Abstract:

The present study aims at exploring the potential of Movement-based Performing Arts focusing on bodily imagination as an approach to experimental and embodied research methods -including theoretical principles as well as practical tools- in the context of Educational Sciences. Special focus is given to the role of bodily imagination in connection to the concept of radical imagination, as both research tools and factors of social change through research. Imagination is approached as a kinesthetic, cognitive, and educational process that might be central to the generation of critical and creative knowledge co-creation.

Embodiment and embodied research are framed through interdisciplinary perspectives coming mainly from Performance Studies, Body Studies, Cognitive Sciences, and Arts-based Educational Research. Theoretical reflection draws on the concept of “embodied technique” by Ben Spatz, on the idea of “situated knowing” and “knowledge co-creation” by Donna Haraway, on the concept of “performativity” by Judith Butler, “perception” and “lived body” by Merleau-Ponty, and beyond. The practical framework presents selected embodied tools applicable in educational research, that rely upon creative movement to activate kinesthetic imagination, and ranging through different degrees of bodily involvement: from inner/invisible physical movement to outer/visible physical movement. The proposed tools are designed to elicit the production and exchange of embodied knowledge in the different phases of a research process, from design, to analysis and elaboration of data, and to the presentation of results.

Keywords:

Performing arts, bodily imagination, embodied research, creativity, embodied education.