Automatism and oceanic feeling | Dominique Baron-bonarjee

The title refers to Ocean Mudra Samadhi, the deepest level of collective consciousness according Buddhist philosopher Dogen Zenji (13th Ce.). This installation is the choreographic chapter following 18 months of research which began as participatory workshops with freelancers asking the question ‘ What do we know about free time?’. Thinking of activity, work and measure, I used wearable tech like fitness monitors, and commercial EEG headbands to measure to the point of absurdity and then to reflect on how the numbers correlate to the experience . During the residency I will be working with a DIY ‘wearable’ made of crocheted conductive thread alongside a commercial EEG headband. Small sensors pick up micro-movements of the body and relay them to a sound interface> Through these sensors I will create a ‘flow space’ where the sound composition can alter the viewer’s brain state as well. I will be developing choreography based on the movement research I did in the free time workshops as well as movement practices that work from the premise of non-intentional action. The concept of the work addresses: • Automatism in art history and how nonconscious modes of sense-making and inspiration are relevant to current developments in neurotechnology and science’s contemporary interest in consciousness due to advances in AI. • The commodification of inner and personal realms of experience in imperceptible processes of data extraction and manipulation through online shopping, social media, and ‘smart’ gadgets, what Shoshana Zuboff calls ‘surveillance capitalism’. • How the brain and bodily rhythms can be entrained through practices of meditation, contemplation and mindfulness, but also paradoxically through repetitive tasks that automate behaviour and responses: the flow state in psychology (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). This is a state of effortlessness and timelessness while being involved in an activity. • The work takes some inspiration from carnival sound systems in creating a space for communal gathering where people can all move to a shared rhythm that has the potential to bring about group flow or trance.
I will test out structural elements that would allow the public to participate as dancers that create within the installation.
I wish to run a public-facing workshop to explore the choreography with local people, dancers and artists.

Presentation en research 23 November 2019 at 19:00 at CLOUD

Short bio

Dominique crafts an aquatic logic through embodied practices aimed at ‘swimming through’ the contemporary impasse. She borrows from Buddhist psychotechnologies for (re)awakening the sensorium to an expanded experience of the absolute present where bodies and things intermingle in a porous encounter of more-than-human eroticism. She works across choreography. installation, performance, film and writing to discover methods of sense-making as visceral and participatory rituals. Dominique is a research candidate in the Art Department at Goldsmiths University.Recent exhibitions and presentations: Chisenhale Dance Space (upcoming 09/2019); Tai Kwun Cultural Centre, Hong Kong;The Gallery, MARs Centre, Goldsmiths University; Tate Exchange.

www.dominiquebb.com

Photo credit: Still from ‘So Tired, the Sea …’ by Prof. Astrida Neimanis (made in collaboration with Dominique Baron-Bonarjee, Prof. Adriana Verges, and Siouxzi Connor). #bodiesofwater #liquidbodyworlds #wobbledynamics #exhausted #oceanicfeeling #hydrofeminism