Hi Raul and everyone
I was very interested in Raul's comment:
>
> Two years ago I taught Multimedia at a college in California and I was
> criticized because I introduce Yoga as part of my class. Well, those of
> us who has experienced the systematic disruption of our body by
> technology know that ergonomics is a key issue in the technological
> driven world. To learn how to take care of your body in relation to the
> destructive aspect of the machine is an important knowledge we need to
> acquired in order to avoid self-destruction.
I absolutely agree with this. I am very interested in the relationship
between body and machine in many ways. My first novel 'Correspondence'
(1992) was about a woman slowly and painfully transforming herself into a
cyborg, and I have followed that interest in several directions.
Last year at trAce's Incubation conference
http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/incubation/ I ran a workshop which invited people to
use dolls, parts of computers and natural materials to make small maquettes
of themselves in relation to their machines. It was a rather mad event and
I'm not sure whether it worked or not - see the bizarre photos at
http://travelsinvirtuality.typepad.com/photos/incubation3/ ! (some of the
participants are on this list, although whether they will own up to playing
with leaves and circuit boards is another question!) In fact, my original
plan had been to take them through a series of physical exercises before we
made the models but when it came to it, I was too shy to ask them to do
that. Does anyone else run any kind of mixed body/technology workshop? I'd
love to try it with a leader who has more experience than I had!
In pursuit of the connected body I have also visited Esalen
http://www.esalen.org twice in the last 12 months, where I can explore
body/mind issues without mobile phones and computers (they have recently
made internet access available there but I have not even imagined using it)
Yesterday I read an article in Resurgence http://www.resurgence.org about
biomimicry - ways in which, rather than inventing new ways to do things all
the time, we can learn from the ways nature has often solved engineering
questions and apply that learning to our own designs. (See also
http://www.bioneers.org) This tied in with the practice of chi gung which is
often described as 'stand still like a tree'.
So yes Raul, I think your introduction of yoga makes a lot of sense, and I'd
encourage you to keep trying to apply it.
Best
Sue
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