‘Drawings very intimacy is that it records what lies beyond the body but from the sight of the body and in the form of touch of the body’
Jean-Luc Nancy
“The threshold shifts. It vibrates. It is not figure or form. Not this or that history, this or that memory. It resonates with all it touches. But it cannot quite be seen”
― Erin Manning, Thought in the act, 2014
Feeling the vibrations, shifting ideas of an unseen landscape within an urban environment. Reminding ourselves to be still and to listen and feel the earth beneath our feet and the buildings in which we live.
I was joined this week by the incredible Deborah Bell. Deb has been a professional water dowser for over 25 years and she very generously gave her time to take a group of curious minds on a walk.
Together we explored the streets of Hanley, Hanley Park and AirSpace gallery to map invisible energy lines from underground springs. We spent some time following lines of energy, watching Deb pace out the direction and flow of the springs she sensed.
Insights into such a sensory experience are unique to each individual and have the potential to shift understanding of how we think of space and our movements within it.
Conversations linked personal experiences, the group shared local knowledge, walking routes and understanding with the new discoveries of walking following energy lines under the guidance of Deb.
The additional tools of digital mapping apps, Augmented Reality tools and hydrophones allowed us to reflect on all the unseen versions of our human reality whilst walking.
The intention of the day was to explore how the walking body is able to receive and decode invisible energy. Walking to establish a particular relationship with space, different to other modes of travel.
During the day our walking bodies charted our distance along a path, navigating the urban landscape and parkland of Hanley guided by the bodies of water below us.
By physically pacing out the distance on the ground we were able to locate invisible flows, revealing the springs running below us.
Understanding how the human body is receiving unseen energy when walking invites possibilities to explore how we translate sensory responses to walking in the landscape.
This residency continues to shift my understanding, allowing focused time spent drawing. Drawing line by line, over time, temporal, fragile, instantaneous, state of flux, all drawing is of the moment, you are looking, acting and reacting while you are thinking and feeling both analytically and instinctively. The drawing becomes the residue of these relations, making them visible. The final week will be spent following the line of an underground spring, a site specific gallery drawing mapping out the potential and reimagined flow of energy below the gallery where I draw.
‘Drawings very intimacy is that it records what lies beyond the body but from the sight of the body and in the form of touch of the body’
Jean-Luc Nancy