‘I is an other’ : encountering the self as other in expressive arts practice

Thurston, SD

Abstract

This paper was delivered at the 2nd International Arts in Healthcare Event – Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis: Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 4th-6th October 2019

In 1871, the poet Arthur Rimbaud declared in a letter ‘je est une autre’ [I is an other] – an articulation which has resonated in literary history ever since. The materiality of art allows one to encounter oneself as other, and this distance enables perspective, insight and understanding. I want to approach the central questions of the conference from the point of view of a poet moving into interdisciplinary artistic practice as a dancer, and also involved in projects relating to the role of expressive arts in therapy. What is gained in the transition from one art form to another? How is otherness re-encountered, re-exposed, to be made available for critical and personal reflection? Some of these questions have been made possible by my reading of Daniel Stern’s notion of vitality dynamics, but Carrie Noland’s critical poetics of gesture has also been useful for developing a dialectical understanding of the relationship between the textual and the embodied self. I want to trace this journey through poetry, dance, theory and practice to propose a vision for art and the artist’s role in culture which sees no divergence between wellbeing and cultural practice, and which cultivates radical empathy through a committed practice to encountering otherness through creative work.

Citation

Thurston, S. ‘I is an other’ : encountering the self as other in expressive arts practice. Presented at 2nd International Arts in Healthcare Event - Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis: Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible, Pratt Institute, New York, United States of America

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: 2nd International Arts in Healthcare Event - Arts, Creativity and the Global Crisis: Reimagining Identity, Otherness and the Possible
• Conference Location: Pratt Institute, New York, United States of America
• End Date: Oct 6, 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 19, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 19, 2021
• Publisher URL: https://www.nyarttherapy.org/events/982/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference