This book is an examination of the ways specific somatic and aesthetic practices engage in experimentally altering the affective experience of our spatial and temporal environments. These are the ‘refrains’ to which the title refers: ‘generative spacetimes sensed as gatherings of intensity in the shapes of worldly arrangements’ (p. 204). Such refrains not only hold bodies in particular relations, but also create opportunities for bodies to generate unforeseen arrangements and alternative systems of value. McCormack makes a convincing call to infuse experiences of these spacetimes with a commitment to experimentation, and a will to generate unforeseen arrangements of affect.
The first section is a philosophical and historiographical overview of thinkers and practitioners who have dealt with this prospect of ‘experimenting experience’, particularly those who engage with rhythm as a central component of processes of thought and experience (p. 6). John Dewey and Henri Lefebvre are taken as primary figures of this strand of thinking, and much time is devoted to placing the two in conversation about the ways in which space is enacted, rather than given prior to the body's participation in it (p. 172). At times, early chapters seem overdetermined by the positions of Dewey and Lefebvre; however, the focus returns to considerations of embodied experimentation through the application of their ideas to rhythm analysis and eurhythmics.
McCormack's historical treatment of these early somatic practices is rich in theoretical nuance. He acknowledges their contributions to thinking through the ways in which bodies participate in the creation of space and the rhythms of everyday life, but he also critiques their ethico-aesthetic orientations – a utopian conception of rhythmic harmony that pathologizes arhythmic movement and is at risk of informing ‘explicitly political choreographies’, most obviously embraced by German fascism (p. 52).
The book's most engaging and dynamic contribution to thinking through the affective potential of moving bodies, and the value of wilfully modulating our experience of space and time, comes in the second portion. McCormack shifts his focus from the theoretical relevance of experimenting experience to applications of these principles to a diverse range of practices, including dance movement therapy, radio sports commentary, contemporary music videos and the choreography of William Forsythe. What unites these practices within McCormack's overarching project is their use of bodies to modulate affective experience.
McCormack writes in a compellingly self-reflexive manner about his own physical interventions into spaces, such as a corridor at the Chisenhale Dance Space or his participation in 5Rhythms, a practice often associated with ecstatic dance. This turning toward his own body acts as a kind of methodological refrain throughout the book, providing tangible models to address ‘the question of how bodies and spaces are mutually implicated in a process through which novel ways of moving’ and being together can be generated (p. 192). The ability to weave between lengthy theoretical considerations and vivid recollections of relationally specific, embodied practices make this book a welcome contribution to existing literature in affect theory, cultural geography and theories of embodiment.
