The Origin of Bodiverse

Notes from my first brainstorm on this project:


2/15/07
Body Poem
Language/Text/Body/Film/Performance/Movement



Works that Speak to Me & Research:

1. Imaging Her Erotics by Carolee Schneemann
2. Can Humanity Change? J. Krishnamurti
3. Various texts on the body (in personal library but in storage until 2/17)
4. Various texts on performance art (“)
5. History of Sexuality, Foucault
6. http://www.caroleeschneemann.com/index.html
7. Cecilia Vicuna various performative-based works and Web resources
8. Karen Finley’s performative texts and sketches
9. My personal body history
10. Personal ads
11. Jenna Jameson’s lists and rules.
12. History of costumes: http://www.costumes.org/HISTORY/100Pages/costhistpage.htm
13. Go to bookstore and pick a book on body politics, if not in library already.
14. Physiology, biology, and history of the kidneys.
15. Kidney pamphlets sent to me from The Kidney Foundation (in storage).
16. Interview a plastic surgeon. Maybe schedule a consultation (if I can find a free one) and record it.


Questions to ask myself/ Things to do/consider:

1. How does one feed a body?
2. How do I feed my body?
3. What is sustenance?
4. What is my/other’s sustenance?
5. Possibly interview peers, strangers, plastic surgeons, doctors.
6. Think about porn vs. prude.
7. What is my body’s religion?
8. What secrets are held in my/your body and where?
9. Whose body is this?
10. How does music in poetry relate to music of the body?
11. What is music of the body? Is it noise the body makes or the lyricality of movement?
12. If my body was superhero, which one would it be?
13. What would it do?
14. Separation of mind from body. Distinction.
15. Connection of mind to body. Distraction. Defraction. Blur.
16. Bruises and scars. Whose are they? What do they signify? Pain or healing? Personal or universal?
17. What is a universal body?
18. How can my body change the world?
19. Body art – painted bodies. Aboriginal and contemporary and bloody and other forms of coverings (birth/surgical/casts/burqa/wigs/yarmulka).
20. The soldier’s bloody body.
21. The victim’s bloody body.
22. The refugee’s bloody body.
23. A philanthropic body.
24. The medicated body.
25. The open body.
26. The peaceful body.
27. The perfect body.
28. The imperfect body.
29. What are these types of bodies?
30. I must narrow my scope.
31. How narrow is the scope of the body?
32. Is there a body part that says more than another? Less than another?
33. What parts of the body are mute? If any?
34. Do I avoid religion?
35. Research disguises and the history of costume.
36. Record my nephrologist at my April follow-up.
37. Kidneys in chinese medicine and alternative medicine.
38. Aspects of the mind that the kidneys relate to.
39. Various personal illnesses and injuries as they can relate to a broader self/world/politics.
40. Politics of women’s health.
41. Plastic surgery.
42. What do bodies want/need?
43. The body as site.
44. The body as city/world/place/placement/displacement.
45. Sites for the body: kitchen, sidewalk, desk, pool of water, snow, bed. Where do we place our bodies? How does this affect our identity?
46. If we had no body, what would our identity be? A voice? A thought?
47. Then, what is more powerful?
48. Explore how the form of the body and the form of poetry can mold the form/construction of this project.
49. Body as defiance/submission.


Ways & Means:

1. Create a Web site or a blog for it? For final product? Or from start with questions for response to include in the final project?
2. Buy/rent/ or borrow a digital camera. Maybe a cheap Internet
3. Buy/rent/or borrow video and sound editing software. Use connections at Drexel.
4. Interview & record people on the street. One question only. Ask different questions on different days. What do you think of my body? What does my body tell you? What do you think of my body language? Can you improvise a poem about my body? Have you ever hurt another person’s body? (not sure if I could get anyone to answer this one.)
5. Maybe make up answers to those questions from various voices as well. Write them as a play for various voices?
6. Paste words and lists to my body. Move with that word in that body part. Record it. Write it. Write onto my body. Take photographs. Use this exercise to develop material for final project.
7. Collect personal ads and how they describe their bodies and what they want in other’s bodies. Paste them to my body? Personals cut ups? Body cut ups.
8. Interview a plastic surgeon. Maybe schedule a consultation (if I can find a free one) and record it.


Quick first draft – not really:

I’m not ready to do this. It will need to be a physical process with sketches. I will scan what I do and post it. Not sure how I’ll upload video in progress. Might be able to upload some of the voice recordings. Seek collaborators? I have this tendency to expand projects, and this one seems to be growing out of my skillset, but I’m really interested in exploring it as a solo project too. Maybe I can find a local film/sound engineering student to help with the editing.