During my two-month residency training, I focused on the topic of the female menstrual cycle. The idea is to abstract the menstrual cycle, inserting it into other cycles, making analogies and investigating the reverberations (whether through movement or words) of these abstractions in the process of artistic creation.
To Graph Theory, initially the basis for the abstraction of cycles in my research, I also added the idea of the cycle image schema, as defined by the philosopher/linguist Mark Johnson (1987). In this way, I took a step forward by bringing my background in linguistics to my artistic research once again.
A cycle schema is an image schema which involves repetitious events and event series.
Its structure including a starting point, a progression through successive events without backtracking, a return to the initial state
The schema often has superimposed on it a structure that builds toward a climax and then goes through a release or decline.
Interesting for me was the organization of time in my residency. although readings and notes have thinned out over the months since my residency approval and beyond, the practical research has been framed within two menstrual cycles of mine. that way, on the one hand, I related movement research, results of artistic expression directly to the stages of my cycle. On the other hand, by observing the phases of my cycle, I was able to define more specifically which body structures and processes to focus on.
I divide my research into three big blocks or moments. These blocks constantly overlapped, complemented, challenged, explained, and inspired one another. The division into two main topics is done for didactic purposes.
Moment 1. Embodiment of structures and processes of the female menstrual cycle from the principles of Body Mind Centering®.
At this point I concentrated on the bodily structures and processes involved in the menstrual cycle. For that, I made use mainly of the concepts and principles of Body Mind Centering® related to the organs, to the endocrine system, fluids and ontogenetics.
BMC® per se is based on movement. At this point in the research, therefore, I analyzed the qualities of movements resulting from the process of incorporating body structures and the specific processes involved in the menstrual cycle.
Moment 2. other cycles. in a second moment, I analyzed other cycles present in my daily life. Much more consciously, I made notes of cycles that interrelated with my menstrual cycle. Some of these cycles: breathing, sleeping and waking, public transport (from point A through B to be back to A), orgasm, and some emotional build up and release.
Moment 3. artistic expression_Recycle: movement generation came largely from BMC explorations. To these was added the research of cycles in physical space and time. The free exploration of movement was framed spatially – specific cycles – and temporally- in terms of speed and duration. As an example of spatial framing, I used the public transport lines that I use daily leaving home and returning home. these frames created landscapes defined in space. the restriction to some extent created by these landscapes was fundamental in sorting out and developing the movement material.
Especially relevant for me were the long frames – minimum 20 minutes to maximum 75 Minutes uninterrupted. Restriction, repetition, duration led to transformation. Cycles reveal themselves as recycling potential.
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In my latest research an approach has crystallized: the correlation between movement generation and dramaturgical inputs from explorations based on BMC@ principles.
The body-mind duo and the concept of embodiment flow more and more in my work.
The process of embodiment as a physical practice, has given more and more meaning to the term embodiment as acquired through my studies in linguistics.
In cognitive linguistics, bodily experiences form the basis of the construction of meanings, which by analogies become increasingly abstract. At the point where I am in my research, a cycle begins to crystallize _body – mind – body_ based on theories from the areas of movement and humanities.
Starting from such movement-specific explorations allows me to metaphorically expand the subjects. Investigating the bodily bases of abstract concepts gives me input on movement. Dramaturgies are constructed.
helena fernandino 