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work quest

Tracking Wonder

by Jeffrey Davis, M.A.

"A quest by definition involves seeking, and by seeking, it’s assumed you don’t know the answers to something. It means you are after something that matters - to you and possibly to a group or organization. Quests awaken a desire for meaning & mastery.

"But seeking in a quest also means that uncertainty, ambiguity, and novelty are part of the game. Seeking in a quest also requires facing - not avoiding - challenges and taking risks."

" Optimal risk and novelty lead to enduring flow states. That’s the conclusion of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Claremont Graduate University after he researched, interviewed, and studied thousands of deeply gratified writers, scientists, artists, rock climbers, and others who persisted in their work despite no or little guarantee of fame or fortune. 

What kept them going? Not profit or high performance reports but feeling. It was the feeling state they experienced when consistently engaged in stimulating activities that involved optimal risk and novelty.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/tracking-wonder/201210/job-creative-quest 

Somatic Knowledge

People say we are all searching for the meaning of life. I don't think that's what we're seeking. I think what we are seeking is the experience of being alive.

~ Joseph Campbell

 

Other Links: http://embodimentstudies.academia.edu/RaeJohnson/Papers/621508/Knowing_In_Our_Bones_Exploring_The_Embodied_Knowledge_Of_Somatic_Educators 

 

Also see:  On PDF

Journal of Aesthetic Education
Somatic Knowledge and Qualitative Reasoning: From Theory to Practice
Richard Siegesmund
Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 80-96 (item consists of 17 pages)
Published by: University of Illinois Press 

Somatic psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of the body, somatic experience, and the embodied self. Some writers describe the “body as a slow mind”, and this re-examination of the fundamental mind-body dichotomy has coincided with research into neuroscience, embodiment and consciousness, and an unconscious mind that ‘speaks’ through the language of body.
http://www.visual-art-research.com/2009/11/somatic-knowledge-stored-in-the-bones/ 

Google links:
Somatic Learning
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ceShxYFEDg8J:www.yogafit.com/research/transformative.doc+&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShPJGNZpdjt9J-ueyK7Vga7Hi6zOxQdCUV83lsnGt5ASqkuWILoY6d5iS912CSHA6s9u-3R2-GG7O_ty1bpo561_1zEO9q5F3QzVfzIZJKa3kvNpl0Y1eK6iG-lJnmpGTa-2iBW&sig=AHIEtbRahIINMKseorixI1Hc_SHXA7IS6A

Lorikeet Island

Alana Hampton and Marian Drew invite you to visit Lorikeet Island - a 9 video projection and sound installation opening at the Gold Coast Art Gallery on Saturday 31 March as part of the Queensland Festival of Photography: http://www.festivalofphotography.com.au/venues/gold-coast-city-gallery

website: http://www.hamptondrew.com/

Artist Judy Watson will provide opening remarks about the show at 6 pm
The catalogue, with educational DVD, documentary footage, 22 page Education Kit with cross-disciplinary activities for Junior, Middle and Senior School students, and high definition video excerpts is available from the Gold Coast Art Gallery by contacting : Gallery Manager - John Walsh Phone: (07) 5581 6521 Fax: (07) 5581 6594 http://www.theartscentregc.com.au/more/contact-us/
You can visit the installation website at www.hamptondrew.com for a sample of the Ed Kit, preview of the video and sound installation, essays by Alison Kubler (Arts Writer), Michael Aird (Traditional Owner and Anthropologist), Sally Kirkpatrick (Griffith University School of Coastal Management), and the artists and catalogue foreword by Virginia Rigney (curator),
"Lorikeet Island is both real and elusive. It is a documentary tale that lies between lunar tides and human habitation. ... This island is the wilderness contracted in a growing manmade coastline. ... Here senses widen, a tingling, atavistic awareness that grows from the inside expands outward through the skin of the body. ...There is a deep sense of home here." Marian Drew + Alana Hampton