lot of time in the beginning doing fun exercises such as cartwheels, dancing, games to get us all comfortable with moving in front of one another.
This technique was used during the fieldwork stage, as a means of collecting data. It was also used by me as a way to process theory, during the writing of my thesis: It was a real struggle to have done research in an extremely embodied way, and then return to the process of, literaly, writing a thesis – an exercise restricted to my brain, my eyes, and the tips of my fingers typing on a computer.
I found the process very ‘disembodied’ and in contradiction to the process with which I had chosen to undertake this research from the beginning. As a way of reconciling this, I found it helpful to process academic articles through the body as well.
There are times when you are reading one article after the next, and there is something that you are feeling, it’s at the tip of your tongue but you cannot articulate it, or you feel that there is something missing, or you can feel that one body of literature connects with another, but you cannot quite articulate the connection. I would get up, and physically move to these tensions or moments of grappling and feel what comes up for me. Sometimes a phrase comes to mind while you are moving, or an image, or even an emotion, and I keep moving to it, allowing my body to process the tension or ideological challenge, rather than my brain. While you’re moving, pay attention to the quality of the movements (are your movements light or heavy, are they circular or linear, clear or distorted, sudden or sustained, etc.?).
The description of these qualities can help you in the write up process to describe the missing piece/the connection between two literatures/the aspect of the literature that you want to speak to.
Using the technique during the literature review and write up phase of a research process: It is useful to start and writing/reading with a simple meditation to bring your awareness to your heart space. Be deliberate about taking your awareness from the space behind your eyes (your brain), down – past the back of your head, your mouth, your jaw, your neck and towards your heart, where you can allow it to rest. From there, when you find yourself grappling with a particular aspect of the literature, and you find it’s something you just can’t quite articulate, allow that aspect to inspire free movement. Give yourself some space, and make sure you are in a place where you feel comfortable moving on your own, and simply move.
Notice any phrases or images or emotions that come up for you (after moving, it is useful to write these down), and keep moving to that, allowing the moving to progress into different qualities if it needs to: simply hand the grappling over to your body to process. Once you find your movements becoming repetitive for some time, and you feel that you have grasped what you can from the body, feel free to bring the movement to an end, and immediately write down everything that emerged for you.
Go back to the literature problem with this new insight, and hopefully drawing from the body would have clarified/assisted with your processing of the literature.
Tips and Traps
Make the process as participative as possible. When members of the group are struggling with the idea of doing free movement (something that can be intimidating when there isn’t a sense of established trust amongst the group, yet), open up the floor for suggestions on how to explore a particular theme, memory, or situation in an embodied way. This can even be an exercise of its own, where the group comes up with its own techniques for engaging with the body.
Perhaps an important note as well is to make clear that movement cannot be done ‘wrong’. Sometimes we try to engage our body in the same way we engage our brains: in a hurry, and with pressure to perform. Give yourself enough time to bring your awareness to your heart space, breath, even sway, to bring yourself to the present moment, before inviting your body to process the aspect of your research you are needing to grapple with.
