From there, we imagined that our limbs changed shapes. We imagined elbows, knees, and forearms with mobility at the wrist. We crawled like salamanders with our bellies on the floor and like lizards trying to lift our heads in order to see around. We explored being a four footed mammal that took to the trees to avoid predators then returned to earth with lengthened arms, legs and spines. Eventually the movement of swinging through the trees provided the contra-lateral movement necessary to balance and to walk.
After the exercise, we spoke about the connection to water and the concept that we are still evolving. Although there is plenty of evidence, most clearly in our bodies, evolution is a very probable theory. Scientifically, it is not fact.What was your experience of this class?
25 comments:
I thought today’s class very interesting. In the beginning, I didn’t feel like participating because I have been feeling kind of nauseous and my stomach has been bothering me, and I was afraid that if I moved too much, I would feel sick. However, the exercise got more and more interesting to a point where I felt I just had to participate.
I really liked imagining that I was a single cell, with no head and being carried by the waves. It was very soothing and had a calming effect on me. I was surprised when we had to play with the idea of being thrust on the land. I had this random picture of a fish flopping and dying in my head, so it just sort of had a negative effect on me. I also didn’t really like imagining that I was a salamander or a lizard because those creatures gross me out; I just didn’t want to picture myself as something that I am not very fond of.
I was quite glad when you told us to move because hanging on those bars started to get uncomfortable. Swinging through trees, I thought, was fun. After laying still for a while, moving felt good. My favorite part of class today was the gradual change from walking in BIG steps to walking like real human beings, and hearing that song (with the words) playing in the background. It really hammered everything home.
- Felicia Widjaja
During this exercise I thought about how all of these events are part of our DNA, how all of these stories are deep inside of who we fundamentally are. Each one of us hold the creation story within us. It was powerful to feel the weight of gravity after floating so freely. I was so heavy and uncoordinated. I had to think about each one of my limbs and purposefully move it. This movement required much higher thought than what had been previously required. I was no longer free, but rather felt trapped/imprisoned and scared for my survival. I was also proud of myself for having made it this far. I was one of the ones that made it. I wonder if I will be successful at adapting for the next 300 billion years? - Suzanne Wilson
Today my involvement in this practice was much greater. I was still very tired from the past two days of working and dancing but I forced myself to keep an awareness in my body and mind. I found myself having to keep my eyes open so I didn't fall into a deep state of relaxation. We moved around so much more that this became easier for me as the class went on. As a single cell, I found my body not moving at all. As a starfish, I found my body stretching in all directions so I could be as long and big as my body would allow. As a salamander, it was kind of fun propelling myself with only my arms. After a while though my forearms became so fatigued that I didn't want to be a salamander any more! I avoided crawling on my hands and knees due to a knee injury. Instead I put myself into a deep squat and moved like that. My legs became very tired. Then we moved to the bars to explore the idea of hanging from the trees, which I think was my favorite part. It reminded me of being a child and swinging on the bars at the playground. At recess I spent all my time on the bars. I always had a blast. After a little bit my arms again became very tired. It was a relief to move to swinging from person to person. From there we explored the idea of moving like a primate. The movement reminded me mostly of a giant ape. It was difficult, especially when we were asked to take that one step upward and to fall back toward the ground like we hadn't quite grasped the idea of walking upright. As we progressed to an upright position everything became much easier and felt more normal. It was such a relief to walk as a modern day human. It felt so effortless compared to the rest of class. I'm still a little unsure of what I was supposed to get of this. It was interesting though. I like the first picture of the evolution of man. It's kind of funny that he goes to a man in front of a computer, but it's so true. I would also like to touch on one thing. I ran into a person who doesn't believe in evolution. All I can think is how can you not believe in evolution. It's like saying you don't believe in the earth or the sky or the trees around you. It is just a theory, but there is so much hard evidence that supports it. I was just so shocked because I thought that evolution was a generally excepted concept. I wonder if some people grow up in religious families and they are always taught of creationism and that evolution is wrong. I wonder if these people ever bother to research the idea on their own and make their own decisions or if they will always believe what they were taught as a child. I think that people need to be open to this idea and really look at the evidence that supports it, because some of it is so amazing! I remember in an introductory biology class I took which focused on evolution a lot. One example of some evidence is: if you look at the structure of the bones in four legged animals ... take a dog, a horse, a mole, a frog, a human, or any animal with four limbs; take away the outer coatings of the animals and look at the structure of the bones in what would be an arm; they all have the same number of bones, some are just larger in certain places or smaller in others to suit the environment in which they live in, but the point is they all have the same number of bones. How else can you explain something like this similarity than through evolution. That is just one example and there are so many more. If you question the theory of evolution at all you should really look deeper into it. You would be surprised at what you find!
