SEEDS begins with Jennifer Monson & Simon Whitehead. We start with a walk today up the Earthdance creek to its source.
We reach the top of the mountain, the land flattens out. We can hear the water running underground but can't see it anymore. In t…
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Added by Melinda on June 14, 2009 at 9:20pm —
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Simon Whitehead will be working with Jennifer Monson at SEEDS in June (coming very soon, please sign up!). Check out this interview with Simon re: art making on the land in a rural area in Wales.
Simon Whitehead Interview
Cheers, Melinda
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Added by Melinda on May 31, 2009 at 10:15am —
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CLICK ME! CLICK ME! YOUR FUTURE AWAITS
All fortunes guaranteed 100% genuine comments courtesy SEEDS 08 participants and presenters.
Enjoy!
SEEDS 08 Publishing Project Editors: Melinda, Melle, & Margit
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Added by Melinda on April 22, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Daniel Lepkoff, somaticist and Virginia Hayssen, mammologist
#1 in a series of somatic nature walks
Participants: Martha, Jane, Judy, Hannah, Jeremy, Marie, Jen, Melinda
From the front porch:
Ginny talking tails: how she has students observe squirrel tails in her class at Smith College.
Danny talking weight shift: keep a steady image, whatever you are looking at, let your weight shift move the image. Let the body lead your visi…
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Added by Melinda on August 31, 2008 at 10:30am —
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In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Martha Eddy, somaticist and Joe Kopera, geologist
#2 in a series of somatic nature walks
Participants: Jane, Judy, Simon, Olive, Melinda, Lailye, Margit, and I think a few others…
Joe brought big, beautiful, colorful geological maps of our area with topographical information overlaying mineral distributions.
Martha Eddy joined us from the EcoMoves for Kids project. She talked us through feeling layers of the body (bone, blood,…
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Added by Melinda on August 30, 2008 at 10:30am —
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In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Melinda Buckwalter, somaticist and Michael Wojtech, tree bark naturalist
#3 in a series of somatic nature walks
Participants: Marie, Amy from Creamery, Jen, Sarah
We worked in partners, one to w…
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Added by Melinda on August 29, 2008 at 11:00am —
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In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Christina Svane via cell phone, somaticist and Bob Wood, bird man
#4 in a series of somatic nature walks
Participants: Marie, Olive, Jen, Margit, Monica, Ian, Melinda, Elon, Nancy
Christie got stuck in a paving traffic jam! She called in her somatic exercise. We were to go into the woods, take 5 deep breaths with our eyes closed and then sing/sound our smell. Opening our eyes slowly like the dawn we were to sing/sound the trans…
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Added by Melinda on August 28, 2008 at 3:30pm —
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In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Jen Harmon in mushroom shirt, somaticist and Tyler Seavey, Shroom man in shroom T-shirt.
#5 in a series of somatic nature walks
Tyler with Mushroom
…
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Added by Melinda on August 27, 2008 at 4:00pm —
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OK, I lied. There was a sixth walk for festival finale day.
In the investigation of the physical components of thought
Elon from Australia, somaticist and Sarah Worden, plant woman
#5 in a series of somatic nature walks
Participants: Nala’s mom and Bob, Sarah’s mom, Nefa, Melinda, and many others! lost track!
After a sensory awareness circle, Elon had us walk into the woods silently, where we found a plant we were attracted to, and spent a minute with enjoying. Then we found a partner…
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Added by Melinda on August 26, 2008 at 5:00am —
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Last Day of SEEDS! After blogging in the morning I arrived breathless a little bit after noon for the tea ceremony in the Dwell project’s Tea House Nest. I peaked at the Drowning Woman--she held together overnight! A personal Tea Ceremony highlight was the use of the cane from the bushes on the other side of the farmhouse for teacups. I love those bushes! Last year, I made a dance where I charged into them like a wild deer (according to a witness, not actually part of my plan), and in Prapto’s w…
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Added by Melinda on August 25, 2008 at 6:00pm —
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Melinda Buckwalter SEEDS 2008 Project Proposal
Hunting and Gathering Science: Investigating Somaticized Thought
The idea: Einstein described his thoughts as having a physical component. “The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are…more or less clear images which can be ‘voluntarily’ reproduced and combined. [Some are] of visual and some of muscular type. Conventional words or other signs have to be sought for laboriously only in a second stage.” —Einstein. Neuro…
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Added by Melinda on August 24, 2008 at 10:00am —
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Prepared Print Object Document
Prepared, as in a Cage prepared piano...
