Proprioception! Knowing Where Your Body is in Space

Can an art viewer (is there a word for that?) become a participant? I bet that guy on the left thought about that a lot. That man uses art spaces to help YOU, the viewer, become part of the amazing experience that is art. With proprioception (cognizance of one's own body in space) as a by-product, Olafur Eliasson's work elevates his viewers from sub-par onlooker to that of an awe-inspiring performing artist.

As a viewer of Eliasson's work, I feel empowered in the same way I felt empowered when I first saw the surreal bodies of Cirque du Soleil performers jumping, flipping, bending, twisting and expressing, or when Lady Gaga gets everyone dancing - and I'm talking EVERYONE.

I see a similarity in Eliasson, proprioception and performing artists because experience of each transports the viewer (like me!) from ho-hum everyday life to that of an ecstatic co-participant who is now inspired to be greater than s/he was before.

Olafur Eliasson makes space tangible in the same way that dancers make it possible for us to imagine possessing the grace of a willow tree blowing in a soft autumn breeze and using that grace to make peace in the heart of an angry warrior. Because Eliasson manipulates spaces to make his art, Eliasson can make viewers more aware of how we ARE in space and thus more aware of how we can ACT in space to create change. This is power. With awareness we are enabled to be and to act out of our own greatness. 

Remember one of the most famous quotes from these times: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure". I invite you to experience a power beyond measure by experiencing Eliasson, proprioception and the performing artist.

With his work, Eliasson encourages viewers to explore relationship between both individuality/collectivity & thinking/doing by experiencing the HOW and WHY of being part of a space and not just in it.  His hypothesis: If one has a sense of the space, feel it is tangible, feel there is time and a dimension we can call time in space then one feels inspired to change the space and empowered to take the steps they need to take to change it.

Maybe, with more experience of the arts, this change Eliasson's work inspires can help the empowered viewer make the world a more beautiful place with their own expression of greatness, like the love labors of Barbary Cooney's Lupine Lady as she planted flowers by the seaside in her old age.

Louis Vuitton agreed that Eliasson was onto something by commissioning him to art-ify worldwide Vuitton storefronts. I'll bet a pretty penny that your favorite yogi will agree that proprioception brings them closer to their greatness. And I'm pretty sure you'll agree too when you see your favorite a performing artist and experience power beyond measure. Enjoy!

 

sculpture by John Keyser

Photo of Olafur Eliasson was found at the website of Digital Life Design (DLD) - an inspiring community for the 21st century which features digital innovation, science and culture. The conference is known as the European forum for the "creative class".