Nature as witness: Authentic Movement and the local animate earth

Abstract

For a year, I walk every morning and most evenings witnessing the land evolve and change with the lengthening and shortening of days. As a long-time student of the Discipline of Authentic Movement, I pay close attention to how I witness the land and non-human animals, and how witnessing changes my experience of place. I question: how is it different if I take in the whole of nature or focus on the singular wet body of a slug? What can I learn from tracking the experience in my own body as I witness the slow turning of a flower towards the sun or the swift bounding of a humming bird? And if I am witnessing the land and non-human animals, are not they witnessing me? Inspired by David Abram’s work and phenomenology’s concepts of ‘intersubjectivity’ and the ‘life world’, this article explores the reciprocal relationship between myself and the land through the Discipline of Authentic Movement.