10 excerpts from the first and second day
to document where we started from film/dancewise
click on the image or see YouTube channel thomasrealdance
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
depuis l'modernisme
het naamloze zachte, dat de mens tot mens maakt.
Christa Wolf, Kassandra
coming to full circle at the end of week #2. all the work that we've done and did. again...
Christa Wolf, Kassandra
coming to full circle at the end of week #2. all the work that we've done and did. again...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
getting back to Gertrude Stein
I read Stein with great interest during my early twenties and it has been a major source of inspiration for me ever since. even though I've gotten to realize many alternatives since then, I am still re-discovering many of her ideas and statements as very valid for what I am interested in in my work. As I continue working with Robert and Dwight, these notions are coming back into my attention.
... I had in hundreds of ways related words, then sentences then paragraphs to the thing at which I was looking and I had also come to have happening at the same time looking and listening and talking without any bother about resemblances and remembering.
[...]
I said in the beginning of saying this thing that if it were possible that a movement were lively enough it would exist so completely that it would not be necessary to see it moving against anything to know that it is moving.
[...]
As I say the American thing is the vitality of movement, so that there need be nothing against which the movement shows as movement. And if this vitality is lively enough is there in that clarity any confusion is there in that clarity any repetition. I myself do not think so.
No matter how complicated anything is, if it is not mixed up with remembering there is no confusion, but and that is the trouble with a great many so called intelligent people they mix up remembering with talking and listening, and as a result they have theories about anything but as remembering is repetition and confusion, and being existing that is listening and talking is action and not repetition intelligent people although they talk as if they knew something are really confusing, because they are so to speak keeping two times going on at once, the repetition time of remembering and the actual time of talking but, and as they are rarely talking and listening, that is the talking being listening and the listening being talking, although they are clearly saying something they are not clearly creating something, because they are because they always are remembering, they are not at the same time talking and listening.
quotes from Portraits and Repetition written in 1934, published in Lectures in America, Random House, New York 1935
with these views, I find Stein voiced what were concerns of the 20th century: get back to the medium itself, find out what it can do, rather than maintaining the conventions of the 19th century or in fact the conventionality of Euro-Asian cultures up to that time.
as I am working with two visual artists, one mainly in sculpture - one mainly in media, I too get back to what I believe is the essence of what my medium is about - kinesthesy and its shared experience with others.
... I had in hundreds of ways related words, then sentences then paragraphs to the thing at which I was looking and I had also come to have happening at the same time looking and listening and talking without any bother about resemblances and remembering.
[...]
I said in the beginning of saying this thing that if it were possible that a movement were lively enough it would exist so completely that it would not be necessary to see it moving against anything to know that it is moving.
[...]
As I say the American thing is the vitality of movement, so that there need be nothing against which the movement shows as movement. And if this vitality is lively enough is there in that clarity any confusion is there in that clarity any repetition. I myself do not think so.
No matter how complicated anything is, if it is not mixed up with remembering there is no confusion, but and that is the trouble with a great many so called intelligent people they mix up remembering with talking and listening, and as a result they have theories about anything but as remembering is repetition and confusion, and being existing that is listening and talking is action and not repetition intelligent people although they talk as if they knew something are really confusing, because they are so to speak keeping two times going on at once, the repetition time of remembering and the actual time of talking but, and as they are rarely talking and listening, that is the talking being listening and the listening being talking, although they are clearly saying something they are not clearly creating something, because they are because they always are remembering, they are not at the same time talking and listening.
quotes from Portraits and Repetition written in 1934, published in Lectures in America, Random House, New York 1935
with these views, I find Stein voiced what were concerns of the 20th century: get back to the medium itself, find out what it can do, rather than maintaining the conventions of the 19th century or in fact the conventionality of Euro-Asian cultures up to that time.
as I am working with two visual artists, one mainly in sculpture - one mainly in media, I too get back to what I believe is the essence of what my medium is about - kinesthesy and its shared experience with others.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
bivak gloria: week #2
is there a resemblance of color in movement?
black-white movement? coloured movement?
