Spaces of somatic and creative processes
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2024-12-06
Department
Major/Subject
Visual Communication Design
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Art and Media
Language
en
Pages
78
Series
Abstract
In the mainstream graphic design practice, the working culture often disregards the designers’ bodies, emotions, and intuition. With the rising need to deal with professional uncertainty, many designers report the amount of stress, anxiety, and overwork they experience. Such conditions naturally affect the practitioners’ bodies and state of mind. This thesis is an envisioning of an al-ternative creative process: its main conception is the integration of somatic (corporeal) and crea-tive practices in one's design process. The intention behind such a combination is the creation of an environment for creative practitioners to activate their senses and awareness in their creative pursuits and experience a more holistic design practice. To investigate the mutual influence of somatics and design, I organized a retreat and designed diaries for the retreat participants. The two-day retreat with six participants and the diaries design process are the key research methods. Through the diaries design, I investigated what role my body plays in different design stages and recorded reflections along the process. The resulting publication is called “somatic diary” due to the focus it brings to soma (i.e., subjective corporeal experience). The retreat is an experimental research method to test the thesis premise. Its sched-ule included awareness-based practices, creative assignments, and writing reflections in the dia-ries. To support the participants reflections on the body involvement in creative acts, emotional and physical changes, the diaries contained questions tailored for each practice. The diary notes serve as a major data source to investigate embodied knowledges and the ef-fects of somatic practices on the creative process. The participants’ handwritten words weave in the thesis narrative alongside my observations journaled throughout the research process. Somatic diaries analysis highlighted recurring themes of togetherness, care and personal know-ing. The study presents each theme as a conceptual space and describes its features through the key retreat happenings, diary notes, and facilitation observations. These spaces are the key research findings that define the environment for activating knowledges within the body and trusting them in one’s design pursuits. Consequently, this environment became a lived experience of an alternative creative process for each retreat participant. The creative process was character-ised by a heightened awareness of one’s emotional and physical state, of others’ presence and their impact, and of one’s inner knowledge. These features of the practice indicate a beneficial change towards a more intuitive and holistic design process that was enabled by the somatic en-gagement.Description
Supervisor
Karhumaa, ArjaThesis advisor
Villa Largacha, MariaKeywords
body, situatedness, book design, knowing, soma design, embodiment