THE OPEN FLOOR SERIES @marklipton 08|08|2020 SPRING 2020. OPENFLOOR is the latest in guru-led groups combining bio-mechanic movement, somatic connections and psychoanalysis. I was drawn to the model deep in the winter of 2019. The combination of movement, dance, trance and focused writing is a tool to break me into a more regular practice of writing. It worked. By the following spring, I was writing daily. Morning pages. Handwritten notes I would later be unable to read. Yet I persist. Because the PRACTICE of focusing my thinking; the habituation of my schedule; morning coffee; sun rising behind me; the room still; the neighbourhood silent. And I still heard music. A symphony of ambient waves activating my energy until, pen down, I need to move. Motion is lotion. March 2020. COVID-19 struck me down and everything froze. All work stopped. I made a short film about my inability to activate. I called it my ennui. The world would soon end, I thought. Ice death, I supposed, as spring hit and warmed the house and the Norway maple out-front slowly unfurled like a vast colourful spinnaker. I brought me joy. I could see small moments of incredible beauty; right in front of me, a tulip wilts and drops a petal. My visions of decay, rich metaphors like glasses to see the world, contrast the budding of spring. My rites of spring this year included an eschatological fantasy (fallacy) of total annihilation. No point in holding back.
“WE ARE MOST NEARLY OURSELVES WHEN WE ACHIEVE THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE CHILD AT PLAY.” — Heraclitus As the human brain evolved, an increasing number of specialized neural networks emerged to handle the vast amounts of information required for complex social interactions, abstract thinking and imagination. The increasing complexity allowed for the emergence of language, storytelling and narrative structures. Through language, individual brains gradually became able to use the minds of others through shared stories to aid in neural integration, emotional regulation and enhanced executive functioning. Understanding this interpersonal neurobiology taught me that necessary the physical isolation in this emergency situation left me unregulated and unintegrated. Scattered. Forgetful. Lucid yet dissociated. I have been here
