2012. 2013 | SONAL MITHAL | DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
LOCATION: SONAJHURI, SANTINIKETAN, WEST BENGAL, INDIA.
PARTICIPANTS: MASTERS STUDENTS OF DANCE DEPARTMENT AND FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT (SANGIT BHAVAN AND KALA BHAVAN), VISVA-BHARTI UNIVERSITY, INDIA.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, USA.

A video camera followed the dancers’ movements in a semi-choreographed work, with the dancers emulating landscape elements in stylized gestures. From the resulting footage, a short film Tracings… was created to demonstrate embodied knowledge.
Digital link to the video
Subsequently, the participants were invited to view the edited footage of the previous workshop and create improvisational pieces with that viewing in mind. The video installation was done at the site of the performance itself, while a camera documented the process. To externalize their embodied experience, the participants remembered and documented the process of their corporeal engagement using drawn lines in colors of their own preference. The intensity and length of the lines indicated the intensity and duration of engagement. Awareness of dust, heat, wind, clay, sounds, smells, textures, topography, erosion, ruination, renewal was recorded by drawing colored lines on paper.