Bodily Movement Flows of the Ground of Montreal City:

An exploration of the autoroute 720, Ville-Marie expressway, from Stations de Metro Champs de Mars to Square Victoria.

Upon the gradual secularization in the city, especially in the 1930's in Montreal, bodily movement, over the years, has become a way of freeing oneself from the institutionalized constriction applied by the church. This type of bodily movement has infiltrated into the city as dance. Performative dance is intended to be observed by an audience, even if the audience is also the dancer. There is dance-mime - performative. There is institutionalized dance types - folk, ballroom, ballet, contemporary, hip hop, performative as well. There is everyday dance, where one dances in the streets - and even when the streets are empty, one performs for oneself.

Bodily movement carries through history as dance. Dance, as a type of movement, is examined in my thesis exploration in the same manner as bodily movement, previously explained:

"(Dance) is the most primitive language which is important if a performer** want to understand who we are and where we come from. Through (dance), inner attitudes leave ones insides and are shared with the outer part of the world." (blog entry : THESIS revised).

Now, as an exercise, I can replace every term "moving" or "movement" in the following paragraphs by the terms "dancing" and "dance". But I won't, for simplicity. But it is something to think about.

Like I mentioned in my last blog entry: THESIS revised, the forms of space are limited by the moving body which generates them, therefore dependant on the moving body which generates them. Space-forms, as they are immaterial, are generated from the material body and therefore are not so fantastical in nature as one may presume. In thinking of the concept of 'space' in terms of the space-forms generated by the moving body, a performer's attitude about a body-and-world relationship varies dependant on the body's movement in the world. I draw inspiration from William Forysthe, a dance choreographer and theorist. Like Rudolf Laban, he sees the world as always oriented around the body. (See Forsythe, William. Improvisational Technologies - Organisation 1.3. Reorientation of the Floor Plane.) In shifting the focus to dance as a form of bodily movement, I will explain how I chose the site for my project.

Although the physical form of the world stays constant in the eyes of a performer, inner attitude towards the physical form of the world varies - dependant upon the bodies (cartesian) orientation within it. And how did I say one can being to understand inner attitudes? Through the study of bodily movement which releases them into the outerness of the world.

I will give an example to explain what I am talking about. When a performer is standing upright, the feet are on the floor and the ceiling is above. When a performer, next, flows into a headstand, their body reorients itself in the world. The head is on the ceiling and the floor is above the feet. The floor and ceiling are formally constant during this bodily movement from standing to headstand. The body's orientation moves - which changes the performer's attitude about their body-and-vertical components of room relationship.

More specifically, I will focus on a performer's attitude towards a body-and-city relationship.
When in a moving car, the ground is under a performer's feet, zooming past them. Simultaneously, in the moving metro train, the ground is zooming past a performer's feet.

Where is the ground when a performer is moving in the city?

The ground is somewhere specific to the car passenger, and the train passenger. The orientation of the ground is dependant on the the performer's moving body. As a matter of fact, every city component-orientation is dependant on the performer's moving body.

How can I reveal that the orientation of the city itself is dependant on the performer's bodily movement?

I will shift from this discussion for one moment and talk about the city. In order to function for moving performers, the city is made up of many intersecting and connecting systems. These systems are made up of components. These components are prosteses of the performer. In order to function and move, the performer has intersecting and connecting systems. These systems are made up of components. These components are prostheses of the performer's soul.

The cells in the performer carry water to hydrate and nurture itself. The modern rivers in the city, known as aquaducts carry water to the performer so it can hydrate and nurture itself in the city. The digestive system in the performer carries out waste. The sewage system further carries out the performer's waste away from the city. The cardio-vascular system in the performer circulates the blood which enables life and performance. The metro and autoroute systems circulate the performer which enables life and performance in the city. The respiratory system in the performer allows them to be reminded they are alive. The ventilation system^ filters the performer's air so they can be alive in the city. The nervous system informs the performer so they can perform. The electrical system^ informs the performer so they can perform in the city.

So, in the city, the rivers, the aquaducts, the sewage system, the metro system, the autoroute system, the ventilation system and the electrical system enable performers to perform in the city together. This is important. I am studying these systems in order to understand the city as prosthesic performer systems and to then answer the question : How can I reveal that the orientation of the city itself is dependant on the performer's bodily movement? Where, and what do I build so I reveal that the orientaiton of the city itself is dependant on the performer's bodily movement?

Now, all these systems of the city that I study are built in, or of, or from the ground. A performer can't fly (without a plane or a kite). In order to allow the performer to perform in the city, the city ground is removed. This is paradoxical, isn't it. To move in the ground in the city, there is a remove in the 'ground' of the city.

The ground has been excavated for all the city systems, in particular the metro system. The removed ground for the metro system was relocated to expand the St. Helenes Island in preparation for Expo 67'. The ground has been excavated also for the construction of the Ville-Marie Expressway, autoroute 720. This was done also in preparation for Expo 67', to improve flow of performer's movement. Along with the ground, housing was also removed for the construction of autoroute 720. Permanency was removed to allow flow of movement in the city. The autoroute 720 divided Old Montreal from newer Montreal. This division favored commercialisation and industrialisation in Old Montreal, and favored residential projects in newer Montreal. The division is still an issue today.

My thesis project is a search to explore the ground along the Ville-Marie expressway from Stations de Metro Champs de Mars to Square Victoria, comprehend the city systems which act as prosthesic performer systems, and to build an architecture which ignites a revolution that orientation of the city itself is dependant on the performer's bodily movement.











**In this text, an inhabitant in a the city of human civilisation is referred to as a performer.

*** In the world oriented in a cartesian system, the moving body is always it's axis of origin. (0,0,0).

^ acquiring information