BODY MANIPULATION RESEARCH
Body Manipulation Research is a performance practice that uses
ephemeral materials and action-based scores to engage with a passive body. The
process involves an active and a passive actor, with roles that
can shift and adapt to varying degrees of activity or passivity. The active
actor works with the passive body to either elevate its energy or guide it away
from a certain state—always with care—supporting both in moving toward altered
states of consciousness (ASCs). In these scores, the body is treated in a
non-hierarchical manner. Hands and stomachs are not different than genitals,
care is placed in the treatment of all tissues. The scores fluctuate between
bringing attention to the superficial, skin level, and to the organ level.
Drawing and manipulating as if to map out the organs can provide cartographies
of the interior of the body. Drawing and molding the visible and the
invisible: the veins, blood, nerves, bones, skin, organs, scars, birth marks,
freckles, tattoos, pores, pimples, facia, ligaments, articulations, memories,
and the chakras, are taken into account.