maybe personalized, individualized preparations
like hand "highlighted" editorial selections from printed materials
•book shaped 8.5 X 11 folded in half, the ITCH model
•cellophane envelope with inserts variable, hand selected
•objects inserted: leaves, sticks, souvenirs or photo copies of them
•another shape folded? newsprint? harder to print
•limited run, sustainable
•original print document made this week that will…
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Added by Melinda on August 23, 2008 at 10:30am —
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Earthdance
pesto…
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Added by Melinda on August 22, 2008 at 5:00pm —
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Little descriptions in order of appearance
Group Scores: energetic and classic! Herds and flocks shift. Groups form and scatter, both willfully and by happenstance. Endless variation that nevertheless ends with palm on Andrew's forehead.
Chair solo with porch singer: Began with chair being placed by the window (near the thermostat), back to us. Dancer dramatically sits and looks out the window. Evocative. Begin fluid dance of angst on/across floor, enter male voice from porch. Ge…
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Added by Melinda on August 19, 2008 at 10:59am —
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It was hard NOT to be curious about Dirt and Digging. First there's the intriguing name. It caught my attention very early on when the project descriptions e-mailed out, a two day project led by Claudia Whittman for the second week of the SEEDS fest. Digging in the dirt sounded like the ultimate Earthdance experience. I chose, however, to attend Tamara's 3 mile-an-hour walk, a simultaneously occurring project. As an editor and writer involved with publishing projects, the lure of using my body a…
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Added by Melinda on August 14, 2008 at 2:30pm —
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Dear Jennifer,
Oh my God! Where did you learn to dance like that? We can definitely see the birds taught you some tricks. We (more than one of us) are in love with you! Thank you for sharing your journey from wild to civilized and back. It’s so precious, it’s like you ARE the national park that we dream of that you tell us doesn’t really exist, and thanks to Teddy Roosevelt for the myth. It’s like you bring the wild into the room, and as long as we have you to remind us, we have wild no matter…
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Added by Melinda on August 13, 2008 at 3:54pm —
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Olivier and Emmanuelle transformed the round studio into a Celtic fairy tale with a grass bed with four sapling posts and actual leaves for a canopy. And there was a glowing circle in a spot light of a hundred Black Eyed Suzies. The space looked so enchanting it took my breath away. Like when your little sister put some make up on and you realized for the first time she was beautiful. The dancers lay on the floor while the audience entered. They came to life slowly at first, but soon Emmanuelle…
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Added by Melinda on August 13, 2008 at 3:52pm —
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I have been to four of the five Western Mass Moving Arts Festivals and it is one of my favorite Earthdance things to do. Full of choices at every turn, more than one participant has experienced the crunch moment right before class when it is time to figure out which one of three luscious and equally compelling options to commit to. “You only have to pick one,” as Merce Cunningham reportedly said about his choreographic process. The agony! Every year I devise a new strategy to avoid the crunch mo…
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Added by Melinda on August 13, 2008 at 3:39pm —
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Tip #1: Avoid the kitchen if you need to make a quick getaway
Tip #2: Locating shoes can be a problem, plan ahead
…
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Added by Melinda on August 8, 2008 at 5:53pm —
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PART THREE: Day Two at Three miles an hour with Tamara Ashley, Experiment
Back in the world of workshop. Contained.
Focused like a lense by Utam
on my pinky, sensitive, tiny, adjustable
but also not so used to sensing: woody-lik,e woody, wooden.
What wild wispy wh wh wh where am I?
Pinky land.
In pinky land sticks are mistaken for roots of trees and barks are rock ledges on mountain sides
or or or
for the second that I slide over the bark edge thinking I’m in stone, thinking…
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Added by Melinda on August 8, 2008 at 4:59pm —
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We reach the top of the mountain, the land flattens out. We can hear the water running underground but can't see it anymore. In t… Continue
Participants: Marie, Amy from Creamery, Jen, Sarah
We worked in partners, one to w… Continue
… Continue
Tip #2: Locating shoes can be a problem, plan ahead
… Continue
