hal-05636758 Sensing the Research Field : A Somatic Methodology for Awareness-Based (…)

The complexity of contemporary challenges demands collaborative, interdisciplinary forms of knowledge production capable of integrating multiple ways of knowing. Yet the dominant research model brackets the conditions that make genuine collective inquiry possible -the quality of presence, the relational ground, the somatic attunement that builds trust and collective intelligence. This paper presents a methodological prototype that both implements and measures these conditions, drawing on two Social Presencing Theater practices: the Stuck practice as a daily somatic check-in building inter-researcher attunement, and 3D mapping as a collaborative material practice for project development and field sensing. Two researchers integrated both practices into an ongoing project on aesthetic sustainability and embodied learning in design. Results show statistically traceable change: posture shifts significantly toward openness within each session (p = 0.012), entry posture orientation shifts progressively inward across the research arc (p = 0.02-0.03), trust-coded language increases significantly after each practice (p = 0.023), and the affective valence of entry postures shifts from negative to positive over time. A compensatory within-session dynamic is also identified: the practice orients toward the affective quality latent in the entry posture rather than amplifying what is already present. Situated within the science of the social field and awareness-based design, we propose this prototype as a contribution to a knowledge production that values the quality of the process -the relational ground, the somatic attunement, the container built between researchers -as much as the outcomes it generates.