Between EIP and EOP
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Between EIP and EOP Extreme sport practitioners’ embodiment as relational attention M.E. MERZEL 2 Department of Environmental Sciences Cultural Geography Chair Group ‘Between EIP and EOP: extreme sport practitioners’ embodiment as relational attention’ GEO-80436 June 7, 2017 Michal Erika Merzel 830922-560-130 Supervisor: Dr Karolina Doughty 3 Table of content List of figures and 5 images Acknowledgements 6 Summary 7 Introduction to EOP 8 Extending our understanding of extreme sport embodiment Extreme sport Embodiment beyond practice 10 The practice of kite-surfing, windsurfing and climbing 1 practitioners’ 11 Current literature on extreme sport embodiment embodiment outside 14 Problem statement and research question practice Sub-questions 15 The relevance of understanding EOP 16 Layout of thesis Embodiment as 17 A general approach to embodiment in more-than-representational theory relational attention 19 The co-constitution of embodiment within extreme sport practices 20 The surfer’s EIP as co-constitution: nature as freedom and connection 2 Conceptual framework 22 The traceur’s EIP as co-constitution: the city as freedom and connection for EOP 24 The climber’s EIP as co-constitution: nature and built environment as connection 26 Practitioners’ EOP: embodiment as relational attention The spill-over effect 29 Approaching EOP of extreme sport Research group 30 Methodological approach to relational attention 3 embodiment 31 Methods A Methodology for EOP The walking interview: attentive talk while walking 33 EOP in visuals: video frames and photos 33 Two-step analysis: mindmapping and coding 35 The logic of EOP (pre- and post-reflections on the research) Stories on extreme 38 Personal conceptions on extreme sport embodiment sport embodiment 48 Shared conceptions on nature and city in kite-surfing A conversation on extreme freedom 4 Emerging concepts on 54 Shared conceptions on nature and city in windsurfing EIP and EOP through A conversation on attention personal imprints and 59 Shared conceptions on nature and city in climbing fictional conversations A conversation on inspiration 4 The surfers’ dilemma 63 The spill-over effect of freedom among surfers A conceptual outline of 64 Adrenaline as tension and its relation to freedom 66 The surfers’ dilemma: the contrasting of dependencies 5 surfers’ freedom as Dependency as reliance in the surfers’ EIP embodied contrast 67 Dependency as responsibility in the surfers’ EOP 68 The conceptualization of freedom as embodied contrast 73 A natural(?) focus The climbers’ 75 Surfers love the freedom, climbers love the obstacle dilemma 77 Practitioners’ notions of freedom and autonomy in daily life 83 The climbers’ inspiration through mirroring 6 A conceptual outline of Aesthetic mirroring climbers’ autonomy as Affective mirroring embodied mirroring The folding of EIP and 86 Attention, the fold – revisiting embodiment as the folding of EIP and EOP EOP The anti-thesis of EOP as co-constitution 88 Relational attention: the context in-between 7 A theoretical revisiting 92 The contrast in the fold of embodiment as 95 The use(fullness) of metaphor to describe embodiment as relational attention becoming through 96 Visualizing the practitioners’ embodiment with metaphors contrast and mirroring 97 Embodied mirroring as ‘seen’ by the climbers Embodied depth as ‘seen’ by the traceurs 98 Embodied contrast as ‘seen’ by the surfers Conclusion 99 Extending current literature on extreme sport embodiment The context for research on practitioners’ EOP 100 Defining EOP in theory and methodology 8 101 Findings on practitioners’ embodiment as relational attention 102 Revisiting of embodiment as becoming in the fold 103 A short remark on future EOP research Bibliography 104 Appendix I 109 Appendix II 111 5 List of figures and images figure 2.1 schematic representation of embodiment as becoming through co-constitution 19 figure 2.2 surfers’ conceptions of EIP 22 figure 2.3 traceurs’ conceptions of EIP 24 figure 2.4 climbers’ conceptions of EIP 26 figure 2.5 schematic representation of EOP as becoming through co-constitution 28 figure 3.1 study participants according to name; age range; and interview date 30 figure 3.2 participants’ place of residence 30 figure 3.3 schematic overview of the methodology on EOP 32 figure 3.4 an example of the mindmapping approach 34 image 4.1 Nienke’s imprint 39 image 4.2 Onno’s imprint 40 image 4.3 Rens’ imprint 41 image 4.4 Marleen’s imprint 42 image 4.5 Arend’s imprint 43 image 4.6 Hannes’ imprint 44 image 4.7 Theo’s imprint 45 image 4.8 Ad’s imprint 46 image 4.9 Roel’s imprint 47 figure 5.1 conceptual framework of the surfers’ EIP 67 figure 5.2 conceptual framework of the surfers’ EOP 68 figure 5.3 conceptual framework of the surfers’ embodiment 69 figure 6.1 table of concepts as mentioned by participants 78-79 figure 6.2 conceptions of inspiration and detachment in the practitioners’ embodiment 80 figure 6.3 the inverted branch 81 figure 6.4 the climbers’ dilemma 82 figure 6.5 conceptual framework of the climbers’ embodiment 84 figure 6.6 difference in inspiration between