DAY 1 — MAPPING
PROTOCOL — DAY 1: MAPPING
12 MAY 2025
PHASE: SEPARATION / DEPARTURE
OPENING FRAME
The session began in a circle.
Henry emphasised the importance of entering an already existing environment:
“Environment is so important! I’m coming into your Space. I’m coming into your Laboratory!”
First rule:
“TAKE CARE.”
No physical harm should be caused to another person or to the space, particularly while working with sticks and stones.
OPENING QUESTIONS
- What are you bringing in for this moment?
- What is alive for you in your life and research?
- What does revealing mean to you?
- What does concealing mean to you?
ESPRESSO WARM-UP
A continuous movement flow developed through:
- increasing dynamics;
- shifts;
- rotation;
- expansion;
- contraction;
- repetition;
- transformation;
- directionality.
Central instruction:
“Let the body organise itself.”
The performer was asked to become aware of the bones and to imagine the organic structure of the skeleton:
- What is rotation for the bones?
- What is contraction for the bones?
- Feel your bones.
- Imagine the skeleton.
The work then opened toward awareness of others and the sharing of space with a partner.
After the warm-up, the group returned to a circle to articulate what had happened.
Henry identified this verbal articulation as an important part of laboratory practice.
STICK EXERCISE
The stick was approached as:
- a concrete material;
- a symbol of land;
- an extension of the landscape;
- a point of relation between two bodies.
Central propositions:
“Thinking of the landscape.”
“A stick as a symbol of land.”
“Our body as a landscape.”
The participants worked in pairs.
At moments, the physical stick was removed. The performer then continued through:
- the memory of the stick;
- the memory of the partner’s guidance;
- the trace of the material relationship.
The two bodies and the stick between them could become one organism.
Relevant statement:
“Impulse is already reaction.”
Even the experience of feeling nothing or struggling to perceive something was understood as already belonging to the process.
After the exercise:
- one minute was given for individual processing;
- the group returned to a circle;
- the experience was articulated verbally.
PERSONA AND SHADOW
Henry introduced Carl Jung’s concepts of Persona and Shadow.
The work distinguished between:
- an externally created Persona shaped by society and its standards;
- an internally generated Persona that may strengthen or alter one’s image;
- Shadows connected to, excluded from or concealed by these Personas.
Questions included:
- What are your externally created Personas?
- What is your internally generated Persona?
- What are the Shadows in relation to your Personas?
- How do you reveal yourself?
- Are there images or feelings associated with your Shadows?
- Can Shadows be perceived as archetypes or creatures?
Henry shared his experience of eczema as a personal “wound.”
Central proposition:
“A wound is sometimes a gift.”
MASK / REVEALING / CONCEALING
The mask was not treated simply as something that hides.
Proposition:
“Maybe a mask can reveal your inner… who you are.”
The work investigated:
- revealing through concealment;
- concealing through revealing;
- the mask as a possible entrance into Persona;
- the mask as an indirect route toward inner material.
GUIDER AND GUIDED
Participants worked in pairs.
The wrists were used as contact points.
Two versions were explored:
- maintaining continuous contact;
- allowing a freer relationship between guide and guided.
The performer then worked alone to find a Persona before:
- encountering others;
- mirroring them;
- returning to their own material.
A period of drawing and writing followed the physical work.
The aim was to notice where the entrance into the material had occurred.
STONE EXERCISE
Three stones were used for each pair.
A stone was placed on the partner’s body.
The performer explored:
- the vertical point created by the stone;
- the concentration of attention around that point;
- the possibility of revealing other parts of the body.
The stone was then removed.
The performer continued with the memory of its:
- weight;
- position;
- pressure;
- influence on the body.
FINAL PRINCIPLES
“Documenting is discipline.”
“Layering your work.”
SOURCE PROVENANCE
WORKSHOP PRACTICE
Henry McGrath CPPM workshop protocol, 12 May 2025.