The following video shares some of the work completed as part of the project “Silent spaces, healing presence: an arts-based, contemplative inquiry into the wisdom of silence and presence in higher education” led by Lauren Michelle Levesque.
The impetus for the project emerged from my interest in the questions: Why is it important to reinhabit the shared public spaces of our university campus post-pandemic? How can the arts help us with this reinhabiting? By exploring these questions through silent performances of collective art-making, the hope was to gain insight into how a particular university community has navigated the loss of social connection experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Performing in silence was an effort to be present or tuned into the dynamics that contribute to such connection: light, listening, laughter, relationships, spaces….perhaps there are other dynamics you would add the list?