Camille Buttingsrud
In 2014 I finished my MA thesis in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen.
The thesis started my research on bodily and affective high-order consciousness - so familiar to performers, yet in need of academic, structural elucidation.
Through the years 2015-2018 I travelled widely to international conferences, presenting and discussing my theory of "bodily reflection" with peers.
Since 2018 I've focused on my doctoral thesis. In 2025 it will be submitted at the University of Oslo, through this traditional arrangement: https://www.uio.no/english/research/phd/drphilos/
My philosophical work is based on traditional and current phenomenological literature, the "4EC", current debates on expertise and skillful activity, as well as other inspiring material. Beside written sources of knowledge, I also draw on my own first-person experience as a performer, as well as on qualitative research interviews and cooperations with dancers and other artists.
Parallel to my academic work I lecture, write, and give workshops as a freelance philosopher. Here's my site on that part of my work life:
https://camillebuttingsrud.weebly.com/
Through this work I meet teenagers, social workers, nurses, sports students, working artists of all fields, union members, leaders and students of higher health-, sports-, and arts educations and others interested in embodiment, art and philosophy. This is of immense importance to my academic work. My aim is to describe a theory of bodily and affective agency and high-order consciousness, which is coherent with people's lived everyday-life experiences.
The thesis started my research on bodily and affective high-order consciousness - so familiar to performers, yet in need of academic, structural elucidation.
Through the years 2015-2018 I travelled widely to international conferences, presenting and discussing my theory of "bodily reflection" with peers.
Since 2018 I've focused on my doctoral thesis. In 2025 it will be submitted at the University of Oslo, through this traditional arrangement: https://www.uio.no/english/research/phd/drphilos/
My philosophical work is based on traditional and current phenomenological literature, the "4EC", current debates on expertise and skillful activity, as well as other inspiring material. Beside written sources of knowledge, I also draw on my own first-person experience as a performer, as well as on qualitative research interviews and cooperations with dancers and other artists.
Parallel to my academic work I lecture, write, and give workshops as a freelance philosopher. Here's my site on that part of my work life:
https://camillebuttingsrud.weebly.com/
Through this work I meet teenagers, social workers, nurses, sports students, working artists of all fields, union members, leaders and students of higher health-, sports-, and arts educations and others interested in embodiment, art and philosophy. This is of immense importance to my academic work. My aim is to describe a theory of bodily and affective agency and high-order consciousness, which is coherent with people's lived everyday-life experiences.
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I believe these are human resources that are common to us all. Yet, where they play an essential part in many artists’ work lives, the general society often fails to consider these subjective aspects as resources. Bodily aspects are usually viewed as pre-reflective, automatic, implicit, involuntary – all in all not dependable and thus not as useful as the contrasting conceptual reflection through the mind.
In appreciating our bodily resources, and seeing the value of the subjective, we might open doors for new understandings of what being human means, and takes. Such understandings are already implied - new forms of health treatment, ethics, and care are being formed by implementing movement and explicit bodily experience. We seem to be on a very intriguing path broadening our conceptions of agency, awareness, and abilities these days!
And who better than dancers to teach us about our bodily and affective abilities and resources?
1. Learning a choreography demands that the dancer's habitual body establishes physical memories of movements, paces and tempi, directions in space, co-operations with other performers, etc., in order to enable the dancer to work on the planned performance. This could be called the "handicraft level" of one's dance work.
2. As it becomes bodily memorized and one does not have to conceptually reflect upon technique and remember instructions anymore, one's dance work develops into tasks like interpretation, the creation of content, communication through movements, etc.. Here the bodily and affective self makes use of prior life experiences, embedded personal knowledge of emotions, connections, and even of concepts, in order to create what one could call the "artistic level" of one's dance work.
3. In dance for and with the elderly, and in dance therapy, yet another aspect of bodily and affective memory is at play. Subconscious memories stored in our bodies might be hidden away in our everyday lives. In dance with the elderly, lived habits from their former active lives often emerge, and open them to act more like "themselves" and seemingly be more personal, joyful, and alive. And in dance therapy the relaxation of muscle tensions, activation of emotions and bodily feelings might open the client to re-examine repressed bodily reactions to former traumatic experiences, all in a safe and professionally caring setting, in attempts to release bodily memories.
https://dansemagasinet.dk
I believe these are human resources that are common to us all. Yet, where they play an essential part in many artists’ work lives, the general society often fails to consider these subjective aspects as resources. Bodily aspects are usually viewed as pre-reflective, automatic, implicit, involuntary – all in all not dependable and thus not as useful as the contrasting conceptual reflection through the mind.
In appreciating our bodily resources, and seeing the value of the subjective, we might open doors for new understandings of what being human means, and takes. Such understandings are already implied - new forms of health treatment, ethics, and care are being formed by implementing movement and explicit bodily experience. We seem to be on a very intriguing path broadening our conceptions of agency, awareness, and abilities these days!
And who better than dancers to teach us about our bodily and affective abilities and resources?
1. Learning a choreography demands that the dancer's habitual body establishes physical memories of movements, paces and tempi, directions in space, co-operations with other performers, etc., in order to enable the dancer to work on the planned performance. This could be called the "handicraft level" of one's dance work.
2. As it becomes bodily memorized and one does not have to conceptually reflect upon technique and remember instructions anymore, one's dance work develops into tasks like interpretation, the creation of content, communication through movements, etc.. Here the bodily and affective self makes use of prior life experiences, embedded personal knowledge of emotions, connections, and even of concepts, in order to create what one could call the "artistic level" of one's dance work.
3. In dance for and with the elderly, and in dance therapy, yet another aspect of bodily and affective memory is at play. Subconscious memories stored in our bodies might be hidden away in our everyday lives. In dance with the elderly, lived habits from their former active lives often emerge, and open them to act more like "themselves" and seemingly be more personal, joyful, and alive. And in dance therapy the relaxation of muscle tensions, activation of emotions and bodily feelings might open the client to re-examine repressed bodily reactions to former traumatic experiences, all in a safe and professionally caring setting, in attempts to release bodily memories.