In 'Reflection on Digestion: The Stomach' we reflect on the process and idea of digestion through eating, drinking, and language.
Whilst consuming an aperitif and a dish of tripe, participants are guided by a text collaged from a variety of historical and contemporary sources exploring how we cognitively and bodily digest food, knowledge, and experience, and fashion our sense of self.
Firstly, participants are asked to practice mindfulness eating. In silence, they will listen and reflect on their own direct experience of eating, and the ideas and sensations that ensue. For example, participants will concentrate on gastric juices as they are triggered by an aperitif, and contemplate what happens in mind and body when tripe they eat, the stomach of another. Later, participants will share their experiences, writing and discussing their reflections.
The piece embodies an experiential approach to knowledge creation by placing the participant, their senses, and body at the centre of the exploration of our 'visceral knowledge', as David Hillman describes, 'knowledge experienced in as well as knowledge of the interior of the body'. Participants literally and metaphorically ruminate on the processes of ingestion, digestion, subjectivity, and on embodied ways of knowing.
This participatory performance was part of a day-long event exploring multi-disciplinary perspectives on digestion, innards and the interior body, led by Lee, Couch and Hladky, and accompanying their exhibition at the Blyth Gallery, Imperial College London, 8 October – 7 November 2014. The day brought together presentations from researchers and practitioners across the fields of gastroenterology, cultural theory, art history, yoga, performance and fine art and the medical humanities.
