16th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research

7, 8 and 9 May 2025

University of Porto, Portugal

Are We Still in Touch?: embracing difference in somatic resonance through artistic research

Christina Kapadocha
 
Thursday, May 9, 2025 - 12:00
40 min Presentation + 30 min Discussion
Moderator:
Room:

This practice-based sharing examines the role of somatic resonance in artistic research, drawing from the artist-researcher’s interactive performance-workshop 'Are We Still in Touch?'. As part of this creative and reflective practice, she combines performative text and subtle movement with touch-based prompts for participation and critical theoretical perspectives on resonance. Participants are invited to empirically reconsider the experiencing of emergent dynamics between subjective and collective resonance through methods of guided self-directed touch as they can gradually manifest in movement, vocalization and words. Self-directed touch is initiated and managed by oneself and intentionally does not require physical contact with another person. The unfolding shared experience is facilitated based on ethical rules of self and mutual care, allowing participation at each person’s discretion and availability within the group. Non-active participation is also welcome. Resonance in this piece of artistic research is approached as a praxical (both practical and theoretical) concept. It is critically considered through perspectives of somatic resonance (Hartley 2004, Chari 2021) in dialogue with sociopolitical discussions on resonance (Rosa 2019; Coles 2011) and philosophical analysis of inter-embodied dynamics (Merleau-Ponty 1968, Ahmed and Stacey 2004).  The sharing particularly approaches the practice of resonance through touch from the feminist take on inter-embodiment as a ‘a way of thinking through the nearness of other others, but a nearness which involves distantiation and difference’ (Ahmed and Stacey 2004, 7). It aims at challenging problematics of oneness and unification in the experiencing of collective resonance in interrelational practices and communities. The objective is not to foster capitalist individualism but to cultivate the acknowledgement of differences within resonant manifestations of inter-embodiment, leading towards social change.

Christina Kapadocha

East 15 Acting School, University of Essex


Christina Kapadocha (PhD) is a London-based theater and somatic practitioner-researcher, a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and the founder of Somatic Acting Process®. She is a Lecturer in Movement for Acting and Research at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. Christina's artistic-research projects and publications focus on the contributions of somatically inspired practices within theater-performing environments and other contexts. She is the editor of Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond (Routledge, 2021). Personal website: https://christina-kapadocha.com.