I attended the lecture about Sharon Mansur's installation and gallery in Watkin's on the Winona State campus. Her installation was decorated with yellow envelopes and paper on the ground and hanging from the ceiling. She did not have people come in to just stare at the paper, she included their movement in the installation. She encouraged others to dance around and feel the space. Mansur used body thinking and creativity to build her installation and incorporated imaging in her lecture exercises.
The use of body thinking is used when dancing and moving around in Mansur's gallery space. It is stated in Sparks of Genius that "thinking with the body depends on our sense of muscle movement, posture, balance and touch" (Root-Bernstein, p, 161). Your body comes up with different movements depending on the mood set in the space. Mansur showed a video of her exploring the installation. She did not rehearse what movements she was going to do. Instead, she let her body take over and roam free throughout the gallery space. The "feelings we have in our muscles when we move and hold still is very important feedback" (Learning Knowledge). Mansur recorded her moving throughout the installation, and when she showed us the video, she was able to understand why she was moving in a certain way. By …show more content…
An individual knows how to perform different movements than someone else. People were able to use their own senses to respond during the improve dancing in the installation. I would not be able to replicate or copy someone else's moves until I have tried and learned it. This is because "our bodies 'know' how to do things that we understand only after we have done them" (Root-Bernstein 160). Mansur has a certain style of rhythm and flow to her dancing. Someone that has a different style would find it difficult to do her movements if they have not learned that free-flowing