ABSTRACT
This chapter applies care aesthetics to the emerging field of intimacy practice and consent-based performance. In the wake of the 2017 Me Too movement, and the exposure of endemic abuse and harassment within the creative industries, employing Intimacy Co-ordinators is becoming standard practice in screen and increasingly prevalent within the theatre sector.
The author proposes that the craft of Intimacy Co-ordination exists at the intersection of care and art in the creative process. The Intimacy Co-ordinator enacts care and makes the workplace safer for all involved while staying highly attuned to the embodied experience of those they collaborate with. These acts of care have a significant role in building and maintaining respectful relations on set and in rehearsals. In this way, commitment to fulfilling a duty of care and meeting the artistic aims of a project are in a continuous, mutually enriching interplay. This chapter addresses a common critique that establishing personal boundaries and gaining advanced consent in the development process is somehow inimical to creative expression. This chapter calls for other creative professionals to consider how they might adapt their practice in conscious dialogue and reciprocity with these ‘new’ practitioners.
