Embodied Research on the Politics of Intimacy
Research Summary
A collective and embodied inquiry into how we choose and organize our intimate lives. This project explores the boundaries between care, eros, friendship, and commitment within the container of a defined group structure and fixed duration (three months). It asks why certain forms of closeness—especially those linked to romance or sex—are prioritized, while others are neglected, devalued, or excluded from our deepest forms of attention.
Through collective movement practices, relational games, and structured experiments in presence, the research invites participants to discover new ways of being together that challenge dominant scripts. Not self-improvement, nor about healing exactly, but a shared experience of study—one that approaches intimacy seriously as both a refusal of the political and its prime site.
“Study is what you do with other people. It’s talking and walking around with other people, working, dancing, suffering… The notion of a rehearsal—being in a kind of workshop, playing in a band, in a jam session, or old men sitting on a porch, or people working together in a factory—there are these various modes of activity… held under the name of speculative practice.”
— Fred Moten, the undercommons
Influenced by the work of Lauren Berlant, Fred Moten, and bell hooks, the project approaches intimacy not as a private affair, but as a form of world-building. It asks: what becomes possible when we unfix our relationships from rigid roles and allow fluidity, service, and mutual care to guide how we relate?
The conception and invitation of this collective project is still in development, and it has become clear that formulating the right invitation is a big part of the work here. Please reach out if you have interest in this line of inquiry and in possibly participating in a 3 month long practice group.
Selected Works
An Invitation: Creating through a practice of care (2024)