Artmaking as Embodied Enquiry: Entering the F/old

An inter/trans/postdisciplinary artistic analysis of folds and folding.

What can a fold be? Virtually anything and everything.

For centuries, folds and folding have captured the world’s imagination. Folds readily appear in revivals of the ancient craft of origami, amid the simplest acts of pedestrian life, within the philosophical turnings of the mind, and in art, design, architecture, performing arts, and linguistics around the world. What awaits our understanding is how deeply the fold figures into embodiment, into our very impulse to create.

This book is about folding as a vibrant stimulus for inter/trans/postdisciplinary artistic research, whether for the performative, for product realization, or simply to enliven body, mind, and spirit. Destined for artmaking—for making any art—the f/old practice etches into the very fabric of embodiment. As such, the f/old reaches outside the constraints of disciplinary silos into nice areas that embrace the unknown, with all its underlying tensions and ambiguities. In conceiving of art made differently, Susan Sentler and Glenna Batson share the abundance of their decade-long collaboration in developing their approach to practice research in the fold. In addition to their insights, they invite eight of their collaborators to contribute, each a veteran artist of a diverse genre.

Featuring a wide variety of practice samples and images, this book reflects on a current and unique somatic-oriented arts research practice and pedagogy with an intriguing blend of interdisciplinary concern and practice.
 

Susan Sentler is an artist, lecturer, choreographer, researcher, curator, director, dramaturg, and performer whose work is rooted in the fields of dance, performance, and visual arts.

Glenna Batson is a movement muse, educator, and mentor who has worked at the intersection of dance, movement science, and somatic education for more than five decades.