An alternative to performance culture.

Climbing is increasingly surrounded by grades, data, analytics, training programmes and performance metrics.

These workshops offer a different way of approaching climbing; we might ask?

What does this movement feel like?
What does the rock ask of the body?
What changes when attention shifts?
How does movement emerge between body and surface

When perception changes, movement changes.
And when movement changes, climbing changes. An embodied approach to bouldering, movement and landscape, exploring what happens when we shift our attention from performance and measurement towards direct sensory experience.

Half-day workshops · Ariège · Indoor & outdoor

with Dr Andy Whall

“What is it, What is Bouldering Phenomenology?

These workshops use bouldering as a starting point for exploring embodied perception and how we experience the world through movement, touch, balance, weight and attention.

Rather than beginning with grades, training plans or technical analysis, we explore what it feels like to move across rock and climbing walls: how the body responds to surface, gravity, texture, space and landscape.

The aim is to develop a more attentive relationship between body, movement and environment.

What will you experience?

• Move differently
  Explore balance, weight, rhythm and flow.
• Feel the rock
  Develop sensitivity to contact, texture and surface.
• Perceive movement differently
  Explore how attention changes the way the body moves.
• Explore landscape
  Experience bouldering as a relationship between body, rock and place.
• Think creatively
  Connect movement with ideas from art, phenomenology, materiality and landscape.
• Discover new possibilities
  Allow movement to become more fluid, responsive and intuitive.

 

From climbing to contemporary practice

The workshops emerge from my practice as an artist and researcher interested in embodiment, landscape, materiality and perception.

Bouldering provides a particularly direct way of investigating these questions because the body is simultaneously moving, sensing, negotiating and responding.

The workshops can therefore move between physical exploration and reflection, drawing on ideas from contemporary visual culture, phenomenology and embodied practice.

Workshops

Half-day sessions — morning or afternoon

Location:
Weather permitting: Laramade
or Salle d’escalade Belcaire — Espace Daniel du Lac

Suitable for:
Climbers, artists, movers and curious bodies.

Levels:
All levels

Dates:
Contact me for upcoming dates and availability.

Booking:
andrewwhall@mac.com
andywhall.com

 

Reviews;

Verena Van Den Berg; In short I would say for me the idea of using the technique of bouldering, experiencing the stone against my body and also being in the landscape by Zennor is a rich inspiration for work – it has a lot of elements that interest me (interaction body landscape, natural surfaces). The workshop was instructed well – finding a balance between challenge and ease. The whole things felt comfortable – being out there in the beautiful scenery with a small group of people yet getting along together. 

Cat Davies; Inspirational, instructive, engaging, challenging and fun, a really great couple of days!

 

An alternative to performance culture

Climbing is increasingly surrounded by grades, data, analytics, training programmes and performance metrics.

These workshops offer a different way of approaching climbing.

Instead of asking “How can I optimise this movement?”, we might ask:

What does this movement feel like?
What does the rock ask of the body?
What changes when attention shifts?
How does movement emerge between body and surface?