I used the 110 days as a testbed for developing different recording methods, workshops and participatory tools. Aware that becoming Japanese was void of success, I was intrigued in how my person would change both physically and psychologically; and how I could engage with this.
Recording Methods
During my residency I tried to explore different methods to capture my changing. I kept a blog, click here, which I used as a visual diary to keep an informal dialogue with my network in England. I was constantly testing how to monitor my physical & psychological identity shifts.
It became immediately evident that I was out of sync with my instinctual movements. I had become clumsy. It was from this I realised that in a new environment, we have to learn how our body moves in day to day spaces.
Hair Cutting
To record this I cut a piece of my fringe every time I felt embarrassed or awkward. I learnt that this can by a good tool to free negative energy by physically letting go.
Body Marks
My body became decorated with many marks from my lack of coordination.
Observation Diary
I asked Yumiko, who was one of our coordinators during the residency period to engage with a writing experiment. During the majority of the residency, we kept a dairy written as if we were the other person. I wrote as Yumiko, and she wrote as I.
Embodying Inner Consciousness
To challenge my consciousness I conceived a pseudo scientific method by extracting techniques and theories from Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman and Techniques of the Body by Marcel Maus.
Individual physical embodiment reflects the memory of experience from synchronising with a surrounding community and in response to external influences & environments. The conscious is also built upon our memories absorbing and adapting according to information we engage with. Do we reflect our thoughts with our bodies? Are our unconscious movements reflective of our internal processing?
My method was to explore body gestures and movements as a way to connect with women who grew up in Moriya, as a way to absorb Moriya's influences into my inner consciousness.
Search for my peers. In order to locate peers from Moriya I designed posters 'looking for friends'