I selected a local pedestrian bridge as the performance site to dance my data. The bridge as a site for embodied inquiry offered a variety of compelling features. One is that the bridge has 19 architectural posts along its length. The 19 posts were metaphorically significant and the connection I was making to COVID-19. The bridge is made of a wood and steel. It bounces, vibrates and moves when humans cross over it. It seems to dance in the presence of humans. The bridge is suspended 6 meters over a deep ravine. A stream runs under it and it is a passageway for coyotes and coy wolves and many other animals. Everything that surrounds this bridge is always changing and in flux and elicits a special kind of attending and responsiveness. The bridge as a site for inquiry and knowledge generation facilitated a sensory-perceptual interaction between the body, data and the environment. This is a significant feature of somatic and embodied processes and how we perceive, think and act in the world.
The bridge is also part of the built environment. The built environment is a result of human invention, innovation, and design. The bridge was engineered and built by humans for humans. Its shape and structure imply inherent rules for navigation. Situating the composed data in a public space and taking up the data through bodily-writing and choreographic processes allowed for a generative and art-based approach to knowledge creation.
Lastly, the video of me walking across the site gives the viewer an overview of the performance site and the chalk score.
