Parcon in the Park
TEXT BY ANDREW SUSENO AND KIMBERLY TATE
A stroll in Nelson Rockefeller Park transforms into a dance trio of two connected bodies dancing with the landscape. IMAGE/ Andrew Suseno
New York is a city of cubicles and micro-units, and its urban, hardscaped parks absorb the spill-out of our private moments. We come outside to be with ourselves and in the company of others, but anonymously, to recover from the stress of our lives. A life of constant sitting causes us to walk in a terse manner, tailbones tucked under, hips locked, gait and breath restrained. We survey the plaza for the “best spot,” unaware that the way we look has been influenced by what we do most. On our break, we are filled with anxiety and stress, still thinking about all the things we must do later today, unaware that our thinking is likewise influenced by what our bodies do most. We find a bench, hurry to sit, and bury our heads in our phones.
In Bryant Park, I sit on a bench near a friend in a motorized wheelchair. She cannot access the expansive green lawn, the benches, or the stairs to the public library. People walk by her, not considering their own able-bodied access; in fact, some look at her with disdain as if she were in the way.
I lean forward, nudging my head into her shoulder. She speaks through our contact point. She wants to get up. She angles her shoulder surface and I roll off to her side, finding myself standing in front of her, hands on the bench. Her hands reach across to my ribs. Then she stands and walks, using my body like a moving tabletop. I am sensitive to the collapsing together and the recovering of her legs with each shift of weight toward the side of the bench where she can reach the back. Our relationship is symbiotic, a bridge to new perspectives and physical experiences for both of us. Through the pressure of her forearms on my back, I am intimately aware of her stepping and gazing at the expanse of the great lawn.
We are doing Parcon, a boldly relational movement form inspired by Parkour (an urban obstacle-course sport) and contact improvisation (an improvisation duet dance that uses any part of the body to communicate through touch, weight-sharing, and momentum-play with another person). Parcon makes our dance into a trio inviting exploration of the environment with any part of the body while in contact with each other.
Can the design of our landscapes partner with us to expand perspectives and be a bridge to new experiences? Can it dynamically respond to our changing needs? Designing the built environment is an act of choreography. Design blocks the scenes and sequences of spatial experiences. It sets permissible areas of access, pathways through, and moments of stillness on a site. Design positions bodies according to the size, orientation, and shapes of accommodating fixtures. It facilitates interactions between users (human and non-human) embedded with cultural values and social norms. Designers are agents for the built environment to partner with its users in a dance of being alive!
At the interface of built environment and inhabitant emerges conditions for transformational possibilities. IMAGE/ Andrew Suseno
At the interface of built environment and inhabitant emerges conditions of transformational possibilities. A slight variation in shape of the standard park bench can invite the office worker on lunch to step sideways out of the everyday orthogonal, and instead lean, twist, squat, and peer into a beautifully confounding alternate reality of the spiraling tree canopy that has always been there, just above eye level. An undulating variation of surface texture may invite us to linger just a bit longer and stretch open to inhale. A city park could offer more than just another seat. In partnership with a playful park bench, the visitor can reconnect to movement, sensation, and emotion.
Design can guide attention to direct experience with all that is special in the moment, and the process of design can open up when designers involve their whole embodied selves. Designers must know themselves as moving beings amongst others in context. Somatic practices such as Parcon can be generative in the design process by helping us to get in touch, literally, with the world around us and directly experience transformative shifts in attention.
VIDEO/ Andrew Suseno
Parcon gives a direct experience to movers of how the human body engages with a space through the body’s structure, balance, and strength, and how the space choreographs our movement and perceptions. Parcon expands embodied intelligence.
The practice of Parcon, a bold relational and inclusive movement form, draws inspiration from people of all abilities and also the qualities of the landscape. IMAGE/ Annie Gottlieb
Exploring beyond boundaries set by status quo and habit not only reorganizes our physicality but also the very act of perception and thought. Parcon nurtures physical and creative agility by inviting us to explore around, over, and through a structure, concept, or obstacle. Inclines, levels, slopes, curves, and angles change in the experience of two people negotiating a space together. The ability to engage with another person allows for us to both literally and figuratively roll into the unknown. Practising this roll into mystery together can expand our capacity to trust the unfolding moment and our confidence in being seen. It can extend our threshold of risk, nurturing intuition and deepening wisdom.
Parcon is radically inclusive, proactively building curriculum and presence with marginalized communities, especially in oppressive spaces. “Parcon Resilience” is a particular approach to practising Parcon that integrates reflection and social justice. Through contact, Parcon allows us to empathize and support one another to explore environments in ways that defy the laws that gravity and society set on our bodies. Seeing and joining others in their struggle, investigating multiple viewpoints, we can move beyond systems of control we may be complicit in perpetuating, and then we can re-pattern design to support social justice and fullness of being.
She finds her way to a standing tabletop position with her hands on the back of the bench, and I am floating—stomach on her shoulder with my hands touching the back of the bench to titrate my load. We shift back and forth together, leisurely looking at people passing at eye level. We are both feeling joyful and excited, taking in the expanse of the park around us and the stairs, which no longer seem like an obstacle.
BIOS/
ANDREW SUSENO IS A DOCTOR OF PHYSICAL THERAPY, A SOMATIC MOVEMENT EDUCATOR, AND AN ARTIST. HE IS THE CREATOR OF PARCON RESILIENCE, AN APPROACH TO PARCON DEDICATED TO EMPOWERING MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES AND DEVELOPING COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS-BUILDING.
KIMBERLY TATE IS AN ARTIST, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER, URBAN EXPERIMENTAL DANCER, AND EDUCATOR AT PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND THE AIANY CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE. BUILDER OF SITE-SPECIFIC EXPERIMENTAL DANCE LABYRINTHS, DANCITECTURE, SHE INVITES MOVERS OF ALL FORMS TO RE-PATTERN THEIR EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE OF SPACE.
