Address 

“Soon, we will weave the space as we speak. 

Together, we breath these words,  

Inhaling and holding them, 

If only for a second, 

Before we have to exhale again. 

We do not determine the space 

That surrounds us,  

Between us, 

That passes as shared air, 

If only for a moment. 

We breathe, 

We move,  

We feel. 

We share air.” 

I invite you to receive this text in the moment it arrives to you, carrying it into the upcoming Embodied Workshop or Listening & Reading Group. These sessions are spaces for collective exploration, where breath, movement, and text intersect - where we listen, move, and read aloud, navigating the affective terrains of my practice-based research. 

This workshop stems from a moment of ‘revelation’ - the rediscovery of a letter written by my Irish aunt. A letter always anticipated, never fully delivered. A letter that has been continuously rewritten in my research and practice. It has lingered in the margins weaving itself in and out, resisting closure.  

Together, in the upcoming embodied workshop, which I term embodied circular readings, we gather at the site of the letter – a space of return, repetition, and transformation. Through collective breath and shared air, we move through the themes the letter evokes, exploring what emerges when we: 

·       Read aloud 

·       Breathe together 

·       Move through the resonances of text, body, and film 

Filmic breath will weave through these sessions, appearing at intervals – projected onto shifting surfaces, layered with our movement, echoing and disrupting linear time. Bodily and filmic breath will collide, reorientating us through the moment we find ourselves together.  

Embodied Workshops 

Our time together will be shaped by collective navigation – an exploration of how shame manifests as an embodied affect, particularly within the mother-daughter relation. We will attend to forced habitual Irish Catholic knowledges, the relational, psychic and political states of unsettledness that reverberate within what I term the Irish Catholic maternal.  

We will traverse named affective terrains that include: 

·       Irish Catholic maternal shame 

·       Institutional abuses by the church and Irish state  

·       Abortion rights 

·       Dementia and intergenerational care 

·       Transgenerational trauma and shame  

·       Irish diaspora experiences in London  

·       Water 

·       Breathing 

Each of these terrains is deeply layered and emotionally resonant. I will guide us carefully, offering signposts as we move through. We will work with conscious connected breathwork, a practice that foregrounds breath as a tool for awareness, release, and connection. By attending to breath in this way, we open pathways of relation – both to our bodies and to collective rhythms. This will foster a sense of connection and grounding to hold space for these challenging topics.  

We reorientate through repetitive performances: 

Reading aloud in the air. 

Listening with our bodies 

Attending to the rhythm of our breath  

And yet, we will also disorientate: 

At the site of the letter of my Irish aunt. 

At the moments of visitation of the priest. 

We will move in circular rhythms, mirroring the structure of the rosary, reorientating with each iteration, breathing together in shared air - alongside my filmic bodies that hold and echo these gestures. 

The act of iterations – disorientating, orientating, reorienting – reconfiguring, and breathing anew – offers a method of both attunement and undoing. These collective acts allow us to inhabit, disrupt, and reimagine the maternal relation as a space of potential and becoming. The maternal relation is not fixed but transformative.  

This will be a brave space, where we engage in courageous conversations – confronting biases, and challenging perspectives constructively. The space will acknowledge that discomfort and growth often go hand in hand. 1 You are invited to engage in ways that feel comfortable to you. You may come and go as you need. When we delve into deeply affective terrains, I will offer signposts by saying: 

“Come and go as you need to. We will traverse affective terrains.” 

Listening and Reading Groups 

In these sessions, we will engage with an array of Irish Literature and Luce Irigaray’s concept of “shared air” which attend to the topics of my practice-based research.  

We will: 

Collectively read aloud 

Listen to the interplay between our individual and collective voices, 

The textual bodies 

And the resonances of filmic breath. 

We will listen to our voices in our shared air 

This is our shared space, you are invited you to bring your own texts – those that speak to transgenerational memory, maternal relationships and breathe. Together, we will approach these materials with care and mutual respect, cultivating an atmosphere of openness. Please know that any material containing harm – whether racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise violent – has no place here and will not be permitted.  

The sessions are guided by practices of breath awareness, inspired by conscious connected breathwork, to create a foundation for listening and dialogue. By becoming aware of our breath and how the texts themselves breath, we invite a deeper sense of context to the affective terrains that we will engage with. 

Mirroring practices in the embodied workshops, to explore these themes, signposts will be offered when we approach deeply affective terrains, such as dementia, shame, transgenerational trauma, abortion rights, and the conditions of being Irish Catholic in London. At these moments, I will say, “Come and go as you need to. We will traverse affective terrains.” 

All embodied workshops and listening and reading groups are spaces where you are free to step away, to pause and to return as you need, without explanation. This is your space to contribute, to reflect, or simply to be, as we navigate the known and unknown together. 

Accessibility 

These spaces are designed to be open and inclusive for participants of all abilities. Chairs will be available for rest and, seated engagement. Participants are encouraged to bring personal items, such as cushions to enhance comfort. In institutional settings, I will rearrange the space – moving the majority of chairs to the periphery and clearing desks to create an open environment that allows for movement. In outdoor spaces, I will ensure the environment is as accessible as possible, with clear communication about potential hazards. 

Exit points will always be identified and clearly communicated at the start of each session, ensuring participants know they can leave and return as needed. I strive to create an environment where everyone feels welcome, included and able to engage in ways that feel right for you. 

Duration and Place of the Workshops

The length and location of the workshops will be clearly shared in the emails, and call-outs on social media and my website, www.mtcdigitalcreative.co.uk. Typically, these sessions last between one and three hours, reflecting the durational nature of the practice. This time frame allows us to move at a pace as needed by participants, providing space for collective engagement, reflection and individual needs as they arise.  

Reflection

These are shared moments, I hope we can seek a collective reorientation – a new understanding of the mother and daughter relation, where breath, movement and shared air become pathways for transformation. 

By bringing embodied practice into public and institutional spaces, this work challenges tradition boundaries between theory, artistic practice and, lived experience, foregrounding how breath, affect, and memory function as archives of resilience and change. Through iterative engagement with film, text, and movement, we explore how the maternal relation – often shaped by silence, shame, and historical erasure – can be reimagined as a generative site of becoming.

In bridging practice, theory, and public engagement, these encounters invite us to move beyond personal reflection into shared, transnational dialogues, expanding how we think about cultural memory, migration, and transnational feminist storytelling.  

Consent 

These sessions form an integral part of my practice-based PhD research, exploring the interplay of embodied methodologies and affective terrains within the context of Irish Catholic maternal shame, trauma and institutional abuses. The process is detailed in the consent form, which outlines the aims of the research, the nature of participation, and the ethical approach that underpins these sessions. I kindly ask all participants to read the consent form thoroughly and return it to me, signed, prior to engaging in the embodied workshops, or listening and reading groups. This ensures we enter these shared spaces with mutual understanding and respect the collaborative and exploratory nature of this research.