Moving Bo[a]rders: Identity and Social Kinesthetic of Rock-Climbing and Skateboarding Communities
Mentor 1
Mair Culbreth
Start Date
16-4-2021 12:00 AM
Description
Throughout this semester, our team has begun to develop an understanding of race, gender, and sexuality through movement research to investigate how activities of skateboarding, dancing, and rock climbing provide kinesthetic knowledge on embodiment and identity. Investigating intersectional identities through kinesthetic and embodied knowledge allows us to learn more about the impact of movement on identity in the cultures specifically and in society more broadly--how they have been affected by their activity, as well as the inequalities they experience. Through the language of phenomenology, we foreground lived experience and the concept of cultural and somatic identity. Through ethnographic interviews, movement analysis, autoethnography, participant observation, and field research at skateparks and rock-climbing walls, we aim to gain a better understanding of how people in these communities view themselves in relation to others, as well as their understanding of how outside viewers see them. Specifically focusing on marginalized communities including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, we are developing an ongoing understanding of the sociocultural context of these activities --how people experience embodiment and impact on how they move, learn, and exist in the world. With our observations, we will begin forming movement based on the research we have conducted. In the symposium, we will be creating a film to highlight the research; this will include movement analysis and site-specific performances embodying the knowledge we have gained. We hope to eventually incorporate this research into movement, not only to obtain written and performance documentation, but also to bring dance and movement investigation as a lens for studying movement in specific cultures. As ongoing research, we are continually discovering ways of how marginalized communities in these activities navigate throughout their lives and how the connection to their activity impacts who they are and how they exist in the world.
Moving Bo[a]rders: Identity and Social Kinesthetic of Rock-Climbing and Skateboarding Communities
Throughout this semester, our team has begun to develop an understanding of race, gender, and sexuality through movement research to investigate how activities of skateboarding, dancing, and rock climbing provide kinesthetic knowledge on embodiment and identity. Investigating intersectional identities through kinesthetic and embodied knowledge allows us to learn more about the impact of movement on identity in the cultures specifically and in society more broadly--how they have been affected by their activity, as well as the inequalities they experience. Through the language of phenomenology, we foreground lived experience and the concept of cultural and somatic identity. Through ethnographic interviews, movement analysis, autoethnography, participant observation, and field research at skateparks and rock-climbing walls, we aim to gain a better understanding of how people in these communities view themselves in relation to others, as well as their understanding of how outside viewers see them. Specifically focusing on marginalized communities including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, we are developing an ongoing understanding of the sociocultural context of these activities --how people experience embodiment and impact on how they move, learn, and exist in the world. With our observations, we will begin forming movement based on the research we have conducted. In the symposium, we will be creating a film to highlight the research; this will include movement analysis and site-specific performances embodying the knowledge we have gained. We hope to eventually incorporate this research into movement, not only to obtain written and performance documentation, but also to bring dance and movement investigation as a lens for studying movement in specific cultures. As ongoing research, we are continually discovering ways of how marginalized communities in these activities navigate throughout their lives and how the connection to their activity impacts who they are and how they exist in the world.
