Our present ego-feeling is, therefore,
only a shrunken residue of a much more
inclusive—indeed, an
all-embracing—feeling which
corresponded to a more intimate bond
between the ego and the world about it.
[1929 book Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud]
continuum = the spatio-temporal field where bodily development, socio-spiritual kinship, ecological interdependence, and political responsibility co-emerge.
When and how does this continuum
become experientially explicit?
We can think of a continuum episode as an intentionally situated, somatically mediated experience with ritualistic structure, in which a person feels:
- unusually present in their body
- less separate from their surroundings
- in relation with more-than-human life
- and oriented toward care or responsibility
all at once.
→ Continuum is an event of relation that can be felt, described, and tracked. It's a state that can happen in specific practices (singing in a choròs, listening walks, rituals, assemblies, etc): embodied, situated, coproduced.
The Continuum Attunement Index (CAI) is a way to name and observe what happens in these practices trying to see whether somatic dramaturgies actually change how representers feel self–world–MOTH relations.
Dimensions of the "Continuum Attunement"
continuum attunement is never purely abstract; it is felt in the body.
This dimension resonates with interoceptive awareness research, but for us it is also pedagogical: practices like frame-drum work, Greek chorus, Grotowski-inspired exercises are deliberate techniques to expand this capacity.
Continuum is not the erasure of all boundaries; it is about how thresholds are experienced.
It is a re-staging of the boundary as a contact surface
Place is experienced as a partner, not a neutral container.
This continuum lens insists this is not just belief ("I think nature is alive") but a felt relation in a concrete situation.
Continuum often emerges between bodies:
not just human–human bonding, but a field that also includes place, weather, more-than-human presences.
what does the episode do to a person's sense of self and world?
if representers are to "speak with" more-than-human beings, do these episodes gradually transform their representational subjectivity – their sense of whose interests they are entangled with?
CAI
Continuum AI - your guide through the research
Welcome. I can help you navigate this research on design for the continuum, somatic dramaturgies, and more-than-human relations. What would you like to explore?
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