*Kali
January 30, 2009
After exploring myself first on Tuesday as a body that has evolved from an original vegetative state, I could see that we were more. I felt that I was a vegetable, plant-like organism, but that wasn't all I felt. I also felt my self as an animal. I was happy to explore being an animal on Thursday. It allowed me a certain somatic insight about where I have come that I didn't have prior to this journey. Although I had knowledge of species evolution, I hadn't had a direct experience of it. This process was very enlightening. It opened my eyes to why I have particular alignment and appendages. It was totally awesome to experience the wrist and thumb connection to swinging in trees, and eventually to walking. I like moving my arms as though I were grasping branches! I liked swinging on the bars and prancing around the class room. What fun it was to remember myself as a child, playing endlessly in trees. It was really joyful insight to realize that I embody an animal who's nature it is to participate with life that way. I am invigorated to climb trees more often.
Also, I'd like to mention that all scientific theories are accepted as tentative. This includes gravity and plate tectonics, for example. Evolution is also a scientific theory. This does not devalue it, rather, it places it amongst other credited probabilities in relation to the functioning of the world.
++aa roesch-knapp
This class experience was so interesting. I really tuned in when we transitioned from water to land. I've never much been a water person, having holes in my eardrums most of my life. As we hit land, i really got into trying to survive, trying to succeed against the conflict. And as I think of how this conflict excited me, i realize I always thrive in conflict and am attracted to this conflict; the floor was so present and an obvious obstacle for our fish self that had no legs or way to propell itself in this new environment. As we grew our arms and began to win against these new obstacles, our evolution seemed to speed effortlessly through time. From the floor to the trees, the trees to a group meeting,and from our community meeting to our independent journey learning to walk. In each area it seemed as if we got more adequate at living in those spaces. For example, we just climbed into the trees (bars) at first and hunkered down. Soon we began to move and after a minute or so seemed relaxed enough to have fun swinging through the branches. I really enjoyed how we not only had the opportunity to get to a walking state, but went farther and were able to relax and dance to some familiar music. Overall it was an intresting, informative, fun, and eye opening experience of evolution in way it hadnever before been presented to me.
-jessica j
I have studied Evolution is a variety of ways and each time it really opens my mind a little bit more. It was interesting feeling the new relationship to gravity when we went from being fish in the water to fish out of the water, because it was really uncomfortable. Sometimes I feel extremely uncomfortable in my body and it feels so good to just lay down and not feel the effect of gravity on my bones. Its good to realize why that is and why water feels so good and comforting. I also just really enjoyed acting like a monkey because it was really playful. It reminded me of being a kid and allowing myself to jump around having a good time. Its also just cool to realize that stresses similair to the ones we experienced in class lead our species to where we are today.
-Joanne
As our evolution progressed and we went through multiple other stages such as the salamander and the lizards I became more and more amazed at how we developed into our current species. I was extremely grateful when we could finally just walk as ourselves (modern day humans). It seemed so effortless and yet at the same time it still seemed complicated. I think that I felt this because we had already progressed through several other forms just to be able to become who we are. This experience made me more appreciative of the human body, and how we came to be. A plethora of stages created who we are today. And, the most amazing part is that we are still evolving. Who knows where our species will go from here?
~Emily Stromme
Even though I couldn’t concentrate much at the beginning of the period, it was such an interesting experience to explore the class today. I feel like moving as a starfish was interesting. It made me think of a beach that is plenty of starfish beside. Plus, I could feel that it could be such a hard time to move if one of their leg was gone and also how hard of them to grow a new leg to survived. Another interesting part of this class is the part that we become part of human evolution, from monkey to human today. I think nature was so fascinating. It could let one species to develop himself until become perfect one like human; able to walk well, being an incredible to built technologies, and etc.
