Photo by Andrew Sikorski of How to Disagree (working title), an ongoing interdisciplinary project with Zora Pang, Tom Campbell and Jessica Tanto supported by You Are Here Canberra since 2022
Jessica Tanto
Unscripting the body
SAT 16 AUG 2:00PM—4:30PM
Tickets:
Platform Arts Performance Space
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Learn how to visit Platform Arts, including standard opening hours and full accessibility information, via our contact us page.
Wheelchair access is via our Gheringhap St entrance ramp. Unlocked, accessible bathrooms available on both ground and first floors.
Join artist Jessica Tanto as they lead a workshop that explores the body, the city, and the narratives they can tell and untell about our actions in place.
Using exploratory movement and open-ended prompts, participants will practice distinguishing between impulse-driven movements and expectation-driven movements. This session provides a group lab to experiment and learn, inspiring participants to continue their unscripted way of moving in the presence of the public.
Our actions are consciously and unconsciously influenced by the scripts that our body has unconsciously learnt through our lived experiences. Each decision that we make is the product of a negotiation between our honest intuit and the expectations that we hold on ourselves.
Why do you choose to step one foot in front of the other to walk forward? Why do you choose to walk at a certain speed on the street? And why pause, here?
In this workshop, we will unpack the expectations that we carry that influence how we move in public space.
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Jessica Tanto (they/them) is a Chinese-Indonesian artist and facilitator who invites people to slow down and reconnect with themselves through movement and presence—beyond outside expectations.
Their practice draws on lived experiences in Java and Naarm, along with training in performance art, psychology and anthropology.
Grounded in honesty and humility, their work creates playful, restorative experiences in public and everyday spaces.
Jessica specialises in making methods—collaborative tools shaped with communities—that help people notice patterns and try new ways of being together.
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2:00PM Meet at Platform Arts
Using exploratory and experimental movement and open-ended prompts, we will practice distinguishing between impulse-driven movements and expectation-driven movements. This section is designed to predispose the body to moving in an unscripted way.
This will be done by training the muscle to notice when we are influenced by the expectations we carry, and letting it go.
3:30PM Urban Walking Practice through Djilang
Once these artist-led exercises of unscripting the body occur, what happens when the public gaze is introduced? What methods can we embed to commit to moving in an unscripted way in public space?This session provides a group lab to experiment and learn, inspiring participants to continue their unscripted way of moving in the presence of the public.
4:00PM—4:30PM Finish
