Body Mapping has emerged among movement education techniques as one of the only somatic methods to focus specifically on musicians. Little research has been conducted to determine what changes, if any, participants in Body Mapping workshops experience. This study used MIDI to examine pitch, tone, tempo, and articulation of scale and arpeggio piano performance one day before and after a Body Mapping workshop. Participants were found to exhibit few measurable changes in these aspects of scale and arpeggio. A series of exploratory analyses were then conducted, which found greater changes in the visually observable aspects of piano performance than in aurally perceptible ones. The results suggest that immediately following a Body Mapping workshop, piano performance may improve in visually observable measures, but not in the aurally perceptible measures of scale and arpeggio performance.

“The Perfect Body” is a dominant narrative in western culture which we are exposed to on a daily basis in the media and advertising. Individuals who have been physically traumatised may find difficulty in reclaiming their bodies after a traumatic experience, leading to a narrative of “Disownment” of their bodies. Due to the high incidence of traumatic incidents in South Africa, the accompanying load on the trauma therapy field, and new findings into the ineffectiveness of many current therapeutic methods, new methods for working with Trauma are being sought. Re-telling of traumatic experiences has led to re-traumatisation and aggravated symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Body psychotherapy methods have tried to address the physiological nature of the symptoms and the implicit memory of trauma by grounding the therapy process in embodied techniques. Body Mapping is a new technique that falls both within the narrative therapy and art therapy approaches. Documented application of Body Mapping with traumatised individuals is not available. This study focuses on the experiences of Body Mapping of two men who were incarcerated and tortured for their political activities during Apartheid. The research was done from a Narrative perspective which privileges the individual story as subject of research. No attempt was made to find a representative population or a sample that could be generalised. The research question is “how do physically traumatised individuals make sense of physical trauma through their experience of Body Mapping?” Unstructured interviews were conducted after the Body Mapping group and were transcribed. Narratives about their experience and the cultural and historical factors that may have played a role in the construction of these narratives, were identified. Participant one narrated his experience of Body Mapping as a time and place of Togetherness, Stock-taking and Freedom of expression. Participant two narrated his experience of Body Mapping as a time and place of Ambivalence, Revelation and Release, Journey and Achievement. Findings are relevant to therapists working with physically traumatised individuals and recommendations for further research in the method are indicated. / Dissertation (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / MA / unrestricted

Knowledge about how body parts are configured is crucial in determining appropriate strategies for achieving desired goals. Prior work suggests that this knowledge is evident in later infancy (Brownell et al., 2010; Slaughter et al., 2004), however, the methods used to assess canonical body knowledge arguably require a conceptual form of knowledge. In contrast, we propose that a functional knowledge about the configuration of the body can be detected in younger infants. We used a tactile localization procedure in which the child's task was to retrieve a target that emitted proprioceptive information via a slight vibration. Children aged 7 - 22 months received targets placed on various locations on the head and body one at a time. The results suggest that even the youngest children in the current study were able to map their actions to get to target locations. Notably, this was also the case for locations that require a form of canonical body knowledge to reach successfully. When the area could be reached with either the ipsilateral or the contralateral hand (i.e., head locations), there was a tendency for ipsilateral hand use, though contralateral hand use increased with increasing age. Visual-proprioception integration (i.e., both seeing and feeling the target on the body) did facilitate manual target localization, however, visual localization became less important for successful manual localization as age increased. In sum, the current study demonstrates the perceptuo-motor competencies that manifest prior to children's ability to succeed on mirror recognition and discrimination tasks. / acase@tulane.edu

abstract: ABSTRACT Musicians endure injuries at an alarming rate, largely due to the misuse of their bodies. Musicians move their bodies for a living and therefore should understand how to move them in a healthy way. This paper presents Body Mapping as an injury prevention technique specifically directed toward collaborative pianists. A body map is the self-representation in one's brain that includes information on the structure, function, and size of one's body; Body Mapping is the process of refining one's body map to produce coordinated movement. In addition to preventing injury, Body Mapping provides a means to achieve greater musical artistry through the training of movement, attention, and the senses. With the main function of collaborating with one or more musical partners, a collaborative pianist will have the opportunity to share the knowledge of Body Mapping with many fellow musicians. This study demonstrates the author's credentials as a Body Mapping instructor, the current status of the field of collaborative piano, and the recommendation for increased body awareness. Information on the nature and abundance of injuries and Body Mapping concepts are also analyzed. The study culminates in a course syllabus entitled An Introduction to Collaborative Piano and Body Mapping with the objective of imparting fundamental collaborative piano skills integrated with proper body use. The author hopes to inform educators of the benefits of prioritizing health among their students and to provide a Body Mapping foundation upon which their students can build technique. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2013

There is a growing popularity among musicians to turn to somatic approaches such as the Alexander Technique, Body Mapping and Feldenkrais Method to improve posture and movement at the instrument and to produce better tone quality. There is little scientific and objective data to support the changes that are apparently seen and heard after such training. This study examines if a single somatic session has an immediate, perceivable effect on pianists’ body usage and musical quality. In the first mode of evaluation, judges rated specific aspects of body usage and musical quality. In the second mode of evaluation, judges were asked to identify post-somatic performances. Results indicated that there are perceivable changes in body usage and musical quality although those differences are not as apparent or easily detectable as is often believed. The findings also suggest that it is easier to identify post-somatic performances through body usage than musical quality.

