Co-authored by dancer/somatic practitioner Ira Ferris and artist/scenographer Elia Bosshard, SPACE BODY HABIT explores the many ways we perceive or fail to perceive spaces. Through a series of phenomenologically-driven exercises and in-depth conversations, the book offers an opportunity to deepen and enhance our awareness of space. From a micro scale of a personal space to the larger scale of a public space, SPACE BODY HABIT investigates the impact of space on our day-to-day life, while also touching upon issues of care and responsibility - how we share spaces and pass them on to others.

The authors wish to acknowledge that creation of this book took place on the unceded land of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora nation. Their care of the land, their respect for the lineage, their reciprocity with the place, are to be our inspiration as we find ever better ways to be in spaces and pass them on to others.

LISTEN TO OUR CONVERSATION WITH WOMBAT RADIO (MATT CORNELL). DECEMBER 2021.

LISTEN/READ OUR BOOK-LAUNCH CONVERSATION WITH SALLY CHESSELL OF FRONTYARD, ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE BOOK AND THE THEMES EXPLORED. DECEMBER 2021.

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LONGER DESCRIPTION

A collaboration between dancer/somatic practitioner Ira Ferris and artist/scenographer Elia Bosshard, SPACE BODY HABIT is a transcription of conversations and experiences that unfolded during a two-week residency at Frontyard, a multipurpose creative space in Marrickville, Sydney.

Set to explore the many ways we perceive, or fail to perceive spaces, the book comprises a series of spatio-somatic and phenomenologically-driven exercises, followed by in-depth discussions on themes as varied as: first impressions and knowing space by heart, body as a space and supremacy of vision, care for spaces and observing spaces from the more-than-human perspective, posture and perception, repetition and choices, comfort and entrapment, sharing spaces with others and dissolving boundaries between spaces, creativity and mental space, language and the agency of spaces, memory and habitual pathways, structures and flexibility, physical and psychological spaces, voids and empty spaces, belonging to a place and knowing others through their spaces, designated spaces and liminal spaces, contracts and trust, boredom and perseverance...

With the starting premise that interaction with space is often habitual and perception of space often unconscious, the book explores ways to deepen and enhance our awareness of space and its impact on our day-to-day life. What else might we open ourselves to if we challenge the ingrained relationship to space and inhabit familiar spaces in new ways?

The ​​exercises and conversations were inspired and informed by texts on space/place and the body, including: Rhythm Analysis by Henri Lefebvre, The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram, The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard, The Memory of Place by Dylan Trigg, Bodies of Water by Astrida Neimanis, Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan, and Bertolt Brecht by Meg Mumford.

AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Ira Ferris is a Sydney-based, Croatia-born curator, writer, podcaster, and multi-disciplinary artist working across dance/movement, poetry, video art, sound collages, and collaborations. Her projects are conceptual investigations of social phenomena (such as time and space), with the body at the centre of inquiry. As a contemporary dancer, for fifteen years Ira was a member of Zagreb Youth Theatre, performing extensively throughout Croatia and in Canada. She has since trained in BodyWeather with Tess de Quincy and Victoria Hunt, and in Gaga body language with Olga Uzikaeva. Her interests lie in the field of site-responsive movements that are sensitive to natural environments. As a yoga teacher and somatic practitioner, she facilitates workshops in ‘Attentive Movement & Multi-sensory Listening’. Ira holds MA in Journalism (University of Zagreb) and BA in Art History (University of Sydney). Since 2017, she has been producing Artemis Projects podcast, featuring interviews with artists from around the world. She also hosts a fortnightly show on art and environmentalism, ‘Sympoiesis’, on Sydney’s Eastside Radio 89.7FM. Her writings have been published through Critical Path and Dance Art Journal, featured in exhibition catalogues, and in Australia’s ADSR Zine. Ira is Co-Artistic Director of Artemis Projects.

Elia Bosshard is a Sydney-based installation and visual artist, scenographer, flutist, founder and editor of ADSR Zine, and director of the project platform Parliament House. Her work centres around the construction of material and mental spaces, encompassing site-specific installation, sculptural scale models, drawing and writing. Elia studied Design for Performance at National Institute for Dramatic Arts and holds a BMus (University of New South Wales) with Honours (Australian National University). Elia has exhibited at Articulate Project Space, 107 Projects, in ‘Fieldwork’ with Parliament House, CICA gallery (KR), in ‘We’re Not in Oz Anymore…’ at Cité des Arts (FR), NAS Inner West Council, and Siteworks Festival; and has worked across theatre, dance, music and opera with credits including Deutsche Oper Berlin, Open Frame X Vivid Live, Resonant Bodies Festival, Now Now Festival, Ensemble Offspring, Backstage Music, Belvoir St Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Hayes Theatre, Old Fitz Theatre, Kings Cross Theatre, NIDA, Musical Alaska at Alaska Projects, Periscope Productions, Axis Circus, Triple J, ‘Circle Cuts the Sound’ at the High Court of Australia, Sydney/Melbourne Fringe Festivals, and with Ken Unsworth and the Australian Dance Artists. She is a recipient of several awards including the Berlin Music Opera Award from The Opera Foundation For Young Australians (2019), UNSW Alumni Artist In Residence (2017), and both Spirit of The Fringe Award and Critics Pick at Sydney Fringe Festival 2017.

SPACE BODY HABIT is freely available to read onsite at Frontyard library, Marrickville, Sydney. Please contact Frontyard about library access.

The book can also be found in the National Library of Australia in Canberra; State Library of NSW; Fisher Library at the University of Sydney; Melbourne Art Library in Naarm, BigCi residency space in Bilpin NSW; and the CORRIDOR project residency space in Cowra NSW.