UN/WIND UN/WOUND: Metaphor, embodiment, and meaning-making in the digital age
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Date
2024-03-25
Authors
Cain, Noah
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Abstract
Integrating research on embodiment (Baber, 2022; Lakoff & Johnson, 2003; Shapiro, 2019), memory (Glenberg, 1997), trauma (Culbertson, 1995), new media (McLuhan, 1994), and multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009), this arts-based research explores the use of smartphone technology as a means of embodied artmaking. Using an adapted version of the methodology of artography (Irwin, 2013) based on the practice of paddling, I developed two research-supported artistic practices. The first involved recording myself enacting metaphors I had previously written in my poetry as a means of developing an embodied understanding of the metaphor. The second involved composing poetry orally while engaged physically (running, skating, etc.). The results of these practice came together through the creation of a 24-minute experimental film. I showed this film to a public audience in a classroom I converted into an immersive video installation that included three handmade screens and several atmospheric elements. In this thesis, I discuss the video/event and the artmaking process through four themes, (1) enacting metaphors to facilitate the development of an embodied understanding of those metaphors, (2) instances of the liminal during embodied creative practice, (3) the ways smartphone technology extends perception and memory outside the body, and (4) wonder and the spiritual in the context of embodied artmaking. Integrated through the discussion are propositions (Manning & Massumi, 2014) related to contemporary education and arts-based research.
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Keywords
embodiment, arts-based research, education, multiliteracies, memory, digital media, trauma, educational technology, metaphor, artography, literacy, meaning making, conceptual metaphor, english language arts, teaching writing, creativity, new media, smartphone, embodied metaphor