What is the connection between cleaning, memory, and sensory storytelling, and how can it be studied in everyday arts-based research?
What is the connection between cleaning, memory, and sensory storytelling, and how can it be studied in everyday arts-based research?
Prompt:
I’m sweeping the floor, and the motion of the broom creates waves of colorful patterns, dust transforms into floating words, symbols, and visual textures that represent memories or forgotten stories.
Movement: Wiping, sweeping, folding, and arranging follow natural gestures and rhythms.
Pattern & Repetition: Sorting laundry by color, folding clothes symmetrically, or aligning objects on a shelf creates visual harmony.
Sound: The swoosh of a broom, the click of folding fabric, the rhythmic placement of objects.
Cleaning is often viewed as a repetitive necessity rather than an embodied practice of reordering, memory-making, and rhythm. Ritualized cleaning processes serve as expressive, rhythmic, and aesthetic experiences.
How does the repetitive motion of sweeping, dusting, and scrubbing function as a somatic and rhythmic practice in expressive arts therapy?
What is the connection between cleaning, memory, and sensory storytelling, and how can it be studied in everyday arts-based research?