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Performance And Embodiment

Performance and Embodiment

What do we mean when we say embodiment? What is the relationship between my body and my mind? Are they separate entities?
I pick up a cup. I drink something I don’t like. Did my body sense something it rejected, or did my mind object based on other data? Is it even a valid question? And what the hell has it got to do with performance? Today I want to look at certain pervasive ideas about embodiment that are affected by the notion of a division between mind and body, and what implications this has for acting and performance. And I want to just raise the possibility of an alternative idea of embodiment based on non-western traditions of psychophysical work and training.

Plato
We can trace the notion of a division between mind and body back to the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato, who made a distinction between the material world - the world of tangible objects and perceivable things - and the metaphysical world of forms. He proposed that every object or thing in the material world is a manifestation of its ideal, essential form, which is perfect and unchanging. So the tree outside is really an imperfect manifestation of a perfect form that we happen to call tree. These essences he said constitute the world of forms. He proposed that the mind (psyche) has independent and superior metaphysical status to that of the body, and was capable of participating in the knowledge of the world of forms, and therefore could be considered a part of that world. So the duality is that a person is really two separate entities: a body which corresponds to this material world of things and objects, and a mind or soul which corresponds to the perfect world of Forms, and which lives on after the death of the body. All things in the material world change or decay, whereas the mind or soul, being part of the world of forms, is immortal.

Descartes
Closer to our age, by a couple of thousand years, we find the man most commonly associated with the...