“The wet centre is bottomless.”
– Seamus Heaney, Bogland
Bog Somatics invites you to sink into the wet centre. To inhabit the liminal space between liquid and land were bodies can be held for hundreds of years, where air is purified and where society, we are told, will meet its end. Through experimental movement and somatic practice you will be immersed in the sounds and smells of bog landscapes and you will be invited to follow simple movement and mediation prompts that are grounded in the science of bogs and climate change. We will explore histories of eco-somatic practice through movement. At the most immediate level, earth is the ground against which the body organises itself in gravity. At an ecological level, it is the living environment with which the body is continuous. At a metaphorical and ethical level, the earth is kin to the body, coextensive in processes of time, memory and sustenance. Mobilizing these various forms of relation, Bog Somatics is designed to destabilise the notion of a sealed, autonomous body and instead reimagine embodiment as a way of sensing our inextricable entanglement with the earth.
The workshop takes place in a studio space or large room. One wall features a projected image of an Irish bog and bog soundscapes play through the sound systems or laptop. Each workshop participant has a yoga mat rolled out for them, their mat is surrounded by peat and sphagnum moss: its rich smell infuses the air, and each place on a mat feels like a small plot of earth. Participants are invited to enter the space and settle in a comfortable position on their mat, to touch and smell the moss and peat if they want to, and to lie flat and listen to the soundscape. After 5 minutes of time to acclimatise, I begin facilitating the workshop, which takes participants on a journey of movement and breath that involves working with peat and moss and moving through space. I close the 60-minute practice by reading a meditation called Becoming your Bog Body while participants lie on mats surrounded by peat moss. Throughout the workshop, the bog projection and soundscape continue.
Remixing Folk Feminisms 