Descending Matters:
                      I Breathe, Therefore I Am 

Ever since René Descartes concluded ‘Je pense, donc je suis’ (I think, therefore I am) we cultivated this idea that our head represents the greatest source of knowledge the body carries within.

Today, we can still trace back this prominence of brain and thought within our society, considering online trends such as ‘master your mind’ courses, positive thinking guides and YouTube tutorials about changing your neuroplasticity through affirmations. Don’t get me wrong, I as well consume this online infrastructure, yet, I sometimes find dissonance within this idea of optimizing our thoughts, neuroplasticity, vibrations and intellect, and leaving the rest of our body negligible.

The first experience which acquainted me with the knowledge embedded within the body, was during my first yoga class seven years ago. At that time, I was dealing with an eating disorder which often caused stress in my mind and body. When I heard about yoga, I decided that I wanted to gain insight about my eating disorder on a bodily level, and, although this wasn’t the most obvious sixteen-year-old work out, I applied for my first yin yoga class. Yin yoga offered me the chance to connect with my body in a different, intelligent way.

During my anorexia, I was obsessed with my belly, every mirror or reflection I crossed, made me hold my stomach in, trying to look as flat as possible. During the yoga practice I learned that my belly would expand through an inhale. I started to understand what a belly genuinely looks like, in expansion, while bloated, when strained; a belly isn’t meant to be flat, it just takes an organic shape, which in many cases is bulbous, or curved. Yet, the moment I got outside of the yoga studio, I felt great dissonance in the way the belly was depicted on Instagram, in advertisements, the ideal my girlfriends were trying to look like; a flat, cut and firm image of the belly.

As I got older, and my weight increased again, I suffered regularly from belly aches. But whenever I was in school, I didn’t dare to unzip my trousers, no matter how bloated I felt, because I didn’t want people to see my bulbous belly. I would long back to the yoga studio, where the belly wasn’t understood as a symbol of control and status, but as a pouch, filled with blood, muscles and organs, with feelings and emotions. Where the body was explained as a space inhabited by our spirit, our breath. A space one needs to explore, one needs to revel in, where we were taught to endure emotions, where I was taught to deal with my anxiety, without getting anxious about it. I would crave these lessons all the time.

Therefore, I decided to research the belly, the knowledge it carries within and the consequences of the taboo which exists around the bulbous shape. I desire to design a gateway for people to liberate their belly, to get in touch with it again. I will explore the possibilities within my design practice, perhaps by the use of textile, poetry or film this gateway can be created.

I’m looking forward to this process of liberation; liberating the belly through rethinking this hierarchy organized within society and its limitations. In this paper I will only, within the limitations of time and space, research a small field of belly richness. Therefore, it’s important to inform you as a reader about the existence of my ambition to continue with the belly as my main subject after this graduation project comes to an end. Regarding all the possible perspectives around the belly, I consider this project as a very delicate and beautiful opening to a greater whole. One might describe either my research paper and my eventual practice project as a trailer and as a call for awareness; belly awareness in continuous expansion.

Faye van de Vorst
02-01-2022

Descending Matters:
                      I Breathe, Therefore I Am 

Ever since René Descartes concluded ‘Je pense, donc je suis’ (I think, therefore I am) we cultivated this idea that our head represents the greatest source of knowledge the body carries within.

Today, we can still trace back this prominence of brain and thought within our society, considering online trends such as ‘master your mind’ courses, positive thinking guides and YouTube tutorials about changing your neuroplasticity through affirmations. Don’t get me wrong, I as well consume this online infrastructure, yet, I sometimes find dissonance within this idea of optimizing our thoughts, neuroplasticity, vibrations and intellect, and leaving the rest of our body negligible.

The first experience which acquainted me with the knowledge embedded within the body, was during my first yoga class seven years ago. At that time, I was dealing with an eating disorder which often caused stress in my mind and body. When I heard about yoga, I decided that I wanted to gain insight about my eating disorder on a bodily level, and, although this wasn’t the most obvious sixteen-year-old work out, I applied for my first yin yoga class. Yin yoga offered me the chance to connect with my body in a different, intelligent way.

During my anorexia, I was obsessed with my belly, every mirror or reflection I crossed, made me hold my stomach in, trying to look as flat as possible. During the yoga practice I learned that my belly would expand through an inhale. I started to understand what a belly genuinely looks like, in expansion, while bloated, when strained; a belly isn’t meant to be flat, it just takes an organic shape, which in many cases is bulbous, or curved. Yet, the moment I got outside of the yoga studio, I felt great dissonance in the way the belly was depicted on Instagram, in advertisements, the ideal my girlfriends were trying to look like; a flat, cut and firm image of the belly.

As I got older, and my weight increased again, I suffered regularly from belly aches. But whenever I was in school, I didn’t dare to unzip my trousers, no matter how bloated I felt, because I didn’t want people to see my bulbous belly. I would long back to the yoga studio, where the belly wasn’t understood as a symbol of control and status, but as a pouch, filled with blood, muscles and organs, with feelings and emotions. Where the body was explained as a space inhabited by our spirit, our breath. A space one needs to explore, one needs to revel in, where we were taught to endure emotions, where I was taught to deal with my anxiety, without getting anxious about it. I would crave these lessons all the time.

Therefore, I decided to research the belly, the knowledge it carries within and the consequences of the taboo which exists around the bulbous shape. I desire to design a gateway for people to liberate their belly, to get in touch with it again. I will explore the possibilities within my design practice, perhaps by the use of textile, poetry or film this gateway can be created.

I’m looking forward to this process of liberation; liberating the belly through rethinking this hierarchy organized within society and its limitations. In this paper I will only, within the limitations of time and space, research a small field of belly richness. Therefore, it’s important to inform you as a reader about the existence of my ambition to continue with the belly as my main subject after this graduation project comes to an end. Regarding all the possible perspectives around the belly, I consider this project as a very delicate and beautiful opening to a greater whole. One might describe either my research paper and my eventual practice project as a trailer and as a call for awareness; belly awareness in continuous expansion.

Faye van de Vorst
02-01-2022