Contact

[CORRECTION: I confused two terms from Ian Bogost's writing: What I call ontography in this post is actually what Ian Bogost calls philosophical carpentry. Ontography refers to cataloguing being in context. I like the word ontography though, and there is something about dance that is definitely to do with mapping space with your body. That's probably another post...]

I've been thinking about thinking about things. It doesn't ever quite work does it? All this translating, from object to mind to thought. And then from thought into words into writing.

Is there another way to deal with thinking about things?

Object Oriented philosophers, such as Ian Bogost, propose the idea of doing as thinking. Or maybe, doing instead of thinking. The idea is that doing is a direct intervention in the object to object relationships that make up the world.

Ian Bogost calls this doing ontography philosophical carpentry. For example, he designs video games as a form of ontography philosophical carpentry.

What are other forms of ontography philosophical carpentry?

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I was speaking to Eleanor Sikorski about a week long contact improv workshop she'd been to. I asked her how it was. She said she felt very connected to her spine. She was taking the piss. But also, she wasn't.

If you spend a week doing contact improvisation - which is about bodily reactions rather than conscious thought - then you start to "think" with your spine and not your head.

So I asked Ellie to show me some good contact improvisation videos on youtube, and she did, and now I'm putting them on here.

These are good ones. We watched a few which were like every cheap joke about hippies you could care to make, but when it is done well, then it's incredible to watch. Visceral and uncanny, like a maths problem being solved.

The only bad bits seem to come about when the dancers realise they are performing for an audience. It seems that just like more traditional forms of philosophy, ontography philosophical carpentry can't be undertaken with an audience in mind.

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