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Embodiment, Community Building, and Aesthetic Saturation in "Restroom World," a Backstage Women's Space
Abstract
This case study focuses on a functioning campus
bathroom that has been transformed into a sensually rich women's
community space and explores how women have created meaning in a private
context where their own norms prevail. The women have built an embodied
environment, where ordinary objects are used to foster connectedness,
expressiveness, and creativity. They value playfulness, good humor, and
an aesthetically elaborated environment that caters to all body senses
while expressing a nonconsumerist ethos.
... We anticipated that wit we could prompt strong reactions from those who disagreed with reflection from those who agreed. An appropriate probe question the definition of space in relation to the campus community since represent a "bubble universe" running parallel to the reality of the large [2]. ...
... We anticipated that with this chosen phrasing we could prompt strong reactions from those who disagreed with our premise and deep reflection from those who agreed. An appropriate probe question should communicate the definition of space in relation to the campus community since semi-public restrooms represent a "bubble universe" running parallel to the reality of the university campus at large [2]. ...
This exploratory paper aims to discuss how community is fostered in semi-public restrooms on a college campus. While previous research has been undertaken in similar semi-private environments, this paper differs by simultaneously offering the researchers’ reflective insights in tandem with participants’ input on the research question. We begin by unpacking the challenges around Participatory Design (PD) activities that are undertaken in sensitive and private interior environments. Gathering perceptions of these sensitive spaces required methods that allowed for both anonymity and a communal approach through the use of provocative and evocative probes such as comment boxes and graffiti wall posters. This paper not only catalogues the findings of this research but also documents the difficulties in utilizing a participant-led approach, gaining access to sites and participants, and countering our own biases throughout the study’s construction. Through researcher accounts and participatory data analysis, the researchers offer a focused reflection on a possible new frontier for advancing PD methods in sensitive environments through playful probes. The contribution of this paper offers six lessons on the efficacy of using probes in semi-private environments, with playfulness as a primary driver of engaging participants.
... Restroom World (Gordon, 2003). Women hold multigenerational family bonds together, which is an example of true power, according to Kranichfeld (1987). ...
In the aftermath of national crises in the U.S. such as the Oklahoma City bombing of the Federal building 11 years ago, the destruction on September 11, 2001, and the recent hurricanes and flooding in New Orleans and other areas, much attention has been given to how best families and communities can be assisted to recover from devastating events. I examine the question of what women's roles are in times of family and community stress and report that there is little in the literature to answer this question. I suggest that perhaps this is good news because what I found instead was a portrayal of people's roles and strengths in times of family and community crisis that did not differentiate along gender lines. I also present the notion that women have unique gifts and strengths to contribute when crisis strikes. I give three case examples, one of a special environment that a woman created for other women to share and relax in, another of a woman who creatively helped her community to heal after a terrorist attack, and the third of a woman in an Appalachian Virginia mining community who took on the prime-mover leadership role in community redevelopment following a period of overwhelming economic crisis. I discuss the role that rituals can play in coping with change and how women's sense of connectedness is illustrated in Carol Gilligan's work. Aspects of John Gottman's research on arousal pattern differences between women and men and what he terms emotional intelligence are considered, and I speculate on a possible implication that women make better leaders in general—and especially in times of crisis—than do men. Drawing on the partnership model developed by Riane Eisler, I conclude that women and men working collaboratively offer the greatest hope for family and community survival during times of crisis and rebuilding.
This article investigates bathrooms, paying specific attention to those in academic libraries. The authors describe how bathrooms have been considered in the library literature for the past century and challenges to changing the status quo. Finally, this work sets the stage for future inquiry. Research materials come from a range of sources: historical library literature, building codes, social science theory and research that address the issues around bathroom taboos, and checklists for assessing bathrooms. The authors propose librarians and library administrators reconsider all aspects of their own bathrooms: location, features, equity/inclusiveness, and maintenance in service to their patrons.
Pulling from previous works on childlore, recently gathered adult remembrances, and systematic observations of children, the authors identify a heretofore unrecognized category of folklore we call folk illusions. Folk illusions are traditionalized, communicative performances that consistently effect an intended embodied illusion for one or more participants. Describing four types of folk illusions, the authors outline the salient features of the category--namely, director and actor roles, performance positions, priming periods, and verbal continuum. We argue that folk illusions are an under-studied aspect of embodiment and community in folkloristics and related epistemological fields. Ultimately, we contend that the study of folk illusions furthers our understanding of both illusions and folkloric intersubjectivity.
This thesis is an account of praxis: it examines Playback conceptually, and portrays a programme of practical work exploring the experience of workplace audiences of five Playback Theatre performances, delivered from 2002-2005. The aim of the performances was to assist multi-disciplinary teams of staff in community health centres in Auckland New Zealand to communicate and work together with more understanding of each other. The thesis describes Playback as a way not only to elicit complex narratives which allow for diverse points of view to be expressed, but also as an aesthetic reworking of these narratives using action, music, dance, gesture and speech, in ways which have been influenced by 20th century avant-garde forms such as surrealism, dada, collage, jazz and poetry. Unlike some forms of theatre, Playback calls on elements of ritual and group method, in that it relies on audience members taking an active part in the performance by contributing narratives from their own lives. The thesis interrogates the notion of audience in theatre, using the words audience, spectator, spectactor, participant, public and polis, and specifically investigates two moments of the theatre as polis, in the French and Russian revolutions, when the potential of theatre to engage with the widest cross-section of the nation led to influential experiments and innovations in theatrical practice, each of which influenced the succeeding century. Some Playback discourse and practice is found to contain simplistic, even nostalgic, concepts of personal narrative, and the potential for performers’ interpretations in Playback to reinscribe social privilege is noted. In spite of its simple structure, Playback demands extremely complex skills from all the performers, not only the facilitator. In addition, the complex setting of the practical work encompasses both local NZ health initiatives and developments in global health. The work in each Healthcare Centre is described in a complete chapter: each containing details of the Centre and the Playback, seen through the findings of the patient focus groups, through comments made in interviews by the staff and through the researcher’s observation and experience. In all three Centres, existential and emancipatory metanarratives surfaced in the performances and in interviews. Professionalism was seen as meaning different things: at Ngākau it was a measure by which people were found to be unsatisfactory; at Oranga, it referred to applying the lessons of the Playback to one’s own practice; while at Pātaka, professionalism was evident in narratives of self care, dedication and seeking clarification and support from peers. While the study revealed limitations of Playback, it also pointed to some unique contributions this form of improvisational theatre can make to a programme of staff or group development. In particular, Playback can open up spaces, people and topics, for non-dogmatic, pluralistic, embodied thinking and reflection, leading people to more nuanced understandings of themselves and each other, and can even affect attitudes and behaviours.
Subjects observing differently scaled environments undergo systematic shifts in the experience of time. The experience of
temporal duration is compressed relative to the clock in the same proportion as scale-model environments being observed are
compressed relative to the full-sized environment. This research suggests that spatial scale may be a principal mediator in
the experience of time.