Our physical world versus the online landscape
Daniel not only investigates the physical world, but also our online landscape. “There’s a lot of freedom digitally, which brings both opportunities and challenges,” he says. “Unconstrained by physical limitations, online you can take on any form that reflects your identity. For some people, that can be very liberating. While others show their darker side online. How does that work in the physical world? How do you experience the world around you and your relationships with other people, when your physical appearance doesn’t match up with the expectations of others? Or vice versa: if your ideal image of the world doesn’t match your reality? The digital and the physical body each require their own approach.”
Living and learning with the body
Wherever Daniel is, something unique happens. His genuine appearance and questions confront people with themselves and with each other. He deliberately goes in search of the many people at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam who are involved in inclusion, diversity, equality and discrimination. “There’s a lot going on at VU Amsterdam, but not all of it is connected,” he notes. To create a more cohesive community between different roles, physical work locations, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and language (often perceived as limitations), he uses the body as a resource. Daniel shows us that the body is as capable of communicating experiences as are the stories that come to us through texts, images and sounds. After all, you don't live and learn only with your head. Your body and senses are part of it, too. You feel exam stress in your body, in the same way as when you walk in the rain from one building to another. The smell of the dishes in the canteen can bring back old memories. And what effect does it have on you and your interpersonal relationships if you only have meetings or lectures online? Your body is a wise counsellor, once you listen to it.
Corpoliteracy for connection and solidarity
Daniel wants to give the different groups at VU Amsterdam a clearer identity, and to encourage us to look critically at ourselves, work together and improve. “Corpoliteracy helps to bring people together from a place of diversity and to create solidarity between them,” says Daniel. ‘In the context of the university, we can see the body as an additional channel for information. By paying more attention to reading the body, we can uncover previously unseen and under-appreciated aspects of academic research and teaching. In a corporate setting, we’re often uncomfortable with the body. If we can get past that, inclusion reaches a whole new level. It’s about mutual respect, acceptance and the feeling of belonging, and experiencing that to the fullest. Exchanging only information does not create a connection. That takes real human contact. I invite people at VU Amsterdam to rethink their relationships on and with the campus, in order to create more meaningful connections. In Campus Online, we’ve created a special Connecting the Campus space. I hope to meet you there and work on this together.
