Higher ED held a Weather Sensing workshop on Governor’s island on September 23, 2012. It was a small focused group of willing movers and flyers and we passed many hrs in a wide field beneath a bright clear sky–which later became a canvas for skywriting.
These images were taken by a gopro camera that was set to take a photo every 5 seconds. We carried the camera around, set on the grass, danced, talked and ate around it,and attempted to fly it in the air. Here are some moments caught by its eye.
movement instructions:
Sensory warm-up (tuning our instruments), 25mins
Pick a small site and research it by focusing on one sense at a time: taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight.
Taste: air, and your mouth as it is, subtle but how does it change over time while noticing? Also explore mouth’s capability to seek/lead movement
Smell: plants, ground, air, materials, clothes, gathering information, breath, smelling inhale and exhale?
Touch: through skin, feel textures of grass, leaves, concrete, air. Focus both on sensitive areas of body (fingertips eyelids) and less sensitive ones—back, legs etc. differentiating touch moments or moving as one continuous touch?
Hearing: Sounds close, distant, very distant. Distinguishing between sounds or wide focus to hearing a wash of sound, Are there also vibrations in your body, can you hear through skin and bones?
Sight: sight under closed lids, cracked lids, open eyes, seeing textures, seeing and naming, seeing and not naming, sight as motivation for movement
Ask for people to share thoughts, questions, etc.
Wind sensing, 30mins
With our “tuned sensors,” we will turn our focus to the wind. In a still position, run through a check-list of our senses. Where on our bodies do we feel the wind? What in our vision is moved by it? Continue with listening to, smelling, and tasting wind in this position. Move to a new position and repeat sense check-list. Try this in a few different positions, facings, levels, note changes.
Wind sculptures: Moving or still, experiment with shapes cut that and obstruct the wind, or bend to it, letting it pass over your body or into your clothing. Or behave like a ventifact: if this force blew on you for a very long time, what shape would you become?
Speed: walk, run, stand—adjust your walking/running speed to match wind speed. Try also going much slower or faster than it.
In pairs: Offer and seek shelter from one another, and expose each other to the wind.
Share elements of your experience in movement. ½ group watches while other ½ performs, switch, and then talk about it
Cloud Observation: 30 mins
In pairs, pick location and watch clouds for 7mins, then free-write for 7 minutes while continuing to watch the clouds. Read your writing to one another. From your writing, (or from a provided cloud movement quote list) pick two phrases that will be instructions for a dance. Solo for 5 mins with these instructions, then the witness reflects what they saw. Share. Change roles.
