Crossing the Waterline: An Autoethnographic "Living Inquiry"

Abstract

In this essay, I inquire phenomenologically into a gesture that I performed and documented through photography. This gesture is significant because it has led me to consider the resistant edge of myself as an artist, researcher, and educator. It is from this resistant edge that I find myself crossing a metaphorical waterline. Waterlines mark the liminal threshold between water and air, i.e., the point of conscious awareness—of breath—below which lay the unknown. This metaphor has helped me become aware of myself as artist, writer, learner, and teacher. In this art essay of my living inquiry into a performed gesture within an art installation, I discovered the waterline of a self-censored voice.