Bodylightness

8/3/2019 Bodylightness

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what is bodylightness?

some light reading


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A possible definition for Bodylightness:

A bodily shift out of rote routine that is not immediately

classifiable, but is characterized by a sense of lightnessand serenity of the body and mind. It can be playful,simple, active, peaceful, and possibly hilarious.Bodylightness forges connections between people,whether they know it or not. Bodylightness is not Biopower.

This definition has been assembled through the placing side by side of fragments which came fromthinking through the following sections of the Bodylightness research endeavor. It is a definition which ishighly subjective at this point, but which is flexible and up for change as more is understood aboutBodylightness.


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introduction

This collection of thoughts is being assembled at the end of a research project that was undertaken by TealGardner. First termed "Welcome to, Bodylightness," the project proved to have its own needs, whichmanifested in a change from an outward movement (teaching) to an inward one (learning.) Indeed, itwasn't clear to me at first that this was a "research project" at all, rather, I thought I could stand on theplatform of an understanding that I assumedthat I had, and move from there, creating actions andlanguage and having conversations, where I would try and spread Bodylightness. So I began posting signs,and making other small gestures on campus and in other places, that were meant to be part of a "class"that I was teaching to a public that was scattershot and unpredictable. As the weeks wore on, I foundmyself talking about bodylightness more often. Friends would ask "What is Bodylightness?" and I would

struggle to find an answer that fully represented the concept. My understanding of Bodylightness at thattime was very internal, a sense of something rich and true, but for the most part, un-utterable. I wanted tobe able to answer the question, but I lacked a definition. The conversations I was having at that time weregiving me ideas of what others thought that Bodylightness was, and I made my first steps in coming up witha definition for it. At this point I was understanding that I wasn't teaching a class, the class was teachingme: 'Welcome to Bodylightness' was becoming a pedagogy that was instructing me on itself. I just had tokeep asking questions, and the answers, in the form of different dialogues, would appear. What follows inthis document will chart the transformation described above somewhat more closely, using the materials

that I generated in my "search for Bodylightness."


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The Signs

The initial idea behind the project started last summer, when Iwas doing the movable/removable graffiti project. Those arecardboard signs painted with slogans and left in public places.

The sign on the left reads:

CLOSE YOUR EYES & LET

OUT ALL OF THE AIR THAT YOUCAN

This was placed in Omaha's OldMarket. There have been manysuch signs, but this was was madeout of an inclination toward wanting

to stop people, to get them to dosomething specific, something thatwould be beneficial for them to do.It was the first time I had a sense ofBodylightness that I was able totranslate into a physical thing.


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Signs were the most stable form of public discourse that waskept up throughout the research project. I posted two signs perweek (Tuesdays and Thursdays) on bulletin boards in two

different locations, one in Andrew's hall and one in Richard'shall. The language of the signs was meant to disrupt the usualflow between signs and the people who read them. It isunusual to see something posted on a bulletin board that isn't"announcing" something in the conventional sense. My signs

were meant to produce a state of Bodylightness in the reader.


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Of course, since my definition of Bodylightness has been athing in progress over the course of the project, there was noprecise "state of being" that I wished to generate in the reader,but I do think that the signs were able to at least create a

moment's pause for those who came across them- I would seea person standing before one of the signs, looking kind ofbewildered but interested. The paused state caused byencountering a disruption in bulletin board protocol could havebeen followed by perplexity, irritation, contemplation,amusement, annoyance; any one of these feelings could haveoccurred in people. It was beyond the scope of my project todiscover how each person who encountered a sign would react.I did find, however, that each time I wrote and posted a sign, it

was a gesture that I felt was genuine to my inner sense of whatwas essentiall "Bod li ht."


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This particular sense of Bodylightness was one of taking amoment to step outside of my usual routines of school, where Iwould normally be moving from one class to the next,preoccupied with the requirements of the day, to pause myself.

It became a different routine, in the end, that changed myposture, from a state of being wound-up to an externalizedgesture toward others that I consider positive. The performativeaspect of hanging the signs played into this externalization ofpositivity, allowing me to move into and out of a performativeart gesture within a space that I don't generally associate withsuch moves. I define this aspect of searching for/trying toprovoke Bodylightness in others as essentially a personal shifton my part toward understanding and consequently becoming

more "Bodylight."

Definition fragment of Bodylightness:1. A bodily shift out of rote routine.


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The signs themselves ranged in approach, from being ambiguous, potentiallyconfusing statements: "My perfect house is mainly door and today I am full ofwalking" to more direct and clear language: "Your heart is peaceful andgenerous and your posture is incredible." I posted poetry, a few images,questions, confessions, fragmented thoughts, and a promise: "Nothing here will

ever be heavier than Bodylightness." I wanted the signs to become a curiosity,something that people would remember having seen, and that would remain inthe place where I was posting them, stacked atop each other and held by T-pins, so that anyone could look back through the archive if they wished to. Iwanted to create a place that held thoughts people could come back to: freethoughts that weren't easily classifiable, but which were prompts of some kind. Iwanted to be able to have an effect over a group of people who would not knowwho or what was behind the signs. I thought that this willful anonymity on mypart would increase the effect of the signs, making them more mysterious andintriguing.

