Paola Napolitano

  Image  free of copyright restrictions, downloaded from  Pinback button reading Teach the Children the Truth | Smithsonian Institution (si.edu) By reading Decolonizing Methodologies  I have reflected on the concept of research from different angles. Ethics is the dominant theme in the book and plenty of insights are offered in regard to the application of research methodologies. Before understanding what academic writing implies, I much relied on presenting a topic with a one-way approach which would support my ideas. During the past two years, we have been confronted with an abundant flows of fake news, mis-information and conspiracy theories which seem to have something in common, a mono-directional perspective, pushing themselves forward in order to prevail over other streams. But what’s the effect of this modality of information sharing? The impactful resonance of imposing one view only is that it may significantly influence, or better diminish, the r...

Theory and Practice have always sound as a dilemma to me.  I have always found theories so fascinating. My tendency to over-theorize has sometimes led my creativity to get stuck, as wanting to back it up with logical reasoning and prove it was 'right' or 'wrong'. In the attempt to bypass theory, pure movement based research, in the studio, often felt directionless and so energy consuming to me.  As a seeking spirit in nature, theories are just my cup of tea. However, I wonder if the theory gets lost in the translation from one medium into another, therefore if it is fair to talk about theory application, or it is just our interpretation of it, so a trans-creation.  What was/is the compass for my movement research? Theory or body experience, or both?  With this doubt in mind, it is incredibly inspiring to observe HOW other artists start their research from a theory and apply it to their artistic projects. It is the case of Angela Woodhouse, Senior Lecturer in Dance at...

Information, Learning, Knowledge – where/when does the process happen? Are we serving ourselves teachers or learners? My friend suggests to listen to the podcast ‘How to do what you love and make good money | Derek Sivers’. The presenter introduces the guest, mentioning a long list of many different job titles he has. The guest says that was an old biography, now he IS something else. He says words do not define what we are and what we do. I remind of someone who at our Sunday’s discussion said he has always associated his CV’s titles to his knowledge, giving to his experience the meaning of knowledge. My question is, if learning changes continuously, how can words best represent our evolving Self? How can our changing architecture of learning be expressed through a limited conventional system of verbal communication? In explaining the limitation of semiotics, in Philosophy and Human Movement, David Best, an English philosopher, observes most of times, we attribute symbols and meaning ...

  Getting used to selecting the right hashtags on social media to catch the right audience, has possibly helped me locate a few subjects for my AOLs today.  It may take a multi-perspective analysis to ponder over and select the right words or labels that define your practice. At least for me it takes time, reflection and learning. During our first Zoom call yesterday, we talked about our practice.  As a visual learner, and not a fun of public speaking, I tend to simplify my thoughts by jotting bullet points before it's my turn to speak. Thanks to time constriction, I quickly managed to summarize key concepts depicting my current practice and future areas of focus.  What is my practice? This is probably the reason why I am taking the MAPP. Since I have welcomed the opportunity to gain new insights on experiential learning , I have been trying to absorb every single notion about this subject, learning from self-reflection, re-evaluate reflective conclusions based on ne...

I had always considered my innate introspective nature sufficient to demonstrate my capability of reflecting and being deep in my observations. This was excluding the inclusion of others in my process of learning. One term that opens a new world to me is ‘frame of structure’ which in the book ‘A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning’ by Moon, Jennifer A. is not only referred to as personal beliefs and opinions, but also as our past reference system of previous experiences of learning. The book puts the emphasis on the incidence of individual attitude towards learning, as means to complete and enrich the learning process itself. This may appear a constant flux of achievement stages, subordinated to constant external inputs that unravel new learning experiences. The building of knowledge is therefore a stratification of processes, a continuous layering of learning and adapting information, rather than a definite acquisition of sets of tools. The key to this ongoing growth ...

Here I am: a new beginning, a new title, a new logo, a new website, a fresh new set intention. Openness, flow and curiosity are probably the words that mostly apply to this brand new re-start. A simpler vision is now accompanying my journey, acting as a clear map helping me navigate through the darkness of thick expectations and assumptions. As my colleagues replied to one of my previous blogs, uncertainty is the essential tool for learning as it gives you the privilege of discovery and growth. I can now label myself with 2 new professional titles, however these are not conclusive of all of my capabilities, rather reflect my engagement into learning and development so far.  After completing my Sports Massage training course in December, and having deferred my MA to Jan's start, I finally had plenty of time to go through the reading material of the life coach course I had purchased back in March last year. Weirdly enough, I started finding concepts that the MA programme would enqui...

Last week we had a really great conversation over Skype. I was introduce to so many new concepts about research methodologies. As I am trying to find a new rhythm between daily life and studying, I am attracted by different resources available but feeling disorientated at the same time. During our discussion, something that resonated with my learning experience was the term ‘’kinesthetic empathy’’. This reminded me of kinesphere, used by R. Laban to refer to the Space surrounding an individual and used to map human movement through observing how the Body moves through Scales of Movement. I found, according to Theodor Lipps’ theory of ‘Einfühlung’ (Lipps, 1851-1914) ’kinesthetic empathy’’ occurs ‘‘When observing a body in motion, such as an acrobat, spectators could experience an ‘inner mimesis’, where they felt as if they were enacting the actions they were observing*. ’’ This concept made me question about the functionality of the Greek theatre catharsis. Catharsis was first c...