However, during the exploration, imagination and concentration was such an important part for this week class. Without those significances, I couldn’t achieve the feeling of being a cellular, a starfish, or even the evolution of human. However, after explore the class up until before the song was run, I feel uncomfortable. However, after I heard the song that quite familiar, I feel much more relax and more comfortable in my body. Anyway, it was fun to dream and let my imagination leaded me to the part I had never been through.
Pitchaya N.
I thought it was really interesting to experience the evolution in class that day. I was really comfortable moving through the sea and then coming to shore all of a sudden made me very uncomfortable. Having no real limbs to help me move on the ground was very challenging. I was sweating trying to get myself a feet away from where I started originally. It was really hard. After couple of minutes we were able to use our limbs to move around. That made me think that things were getting better and more comfortable. But having to move on our hands and legs and in a sitting position was harder than it seemed. The walking we did at the end that got us to become human and what we are today was the best walk I ever had.I paid a lot of attention to it and really appreciated it! I loved the music at the end because it made me feel amazing being on my feet again!It was an interesting experience that made me appriciate everything a bit more! :)
~Afsoon Fazeli
I have never studied evolution before, so this exercise was quite the experience. I liked how we worked our way from the start of the process to present day life. Through our movements I felt the connection from each level of evolution.
I felt that I connected most with the stages that included water. I felt ease when we were starfish, pushing our limbs into the floor. I liked the feeling that my entire body was connected with one surface. As we later evolved into more complex beings I felt the difficulty that those beings must have faced. The progression from a fish to a salamander was probably the hardest thing we did. To move up onto only your arms was very difficult. My legs felt like dead weight as I tried to carry my body across the floor.
Overall I enjoyed experiencing something that our deep ancestors had once faced. To overcome difficulty with movement and evolve to match your surroundings is mind blowing to me. Acting out each step really made everything connect for me.
--Jasmine Boado
We began the class with water sound. I was lying down and it was very comfortable for me. I was enjoying this relaxation but suddenly music changed and we had to crawl the floor which I did not like. I felt like I was swiping the floor. Then, we walked with 2 hands and 2 feet which was really hard. I was glad that we can just walk on two feet even though those animals that walked with 4 feet had the body that was designed for this position. We also hang on the bar and moved like we were on the tree which was bit silly but it was fun. After those activities, we finally walked with 2 feet from little steps to normal steps. I felt very relaxing and comfortable in two position. First is when we were in the water and the second is when we talked with 2 feet. I think I liked these two positions because I experienced these positions in my life already. I was in water before I was born and I walked with 2 feet for about 20 years. I loved the exercise that we did for this day and not only I enjoyed the exercise it self but also it really made me to think deeply about my self and human evolution.
As I mentioned in the last blog, I related more to the swimming portion of evolution than the standing portion. When we were salamanders, I felt hopeless. I felt like I couldn't get anywhere. I was happy when we finally got to be on two feet. I guess I am most meant to be a fish or a human. This is probably because I am a Pisces.
The experience from cellular creature to full upright multi-cellular was quite "natural." I say it is "natural" because if someone says that I am a fish and now evolve into a upright mammal, I did go through certain steps that could have been quite close (hopefully) to what is said in the evolution theory (given that I have about thousands or million years to evolve and there are no leaps/discontinuities). Instead of just imagining that I was now a fish on the sea shore, with fin-type hands and taillike legs and later to a reptile-snake like creature, it was very interesting to think how would this occur and what changes that fish would have had to go through. It was easy at first since we went slower, but as time went by, I was lagging behind a little bit with respect to the current form and the older form.
Assuming this, I can (kind of) understand that it would have been a very giant leap for water creatures to become the land creatures. It would have been quite a struggle to just survive, by correlating this with my struggle to move. Later on, it became less harder and harder and the whole walking on all fours, clinging to branches, moving around branches, going forth between walking on two and four, and finally walking seemed to have happened in the fraction of a second. The tiny dance and the music quite efficiently re-inforced the usefulness/easiness of our current form.
