Artistic Research Statement
Multi Layered Body as Embodied Research
Conan Amok
Artist / Choreographer / Body Researcher
Introduction
Multi-Layered Body is an artistic research framework investigating the body as an emergent event.
The research does not approach the body as a fixed biological object, expressive instrument, or representation of identity.
Instead, it examines how embodiment is continuously produced through relations among:
perception,
memory,
environment,
materiality,
spatial conditions,
temporality,
and other bodies.
Through artistic practice, physical experimentation, and theoretical investigation, Multi-Layered Body explores how new forms of embodiment become possible.
Research Context
Multi Layered Body is situated within the field of contemporary performance and artistic research.
It engages with questions emerging from:
choreography,
performance studies,
somatic practices,
embodied research,
post-Butoh approaches,
spatial and material investigations.
While connected to historical developments in body-based performance, Multi Layered Body does not reproduce existing aesthetic forms.
It proposes an independent framework in which the body functions as both the subject and method of investigation.
Research Question
The central research question of Multi Layered Body is:
How does a body emerge through the interference of multiple layers of perception, memory, materiality, environment, and temporality?
The research further investigates:
How can the body be understood beyond expressive identity?
How do spatial and environmental conditions transform embodiment?
How can instability become a productive condition for creation?
How can physical practice generate knowledge?
How can performance function as a site of research rather than representation?
Research Objectives
Multi Layered Body aims to:
Investigate the body as a dynamic field of relations rather than a fixed entity.
Develop methodologies for observing and activating multiple layers of embodiment.
Explore how compression, friction, delay, and interference generate new bodily organizations.
Examine performance as a process of embodied knowledge production.
Develop alternative approaches to choreography beyond movement composition.
Methodology
Multi Layered Body employs an embodied research methodology developed through physical experimentation and artistic practice.
The primary methodology is:
Fold Interference
Fold Interference investigates how bodily events emerge through the interaction between:
body,
space,
material,
environment,
perception,
memory,
others.
The research process involves:
sensory investigation,
movement experimentation,
spatial exploration,
material interaction,
voice and breath research,
improvisational structures,
repetition and transformation.
The objective is not to create predetermined forms.
The objective is to reveal conditions through which new forms emerge.
Research Process
The research process operates through a continuous cycle:
Question
↓
Embodied Experimentation
↓
Observation
↓
Layer Activation
↓
Fold / Interference
↓
Critical Body
↓
Reconfiguration
↓
Reflection
↓
New Research Question
This process is not linear.
Each physical investigation modifies the conditions of future research.
Embodied Knowledge
Within Multi Layered Body, knowledge is not produced only through conceptual analysis.
The body itself functions as a research environment.
Embodied knowledge emerges through:
sensation,
repetition,
adaptation,
physical transformation,
perception,
interaction.
The body does not merely represent knowledge.
It produces knowledge through its own processes of becoming.
Knowledge Production
The knowledge generated through Multi Layered Body takes multiple forms:
Physical Knowledge
Knowledge developed through bodily experience, sensation, and transformation.
Spatial Knowledge
Understanding generated through relationships between body, architecture, environment, and material conditions.
Temporal Knowledge
Investigation of how memory, perception, and anticipation interact within embodiment.
Artistic Knowledge
New approaches to performance, choreography, and artistic practice emerging from research processes.
Knowledge is therefore not a final result.
It exists as an evolving field of relations.
Documentation and Transmission
Because embodied research cannot be fully separated from practice, documentation functions not as simple preservation but as a continuation of research.
Documentation may include:
video recordings,
drawings,
written reflections,
scores,
diagrams,
workshop materials,
lecture performances.
These materials do not represent the research from outside.
They extend the research process into new contexts.
Contribution to Contemporary Performance
Multi-Layered Body contributes to contemporary performance through several propositions:
1. From Expression to Emergence
The body is not primarily understood as a medium for expressing identity.
It is understood as a site where embodiment emerges.
2. From Movement Production to Condition Design
Choreography is approached not as arrangement of movement, but as the design of conditions where movement and perception can transform.
3. From Body as Object to Body as Research Field
The body becomes both the material and methodology of artistic investigation.
4. From Representation to Embodied Event
Performance becomes a site where temporary organizations of embodiment become visible.
Relation to Multi-Layered Body Framework
The research structure can be summarized as:
Theory
Embodiment
Spatiality
Temporality
Dynamics
Potentiality
↓
Methodology
Fold Interference
Critical Body Practice
Choreographic Conditions
↓
Practice
Performance
Workshop
Exhibition
Research Projects
↓
Knowledge
New forms of embodied understanding
Future Research Directions
Multi-Layered Body remains an open research framework.
Future investigations continue to explore:
relationships between body and artificial environments,
expanded forms of embodiment,
collective and relational bodies,
material intelligence,
new choreographic structures,
alternative forms of performance knowledge.
The research does not seek to define the body.
It seeks to investigate the conditions through which bodies become possible.
Final Statement
Multi-Layered Body proposes artistic practice as a mode of inquiry.
The body is not only an object observed through research.
It is the field through which research itself occurs.
Through layered relations, interference, and transformation, the body continuously produces new forms of perception, knowledge, and possibility.
The fundamental question remains:
Not "What is the body?"
But "How does a body emerge?"