Paul once said, “the outcomes are more important than the journey,” so I decided to explore the journey of movement, particularly movement of the human body. This was largely inspired by the Suzuki Movement Method, which was introduced to me by a stranger in a coffee shop. He was in the midst of play writing when he asked me to think of a synonym for power, which was a great coincidence, since I too was thinking about “might” as in power. Although we didn’t nail the perfect synonym, the stranger did introduce me to the practice of Suzuki, an acting method comprised of numerous exercises and strategic body movements. This pushed me to explore what body movements symbolize power.
With this being my third experiment, and having already explored the doubt and power behind “might” in separate experiments, I knew that I wanted to explore both meanings in one space. To achieve this, I needed to incorporate doubt into my newfound mighty movements and power poses.
Triggered by the physical string from my second experiment, I decided to try my hand at animating digital strings. I drew many frames of adjusted strings, all of which were pulled by a single hand, to act as the invisible doubt that lingers within us all. This “doubt” adjusts the body movement that I captured in many frames that were compiled into gifs, shown below.
The first gif depicts a foot, raised curiously in the air, being pulled down to a fierce, flexed stomping position.
The second gif depicts an arm folded out in its relaxed state, which is pulled in to a flexed position by an animated pulley system.
The third gif depicts a lower arm raised in its relaxed state, almost as if it’s asking a question, only to be pulled into a raised fist as a symbol of power and confidence.
Collectively, these gifs show the ceaseless, and often unseen or overlooked, battle between doubt and power that lives within might.