Here is some of what I’ve come to know about attuning + attending to the unfolding processes of emergent collaborative inquiry with another; how I’ve come to know this; + what of these knowings I hope to integrate into my companioning practice going forward.
Fellow MIECAT co-inquirer/companions, LPP + CDK, consented to sharing any “...fragments of ongoing experience…” (Marks-Tarlow, 2012, p. 16) from our resonant collaborative unfoldings.
A PROLIFERATION OF PRESENCES
It’s Day 1 of “Attending to Process” + for weeks I’ve been “preparing for presence” (Schaller, 2020, p.54).
Reading/watching/listening/responding/feeling(into/moved-by) relevant resources.
But despite the buoyant “coming-(back)-togetherness” bubbling with(in)/on/through the group of co(companions/inquirers/creators), I’ve arrived feeling frayed + discombobulated via external stressors.
I’m feeling an undertow of detachment.
I’m holding a “pretence of presence” (Schaller, 2020, p.56).
So, when invited to express how we’d like to be-together throughout this unit, I seek refuge on the periphery near the art-supplies, the relative quietness of the materials offering pause.
Shifting focus towards my breath, I recall a deeply resonant mantra.
“Awareness is like coming home to our body- our first home
”Breathing in, I arrive in my body.
Breathing out, I am home.””
(Hanh as seen in Swan, 2024, p. 42).
ARRIVING WITH(IN)/ON/THROUGH OUR MATERIAL BODY/IES
Feeling calmer in my body-home but still sensing detachment from the space, I notice tubs of entangled wool I’ve engaged with previously.
Notions of entanglement have stirred much over my time at MIECAT.
The wool offers a further bundle of itself to help attend to further (not-yet)knowings/yearnings/processes.
Wire-trays holding a motley-crew of items/figures/textures inter(weaving/twining) at divergent angles beckon.
A "proliferation of presences” (Schaller, 2020, p.56).
I feel consonance, reaching into these “baskets-of-multiplicity”, drawing out handfuls of ambiguity.
Remembering the last unit + how I no longer consent to be a single-being.
I spot a mortar + pestle, the word “mashup” springs to mind.
I collect some paintbrushes + a paint palette with enduring residual past projects volunteering towards further awareness/understanding.
I feel consonance towards the multi-faceted, nuanced complexity + current of potential that might unfold with(in)/on/through this multitude-of-voices.
My attention then shifts towards the generosity of a collective-making/unfolding between other group members.
I’m reminded of Siegel’s (2016) Me + We = MWe + his offering that we’re “…“being a part of a larger whole, a part of something bigger than the body in which we reside” (Siegel as seen in Swan, 2024, p.35).
I loosen + yield wholeheartedly towards the “coming-(back)-togetherness” being offered in the space, the multitude of voices with(in)on/through, the potentiality of all our presence(s) + the emergent knowing of how I’d like to “be-with” the group.
Aware of my breath once again, I revisit a phrase I’d formed in response to Hanh’s mantra:
“Breathing in, MWe arrive with(in)/on/through our material body/ies.
Breathing out, MWe are home.”
Then mash the heterogeneous collection into some-sort-of-coherence + chalk up keywords.
(Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5)
Figure 1.1: Emma Byrnes, Entangled Assemblage, 2025, Still image of multimodal expresssion.
Figure 1.2: Emma Byrnes, Multi-faceted Mashup, 2025, Still image of multimodal expresssion.
Figure 1.3: Emma Byrnes, Palette of Being, 2025, Still image of multimodal expresssion.
Figure 1.4: Emma Byrnes, How MWe’d Like To Be Together, 2025, Still image of keywords on chalk board.
Figure 1.5: Emma Byrnes, MWe arrivewith(in)/on/through our material body/ies, 2025, Still image of multimodal expression + keywords on chalk board.
THAT BOTH/AND FEELING
I glean the yellow felt ball from our facilitator’s “lucky-dip” pouch.
This dense, textured material will lead-me-towards + entangle-me with two other yellow-ball-holders to form our unique, dynamic-trio-assemblage.
There’s a “both/and” feeling of restless exhilaration towards the uncertainty.
I notice that squeezing + rolling it in my hands offers rhythmic + energetic re-calibration.
A “slowing-down-of-things.
Allowing me to seek my co(companions/inquirers/creators) with a more-calmly-excited presence. (Figure 2.1)
Figure 2.1: Emma Byrnes, Re-calibration Through Rhythmic Density, 2025, Moving image on a loop.
