Abstract
This short paper refers to a project involving the development of a material fermentation practice into a process-led research praxis, wherein themes of embodiment and the relational bodily self are explored through direct contact with nonhuman agents. Theory and concepts borrowed from an Okanagan perspective of the body, as related through its language by scholar and land speaker Jeannette Armstrong, as well as from interaction design and a rich lineage of embodied researchers and practitioners, contribute to a re-framing of the human as a body dependent on others in the life-making activities of preparing, feeding, and eating the ferments. This paper reflects on the service, uncertainty, and accountability taken on by drawing on these lineages and implicating the body in the work, and makes the case for allowing the final outcome to remain a process of ongoing relations and accountabilities.
Keywords
embodied design research, fermentation, relationality
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2021.0019
Citation
Van Oyen, J.(2021) Nested Bodies (or A Small and Careful Spoonful), in Leitão, R.M., Men, I., Noel, L-A., Lima, J., Meninato, T. (eds.), Pivot 2021: Dismantling/Reassembling, 22-23 July, Toronto, Canada. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2021.0019
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Nested Bodies (or A Small and Careful Spoonful)
This short paper refers to a project involving the development of a material fermentation practice into a process-led research praxis, wherein themes of embodiment and the relational bodily self are explored through direct contact with nonhuman agents. Theory and concepts borrowed from an Okanagan perspective of the body, as related through its language by scholar and land speaker Jeannette Armstrong, as well as from interaction design and a rich lineage of embodied researchers and practitioners, contribute to a re-framing of the human as a body dependent on others in the life-making activities of preparing, feeding, and eating the ferments. This paper reflects on the service, uncertainty, and accountability taken on by drawing on these lineages and implicating the body in the work, and makes the case for allowing the final outcome to remain a process of ongoing relations and accountabilities.