Abstract

How can we generate a critical pedagogy that emphasises critical consciousness of the body?

A pedagogy that extends and goes beyond current discussions of the useful but somewhat generic term ‘multisensory learning’?

Disembodied Poetics is an interactive performance workshop by Lee Campbell and Colin B Osborn that blends spoken word, visual art, and audience participation to explore the body as a fragmented, collective site of meaning. Inspired by the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse, poets perform works on body themes while audiences draw, fold, and assemble collaborative anatomical images. Framed as a playful mock anatomical lecture, the session crosses language and cultural boundaries through embodied, participatory making. Participants respond through writing, movement, or performance, generating an evolving collective artwork and potential zine outcome. The project foregrounds queer, inclusive, experimental pedagogies of embodiment.

Session and activities

Disembodied Poetics is a participatory performance workshop by Lee Campbell and Colin B Osborn combining spoken word poetry, drawing, and audience participation to explore the body as a fragmented, collective, queer, and inclusive site of meaning-making. Framed as a mock anatomical lecture, the event uses humour, intimacy, and experimentation to cross language and cultural boundaries through embodied creative practice.

Lee and Colin will perform work engaging with the body in broad and open ways: literal anatomy, marginalised bodies, bodily expectations, identity, and the body as text or inscription. Performances are structured in relation to an unfolding collaborative drawing process inspired by the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse, allowing the event to move conceptually from head to feet as different “body parts” are activated through poetry and image.

The visual component is built through a collective drawing game in which participants—both audience and artists—contribute fragments of a body. This may be done through folded paper, where each contribution is concealed and passed along, or through separate sheets that are later assembled into a final composite figure. Audience members are provided with pens and paper and become active co-creators of the evolving anatomical image.

The relationship between poetry and drawing is intentionally interwoven, with performances taking place before or after each drawing stage to create a rhythm between spoken and visual production. The process foregrounds embodiment, gesture, and participation as central to meaning-making.

Participants are then invited to respond to the final composite image through writing, movement, or performance, extending the work beyond the initial event into further creative exploration. A second phase may transform collected materials into a collaborative zine.

The project also functions as an experimental pedagogical model, embedding learning through doing, collaboration, and embodied practice. It has been developed for London testing contexts with future adaptation for queer, participatory performance settings such as Hamburg Pride events and intimate interdisciplinary venues.