OUR “YELLOW-HELLO” ASSEMBLAGE
The ball leads me towards LPP, CDK + our material relationship.
Despite having spent last unit in a wider intersubjective field, we’ve never (co)-inquired/companioned/witnessed together.
After exchanging “yellow-hello's" we acknowledge shared curiosity towards the invitation of “getting-to-know-ness” by creating a local, emergent ecology of intersubjectivity + process-informed, embodied know(ing/ledge) together.
We scatter seeds/threads into the field by sharing our learning edges as companions + what supports us to stay-present/self-regulate with(in)/on/through inquiry.
Over the coming three days we’ll each inhabit a different role from different perspectives - as companion/inquirer/witness, attuning to embodied awareness, felt sensing of the intersubjective space + wonderings about content-in-process.
DAY #1 - FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COMPANION
HOW EMBODIED AWARENESS INFORMS CHOICES MADE IN COMPANIONING ANOTHER
INQUIRER: CDK
WITNESS: LPP
NOT MUCH IS YET KNOWN
My first role is companioning CDK’s inquiry, with LLP as witness.
There’s a loose familiarity, however not much specific detail is known of each other.
I feel consonance towards this unknown, cautiously curious to what will emerge/unfold.
From our earlier trio-seed/thread-scattering, I’ve gleaned some key(words/phrases) that I keep close as we begin.
CDK wants to veer from clay, her “comfortable-material”, as she “can-get-stuck-there” + “offering-different-materials-is-helpful”.
She’s ”ok-with-the-unexpected”, “open-to-novelty” + “not-needing-answers”.
She can “be-brave” but is also “sensitive-especially-to-loud-noises”.
She gathers her own materials, returning with paper + two trays.
One tray contains sand, a plastic trowel + a sieve.
The other’s filled with assorted items from the “baskets-of-multiplicity”.
I feel consonance towards these material-beings + she later reflects how my “entangled-assemblage” expression (Figures 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4) had influenced her choice of materials + set the tone for how she’d like to “be-with” for her inquiry.
She’s feeling excited + ready to enter a state of ambiguity.
I later journal + reflect on some resonance captured in the process. (Figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7)
Figure 3.1: Emma Byrnes, The materials set the tone, 2025, Still image of multimodal materials.
Figure 3.2: Emma Byrnes, Data of noticings, 2025, Still image of digital collection of photos/ keywords
Figure 3.3: Emma Byrnes, Journal Entry #1, 2025, Still image of CDK’s inquiry with overlay of digital text journal entry.
Figure 3.4: Emma Byrnes, Journal Entry #2, 2025, Still image of CDK’s inquiry with overlay of digital text journal entry.
Figure 3.5: Emma Byrnes, Journal Entry #3, 2025, Still image of CDK’s inquiry with overlay of digital text journal entry.
Figure 3.6: Emma Byrnes, Tap-Tap-Tap, 2025, Moving image on a loop.
Figure 3.7: Emma Byrnes, Ripping + Tearing, 2025, Moving image on a loop.
AURAL MASH-UP
After round one of CDK’s inquiry, we reflect through solo making + then share our expressions.
Gathering around CDK’s expression, our collective attention goes towards silvery foil “scraps” + MWe find ourselves in an aural-mashup, squeezing + rolling these “pieces-of-crinkliness’.
Amplified consonace/dissonance “crackles-through” different parts of our “collective-being” + as we each gauge the aural threshold of this activating material.
I’m noticing as CDK speaks with a smile, she continues to firmly handle the foil.
I think of this morning where she was “sensitive-especially-to-loud-noises” but can also “…be-brave”.
I re-member the ripping/scraping/tapping + the myriad of noise-full/less moments with(in)/on/through our body/ies we’ve just been attending to.
LLP offers that she “finds-that-noise-way-too-much.”
And I acknowledge my delight in testing out the discomfort, recording the sound, enjoying how alive it feels. (Figure 4.1)
Figure 4.1: Emma Byrnes, Amplified Consonance/Dissonance, 2025, Moving image of hand + foil.
SENSORY-ORGANISM
I’d pieced together a motley-crew of parts/materials to speak to my experience of my/our body/ies being-with(in) (for)ever-responsive currents of sens(e)/mak(e)ing during CDK’s inquiry.
I ran out of time + my “resonant-circuit” remained unfinished.