Alan Charlton, untitled MuHKA Antwerp. Belgium
I'm ready to explore more about this actual space, what is it that I can do HERE and with THIS installation. what kind of movements fit here, do I want to have here? what about the recurring elements?
musically I am experiencing a trip into the past, Béla Bartók's The Wooden Prince, Bear Dance, but also this morning Guillaume Dufay, Ecclesiae Militantis, a pioneer work of the Ars Nova at the end of the Middle Ages. I've tried to work with this piece of music earlier, at the EDDC in Arnhem, back in 2001. (see also the painting by Hieronymus Bosch earlier in this blog)
black-white movement? coloured movement?
Alan Charlton, untitled MuHKA Antwerp. BelgiumI'm ready to explore more about this actual space, what is it that I can do HERE and with THIS installation. what kind of movements fit here, do I want to have here? what about the recurring elements?
musically I am experiencing a trip into the past, Béla Bartók's The Wooden Prince, Bear Dance, but also this morning Guillaume Dufay, Ecclesiae Militantis, a pioneer work of the Ars Nova at the end of the Middle Ages. I've tried to work with this piece of music earlier, at the EDDC in Arnhem, back in 2001. (see also the painting by Hieronymus Bosch earlier in this blog)
Saturday, October 27, 2007
utopia
how can we realize a society that succeeds in achieving reliable collaboration and co-production without the chains of feudalism, exploitation, the right of the strongest, disaster capitalism etc.?
the alternative to the 'Borg' of StarTrek is the community family - both minimise the ecological needs / footprint of the individual and ensure skillful and efficient co-operation, however with very different options, for example how to choose alternatives, how to develope further, experimenting with radically different solutions.
not having to be slaves to either nature or each other or our individual moment-to-moment frustrations. but understand and adapt to the needs and potential of our given situation here and now and find the best possible solution for all involved.
such a lifestyle requires open-ended thinking that includes non-finished or seemingly non-finished, not yet conscious, not yet communicable patterns as well, next to the ones that are clear, established and have proved their usefulness.
it seems to me like we are on a way towards the possibility of an ever more refined culture that needs ever less intrusion into our present state, because of having more possible solutions present as options for how to deal with moment-to-moment challenges. that way our culturre doesn't have to remain overpowering the very areas it tries to incorporate / include / understand (NOT only after assimilation, but by gradual adaptation and decision-influenced osmosis)
our bodies are excellent examples in themselves. they operate with reliable structures, also on a cellular level (e.g. enzymes) but always with infinite variations that are embodied in an in-itself open-ended system.
live-dance /performance is an excellent example for this in the arts. it is with this in mind that I take very careful considerations before I agree to set anything, and certainly not in terms of timing or sequence, unless dictated by adapting to given circumstances that I cannot change at all. even then I always prefer what Mary Fulkerson-O'Donnell calls the breathing form. to give maximum space and possibility for the potential of the inspiration / best solution of the moment to manifest itself as completely as possible, to happen in its optimal way, beyond what I can understand or control completely, in agreement with conditions in levels beyond myself and my range of options, including 'mistakes'
through repeated exploration and trials based on interest, patterns will emerge through variation-rich repetitions. like several visual patterns superimposed, the intersections create more solid forms, structures, sequences, codes, libretti etc.
even then, there is always a realm that is not yet present, that is still in the process of becoming. like never having stopped to process food into vital nutritients for our well-functioning. and I want congruent structures that make sure optimized 'organic' co-functioning of all related agents / elements / structures / energy-waves, whatever the goal is.
this esthetic is dictated by my awareness of the ever pressing need in my time and society / planet / space dimension for more efficient, less polluting, less aggressive / frustrating functioning / solutions.
and so I say yes to Improvisation, Yes to Open Form Composition.
additional note / November 7th 2007
I experience Open Composition as a base for work, not necessarily an end-all. sometimes it is very good and very exciting to try to repeatedly solve a problem with a very closed set of parameters, even one that comes very near traditional Composition.
if Open Form Composition is acknowledged as a greater container within which such forms of composition can emerge, and the potential for openness is better acknowledged and trained for, decisions about which parameters to close or 'set' could become better thought through, less subjectively haphazard or another re-run of yet another tradition.
generally I like it better if a system / composition can grow through repeated trial and error with very little set at the beginning. leaving a lot of (mental) space for elements that are important for a composition to become manifest in their very own and authentic ways, before making greater decisions about what to combine how and when.