Bodylightness definition fragment:

2. An experience that is not immediately classifiable, creating asense of mystery.


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The particular texts that were printed on the signs were guidedby my own sense of Bodylightness (however incomplete orunutterable it was when I started this work.) The fact of this

personally subjective aspect to my approach made my ownstate of being an important factor in the sensibilities of thetexts, or, what kind of atmosphere I hoped that the signs wouldproduce when encountered. I wished to keep a sense oflightness and/or serenity present in the signs, that would

hopefully produce something similar in those who encounteredthem.


3. A sense of lightness and serenity of the body and mind.


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One important thing to mention here is that Bodylightness is not something that can be bought or sold. Itis an internal state of being that belongs to the person who is experiencing it. It cannot be purchased,because it is not arrived at through the acquisition of objects or materials. It is a transient state of theawareness of a lightness in one's body, a serenity of the mind, and by definition highly subjective.

The GiftsAnother part of my research entailed leaving objects outdoors on campus, justto see how long it would take a person to pick up the "gift." I deemed thesenonrandom objects "gifts," because they were things that belonged to me- that Iconsidered desirable, and as another way of trying to create Bodylightness, put

those gifts in a busy walking path path. First, I laid a book on the sidewalk andwatched people walk past it. It remained on the ground all day. I left it thereovernight, and when I returned in the morning it was gone. The next day I left agold necklace on the steps near the Sheldon, this time drawing a circle aroundit, and writing, "for you." This also remained throughout the day, and when Icame to check the next day it was still there. I left it there for three days and

then removed it. I put it in the water filled notch of a tree and forgot about it fora while. Weeks later when I remembered that I'd put it in the tree, I took it out.All of the gold had been tarnished away, and now it was dark bronze, achanged thing. I put that necklace on a stone pedestal near the Woods artbuilding, and it disappeared by later that afternoon.


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4. Bodylight activity is playful, simple, and possibly hilarious.

The gifting process changed there, and I began hiding small scrolls of paper(cut up pieces of the publication "Possible Project") all over the place, in thelibrary, restrooms, classrooms, behind papers posted on walls, in windowsills,mailboxes, etc. This transformation of the gift from something quite flashy tosomething small and almost secretive became a much more "bodylight"process. In trying to think of ways to surprise people with little scrolls, I feltmuch more positive and sort of hilarious. I have no evidence whether or notpeople found the scrolls, or if they opened and read them, but the potential ofthat having happened exists. I think that transformation of the "gifting" process

was exactly what needed to happen for that process to remain "Bodylight."


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Playing Ukelele for the people on CampusOne day in October I brought my baritone ukelele to school with me and playedit as I walked between classes. This was an attempt to transmit Bodylightnessthrough the air, as waves of sound. I thought that perhaps if people heard asimple melody floating through the crowd, they might unconsciously be liftedsomewhat. I ended up talking with a few new people that day, who werecurious about the instrument, mostly wanting to talk about the instrument theycould play. We exchanged a few words, it was an opening. So, the ukelelefunctioned as an opening for strangers to meet and speak with one another,and as a potential floating lightness that could possibly have had positive

effects on people.


5. Bodylightness opens pathways between people, whetherthey know it or not.


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Bodylightness and BiopowerOf course, research around Bodylightness brought up associations within my

studies, most notably, my interest in Biopower. Biopower is a term coined byMichel Foucault, that has recently become part of political discourse again inthe writings of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, with their book Empire. Theterm, in Foucault's definition refers to the practice of modern states and theirregulation of their subjects through "an explosion of numerous and diverse

techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control ofpopulations." Biopower is the way that political technology is used to controlpeople as a group- literally having power of other bodies-"the set of mechanisms through which the basic biological features of thehuman species became the object of a political strategy, of a general strategyof power, or, in other words, how starting from the 18th century, modern

Western societies took on board the fundamental biological fact that humanbeings are a species."(From Foucault's Lecture: Security, Territory, Populationat the College de France,1978)


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final thoughts....

When I began my research in Bodylightness, I didn't expect tocome up with a political theory at all, but this discovery is in facta product of Biopower- in finding that Bodylightness issomething that Biopower is not, the negative term

(Bodylightness) becomes folded into the dialectical relationship,the terms of which are unfortunately set by Biopower. The nextsteps in Bodylightness research are continuing to expand thedefinition, and then trying to focus in more clearly on what is theessence of Bodylightness, so that it can be spoken of and usedby people in our lives.

Teal Gardner, December

2011

Documents

Bodylightness