I felt OK for it to remain open-ended because it’s an agential/dynamic force, in a process of (for)ever-becoming. (Figures 5.1, 5.2, 5.3)
When I share my expression, CDK expresses deep resonance towards it.
Together MWe name it "sensory-organism”.
“I feel an ache towards making sense together.” she says
“I feel that too.” I say, understanding that I don’t make sense alone.
Perhaps “our difference (can) create…a current, a difference of potential.” (McHose, 2006, p.38)
CDK then invites MWe to co-inquire.
The potential of CDK’s offering hums with/in/on/through my/our terrain of intuition, bubbling with the accumulation of micro-moments + previous utterances of “not-needing-answers” + being “ok-with-the-unexpected”.
Drawing from deep presence towards this “Bottom-up, raw data as drawn from embodied experience” (Marks-Tarlow, 2012, p. 29), I respond with a whole “sensory-organism” YES!
I suggest a non-verbal co-inquiry, to put the post-kinetic modality of language aside + amplify the resonant overlap of our “sensory-organism(s)”.
CDK is keen + a riskier form of play begins.
Afterwards I reflect on some footage, type up some keywords/phrases + write a poem. (Figures 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9)
Figure 5.1: Emma Byrnes, “Sensory-Organism” #1, 2025, Still image of multimodal expression.
Figure 5.2: Emma Byrnes, “Sensory-Organism” #2, 2025, Still image of multimodal expression.
Figure 5.3: Emma Byrnes, “Sensory-Organism” #3, 2025, Still image of multimodal expression.
Figure 5.4: CDK (co)-inquirer, Looking at each other through the “in-between", 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 5.5: CDK (co)-inquirer, Laughing into the “in-between", 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 5.6: CDK (co)-inquirer, Listening with our skin in the “in-between", 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 5.7: Emma Byrnes, Open-ended-Circuit, 2025, Still image of multimodal expression(s).
Figure 5.8: Emma Byrnes, Entangled Assemblage, 2025, Keywords + images from co-inquiry plus a screen capture of TEAMS chat exchange.
Figure 5.9: Emma Byrnes, Absurd New Ways of Knowing, 2025, Still images of CDK’s footage from co-inquiry with digital overlay of poem response.
DAY #2 - FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WITNESS
HOW REFLEXIVITY SHAPES THE COMPANIONING PROCESS
INQUIRER: LPP
COMPANION: CDK
TEXTURES OF BEING
We begin by gauging “aural-thresholds”
I want to witness-at-a-distance + wear headphones
to “ward-off-wordage”,
gather embodied data
+ broaden awareness of the “space-in-between”
by softening my gaze to “see-into” the unfolding atmosphere of the space
Is that OK?
Thumbs-up from LLP
I want to track with collage as a medium
Using torn paper
Tearing lends an intuitive atmosphere
to rapid-fire-reflexive-collage-making/processing
I’ve come-to-know that sometimes LLP “finds-noise(s)-way-too-much”
I re-member CDK’s slow/quiet/gentle/almost-imperceptible tearing with listening fingers
I say “I’ll tear slow/quiet/gentl(e)-ly to avoid quick/loud sounds”
Is that OK?
Another thumbs-up
Can you gesture at me with a hand signal if I'm too loud?
Another thumbs-up
OPEN ENDED INVITATION
Witnessing is an open-ended invitation:
mapping/noticing/feeling/staying-with
all the
nuances/shifts/rhythms/fluctuations/meanderings/ textures-of-being/flow-ons.
I capture/track the process of circular-dialoguing + acknowledge/examine some of my assumptions/positions + how they’re influencing/shaping my moment-to-moment perceptions/presence. (Figures 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7)
Figure 6.1: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #1, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.2: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #2, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.3: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #3, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.4: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #4, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.5: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #5, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.6: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #6, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.7: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #7, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
Figure 6.8: Emma Byrnes, Witnessing #8, 2025, Still image of mixed media with digital overlay of reflexive process
FEELING FURRY TOWARDS THE WORD UNKNOWN
When I overhear LLP utter the word “unknown” + notice “a million tiny hairs” (Bateson, 2019, 00:47) stand-up on my body. (Figure 6.8)
I simultaneously spot a picture of a hairy spider, tear it out, stick it down + scribble “feeling-furry-towards-the-word-unknown”.
Immediate resonance towards articulation “all-of-that” with(in)/on/through my/our whole material body/ies shivers through.
So what of “all-of-that” will I take forward?
This quote sums it up:
“The only point of importance in any session is the unknown.
