Composite Bodies: Construction and Deconstruction of Identity Through Movement
Location
Guzman 112, Dominican University of California
Start Date
4-17-2019 12:00 PM
End Date
4-17-2019 12:30 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate - Honors
Faculty Mentor(s)
Thomas Burke MFA and Kara Davis
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
This thesis examines some of the roles artists take on as humans and how said roles impact in the forming of our identity. Looking at the deconstruction theory by Jacques Derrida, phenomenology by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau- Ponty, the humanistic theories of self actualization by Abraham Maslow and the journals of students involved in the study, the idea that the body and mind must work as one in order to create movement is dissected and reconstructed. Beginning with investigating the roles artists are born into, create for themselves and think they have, dancers involved in the study use their own journals from this investigation to create movement on themselves. The movement is then deconstructed by the choreographer using Derrida’s method of deconstructing text, and reset onto the movers. Using the theory of phenomenology by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the movers then examine the question “am I my body or am I in my body?” The process of creating movement from journals is repeated as well as the action of deconstructing the movement. Identity is examined in its two parts, ID and entity, and the choreographer sets movement on the dancers. Maslow’s humanistic theories of self-actualization are studied after the completion of the choreographic process.
Composite Bodies: Construction and Deconstruction of Identity Through Movement
Guzman 112, Dominican University of California
This thesis examines some of the roles artists take on as humans and how said roles impact in the forming of our identity. Looking at the deconstruction theory by Jacques Derrida, phenomenology by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau- Ponty, the humanistic theories of self actualization by Abraham Maslow and the journals of students involved in the study, the idea that the body and mind must work as one in order to create movement is dissected and reconstructed. Beginning with investigating the roles artists are born into, create for themselves and think they have, dancers involved in the study use their own journals from this investigation to create movement on themselves. The movement is then deconstructed by the choreographer using Derrida’s method of deconstructing text, and reset onto the movers. Using the theory of phenomenology by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the movers then examine the question “am I my body or am I in my body?” The process of creating movement from journals is repeated as well as the action of deconstructing the movement. Identity is examined in its two parts, ID and entity, and the choreographer sets movement on the dancers. Maslow’s humanistic theories of self-actualization are studied after the completion of the choreographic process.