We are wrestling with the slow body in the Urban Tactics & Performance class in trying to squeeze everyone’s presentations into a 3 hour slot while encouraging them to do site-specific and unconventional presentations.
How do you condense bodily experiences into a short demo? One way is to use visual media such as photography, sound, and video. But then how do you use these media so that it doesn’t just become a powerpoint presentation? How do you engage and activate each person while incorporating all the research you’ve gathered and insights you might have garnered?
Media studies is so useful for any research discipline. Thinking about the tools we use, how our research is affected by those tools, what technology and different types of media bring to the table and how they change or in some ways determine what can be captured and seen. Even media studies itself could use a reminder of the meta-research, taking a look at itself and its methods. It crosses over into anthropology and ethnographic studies in that sense. How can I be both a participant and an observer? How does my documentation affect the situation? How could I get creative with it?
The Thoughtful Body: A Speculative Study of Somatic Practice and Technology 