Nothing must be allowed to distract from intuiting that.”
(Bion as seen in Marks-Tarlow, 2012, p.11)
When reflecting on what else was (e/a)ffective from my reflexive process, I share with the trio that:
“I just want to witness forever!”
“Same,” CDK + LPP laugh.
In that moment it dawns on me that one of the biggest gifts (M)we can offer to my/our whole body/ies, to ourSelves + (co)companion(s) is when we bear-witness/are-witness(ed).
I also note that:
keeping the field of attention wide/gentle/spacious + tracking process with my/our material body/ies + the “in-between” helps me linger in the assemblage of felt experiences, rather than getting bogged in meaning-making
listening with my fingers through collage-paper tearing + paint-dabbing help me sink into presence
collage/water/brushes/paint(mixing) offer a whole-body, interactive way of expressing + fluid, intuitive, sense-full articulation processes towards Self + witnessing. They also allow for pause, playing an important role for stirring-in what was happening in the “in-between”
attuning to subtle shifts of my/the body/ies in the space allows for nuanced noticings that might otherwise go unnoticed
clocking repetition (eg.tap/tap/tap-dab/dab/dab) allows for regulation of the self/space + attunes me to what I’m questioning/missing/noticing/wanting-more-of
re-membering to breath + ground myself enhances awareness/attention
I create extra responses to reflect the importance of attending to the texture/rhythm-of-the-space, the “in-between” + the material-body when companioning. (Figures 7.1, 7.2, 7.3)
Figure 7.1: Emma Byrnes, Texture Of The Space, 2025, Still image of mixed media expression.
Figure 7.2: Emma Byrnes, Attending to the "in-between”, 2025, Still image of mixed media expression.
Figure 7.3: Emma Byrnes, Material Body, 2025, Still image of mixed media expression.
DAY #3 - FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INQUIRER
HOW ATTENDING TO EMERGENT CONTENT-IN-PROCESS INFLUENCES THE INQUIRY PROCESS
COMPANION: LPP
WITNESS: CDK
CLOSING MY EYES TO IT ALL
My morning session of inquiry begins by staying-with some emergent understandings.
This results in me lying on the carpet with a blanket over my eyes, on a journey where I “closed-my-eyes-to-it-all” to further my “sensory-organism’s” “feelings of furriness towards the unknown” by engaging with “not-known” materials offered by LLP. (Figures 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4)
Figure 8.1: LLP companion, Sensing her presence, 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 8.2: LLP companion, Feeling towards new terrain, 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 8.3: LLP companion, Rolling + feeling around, 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 8.4: Emma Byrnes, Some key elements, 2025, Still image of some inquiry data.
Figure 8.5: Emma Byrnes, Yearning for New Terrain, 2025, Still image with digital overlay of a keywords poem.
WHOLE BODY HUM
I seek “new terrain” + end up on the footpath outside MIECAT :-)
I’m carrying key elements generated from the morning inquiry including a blanket I’d called “nameless” + a pouch of keywords-as-prompts for further exploration.
I draw out a couple of prompts: “residue-work-with” + “breathing-toes”.
Both land us firmly in/on this “new-terrain” by offering further awareness/resonance towards sense-making.
I then pull another prompt: “coming-into-focus”.
As a photographer looking at the world through an industrialised, western perspective “coming into focus” once conjured up a more-narrow way of seeing/being for me.
However, considering the cumulative knowing(s) from my MIECAT journey so far + my morning inquiry (which revolved around closing my eyes under the blanket to wake up other senses) I was excited to revisit more of what I’d recently come-to-know about the world when you “close-your-eyes-to-it-all”.
I’d discovered it’s….”a world of proximities in which everything around us seems to touch and speak to us - a world in which empty space no longer exists, a world transformed into a dense and shimmering pattern of textures, vibrations, sounds and scents. “ (Tufnell & Crickmay, 2004, p.123).”
I crouch down on the footpath + LPP joins alongside.
I invite her to ”come-into-focus” with-Mwe + together we lift nameless up over our faces.
As MWe do, I notice it looks like an oversized CHUX SUPERWIPE.
Then I encourage her to “close-her-eyes-to-it-all”.
And breathe.
Mwe are here.
Mwe are home.
And to notice:
- That the bright afternoon light is perceptible through my/our eyelids.
- That “nameless” smells like soap.
- That my nose feels numb from the friction of holding “nameless” so close.
I utter: “Being aware is giving it space, space to amplify, space to become.”