Teenage girls from the Turkana pastoral community in Northern Kenya have varying views of sexuality. Some parents choose to send their daughters to school creating disparate levels of knowledge about their bodies and sexual health. To better evaluate these differences, girls (13-18 years) were asked to develop body maps, a methodological technique that enables verbal and visual data collection. Interviews and participant observations were also used to gather data. This research involved a total of 33 participants and included both school going and non-school going girls. Triangulation of data from Interviews, participant observation, and body mapping provided multiple angles into the female pastoralist’s life experiences. The study demonstrated the heterogeneity and disparities that are present within pastoralists population in Samburu county, providing a more detailed understanding for future medical anthropological studies. The research furthered anthropological inquiry methodologically by introducing body mapping as a complement to conducting traditional ethnographic research.

The master’s thesis explores the importance of our bodies as musicians in establishing the positive impacts of mindfulness on performance, particularly in terms of improving body mapping. Musicians are aware that holding extreme tension in their bodies can affect the quality of the music. Therefore, understanding the complex workings of our bones, muscles, and connective tissues while performing can provide deep explanations on how to reduce pain and tension that can be caused by poor posture, a lack of balance, restricted movement, and other related factors. The approaches taken in this thesis involve developing an awareness of the important joints and bones for violinists and understanding their functions during performances, as well as whether they are well mapped or mis-mapped. For the sounding part, my exam concert included Beethoven's "Kreutzer" violin sonata No. 9, Op. 47, in A minor, and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor. The reason for choosing these two pieces to be performed in one concert is because they demand a high level of stamina and muscle strength from the performers. / <p>Beethoven's "Kreutzer" violin sonata No. 9, Op. 47, in A minor.</p><p>Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor.</p>

This research investigates the use of an artistic methodology to explore embodied experiences related to reintegration of returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). The methodology combines bodily, sensory and cognitive aspects of individual and intersubjective processes – dimensions which have long been neglected in research on reintegration. The research seeks to examine how the artistic body mapping methodology can be used in exploratory and participatory research aiming to promote the reintegration of returning FTFs. The intersubjective body mapping methodology, developed as part of the research, is used and assessed in order to explore its utility for advancing dialogue in addressing challenges related to the reintegration process, including understanding and trust, as experienced by returning FTFs, community members and security personnel in Mombasa, Kenya. The research confirms that the use of intersubjective body mapping is a powerful tool in the context of reintegration, as it serves to enhance understanding for the self and others, which correlates with trust, while allowing for communicating empirical knowledge beyond conventional means.

This study used images taken from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sample-return mission and projected onto a three-dimensional shape model to determine surface properties of the asteroid (101955) Bennu. Two major projects were completed. For the first project, images of the pre-sampled Nightingale site and post-sampled Nightingale were compared to determine how the TAGSAM sampling maneuver effected the surface of the asteroid directly at the sampling site and in the surrounding area. This analysis demonstrated how spacecraft can potentially affect a small body during this and future sample-return missions. For the second project, several craters on Bennu’s surface were selected and all of the boulders within their rims and up to one crater radius outward from their rims were counted and measured. The interior and exterior of all craters were compared which determined that there is a pattern that supports the existence of a subsurface layer of finer-grained material which could be responsible for cohesion on Bennu and potentially other rubble-pile asteroids

An extensive body of knowledge points to the intersection of violence against women and HIV as it is well-established that violence is ubiquitous in the lives of women living with HIV. Experiences of violence exist within a socio-legal context that criminalizes HIV non-disclosure. In Canada, the federal law requires people living with HIV to disclose their HIV positive status before a sexual encounter with a partner that may pose, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, a “realistic possibility of transmission.” The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure carries particularly negative consequences for women living with HIV. This thesis includes an analysis of data from the Women, ART, and the Criminalization of HIV (WATCH) Study, a qualitative, arts-based research study on the impact of the HIV non-disclosure law on women living with HIV in Canada. Grounded in an intersectional feminist framework, this thesis presents findings from the narrative and visual data collected from the three Ontario workshops in the WATCH study. This thesis explores how women living with HIV visually and narratively express and describe their experiences of violence in the context of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. The stories and artwork shared by participants demonstrate how the law used to criminalize HIV non-disclosure creates and exacerbates experiences of interpersonal and structural violence and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV. This thesis offers important insights for reconceptualising violence against women living with HIV from a structural lens. This project demonstrates how violence stems from legal institutions that do not respond to the needs of women, and instead, further exacerbate marginalization, violence, and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)