The Learning Body The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement (CREATURE)

About this event

CREATURE Lab is an on-demand laboratory to pitch and test ideas for further research development. It aims to provide a collegial platform to rehearse and/or seek feedback for a research presentation, practice and publication. It brings together a researcher and participants to explore a research idea and/or project through show and tell. The interactive lab is decided for the presenter to experiment a preconceived project for further study and/or examine matters related to research development and collaboration.

‘… there is no ethical or epistemological line that distinguishes “the body” from its “environment.” Instead, the argument is for an approach to embodiment as that which appears first, that which predates the division of ecology and technology, and that which above all requires care.’ — Ben Spatz, Blue Sky Body (2020)

The Learning Body explored the role of the body and embodiment in the way we come to know the world. Part lecture, part performance and workshop, this CREATURE Lab led by Joseph Kohlmaier invited participants to materialise, test and respond to radical ideas that reframe the body as a paradigm in education. It contemplated movement, entrainment, repetition, and technique in relation to learning and pedagogy. It charted unexpected coalitions of bodies with the material affordances of their environment. And it considered the somatic dimension of culture and history, specifically in the context of ecology and as a powerful conceptual and practical tool in the effort to decolonise the curriculum.

The event itself represented and enacted some of these ideas in practice by enabling participants to inform, shape and record the outcome of the Lab through collective acts. It also acted as a scoping exercise, and an invitation to researchers and teachers at the school to integrate approaches to embodiment in teaching and lay the foundation for an international symposium on the subject later in 2025.

Joseph Kohlmaier is Associate Teaching Professor in Critical and Contextual Studies at the School of Art, Architecture and Design. He is also the founding director of Musarc, one of the UK’s leading experimental choral ensembles. Joseph’s interdisciplinary practice, which brings together performance, research and teaching, curatorial projects, design, and publishing, has been a driving force in the development of the choir and the foundation of its open, experimental and research-led approach. In turn, Joseph’s work with the ensemble has informed his teaching practice and a radical approach to pedagogy, particularly in the context of embodiment. With Musarc, Joseph has developed an extensive track-record of commissions and collaborations with over one hundred international artists and composers, including Jennifer Walshe, Holly Herndon, Lin Chiwei, Laure Provost, Ed Atkins, Jenny Moore, Lina Lapelytė, Fritz Hauser, Neil Luck and many others; and organisations in the UK and abroad, including

ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, Serpentine Gallery, BBC Proms, London Contemporary Music Festival, Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Royal Academy, CCA Goldsmiths, Museum of London, Extra City (Antwerp), Serpentine Gallery, MK Gallery, Wysing Polyphonic, STUK (Leuwen) Cafe OTO, Bold Tendencies and Whitechapel Gallery. Joseph is the founding director of graphic design practice Polimekanos (2001–2020) and founding director of Cours de Poétique, an independent publishing imprint with a focus on art, performance and new music.