Interoception is the collection of senses providing information about the internal state of the body.

The artist Garry Barker has been working with individuals trying to help them find ways of visualising the somatic feelings that they have when various physical and/or psychological effects trigger inner body sensations. Sometimes these images slide between visual invention and people’s memories of past experiences, between physical resemblances to other objects or a more abstracted understanding of the expression of feeling. This workshop is designed to help people explore how images that can arise unbidden from the unconscious when trying to visualise a particular somatic experience, can be crystalized or taken further so that they can be used as part of an evolving visual communication system. We will also explore how interoceptual awareness helps with a growing awareness of how the body knows itself and its own metaphors. As the process of drawing and image making develops, we will look at how sensations associated with internal body perceptions, can lead to a greater somatic awareness and as we do so hopefully we all become more attuned to what our bodies are telling us and we will make a series of images that can eventually lead to the development of a visual language that cuts through verbal language barriers.

27 July 2023
10h00 – 12h00
14h00-16h00
I3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde / Sala C, Piso 1.

Organization: Manuela Lopes, Marina Vale Guedes, Michael Croft, Paulo Luís Almeida
HYBRID – Interface Arte Ciência do Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde i3S
DRAWinU – Drawing Across University Borders, i2ADS
OPDRAWING – The Observation of Perception, considered through Drawing, i2ADS

__
Garry Barker
Artist, educator and researcher based at Leeds Arts University UK.
Garry Barker has an extensive body of work that has recently included drawn responses to the current migrant crisis and visualisations of older people’s awareness of the process of getting older. He has worked on publically commissioned art projects, as well as having a gallery based practice and is involved in several overlapping ventures including making sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, drawing, animation, publishing, and performance.
Recent research involves the visualization of interoception and somatic perception. He is currently a member of ‘The Observation of Perception, considered through drawing’, research group. hosted by the i2ADS research unit of Porto University’s Fine Art Faculty.