Increasing Your Physical Intelligence, Enhancing Your Social Smarts

Calendar and Activities

Below is a week-by-week list of the topics we will cover, with related exercises, activities and projects. Typically, we will devote one week to each topic, carrying forward information from the previous week where such topics overlap. Please note: the order of these topics may change to accommodate the overall learning style, skill level and pace of a particular class.

Week #	TOPICS	ACTIVITIES
1	Introduction	Introduction and orientation to the facility and curriculum, including an overview of key concepts, the class structure, attendance and participation requirements.
2	Strength and Flexibility	“Strength” can be defined as the “capacity to use your muscles to lift, push, pull or do work” and / or “the emotional and mental qualities necessary to handle difficult events or situations.” Similarly, “flexibility” can be defined as being “capable of bending easily without breaking” and / or “the ability to respond or adapt to different circumstances.” What we call strength and flexibility, then, mean more to our experience than the condition of our muscles. More, strength and flexibility can be trained as such. Week 2 will be devoted to the principles and techniques involved on a key range of calisthenics that will comprise the “warm-up” and “cool-down” exercises of the class. This collection of simple, whole-body, gravity-based (no weights or machines) exercises will also provide the basis for the physical training students will do outside of class.
3	Proprioception	Proprioception is our inner “read” on the relative position of each of our limbs. In this section we will experientially learn how proprioception functions and by walking, running and leaping while blindfolded. By exploring ways to notate our experience (e.g., mark making and drawing to denote sensations, perceptions, rhythms, patterns experienced), we’ll work to hone this critical but often undervalued “sense” as we tune into the wealth of information that “turning off the eyes” affords.
4	Kinesthetic Awareness	Related to proprioception is what we term “kinesthetic awareness”. Kinesthetic awareness involves how we sense the position and / or orientation of our body in space while in motion. Week 4 we will delve into kinesthetic awareness via investigations on the trampoline. Different from just learning basic trampoline skills, our use of the unusual movement experiences this apparatus affords will focus on a step-by-step process of becoming more kinesthetically adept and aware as we work to grow the overall “dexterity” of the body.
5	Gravitation	Week 5 is about exploring, understanding and training our three interrelated balance systems. To do this, we will investigate how gravity influences everything from our morphology to our movement patterns as we explore a range of exercises that challenge as they improve our capacity to maintain our balance. At the end of the week we will use high-speed video to capture the elaborate compensatory dance we do (an innate response) when we loose and work to regain our balance.
6	The Art of Falling	Week 6 concerns an exploration of human locomotion. We begin with an evolutionary perspective on the movement strategies of microorganisms and how they underlie the complex biomechanics of bipedal locomotion (actually a controlled fall). Using a range of activities designed to deconstruct our everyday experience of locomotion (e.g., body-mounted light emitting diodes to reveal the underlying patterns of walking and running), we will ultimately gain a working appreciation for how and why we’re so much more adept than a humanoid robot.
7	Perception: Space and Time	This section involves an experiential introduction to how perception—sight and hearing in particular—guides movement, and, how movement underlies perception. Our work will involve a series of activity-based explorations to reveal the ever-changing spatial and temporal “maps” by which we maintain a keen sense of both ourselves and the world around us. By creating field-of-view and soundscape maps, and experimenting with alterations of our perceptual experience, we will explore the participatory nature of perception and how the nature of our bodily experience so greatly affects our sensory experience.
8	Urban Gymnastics	“Urban Gymnastics” is a play on the practice of “Parkour” or “Free Running”, which is a physical discipline that involves running, climbing and leaping any obstacle in your path (you’ve probably seen video clips). More than thrill seeking, Parkour represents an excellent display of the innate animal athleticism we possess. Week 8 we will study and train the most basic elements of Parkour (e.g., the beginning steps involved in vaulting over an obstacle or how to roll out of a landing, etc.) for a greater appreciation how physically adept the human organism is, as well as how some simple exercises can help us to access an innate athleticism.
9	E-motion	There’s a reason we find the word “motion” in “emotion”. Emotions are our gut-level, body-based response to our immediate environment, i.e., inner stirrings or the sparks that fly as our organism meets with the world. Yet, we’re often unaware of the subtle messages emotions impart. Week 9 we will explore a series of physical activities designed to stir emotion (e.g., standing on one leg atop a 10’ high platform) that we might become more aware of the insights and wealth of information this ever-changing inner milieu has to offer.
10	Social Being	Week 10 involves an exploration of the role of the body in social development and intelligence. Via a series of physical explorations designed to open and exercise your capacity to sense and “know” another person (e.g., two people moving as a single organism, mirror movement exercises, etc.), our work will be to explore and exercise the physical foundations of social interaction. Our goal is to develop a better working understanding of the physical, bodily nature of social exchange that so profoundly affects everything from our collaborations and the presentations we may give, to the full range of our personal and professional relationships.
11	Technology and the Body	The body is our first tool; our eyes and hands reach into the world, our legs transport us. More, the tools we fashion are extensions of the body borne of its interactions with the physical world; a hand becomes a hammer, bipedal action becomes a bike. Week 11 we will explore the inherent relationship between technology and the body by using a collection of simple materials to devise and build bodily extensions designed to augment everyday activities. Putting these to use will allow us to better understand and appreciate the inherent and ever-evolving link between the body / our physicality and technological development.
12	Technology and the Body Field Trip	A visit to MIT labs, groups, researchers working on body-related research, engineering and design.
13	The Whole Story	Week 13 will be devoted to an overview of our class experience (insights gained, obstacles overcome, progress made) as we’ll watch edited versions of the video journals students have compiled over the course of the semester (students may opt out of showing their compilation). We will talk about our class experience, share our thoughts and ideas on the curriculum, as well as discuss its relevance to the MIT experience and life in general.
14	The Future	Open gym session: overview and individualized instruction on the “Physical Intelligence / Social Smarts Training Manual” handout to help you continue the body-related journey the class has begun.