Somatics Toolkit

Synopsis and Inquiry

The Toolkit supports anyone who would like to include their body presence and awareness (bodying) more actively in their work and research processes.

The Toolkit offers easily accessible materials and embodiment practices, which require no previous experience and can be used in teaching contexts, fieldwork support, writing, studio practice or supervision. 

Inside the Toolkit

Embody your research process from literature review to data analysis, from pre-fieldwork preparation to writing and presentation:

  • 10x Core Audio Practices to explore key aspects of the ethnographic research process, including literature review, conducting interviews, data analysis, writing and presenting. Each practice has an extensive bibliography with relevant literature.
  • 16x Extended Audio Practices that cover themes like gender, camera, breath, the nervous system, fatigue, blood, ethics and environment.
  • 3x Presentation and Practice Videos developed for the National Centre for Research Methods virtual data base.
  • 18x blog essays that critically reflect on the body as research instrument, in practice, education and various research projects.
  • 12x episodes from the Remember Your Body Podcast featuring conversations across anthropology, anatomy, economics, ecology, architecture and systems thinking (also available externally).
  • Project archive with original project proposal, presentations, launch event and visuals.

Check out the Somatics Toolkit content.

 

All contents of the Toolkit were designed together with principal investigator Eline Kieft, and co-investigator Ben Spatz. I worked in particular on the Core and Extended Practices, and developed the Series 2 of the Somatics Toolkit Podcast titled Remember Your Body.

With the seven episodes of Series 2, I broadened our theme from the original ethnographic focus to explore our bodying in relation to anatomy, economics, environment, architecture, mobility and systems thinking. The fascinating people I spoke with are: Gil Hedley (E1), Erin Manning and Brian Massumi (E2+3), Arawana Hayashi (E4), Auxiliadora Galvez (E5), Peter Merriman (E6) and Juhani Pallasmaa (E7).

I also worked a lot on our project impact activities, presenting and collecting feedback on the Somatics Toolkit at various  event. These included in 2018: ‘Why the World Needs Anthropologists’ (WWNA for short) in Lisbon; the 5th International Fascia Research Congress (FRC) in Berlin; and the ‘We Are All Able Bodies’ (AAB) in Madrid. The annual WWNA events concern applied anthropology, bringing together researchers and practitioners, and exploring the different applications of anthropology beyond traditional academia.

Presenting the Somatics Toolkit in Madrid at AAB

 

In Madrid, the trans-disciplinary workshop-seminar ‘We Are All Able Bodies’: From Sensory Deprivation to Sensory Augmentation (AAB) brought together architects, artists and researchers working on the senses. Presenting the (then) status quo of the Somatics Toolkit in this context was a great pleasure.
The Somatics Toolkit was originally developed to support ethnographers in working with the body as a site of knowledge, attention and care throughout the research cycle. During the project its relevance broadened, with contributors from agriculture, architecture, medicine, dance, performance and education.
In academic settings, the materials are used by students, researchers, mentors, and lecturers and other educators who are warmly invited to use the practices in the classroom. The Toolkit is also used as a valuable resource for artists, healers, bodyworkers and practitioners of modalities such as family constellations, somatic coaching and IFS.
Somatics Toolkit Contents
Project Team, Collaborators & Funders

Dr. Eline Kieft (Principal Investigator)

Dr. Ben Spatz (Co-Investigator)

Funded by ESRC/NCRM and formerly hosted on somaticstoolkit.coventry.ac.uk.

References

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