sloppy pasta ai
Quite a deep cut from Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day but these are a fantastic set of guidelines for working AI : https://stopsloppypasta.ai/en/#rules I have most certainly broken all of these rules. Sigh.
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one wild and precious life
I see there’s a documentary about Mary Oliver just released called Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World . I need to find a place to watch it. Here’s one of my favourite Oliver poems The Summer Day . The Summer Day by Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean– the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the…
artistic research in Dance Research Matters
As part of the Dance Research Matters final conference from 10-11 July 2025 I was part of a small panel discussing the future of practice research. The panel included Vida Midgelow, Paul Paschal and Efrosini Protopapa and was chaired by Hetty Blades. The video recording is at: Definitely some things to chew on if you have the appetite for that kind of thing.
the weather
the weather will have its way with me despite my best efforts – Helen Poynor
Seeping into the Land
In the rain on the sand, a simple practice begins. It is a practice that dissolves in and through the body; a soluble body being known. It is also a counter-practice, a corporeal balm that resists the machinations of the default digital logic. In this practice we live as creatures not machines. A short essay on experiencing the movement work of Helen Poynor and how I understand it in relation to…
this body
In January 2022 I started asking people to write short statements that began with the words “ This body”. It’s now a long list that is moving, complex and alive. In the last year I began thinking about how to share these statements. My colleague Rosemary Lee loaned me her mother’s Olivetti typewriter and I took out the printer ribbon, bought some 150gsm blank postcards and started typing or…
socratic questions
Various people (in very different contexts) have been asking me about critical thinking and I’ve been sharing this collection of Socratic questions that was first given to me by my colleague Marie-Louise Crawley. Posting here as a resource to share. Types Examples Clarification questions Why do you say that? What do you mean by…? How does this relate to our discussion? What do you think is the…
hiatus
I’m taking a hiatus from blogging here for a while ( until further notice ). I haven’t been able to blog so regularly these last months so am going to rest for a bit. If I do happen across something relevant and interesting I might end up putting it here … We’ll see! Thanks (as ever) for reading. Simon
the end of nature
In 1989, Bill McKibben wrote, “ I believe that we are at the end of nature.” Then he clarified: “ By this I do not mean the end of the world. The rain will still fall, and the sun will still shine. When I say ‘ nature,’ I mean a certain set of human ideas about the world and our place in it.” – Jenny Odell Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock (2023)
thinking like a consumer
Merely mentioning market roles can crowd out our intrinsic motivation. One online survey asked participants to imagine themselves as one among four households facing a water shortage due to a drought affecting their shared well. Crucially, the survey described the whole scenario in terms of ‘ consumers’ to one half of the participants, and in terms of ‘ individuals’ to the other half. What…
eliminate the friction
Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals. Business executives should have to stand in the same airport security lines as everyone else. The very fact that people want to buy their way out of all of these experiences points to the reason why they shouldn’t be able to. Private schools and…
Look and Look Again
I’ve been using video as part of my artistic practice since 1997. This has often meant thinking about the nature of Screendance and how thinking through moving image is usefully thought of as choreographic. Screendance festivals are odd affairs. The usually very short films are screened one after another in a curated evening and it’s a dizzying experience for audiences. In 2012 I was deep in…
astray awkwardly
An autistic politics: in losing our way, straying away from the marked tarmacs of the conventional, we might find ourselves in different, surprising places. https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/astray-awkwardly-an-autistic-politics This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.
sign on the door
A link to a conversation between The Place’s Eddie Nixon and Christina Elliot and me from back in 2015. We performed it in public. skellis.net/sign-on-the-door
ask nature
Ask nature: a portal to the wisdom nature holds which seeks to collaborate globally to design a world for the future of all species. https://asknature.org/about/ This post was written by Finn Ellis-Whitty but based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.
ecosytemic practice research
I finally got round to posting a piece of writing for Dance Research called Ecosystemic Practice Research (for the benefit of others) : skellis.net/ecosystemic-practice-research-for-the-benefit-of-others
self portrait as time
Linking here to Marcus Coates’ digital video Self Portrait as Time (2016). https://www.marcuscoates.co.uk/projects/154-self-portrait-as-time This is a 24 hour long video in which Coates has recorded himself manually moving the second hand of a watch second-by-second. I saw the work at an exhibition called 24/7 at Somerset House in late 2019 and was enthralled by it. Curiously, when I see the brief…
the comfort/chaos circle
A model for thinking about learning, which consists of three concentric circles: the comfort zone, the learning zone, the chaos zone. The circles shift as whatever’s going on in the world affects our relationship to comfort and chaos. https://www.becktench.com/blog/2020/7/28/the-comfort-chaos-circle This post was written by Finn Ellis-Whitty but based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.
things will have to change
The secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ), a research and policy organisation that works on behalf of the world’s richest countries, has compared the prevailing elite posture to that of the fictional 19th-century Italian aristocrat Tancredi Falconeri, from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard, who declares: “ If we want things to stay…
ladder of inference
A model developed by Chris Argyris and Peter Senge (1970) which helps you to no longer jump to premature conclusions and to reason on the basis of facts. This seven step ladder provides insight into the unconscious mental processes that occur within the human brain. https://www.toolshero.com/decision-making/ladder-of-inference/ This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from…
physical connection
This co-regulation has measurable effects. Changes in one person’s body often prompt changes in another person’s body, whether the two are romantically involved, just friends, or strangers meeting for the first time. When you’re with someone you care about, your breathing can synchronize, as can the beating of your hearts, whether you’re in casual conversation or a heated argument. This sort of…
berry on minimalism
The essential cultural discrimination is not between having and not having or haves and have-nots, but between the superfluous and the indispensable. Wisdom, it seems to me, is always poised upon the knowledge of minimums; it might be thought to be the art of minimums. – Wendell Berry The Hidden Wound (2005) https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/11/17/wendell-berry-hidden-wound/
stimming
Stimming is the rhythmic and repetitive movements that we do to self-regulate and process sensory input. The Stimming virtual space is an exploration of how space can be created for sensory seeking and self regulating movement. https://web.archive.org/web/20230302150418/https://stimming.me/ This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.
the body isn’t a thing
The body isn’t a thing, it’s an event. We exist by happening. – Guy Claxton Intelligence in the Flesh: Why Your Mind Needs Your Body Much More Than It Thinks (2015)
postcards
A Frank Warren project which involves giving people postcards on which they write undisclosed secrets. An example is: I cannot relax in my bathtub because I have an irrational fear that it’s going to fall through the floor. https://postsecret.com/ discovered through : https://hazlitt.net/longreads/dark-matter This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.
no country
No country has ever ended human deprivation without a growing economy. And no country has ever ended ecological degradation with one. – Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics (2017)
your morals
A space where you can learn about your own morality while also contributing to scientific research. https://yourmorals.org/ This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis
eating
Eating is an agricultural act. – Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating (1990)
irritating in others
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others. – Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier (2023)
awakened
The purpose of the work is to awaken something in you first, and then allow something to be awakened in others. And it’s fine if they’re not the same thing. – Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being (2023)
transfiguration
An ever-evolving digital figure that experiences different forms such as fire and shrubbery. Found via kottke.org/20/08/transfiguration-an-ever-evolving-walking-figure This was posted by Finn Ellis-Whitty based on an initial prompt from Simon Ellis.