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15 - Minutes Movement Snacks

as part of the Somatic Dance and Chronic Pain Network

Research project led by Greta Gauhe

Greta is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Dance Research, UK. Her research is on touch and dance, and she wishes to engage with people living with chronic pain to support them in accessing movement and touch from home. 

Contact: gauheg@uni.coventry.ac.uk

Remote touch experiences

 

 

Join us for a short 15mins remote experience that brings the experience of touch to your own location. Our multi-sensory experience will guide you through a series of activities that allow you to engage with your senses. Using pre-recorded audio recordings, you will follow the guidance of your performer. You can choose the performance that suits you most below.

 

All of our experiences are site-specific and multi-sensory. This refers to the concept of site-specific performance, where the physical space in which the performance takes place is an important aspect of the overall experience. In this case, you are encouraged to embrace your surroundings and incorporate what you see, feel, and hear around you into the experience. 

The recordings have undergone further development in collaboration with individuals living with chronic pain. Their feedback and experiences have enabled us to tailor the recordings more closely to their specific needs. However, it's important to acknowledge that certain recordings may resonate more with some individuals than others.

We have also invited people who experience different types of chronic pain to develop their own audio-recordings. Through a co-creative process they have created their own set of recordings. These will be included below and have been created by Ruth, Georgina and Jules. 

In our efforts to enhance accessibility, we've strived to offer a diverse range of choices throughout the recordings. This approach aims to accommodate varying preferences and experiences, ensuring that each participant can find something that resonates with them.

We encourage you to use either speakers or headphones in order to have the best audio experience, but sound via the phone or laptop can work as well.

Below the recordings, you'll find instructional videos demonstrating how to translate your experience into various forms, such as objects, drawings, or paintings. Feel free to select one of these videos as a guide and a source of inspiration. Afterwards, we invite you to share your reflections, thoughts, experiences, or images of your creation on a shared whiteboard with us. We encourage exchange and any submission is valuable. 

Join us and explore various types of touch, including self-touch, imagined touch, affective touch, discriminative touch and imagined social touch.

Important: 

To help you select the most suitable recording for your session, please review the brief notices provided beneath each recording. These notices contain essential details regarding the type of touch to be explored, the involved body parts, and the level of activity expected during the task.

Adaptation recommendations:

If engaging in self-touch on specific body parts or in general is not comfortable on certain days, we encourage you to imagine the touch being offered instead. This can be accomplished without any physical movements required. We recognise that this may require some practice, but it can be equally fulfilling over time. Our intention is not to highlight limitations, but rather to view imagination as a valuable skill to develop.

Essential guidelines:

Guidelines for Physical Well-being:

- Respect your body's mobility and physical boundaries. Work within your own range of motion and capabilities. Push yourself gently to your personal limit.
- All movements should be performed with gentleness and mindfulness.
- Allow the intention of each experience to guide what feels appropriate for you.

Guidelines for Emotional Well-being:

 If you're feeling agitated, distressed, or hypervigilant, acknowledge these emotions as valid. Engage in the practice in a way that helps you feel safe, whether that means simply listening, participating partially or fully, adjusting the pace to suit your comfort level, or visualising the movements rather than physically touching yourself.
- Touch and bodywork practices may bring up emotions or increase awareness. If you feel that these practices aren't suitable for your current state or stress response, honour your needs and prioritise safety and comfort. Remember, the focus is on the practice, not achieving perfection.

Adaptation and Self-Care:

- Understand that certain invitations or movements may highlight what you're unable to do on a particular day, and this can be challenging to accept. Take care of yourself and adapt the practices as needed.
- Embrace what is available to you in the present moment.
- Remember, the goal is to deepen your practice, not to achieve perfection. Approach the experiences as you are, without judgment or expectation.

 

Artists/Collaborators: Hannah Adams, Flavien Cornilleau, Deborah Di Meglio

Co-creators for audios: Ruth, Georgina and Jules

Creative Direction/ Research: Greta Gauhe

Supervision: Rosa Cisneros and Emma Meehan

Please listen to our introductory audio recording before engaging with the other audio recordings below.

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Introductory Audio
00:00 / 02:29

Please choose your experience by clicking on one of the images below:

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Join me on a journey as we map our bodies and extend care 

Self-touch, all over the body, choosing which body-part to focus on

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MA - A journey between all things

Resting, slow, imaginary

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Before we Touch

Kinesphere touching, no direct touch, sharing the same space

The subsequent audio recordings were created for enjoyment in outdoor public settings:

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Hand's Touch on the Go

While on transport

Guidelines for creating an object, drawing, or painting based on your experience after listening to one of the above recordings:

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At times, it's comforting to recall or ponder upon an experience encountered while engaging with one of the audio recordings. Drawing, writing, painting, or crafting an object are diverse methods to preserve your experience. Each of these mediums serves as a conduit to keep your memory vivid, ensuring that each time you revisit the artwork, you're transported back to that moment. Feel free to select the method that resonates most with you to capture your experience. Deborah, a visual artist, has curated a collection of videos that could serve as a helpful starting point for engaging in this practice:

share your experience

Share your experience, your written reflections, your objects, images, thoughts or feelings with us. Please click on this link HERE in order to access our shared whiteboard. (All you need to do is to sign up to Canvas for FREE) 

Feel free to let other people know that you shared this experience with them. Maybe you want to leave a post-it note, or you can write down whatever crosses your mind. Your can also just choose to draw a circle. Choose what feels right for you. 

Below you can see the online whiteboard and what other people shared so far:

Are you interested to join our research and to help us further develop our creative approaches and audio recordings? We are looking for people living with chronic pain or chronic pain practitioners!

 

In my first year of study, I created a series of audio recorded experiences for individuals to enjoy at home or in a park.

 

These performances aim to enhance sensory engagement, exploring various touch concepts such as self-touch, social touch, imaginary touch, and discriminative touch. Feedback and conversations with participants suggest potential benefits for those living with chronic pain. As a result, I'm seeking interested individuals, whether they work with chronic pain or experience it themselves, to participate in online conversations. These discussions will help me understand the usefulness of the audio recordings and guide their further development.

 

To respect your privacy, you can choose to remain anonymous. I'm offering a consultation fee of £20/hour to acknowledge your valuable time. Your input will significantly contribute to refining my research and tailoring the audio recordings to better serve individuals living with chronic pain. If you're interested in participating, please reach out, and we can schedule a time that suits you. The number of meetings is entirely flexible based on your preferences. 

 

Individuals currently experiencing chronic pain or those working with chronic pain patients will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

Many thanks!

 

Feel free to contact me through email, and kindly use "chronic pain research" in the subject line.

 

gauheg@uni.coventry.ac.uk 

 

Links: https://www.followthroughcollective.com/until-we-meet

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