Shape...

The relationship between expression + function

Shape.
It is a noun— A boundary or surface; a two dimensional or three dimensional form.
It is a verb— to guide, to “shape”, to influence something into being.

Sometimes still, sometimes moving.
Sometimes it is functional, other times it is expressive.
Sometimes grasped…. sometimes out of reach…
sometimes cuts… sometimes cozy.
Sometimes helps… other times obstructs.

In Anne Bogart’s View Points, Shape is something we can make with our own bodies, or we can make them as a collective. Shapes can be the space around us.
But always found in
Lines, Curves, or Combinations there of.

I have my favorites, or those that bring me comfort.
Other shapes I have an aversion to, or they make me uneasy.

Just like I have a favorite coffee mug. It doesn’t have a handle.
It sits in the soft part of my hand like a warm hug from an old friend. That shape brings me comfort. Where as, the concrete grids in industrial areas make me uneasy as I feel small and out of place as a soft body navigating through steel, iron and concrete.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean I only like curves or soft shapes.
In last weeks post about Spatial Relationship, I shared how context is important, and it is also important in Shape… (as I guess it is important in “meaning making” in general.)

There is something satisfying about clean sharp lines in the medical building.
Seeing all the corners, the hardness of the surfaces signals to me cleanliness and order.
Even if I am standing in a long queue of people waiting to get into the DMV, or where ever, if that line is straight or ordered… I have assurance that “my time will come”… but if it is more of a cluster without a clear delineation of where it begins or ends, I feel uneasy. Not just that I don’t know where I should be, but perhaps the organizers do not know either.

Shapes make up the space.
Shapes fill the space. Shapes move through the space.

Balance. Discord. Harmony. Dissonance.
Beauty. Chaos. All at our disposal.

To bring this into creative context, to start with a bit of play:
I begin exploring shape by what I have most control over,
what costs nothing to begin with, My body. My self.

I will be introducing all of these viewpoints from this starting place. So we have an understanding of the individual elements before we start playing them together in concert.
Building first a personal relationship with the elements before we start exploring some of the nuance and insight they hold in other capacities.
To also show, that to “play” or “create”, to call in curiosity, we don’t need to wait for a special times or be in a certain place… we can explore where we are in ordinary time, exactly as we are.

So, What shape is your body making right now?

My spine curved to one side, because I am not front facing at my desk. I have been here for a while, so my shoulders are up to my ears and my chin is pushed out. I have crossed legs, and am kind of feeling like a walnut right now, in shape.
Physically, that is me as a shape, in this moment… a walnut:)

I’m not judging it, I’m not fixing it, I’m just naming what is.
I’m sure there is some psychological and physiological meaning we could prescribe to it, but for this moment. I get to just be a walnut. Feel what that feels like.

What makes me so curious about the body as a shape in general comes from my Massage Therapy background. In 2007 I went through a 1,000 hour training to become licensed in the state of Nebraska. I started this journey simply because I was looking for a new line of work. I wanted something that I could “do anywhere” and potentially create my own schedule. Function.
But when I started learning about the body and all of the majesty that resides within this sweet little “meat suit”, all of these "ah-ha” moments came flooding in.
🎶 The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone.🎶
IT’S TRUE.
I mean, I knew this… but the physics of all of our levers and fulcrums started to make sense in ways that had me see how it all works together. I received this architectural understanding of the body I was living in as a human. As an actor, I received a new map of the body I was “expressing” through.

I remember learning about homeostasis, or the body’s ability and actual desire to maintain a stable or harmonious state by automatically adjusting to the external and internal information. The body is ALWAYS looking for homeostasis.
One of my instructors mentioned how the eyes will always want to see the horizon as “level”… so if my hips are shifted to the side, causing my shoulders to tip and counterbalance, my head will naturally want to level out…. leaving me in this curved shape putting stress on all of the joints trying to support this posture.
(I’ll get into more of the body’s infinite quest of keeping us functioning as we go on this journey. It’s fascinating what lengths it will go to to support the weird ways we have come to function as a modern society.)

On top of that, learning that posture isn’t just a thing to work for so my spine is tall or aesthetics can be met, but also for all of my mushy organs beneath the surface. In all of my bending and twisting they are being pressed or stretched. Of course I am not breathing properly if I am always slightly hunched over, my lungs and diaphragm are working against all that weight I am collapsing upon them.

So as I get back into my “walnut” position as I am typing, I can hear my sweet diaphragm and lungs whisper, “hey… pssst. can we get some room?”

The body is obviously resilient and adaptable. There is no standard in approaching homeostasis, we all have different “meat suits”, so balance for me in this moment, may be different than balance for another in that moment.
But the body tells a story through its shape.

If I let that sink in, I can reverse manufacture.
I can choose shapes that support the context I am trying to express.
I can choose shape to support what I am aspiring to move into.

I can take my own personal shape and widen my perspective to include the space around me, my “walnut” may make sense in my home…. but if I were to be in company with others around a dinner table, I imagine someone would ask me “are you feeling alright?”

When I am walking to my car at night, on a street I am unfamiliar with, I am specific with the shape I make. I stand tall, head up. I make myself big to counter-balance any fear, to present that I am aware of my surroundings. The homeostasis that beckons in that moment is different than when I am in the company of friends sharing a meal around the dining room table.

So what shape is your body making now?
As you walk through your day, can you just make a little note of what shapes feel good to you in certain situations? Where is your comfort?
What shapes do you make when you want to shut down? What shapes do you make when you light up?

Until soon…. in all the shapes…
See you at the next threshold,

xo
Kirstin