The ending was perfect, with the realization that we are in the comfortable form, with potential to evolve to further ease out our most occuring activities (or lose the least occuring ones) (and ofcourse using timescale of hundreds/thousands of years).
I am very much amazed by our power of imagination!
----------------------
Apologies for the triple comments (should count as one). This comment only differs from the others in the amount of newlines (line breaks) which got added by gmail and apparently looked the quite similar in the preview pane.
i have tried over and over. sorry.
here it is:
i found this class very difficult. while i appreciated the intention, it
def. took me a good 20 minutes to relax into the idea behind the movement
and even by then the movements became very difficult for me. At the same
time, that difficulty was interesting in itself because the adapting and
moving of the body really let me see into what it might be like to have
to adjust to extreme changes as an animal and what that means for
creatures to "survive" and be the "fittest." It made me wonder where we
all are going next as far as evelution...no gender? are we going to fly?
i vote for flying as a preference, but hey.
mirit
I enjoyed experiencing the theory of evolution through my physical body, there were moments of bliss, comfort, freedom and fun, though I too acknowledge that there were periods in the evolutionary process where I was uncomfortable. The water was soothing, and easy, adapting to life on land required movements that were rigid and hard, I thumped around trying to move, to accommodate for the newly imposed environmental changes. Slithering like a salamander, pulling myself in a direction was hard, I have a body to carry and I am heavy. I wanted to lay, to not move, but it was said that to move was to survive. Climbing up into the trees to protect ourselves from the dinosaurs was fun; I loved hanging and swaying in the branches. This movement that took its toll on my arms, I was ready to be done shortly after we started. This made me think about our ancestors, those who came before us and the time it must have taken to adapt to the changes in the environment. If they wanted to live on, they were going to accommodate, the instinct that drives us to live life to the fullest, to live on each day is so powerful. When the moment came for us to stand tall, my body yelped with delight, it felt so good, so necessary to stand, and to stand tall. I found that I stood taller for the rest of that day.
Evolution as a process, we are still a part of that process. I left excited and curious, wondering what type of adaptations we will witness and participate in as our changing environment calls us to accommodate.
Peace.
L. Goldberg
Strange how I felt resistance to evolving. I didn't want to be on the harsh land or fighting off predators. I found I had to use my mind to will myself into movement since my body really didn't want to. My reaction to this initially was, wow I must not have a great will to survive. I also realize it could have been that I felt calm and peaceful, and since we weren't actually in a survival situation it didn't feel real.
As we evolved into four footed mammals, I had SUCH a fun time! Although it wasn't very comfortable, it felt so primal, like I was going home. Swinging through the trees was delightful, and as we began to walk (stumble) I really felt the struggle. I have never felt so connected to walking and the evolutionary process in my very body.
I don't think I'll ever walk the same.
-L.O'Neill
The movements we made to evolve from a reptile to a walking mammal were very interesting to me because in an animal behavior course I took we learned that birds evolved flight in a similar way.
Birds evolved as reptiles which would run, jump and spread out their arms. As time progressed, arms evolved into wings so this flight could occur. Similarly, from our exercise, mammals evolved from animals, which walked on four legs, to humans that walked on two legs by taking these same sort of efforts to leap and stand. It appears that the swaying arms which were so central to our movements in class that day were also a key factor in getting both birds and humans off the ground.
I truly enjoy exploring topics we are presented in class and relating them to previous learned knowledge. I feel a very strong connection between my classes this quarter. It's great, and makes coming to school so much more enticing.
-Hanalore Alupay
I loved Tuesday's "water evolution." I thought the concept was a great idea and, even though I struggled with some parts (single celled organism), my body had fun exploring the different movements and "evolving." I even wrote on the blog that I couldn't wait for Thursday. Sadly, however, Thursday was not quite as enjoyable for me as Tuesday. I enjoyed learning about the process of evolution in this new way (I had only ever studied it through a biology text book before) and I now have a better understanding of what are ancestral species went through before us to evolve into what we are now. And while I recognize the importance of putting our bodies through the different evolutionary movements and struggles, my body didn't not like it and was not happy with me. I really had to use my mind to overcome my body's protestations.
