Symposium

The subtle Dance of Developmental Self-Awareness with New Media Technologies

Friday 28 September 2018

 

Présentation de l'atelier-conférence

Alexander wrote at length about the dangers of the speed at which industrial revolution technologies were developing. He asserted how unprepared the human species was to psychophysically cope with a radically changing environment; for our age too his assertions echo prophetically. As somatic/Alexander practitioners, we see this digital age critically impacting human health, activity. Rochat and others suggest five levels for developing normal self-consciousness; the body-mind is the site of this process, disrupted when prematurely forced (Rochat 2003). Children are being exposed to excessive digital technology even as toddlers, pushed to have a mediated sense of self before it is even fully formed. Disrupted and compensatory neuromuscular patterns ensue. In a workshop, we will explore developmental movement as the antidote to the interference current technology places on bodies. The "new" mediated body can hearken back to our primal ancestors' and childhood capacity for the appropriate balance of intention/attention/activity. Participants will use their digital devices to recognize dissonances in their self-concept/body maps as well as experience the movement antidote.

 

To cite this document:
Vanier, Luc and Elizabeth Johnson. 2018. “The subtle Dance of Developmental Self-Awareness with New Media Technologies”. Within Cybercorporéités. 28 septembre 2018. Available online: l’Observatoire de l’imaginaire contemporain. <https://oic.uqam.ca/en/communications/the-subtle-dance-of-developmental-self-awareness-with-new-media-technologies>. Accessed on May 1, 2023.