Fractals

12.07.2022

As I begin my journey on this practice-as-research dissertation project, researching humans' current relationship to nature and their natural environments, and how movement can serve as a tool to blur the line between body and environment, I am pleasantly surprised to discover that there are already quite a few practitioners who have dedicated their practice to movement in nature. I have started to wonder more and more why movement in nature is not more present in our society, since it is fundamentally a primal aspect of our being. In Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's book The Stress Solution (2018) , he dedicates a full chapter to the topic of how being in nature has been scientifically proven to effectively decrease humans' stress levels (pp.216). The expansiveness and openness of nature sends signals to our brain that we are in a restful place (Chatterjee, 2018, pp. 216), and even natural sounds have been proven to suppress stress levels (Chatterjee, 2018, pp. 220). What sparked my interest was what he wrote regarding an element referred to as fractals. As described in research studies conducted at the University of Oregon, fractals are patterns that emerge in nature, e.g. clouds, streams, and trees (Chatterjee, 2018, pp.222). Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot says that when humans look at fractals, 'the fractal structure of the eye matches the fractal image being viewed' (Chatterjee, 2018, pp.222). That results in an alpha-wave brain activity spike, which is present when the body is in a so called 'thrive state'.

If I relate this information back to myself, I do think I have in a way been subconsciously aware of this connection. Moving from my home country, a place where nature and open space is easily accessible wherever you are located, to two industrial large cities, was truly a shift. When living in London, I was fortunate to live in close proximities to Richmond park where I could go to broaden my horizons, gain new perspectives, and escape the busyness of the city. As I moved to Manchester, I felt myself getting more enclosed. Walks from my flat included very little green space and I was feeling emotions I had not recognised in myself before. I felt more unsettled during free time, I spent more of my time indoors, and sometimes I felt as though my head was stuck inside a box, resulting in a ´tunnel-vision' approach when it came to dealing with stressful situations. Chatterjee speaks about increased creativity when spending time in nature (Chatterjee, 2018, pp.221), therefore I believe I can make a link between my situation and this sense of nature-deficiency, while also acknowledging other factors that may have come into play.

I am very interested in incorporating this idea of fractals into my choreographic process. Exploring how I can embed these specific patterns in movement and how that may affect the way I move, the feeling of movement, and the observers' perception of it. A short documentary I watched, also describes fractals as 'patterns of chaos, or patterns of change' (Sigma Documentaries, 2021, 01:00). I believe that by using fractals as a choreographic tool, I will be incorporating nature into movement, rather than simply moving in nature.

CURRENT PLACE OF EXPLORATION: I am in the research stage, puzzling together how I want to conduct my practice during this project. I am developing my own way of incorporating other practitioners' practices into my own, and looking at how that can support my final aim; the creation a of an outdoor dance film, exploring abundance of nature and how movement can blur the lines between body and environment.

Until I reflect again

- Íris

Thoughts: