BREATHING COMMONS: AFFECTIVE AND SOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN SELF AND OTHERS

This paper reports on our ongoing research
focusing on cultivating and exploring the topic of
what we refer to as breathing commons. We
approach breathing as an affective and somatic
bodily function that ties the individual with the
collective, and through that aim to foster affective
commoning among bodies. We present two
workshops, one physical and one online, that we
have ran amongst our research group on breathing
commons. Three themes emerged from the
analysis of the workshop activities: a) The body as
a membrane, b) feelings of intimacy, vulnerability
and awkwardness, and c) mutual engagement and
care. These show a path towards engaging with
breathing, and potentially with other bodily
functions and biodata, aiming to open up the
design space of doing affective commoning
through bodily functions that act as a connection between bodies – both human and non-human.