Journal Entry #3 by Bryan Saner

This is the third entry in a series of commentaries written by Bryan Saner, the Associate Artistic Director of Mordine & Co. about the rehearsal process for "I Haven't Gone There."



March 29, 2010

Last week I wrote some thoughts about the body. . .

I mentioned the systems that body is composed of and proposed that instead of the dualistic mind/body philosophies we literally begin thinking about our body as being the infinite multiple aggregate systems of experience, , , The body as infinite chapters each reflecting infinite systems.
Today I want to write about the difference between having a body and being a body because the question proposes multiple ways of imagining our interface with our existence/culture/aggregat

e.

My writing and interest in this is not only related to dance and performance, but also to the whole of those interrelated systems that compose the body. In an effort to cultivate a sense of wonder and joy in the discussion, I will add that the intentions of these questions are not to be seen as proving one identification or another as being positive or negative or having more or less value. We find find ontological value in all angles of the question and indeed as performers, don't intend to propose anything but the question. The audience will answer. This is one of the purposes of live performance.

I also want to add that I hope we don't figure this out. Thought and the body it investigates is infinite. The questions and possible discussion they create within the body and the immediate neighborhood around the body are more valuable than the temporary answers we might find, The better our microscopes and telescopes become, the more we prove our infinity. The more answers we conclude, the more questions we will discover. We would retrograde if this process stopped.

In an effort to expand the dualistic nature of the question I will add the related but different questions that thousands have asked before: Is body the self? Is body an object/vessel that contains being? Is it the perceiving machinery that connects us to everything other? Does the other create us? What is us? What is other?

So as a first step to thinking about the body as systems, we return to the question at hand:
Do we have a body or are we a body?
But that's all the time and space I have for today. . .enough for the questions. You can respond. Really, just post a comment. Maybe that's what facebook can offer; our body’s inter(face) with the collected con(text) of these questions, our common experience, our creative practices, what we are eating for breakfast. . .