There were times when my body wanted to give up. I remember when we first thrust ourselves into land: my body felt like it couldn't move and I remember thinking, wow, my species of fish is going to die out. My mind didn't want me to die though so I tried to get my body to move and work with me. It was so hard.
But the part my body liked least was being a hunched over ape. My back was killing me. All I could think about was that my body is no longer designed for this sort of shape. My muscles are also no longer adapted to that style of living. Hanging on branches was not fun for the human me. I have weak arms, even for a human. So using my arms to support my body was very difficult. Once again, I felt and thought like my species was going to die out.
I'm happy with how my body is now. I understand that we're constantly evolving and adapting to our new surroundings, but for this lifetime it's on a much smaller scale than the millions of years we simulated in class. I find that the more subtle changes are easier to cope with.
-Lauren Cook
Our first splat onto land was an abrupt change. I could really feel the effects of gravity.
When we became salamanders, it was nice to look around and push up off the ground for a little bit with my arms, but I couldn’t figure out how my legs were supposed to work.
It was kind of fun being a four lagged mammal. It isn’t very often that we run around like that. As Humans we usually crawl on our knees when we are “on all fours.”
Then we took to the trees! We swung around and reached for food. I really liked getting the imaginary food and eating it.
Then we went back to the ground. We struggled between walking on all fours and trying to just walk on our hind legs. After many many trials we were finally able to walk.
My body could physically do everything, I found that many of my muscles where getting tired from being in positions they normally aren’t in for very long. At each stage I kept wanting to do something else.
-Sandra Viall
On Tuesday I really enjoyed the part where we were starfish and we flopped from being on our backs over to our bellies by stretching our arm across our body soooooo faaaaaar that finally we just can't hold back against gravity and flopped over.
Then on Thursday, I loved hanging off the ballet bars as monkeys. I'm not much of a ballet dancer myself - I lack the discipline and drive to become good at it - so to get to use those bars in a rather...unconventional... way was personally satisfying. Also because I have a great love for climbing, but an equally if not greater fear of falling I don't actually do a lot of climbing on things like I wish I did. So getting to imagine climbing while only hovering a few inches off the ground was really awesome for me.
~Desirae
The "Energetic Development" reading was interesting, but its content was difficult to conceptualize until experimenting with different physical movements in class. When I read the section about the circulation of energy through our endpoints I still wasn't convinced that those particular body parts had any special significance. However, when we traced our environment and attempted to write our names with our hands, feet, and pelvises, it became utterly clear that these areas due have a much greater degree of coordination and precision. In the first part of class, my body reacted really well to tactile exercises. I didn't realize that I could become so energized and invigorated with such simple movements—and caffeine free! I found it most difficult when we were in the evolutionary fish-like stage, allowing the tops of our heads to lead us. Apparently evolution really does work, as I'm certainly more comfortable leading with my feet.
-C.McCoy
I found today's class quite interesting. It was odd to go through the motions of what evolution could have been like. My body was hesitant to move the way that the instructor asked me to move. In the beginning, when we were coming out of the water, the shift from the fluidity of our movement to the harsh movements where our joints were unable to move was difficult. I was quite confused on how to go about moving myself without bending. I also found myself confused when the instructor spoke of things like the joints on your legs beginning to develop and move in a backwards motion. I didn't really understand what this meant.
When we were swinging from the vines, i could really feel myself struggling. My body was not used to all of the strain on my arms and shoulders. It was difficult to do, and in fact, I was somewhat sore the next day from this.
Moving from the trees to walking around was interesting. I felt very free when we were on the trees, but when we began to walk, I felt even more freedom. My comfort level immediately went up.
I'm not exactly sure about the whole idea of evolution. This class was somewhat difficult for me because I do not believe in evolution the way that we practiced it. I believe that things evolve over time, but I don't personally think that humans evolved from tiny beings out of the water. I found the exercise very interesting though, and it definitely changed my perspective on the whole concept of evolution.
~Melissa Eckstrom
This posting is now closed for comments.
Post a Comment