I believe this approach can bring forth more intelligent and effective as well as efficient solutions and wonderful moments of art and performance...
the alternative to the 'Borg' of StarTrek is the community family - both minimise the ecological needs / footprint of the individual and ensure skillful and efficient co-operation, however with very different options, for example how to choose alternatives, how to develope further, experimenting with radically different solutions.
not having to be slaves to either nature or each other or our individual moment-to-moment frustrations. but understand and adapt to the needs and potential of our given situation here and now and find the best possible solution for all involved.
such a lifestyle requires open-ended thinking that includes non-finished or seemingly non-finished, not yet conscious, not yet communicable patterns as well, next to the ones that are clear, established and have proved their usefulness.
it seems to me like we are on a way towards the possibility of an ever more refined culture that needs ever less intrusion into our present state, because of having more possible solutions present as options for how to deal with moment-to-moment challenges. that way our culturre doesn't have to remain overpowering the very areas it tries to incorporate / include / understand (NOT only after assimilation, but by gradual adaptation and decision-influenced osmosis)
our bodies are excellent examples in themselves. they operate with reliable structures, also on a cellular level (e.g. enzymes) but always with infinite variations that are embodied in an in-itself open-ended system.
live-dance /performance is an excellent example for this in the arts. it is with this in mind that I take very careful considerations before I agree to set anything, and certainly not in terms of timing or sequence, unless dictated by adapting to given circumstances that I cannot change at all. even then I always prefer what Mary Fulkerson-O'Donnell calls the breathing form. to give maximum space and possibility for the potential of the inspiration / best solution of the moment to manifest itself as completely as possible, to happen in its optimal way, beyond what I can understand or control completely, in agreement with conditions in levels beyond myself and my range of options, including 'mistakes'
through repeated exploration and trials based on interest, patterns will emerge through variation-rich repetitions. like several visual patterns superimposed, the intersections create more solid forms, structures, sequences, codes, libretti etc.
even then, there is always a realm that is not yet present, that is still in the process of becoming. like never having stopped to process food into vital nutritients for our well-functioning. and I want congruent structures that make sure optimized 'organic' co-functioning of all related agents / elements / structures / energy-waves, whatever the goal is.
this esthetic is dictated by my awareness of the ever pressing need in my time and society / planet / space dimension for more efficient, less polluting, less aggressive / frustrating functioning / solutions.
and so I say yes to Improvisation, Yes to Open Form Composition.
additional note / November 7th 2007
I experience Open Composition as a base for work, not necessarily an end-all. sometimes it is very good and very exciting to try to repeatedly solve a problem with a very closed set of parameters, even one that comes very near traditional Composition.
if Open Form Composition is acknowledged as a greater container within which such forms of composition can emerge, and the potential for openness is better acknowledged and trained for, decisions about which parameters to close or 'set' could become better thought through, less subjectively haphazard or another re-run of yet another tradition.
generally I like it better if a system / composition can grow through repeated trial and error with very little set at the beginning. leaving a lot of (mental) space for elements that are important for a composition to become manifest in their very own and authentic ways, before making greater decisions about what to combine how and when.
I believe this approach can bring forth more intelligent and effective as well as efficient solutions and wonderful moments of art and performance...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
more plans for Bivak Gloria
after my exuberant solo at 60x60 it's time for me to re-evaluate minimal, very body-oriented dance. anatomical exactness, joint by joint, of which we have several hundred (more than a dozen in just our feet and hands alone). organ-states, muscle states. my functioning, continuously self-massaging, ongoing body.
how looking, hearing, action influences that.
and to really go for play, the value of play.
with Dwight, Robert, people who come and visit...
how looking, hearing, action influences that.
and to really go for play, the value of play.
with Dwight, Robert, people who come and visit...
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