A book to stimulate the imagination, drawing the reader into a series of imaginative journeys - from the realm of the sensing/feeling body, into creating through moving, making with materials or writing - in order to discover the personal world of image and imagination.
'Perhaps the way that the world sees itself is changing, and the divide between
participant and observer, object and intelligence, is diffusing into field activity.
This handbook is part of that process.' Antony Gormley
This is a handbook for working in the creative arts, with an emphasis upon imagination and receptivity: to our bodies, to our surroundings, our materials, and to what we create. It will be of value to anyone interested to explore their lives through an active engagement in the arts. It puts particular emphasis upon the sensing, feeling, moving body as a basis for any imaginative
activity. The book describes sources and strategies for working within and between various forms of expression, including: moving, making things with materials and writing. It stresses the importance of intuitive, instinctive ways of knowing, perceiving, and creating. The book will be a useful resource for people studying or teaching in the arts, or for anyone whose professional life involves them in working creatively with others: therapeutically, educationally, or in a community context. The book is written to inspire rather than to instruct, to be used in small amounts to stimulate a working process, rather than to be read through from cover to cover. The authors' previous book, Body Space Image, was about improvised movement, experimental performance,
and creating performance settings. This book turns to the question of imagination in our lives and how this is awakened and nourished through attention to the present, feeling world of the body and to whatever appears as we make. In this way we enter into the poetics of our experience.
Miranda Tufnell is a dancer, Alexander teacher and craniosacral therapist. She has been showing her performance work in galleries and theatres since 1976, often making site-specific events and collaborating with visual artists. She has taught widely throughout the country, including periods of teaching at Dartington College of Arts and at Fellside Alexander School. Her work both as a dancer/choreographer and body therapist has been to make visible the invisible world of the sensing body. Most recently she has collaborated with Tim Rubidge and Brenda Mallon on a movement/health project, and in performance work with composer Sylvia Hallet. She has two sons.
Chris Crickmay trained as an architect, but has worked mainly in visual art with a strong interest in the links between art, dance and creativity. In his teaching career, he was one of the initiators of the Open Universtiy's course, Art and Environment. Then, as head of Art and Design at Dartington College of Arts, he helped create and run a degree course entitled Art and Social Context. He now works as an independent writer and artist, continuing to participate in collaborations across the arts - in recent years with dancer, Eva Karczag. He is married and has two grown up daughters.
