Material Structures: Bodies and Sites

Abstract

In this opening chapter, synergies between bodily structures/forms and material structures on site are introduced and explored. The chapter presents reflection on enmeshments instigated through movement practice, and the potentially affective outcomes of site-based body practice are explored. The theoretical discussions draw on the fields of architectural design and urban planning (Sennett, Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization. London: Faber and Faber, 1994; Bloomer and Moore, Body, Memory, and Architecture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978; Gins and Arakawa, Architectural Body. Tuscaloosa and London: The Architectural Press, 2002), new materialism (Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010; Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016; Barad, Meeting the Universe Half Way: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2007), experiential anatomy and biomimetics (Knippers et al. 2016; Olsen and McHose, The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014) to consider and explore ideas of body-site porosity and articulate practical approaches through which body-site relationships might be deliberated. Through this approach, the chapter explores: How are bodily forms and structures reflected and enmeshed within the built environments we inhabit? What is the affective potential of these synergies and how might `site-based body practice' expose and explore intra-active dialogues between bodies and sites?