“Whereas in Standard Arabic, nashat means liveliness, energy and activity, in Moroccan Arabic it has acquired a multitude of different meanings, all of which refer to an uncannily ambiguous semantic core. In fact, nashat has become a notion belonging to a social discourse whereby the community comments the different behaviors, actions and attitudes of its members. However, nashat refers to different forms of behavior that are not readily observable to the naked eye of the objective social scientist. For example, it may denote a psychological state of mind, like having fun or enjoying oneself. As such, it refers to a temporary state of being that is not necessarily recurrent.”

“In fact, what happens is that the body moves and writhes to the sound of music in such a way that it would not be misplaced to say that nashat is a form of music of a body in a pseudo-state of trance.”

“The ambivalence of nashat shows how a supposedly conservative society not only domesticates the profane but allows for ways to celebrate it within confined space and according to strict rules. As used and appropriated by women dancers for their own sake as well (in addition to catering to the male’s desire), nashat becomes a way for women to express a burgeoning consciousness of their body beyond the commodification entailed by the role of courtesans that the traditional entertainment industry confines them to. As such, nashat is a key social concept that, if studied in connection with others of the same constellation, would shed light on the dynamic and dialectical nature of Moroccan culture in its relation to social change.”

“There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.

For the erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing.

The erotic functions for me in several ways, and the first is in providing the power which comes from sharing deeply any pursuit with another person. The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.

Another important way in which the erotic connection functions is the open and fearless underlining of my capacity for joy. In the way my body stretches to music and opens into response, hearkening to its deepest rhythms, so every level upon which I sense also opens to the erotically satisfying experience, whether it is dancing, building a bookcase, writing a poem, examining an idea. That self-connection shared is a measure of the joy which I know myself to be capable of feeling, a reminder of my capacity for feeling.”

“Fascia is our bodily connective tissue, which extends from the outer epidermis through all skin layers into the depths of our bodies. Fascia tissues envelope muscles, organs, bones, and nerves, thereby forming ‘a continuous tensional network throughout the human body’. This extensive interconnectedness results in a fascinating three-dimensional network, a living matrix, which forms a bodily support structure, an internal ‘soft skeleton’. At the same time, it transmits information inside the body as a communicative continuum. (…) Together with the nervous system, fascias form a body-wide mechanosensitive integrating signalling system. Most importantly, the fascia tissue-system is an amazing viscoelastic continuum with both/and qualities. Viscoelasticity means fascia is both viscous, so resistant to deformation, and elastic, so able to adapt and resume its shapes after stretched or compressed. Both/and means fascia combines qualities commonly perceived as opposites, as it is, for example, both liquid and solid, made of fibre and fluid.

Fascias are intelligent-adaptive and respond to the way a person lives and moves by becoming more or less permeable or solid. (…) In specialist terminology, fascias are relevant to interoception, the sensorial relationship people have with their own body, and proprioception, meaning how a person senses where their body is in space.”

“The term technogenesis describes the understanding that humans evolved with their technologies. Said another way, our original technologies, techme in Greek, are our senses, our sensorial capacities. Types and practices of sensory perception are socio-culturally distinct and cannot be understood or defined universally. For example, the five senses model (touch, taste, smell, sound, sight) dominant in Europe, Northern America and other parts of the world, is not universal. Most cultures have more than five senses, and cultures can have up to 29 senses, including for example the above-mentioned proprioception and interoception, or a distinct sixth ‘sense of balance’.

It has been suggested to theorize fascia as a social network metaphor, but the viscoelastic qualities of bodily connective tissues, which are always moving-adapting and never the same, precisely deny being turned into a model or metaphor. As I suggest, both with regard to scientific research methodologies and fluid ontologies, and with regard to lived life, the fascial qualities of shifting-sliding  and tensional responsiveness can become a deep, quotidian, processual inspiration, especially when asking what if and what else.”