Movement–Tool–Machine

After many years of working with things as a choreographer, I developed a technique to work with our relationship to the “objects that do things for us”, machines in a large sens, with a particular focus on screen interfaces, gaze and touch. The central idea is to support people in finding more space between themselves and the screen by reconnecting with their somatic experience.

I guide participants through a series of slow movements in relation to the object (starting with the screen). Over time, these movements can become embodied memories, helping to create spaciousness within everyday interactions with screens—and, more broadly, in our relationship to the tool-machines we encounter daily.

Humans have developed objects in order to achieve specific goals. In this process, we externalize certain abilities and inscribe them into objects, which then become supports for realizing desired qualities or actions.

In this sense, a chair can be understood as an externalization of the capacity to sit. The chair makes sitting possible, but it also shapes how we sit. In return for the support it provides, it participates in defining our bodies and habits. In order to not be defined by them, it is necessary to re-engage with this objects, this is the proposal of the Movement–Tool–Machine.