Anatomy of a Residency: Architecture, Artists and Habitat (2027)

Monograph

Part research, part essayistic literature, this forthcoming book investigates the Pfälzer Hof Artist Residency, which was founded and curated from 2013 to 2025 by Shared Habitat. This new book is an example of an artistic ecosystem, a space where architecture, intention, and community practices intersected. Combining documentary material with a literary approach, the project traces the residency’s origins and asks how artistic habitats shape the work and relationships that unfold within them.
The mural on the side of the building, visible from the passing trains, states “Every move counts.”

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3852-8076

You can now order ‘Reflections on Authentic Movement’ for only £ 29.00 (incl. p&p UK mainland)

Dr Janet Adler (1941 - 2023)
Founder of the Discipline of Authentic Movement

“I have just finished your book ! What a beautiful offering...
It was clear throughout how thorough and wide your depth of thinking expanded, your reach into science and art and philosophy.”

Wendy Elliott, Somatic Depth Psychotherapist, Oija, California

“I love the book. What a great resource Eila has provided for all of us studying this practice. I will give it as a resource to my students, it will be top of the list.”

Patrizia Pallaro, Editor of Authentic Movement Vol. I & II Moving the Self Psychotherapy Center, Annapolis, MD, USA

“With vivid descriptions, penetrating and clear language, Dr. Goldhahn's outstanding body of work is at last readily accessible to the global audience of Authentic Movement scholars and practitioners. It is a profoundly original undertaking, one that not only maps the history of the practice and the discipline, but also expands it through art as well as performative research.

Dr. Goldhahn's writing rhythm, sometimes syncopated, at other times fluidly poetic, makes reading her book a pleasure. She paints artistry as witnessing and object-making as dancing movement. Her installations bridge life, death, and ritual, reminding us how private and public spaces in Authentic Movement come to be—through shared experiences. Dance, imagination, interpretation, and inner witnessing take on deeper meaning and scope via her ‘camera-witnessing’ technique.”

Professor Helen Payne, University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

“This book is recommended reading for artists and dancers interested in engaging with Authentic Movement for their own creative outputs and others from education, recreational and health fields who would like to understand more about the adaptive nature of Goldhahn's MoverWitness, an interdisciplinary tool.“

Eva Tillberg, Psychoanalyst and Supervisor, Lecturer at Karlstad University, Sweden.

“Eila Goldhahn offers a rich and sensitive framework for rethinking the contemporary discipline Authentic Movement.

The reader is guided through the various components of the method with maintained respect for the legacy of ideas. Goldhahn creates a lucid web of knowledge rather than analysing components one-by-one, beautifully conveying a sense of what the discipline of Authentic Movement is all about. Knowledge emerges with a linguistic simplicity that does not simplify complex matters.

Marcia Plevin, Arts Therapy Italiana, Bologna, Italy.

“Eila Goldhahn contributes to the Authentic Movement
literature though a

carefully considered re-framing of the practice,naming it the MoverWitness, while highlighting a unique creative perspective of the practice with her essays on arts-led research.This book gives the field a fresh application of AM, centered firmly in its rich and fertile history.”

Hilda Wengrower, Psy. D., Dance Movement Therapist & Clinical Supervisor, Haifa University.

“Eila Goldhahn takes readers on a captivating journey while they are sitting with the book in their hands: it includes Authentic Movement’s history, acknowledges its roots in dance and the cultural processes of its time, in visual arts,

Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology and the shaping up of a quite specific discipline of its own. As readers traverse the book pages, doors open to enrich their knowledge and understanding even for those not solely focused on Authentic Movement training.”

Un altro aspetto che può essere di interesse per gli artisti è la descrizione dell'uso del Movimento Autentico nel campo delle arti e dei media, con particolari rappresentazioni e applicazioni. Penso che questo libro offra un interessante contributo alla conoscenza, alla pratica e all'utilizzo del Movimento Autentico in diversi campi per diversi operatori e professionisti .”

Dr Eila Goldhahn’s films include educational explorations of MoverWitness practice and artistic movement observations made with dancers and environments. In her research, she coined the term camera-witnessing (2007), now used by other dance scholars, to describe filming as an act of presence rather than neutral observation.

Whether documenting somatic practice or creating poetic studies of movement in different sites, Goldhahn’s films approach the lens as an active participant tracing gestures of relationships between body and environment.

Goldhahn’s educational films, available via Films Media Group, have been purchased by universities and training institutions worldwide for the study of Authentic Movement and embodied research. They offer a practical and theoretical framework for exploring how the camera can extend the field of witnessing within movement practice. Films from the MoverWitness collection are also held by the Deutsche Tanzfilm Institut in Bremen.