Time for an Urban (Re)evolution – Negotiating Body, Space and Food

Abstract

This paper explores the artistic method of butoh dance in order to bring the body into the process of shaping the urban environment through techniques such as: rebellion, interaction, mimesis, agro-roots, transformation, metamorphosis and reflection. Placing the body at the centre of my methodology, through performance and an experimental-making of the stage, I explore its negotiation with time, space and food. The Japanese spatio-temporal concept ma – an interval, awareness – is used to understand the relationship between temporal and spatial progression, awareness and the potential in this ‘interval’. From within architectural research I pose the question: How can the interaction of the body in butoh practice and food production, set in relation to one another, improve understanding and handling of urban space where time is an aspect in design? The use of butoh exposes a ‘time’ orientation in space, and on the transformation of everyday ‘rhythms’ and behaviour with food.