Phenomenological description
The phenomenological method, is best described through The rule of Epoche, a rule that ‘urges us to set aside our initial biases and prejudices of things, to suspend our expectations and assumptions, in short, to bracket all such temporarily and as far as is possible so that we can focus on the primary and immediate data of our experience’ [Spinelli, 2005, pp. 20].
This process requires a complex rewiring of the brain. The essence of the rule is; 'describe it, don’t explain it.' Realistically, no description is altogether free of explanatory components.' [Spinelli, 2005, pp. 20]. However it is within the dimensions of the conscious effort to describe the immediate experience/object/artistic mode that allows for the ‘interpretive’ mind to fall quiet, released of its ‘need’ to interpret and narrate some of the stories that we ‘know,’ and rather be guided into the ‘lesser known.’ This is prompted by the ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions that stimulate the mind into accessing differing points of focus that attempt to describe that which is physically there.
This process is wildly clunky, because I am so quick to jump to interpret and assume understanding. This is perhaps best described in reflection of one of the earliest procedures of description with my companion. Prior to working relationally with my companion, we individually had been given the opportunity to take some words of resonance from a letter we had written to our shoe. We were then asked to describe that using one of the modalities. I selected following sentence and chose to collage in response.
‘And in a sense, you unfortunately have represented a myriad of things that perplex me about broken connections - to this land, to our history, to ancestors, to self, to woman’ [Kowitz, Feb 13, 2017].
From here I created the following collage presented below.
The process of collaging saw a dance between the attraction of materials that gave a strong resonance; to colours, images, shapes, negative spaces - mixed with specific dialogue that entered and swelled in my mind. This meant that, when asked to engage with my companion in a process of phenomenological description, I felt somewhat prepared in my ‘known’ responses. However, prompted by the set of questions guided by our mentors; Jan & Dolly, I quickly found myself speaking directly from the piece in front of me, describing different points of focus as drawn to by companion and noticing them in, I guess, it’s concrete formation as opposed to its interpretive qualities. This guided my description and took me on a journey across landscapes known but in a far less capacity.
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This process itself has other qualities that aid the framework of phenomenological questioning; it is how you sit in relation to your partner, the way that you respond to your partner [being careful not to assume or place your own interpretation of the content], to notice the response [both cognitively, emotionally and physically] of your companion, to understand and navigate the pace, to draw focus or place attention to further guide your companion on this phenomenological description, to capture [potentially] words or phrases that are of resonance. This procedure supports and intertwines a ‘therapeutic relationship’ that comes somewhere closer to a co-presence.
