Made more radiant : "psychic practice" and other somatic technologies for re-enchantment and recovery

Abstract

This practice-based dissertation, “Made More Radiant: ‘psychic practice’ and other somatic technologies for re-enchantment and recovery,” is grounded in “experimental dance” and queer and feminist performance art. The heart of the project is what I call “psychic practice,” a way to activate embodied re-enchantment and intimacy with self, other, and place. This project emerged collaboratively in March 2020 and is now ongoing. It consists of remote, one-on-one sessions that include a phone conversation, improvised dancing, “psychically” witnessing practice partners, and writing. Based on years of contemplative movement practices and dance-based performances, as well as teaching movement and performance workshops, I have noticed ways of orienting that are the foundation of this creative activity. I have formulated these into four unique somatic technologies/philosophies, or guides to this embodied practice: 1. The Eroticism of Nothing(ness), 2. WitHnessing, 3. Flesh Circus, and 4. Moshing with Multitudes. Augmenting “psychic practice” is a video piece that acts as a creative document of Made More Radiant (in prismatic undertaking), an in-process performance and installation work that I began developing at Rensselaer’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in May 2022. This project expands upon the practice-as-research around re-enchantment and intimacy with self, other, and world conducted through the last two years of “psychic practice,” and encompasses dance, sound, animation, text, and sculpture. A corresponding publication, which creatively documents “psychic practice” through image, poetic text, instructions for practice, and excerpts from this dissertation text will be released in December 2022 through Publication Studio, Hudson. This dissertation text contextualizes “psychic practice,” the video/installation and performance, and the publication through an articulation of my motivations, intentions, and my creative constellations of influence and creative and scholarly communities.