climbers and surfers 85 figure 7.1 EIP and EOP as co-constitution 89 figure 7.2 theoretical understanding of embodiment as becoming in the fold 90 figure 7.3 representation of the practitioners’ embodiment as relational attention 94 image 7.4 the surfers’ embodied contrast as ‘I am a wave’ 98 6 Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to thank the nine practitioners who participated in the research. Especially since the research itself was challenging and the conversations we exchanged demanded a certain level of abstraction and self-reflection of the practitioners, and a patience towards my questions, which they were happy and willing to engage with. Secondly, I would like to thank my two supervisors: Hamzah Muzaini for providing initial feedback on the proposal and in helping to define the context for the execution of the research, and Karolina Doughty, for taking over in the process of writing the thesis and giving valuable feedback on its development and final layout. Thank you also to Oskar Merzel for providing video equipment and Ricardo Icaza for joining in on Rens’ interview and providing additional visual footage. Lastly, I would like to thank the individuals who, throughout the entirety of the thesis, contributed to the final result by inspiring, challenging, or commenting on its progress. Such individuals are too many to mention but these persons include my mother, partner, friends, fellow students, a neighbor and a quick meeting with Martijn Duineveld, who gave the story a few aesthetic punches towards its (hopefully) logical conclusion. 7 Summary Within the practice of extreme sports, practitioners’ embodiment is often defined as a sense of freedom; of being one with life; and having intimate relationships with nature. In all these cases, theoretical understandings of the practitioners’ embodiment take place inside practice, which was termed embodiment inside practice (EIP) in this thesis. This means that current research on extreme sport embodiment have related the more-than-human, more-than-textual world of the practitioners to the confines of the sport practice. Thereby, theory is not able to highlight the more mundane expressions of the extreme sport embodiment as it is experienced within everyday life. The study’s main objective was to explore how extreme sports and embodiment relate to each other outside the already explored field of embodiment within the confines of the practice which was termed embodiment outside practice (EOP) in this thesis. The main research question was ‘how does the practice of extreme sports among surfers and climbers (EIP) affect their relations to everyday urban environments (EOP)?’ The thesis argues that the practitioners’ build-up experience within extreme sport practices, becomes guiding to their attention and awareness to the (physical and social) world outside of it. This spill-over effect was explored through a conceptual understanding of embodiment as relational attention and operationalized through the ‘walking interview’. A two-step analysis of the interviews, consisting of mindmapping and coding, explored the practitioners’ thoughts, sensations and attitudes on EOP, which pointed to the way in which practitioners make sense of and reflect on their experience with extreme sports in relation to the world around them even when they are not practicing. Outside practice, the surfers described what I interpret as a dependency on the externalities of the city when seeking the freedom found during EIP which manifested itself as embodied contrast. The climbers’ experience of inspiration in daily life is the result of the spill-over effect of autonomy through physical (and mental) problem-solving inside practice and manifested itself as embodied mirroring. The surfers’ and climbers’ embodiment as relational attention was first visualized through a theoretical understanding of embodiment as becoming through co-constitution, which led to the conceptualization of EIP and EOP as separate embodiments. This presented an insufficient framework in providing a fuller understanding of embodiment as relational attention. To fully address this, the practitioners’ embodiment was revisited through a renewed emphasis on embodiment as becoming in the fold. 8 Introduction to EOP 1 Extreme sport practitioners’ embodiment outside practice 1 All the movements of the outside world; Keeps on moving in the inside world - WhoMadeWho1 Extending our understanding of extreme sport embodiment Embodiment beyond practice The subject of embodiment has seen a large increase in academic attention in the last decades. Since arrival of the more-than-representational theory, and before that through Merleau-ponty’s notion of dwelling, studies on embodiment have turned towards phenomenological approaches in understanding how human-beings experience their world through practice (few examples are Wylie 2005, Ingold 2011, Wacquant 2004). An academic area that has benefited greatly from this is the field of enquiry 1 A line from the song ´Inside World´ by the Copenhagen-based experimental pop trio WhoMadeWho (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLu-eKhV5_0).