Split

A practice led by Susanna Ylikoski, foregrounding speech and movement as aspects of embodiment, and their interplay through a “split” relation.

Duet: Internal and External Split of Speech and Movement.
(Two practitioners and one witness.)

Two practitioner finds a comfortable position in the space.
They begin a journey, anchored in one of the references from the Azathoth mythology. Embodying the journey, they express it through either speech or movement, externalizing the narratives and images from the reference, linearly or otherwise. When one practitioner speaks, the other must move, and vice-versa.
The witness claps, prompting the practitioners to switch modality of embodiment and expression, from speech to movement and vice-versa. For several minutes, continue playing with shifting from movement to speech to movement, relishing in the moments of transition and the ways in which the two narratives weave-through and inform one another.
The witness signals, inviting the practitioner to freely negotiate the switch between the two modes, and even find simultaneity of speech and movement.

Notes:

This practice is predicated on the split model. Various forms of practice function by “splitting” embodiment into two aspects and exploring their interrelations. We can distinguish between three split-narratives. The first, one-and-environment, wherein the practitioner projects onto their surroundings and plays with their relation to that split-object. Within the Azathoth process, we utilized this split-narrative when thinking about Azathoth as an all-encompassing entity, an aura filling up the practice space. The second, one-and-other, wherein the practitioner projects onto another practitioner. Often, each of the practitioners will initially take exclusive stewardship of one aspect of embodiment, swap stewardship, and gradually finding inclusive stewardship of both aspects – as seen in “Duet” above. The third, one-and-self, wherein the practitioner creates an internal split, projecting two aspects of embodiment onto one another. As seen in “Solo”, this can be a potent way to digest one option at a time, and then explore the complexity of their combinations, engendering sedimentation.

5: Split Duet