#itallcomestogether

Movement;

Noun

an act of moving.

a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas.

Motion;

Noun

the action or process of moving or being moved

a formal proposal put to a legislature or committee

Verb

direct or command someone with a movement of the hand or head

From the past weeks of studio, we have learnt about movement and motion from different points of view which show that the terms do not have one sole definition but various ones, each with their own context. Movement and motion can be interpreted in a physical way or as a mental term that relies on mindfulness. This is reminiscent of Cartesian dualism where the belief is that there is a separation from body and mind. To some extent this is evident with the aspects of movement and motion where on the surface, the different definitions don’t overlap but just as when we inspect the relationship between body and mind, we can see that the different definitions overlap and in ways that denies true separation.

 Firstly, movement and motion as a physical act. This is most probably the most common interpretation of the terms and involves moving physically through space. With deeper inspection, we have learnt that movements and motions can also convey meanings and connotations themselves. Various physical movements and motions can evoke emotion or even action from people. As humans, we are just as physical as we are mindful so the fact that certain movements and motions can trigger reactions in others is only evidence of a entangled relationship.

 A big part of movement is through embodiment which is the human body. A good way to bridge the gap between the physical definitions and the mental definitions is to talk about embodiment. The human body is in ways like a computer, we have inputs and we have outputs. Inputs like our senses detect and outputs like our movement and reaction to the stimulus we sensed. To a very large extent, the majority our reactions are instinct and learnt behaviour which is governed by how our senses react to the physical stimuli. This is a great example to bridge the physical and mental definitions because it shows both mind and body working as one.

 Coming now to social movement, we can say that this is the less tangible interpretation of movement and motion because the movement comes in the change of society. This is also a motion that can be effective much slower than a physical movement. Although effective when successful it takes a lot to change society because you are convincing collective minds to make a change. This can be often linked to physical movement and motion too because just as some movements and motions can evoke emotion in others, social movement can evoke physical outcry in others such as protests.