LLP holds out the pouch again.
I pull another prompt.
“feeling-the-generosity”
I close my eyes again.
In that moment,
as I yield towards the generosity of my/our body/ies, my/our sensing organism(s),
a car rumbles past.
And because of:
- three-days-straight of cumulative sense-making
- being covered in a “blanket of energy that takes in and brings to conscious acknowledgement all it envelops.” (Swan, 2024, part 2, p. 42)
- feeling into the awareness of loving presence + the hidden vibrational presences
- awakening “...to the touch of the living world on our skins” (Tufnell & Crickmay, 2004, p. 123)
WELL…the vibration of that car sends a whole-body-hum right through me.
It’s as if something just tuned.
I feel a heightened state of emergence as all the cumulative knowings rush through me + the common-sense of the assemblage moving the inquiry into a whole new place.
It’s a moment “…when one slips provisionally beneath the societal surge of forces…com(ing) more directly into felt relation with the wider, more-than-human community of beings that surrounds and sustains the human hub-bub. Awakening to citizenship in this border commonwealth...” (Abram, 2010, p.9)
I call out “I feel awakened by something I previously thought was hostile!”
CDK later shows me footage that she’d captured + my sense-full attention is completely bowled over.
She amplified the “pulsing presence” (Schaller, p. 54) by applying a particular filter + I’m exhilarated by the intersubjective offering, feeling further expansion towards the “whole-body-hum”.
I reflect on images + write a poem. (Figures 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7)
Figure 9.1: Emma Byrnes, Some key elements, 2025, Still image of some inquiry data.
Figure 9.2: Emma Byrnes, Some key elements, 2025, Still image of some inquiry data.
Figure 9.3: Emma Byrnes, Some key elements, 2025, Still image of some inquiry data.
Figure 9.4: Emma Byrnes, This Nameless Old/New Terrain, 2025, Still image of “breathing toes” moment with overlay of multimodal poetry response.
Figure 9.5: CDK witness, Side-by-side with/in/on/through the terrain, 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 9.6: CDK witness, Under Nameless, 2025, Still image from video footage.
Figure 9.7: CDK Witness, Whole-Body-Hum, 2025, Moving image of inquiry with added filter.
WHAT I’VE COME TO KNOW, FOR NOW
There are clear limitations towards making-sense of all that unfolded in our multi-faceted/ever-iterative process(es) of emergent, collaborative inquiry.
Here are stand-outs MWe’ve noticed, come-to-know + hope-to-integrate:
Entanglement: MWe don’t make sense alone. MWe make more than one sense. Our senses inter(weave/twine)/shift/mashup/combine through reflexive attunement with(in)/on/through the resonant circuits of our material body/ies
Absurdity: The (common/collective)sense is aching to make sense of its numbnesses, of what is otherwise indescribable. Through play/curiosity/risk-taking towards the unknown, MWe can make-sense with(in)on/through No(n)/Sense
Creating local know(ledge/ings): unique assemblages develop their own dynamic logic/intelligence/humour that deepen/strengthen through ongoing re(flection/flexivity) within (co)-inquiry
The territory of intuition: you find yourself in a state of a whole “sensory-organism” YES! through cumulative/incremental/moment-to-moment noticing
It's worth closing our eyes to “it all” + letting things coming into focus by seeing with/through our hearts/senses
Pause! + keep front-of-mind/body the material “in-between” sites, for a “slowing-down-of-things” + rhythmic re-calibration
By attuning to the ecology of intersubjectivity with(in)/on/through the material body/ies MWe travel (new/old/forever-becoming) terrain
(Co)-create stronger bonds: by listening-for/attending-to resonant keywords/phrase/gestures/sounds/patterns/textures/embodied-cues MWe receive new knowings + led into emergent ecologies of intersubjectivity + receiving/giving/shaping/amplifying/(r)circulating resonance with(in)/on/through our body/ies.
Weeks after the emergent collaborative inquiry materialised, much remains resonant.
I’m still unearthing reflexive-knowing/noticing/meaning(s).
Noticing what happens when you stir-in-time.
Going forward, I’ll be wrapping fellow (co)-inquirers in “nameless” blankets of energy + kinetic understanding/s + my newly awakened terrain of intuition
Plus the (new/old/always) HUM.
Where it goes from here remains yet un(known) :-)
“Breathing in, MWe arrive with(in)/on/through our material body/ies.
Breathing out, MWe hum home.”