Equal and Opposite Reaction.

"Mass."

Though most of our human interaction occurs at emotional grade, there are moments where we react to a person’s physical being. We may find ourselves more at ease when in the company of someone we find comforting, or for no reason at all become suddenly repelled on an anatomical level. The modes of inter-personal physical relationships are fascinating, and these reactions—those that occur on a strictly tangible level—are why Tuan refers to people as “bodies” in chapter 4 of “Space and Place,” entitled “Body, Personal Relations, and Spatial Values.”

He writes, “The word ‘body’ immediately calls to mind an object rather than an animated and animating being” (34) but for me, the word “body” conjures up images of atoms, floating in space and bouncing off of each other, slowing up and speeding down with changing conditions. Our physical behavior sometimes mimics that of molecules, functioning at the most basic, biological level, governed by our ingrained bodily instincts. We fight over space and share in, when so inclined.

"Torque."

Tuan states that our two modes of physical being are the position we take, and the distance at which we place ourselves from others. As soon as he added the element of axes to his argument, I was reminded of a dance piece I participated in through my dance company. The overall theme of the concert was Transformation, and this one piece, as a subset of that theme, was about physics. The choreographer explored how objects transform through the lens of science, and articulated these changes through movement. The piece was split into five sections, and each focused a different element of physics: velocity, torque, mass, area, and acceleration.

The dancers articulated equal and opposite reactions, combining direction with speed and moving along axes. We behaved as molecules would under varying sets of circumstances. But we also operated independently of each other, operating under the influence of inertia, on a certain trajectory: “Every person is at the center of his world, and circumambient space is differentiated in accordance with the schema of his body” (41). I have included some pictures from the piece for visual correspondance.

"Area."
"Velocity."
"Acceleration."