Healing Flavours: An Immersive Emotional Perception of Asklepieion Sanctuary’s Landscape

Περίληψη

Space has the ability to modify our perception. Human entity retains the stigmata of time and space traversed and encountered, as an indelible marker of the experience (Béligon & Digonnet, 2020). Body becomes a sensitive interface through which we apprehend spatiality. Ιn the process of the participatory workshop Healing Flavours, inhabitation was achieved through the experiential observation provided by the practice-based laboratory session. The workshop was held on August 29th, 2022, as part of the Performing Space 2022 project organised by the Department of Theatre Studies of the University of Peloponnese and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. It consisted of an interactive emotion walk that invited participants to move and halt through a series of ancient sites in an open space, immersing themselves in a range of emotional states. The workshop was based on the holistic system of R. Schechner's Rasaboxes and S. Bloch's Alba Method patterns, where muscular activity and specific breathing patterns can be consciously controlled and manipulated to induce and regulate emotional states. The methodology of perception entailed the implementation of a specific protocol that consisted of three key elements: a. visual gaze to facilitate the exploration of the surroundings, b. revelation of the emotion and c. physical discovery and involvement in varied ways, meant to enhance the emotional experience of participants and to encourage them to engage with the environment.