HISTORY IS SCULPTURE 2006












HISTORY IS SCULPTURE
How can we develop our sense of interconnection with the world as a means of consciously engaging with how we shape the world?

I found Heiner Stachelhaus' book ‘History is Sculpture’ to be a valuable phrase to think into the process of shaping and reshaping thoughts. The public intervention 'History Is Sculpture' is an aesthetic thought space for developing practice based research.

Public Intervention:
12 people join hands inside lengthened sleeves and spiral through a public space. The lengthened sleeves have the words HISTORY IS SCULPTURE on the back and one of the twelve senses on the front, forming an image and thought space for the participants and the audience. The work generates an opportunity to experience being in a public space in this different kind of mode. The public intervention is repeated after twelve days once each participant has worked with the Sense a Day Thought Form.
Once the second intervention is complete, a process of reflection and discussion can be shaped from the insights that may have emerged from experimenting with the thought forms.

Sense a Day Thought Form:
The Sense a Day project came about as my response to Albert Soesmans’ book ‘Our Twelve Senses’. My question for this project is: What happens to us when we consciously observe our twelve senses.
Please experiment with the following process and answer the questions.
Process
Choose one of your twelve senses as your lens through which you experience the world for a day. This will be the sense that you give priority to for that day. Being aware of this sense begins your conscious research of how you interconnect experience and engage with the world for that day.

Twelve Senses:

Sense of Life
Sense of Touch
Sense of Self Movement
Sense of Balance
Smell
Taste
Hearing
Sight
Temperature
Speech Sense
Concept Sense
Ego Sense


Questions:

At the end of each day answer the following questions:

What day is it?

Which sense did you choose?

Did you have to remind yourself to become aware of making this sense a priority during the day?

How has being conscious of this sense influenced your experience of it?

Has the quality of this sense changed?   If so, how?

Has being conscious of this sense influenced the way it shapes your perception of the world?

If so, how?

Why do you think you choose to make this sense a priority today?

After you have observed all twelve senses, what has happened?

Are there any new questions that you can add to the list?


Invitation

Please contact me if you would like to experiment with this process.

jsquared.james@gmail.com

Photographs courtesy Jennifer Lovemore-Reed and Dr. Paul Whitty





























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