evolution piece

Evolution

Prehistoric art features runners. By this point we were already bi-pedal, so we had returned to the land, from the sea, we had returned to the trees. But our art seems to start with running, not climbing. Not swimming.

In what way does science use these pictorial references?

There were trees and there was water (Morgan).

If we were watching to learn how not to fall, how does this relate to water?



Watching the body, why is it relevant? 

We learn through mirror-neurons how not to fall (Grimes). Those of us who learn best survive.

Genetics studies (Dobbs, Orchid Children) finds that rebel genes are selected for. Those who make leaps, evolve.

Perhaps we no longer select for these physical learning traits but we have seen that these physical creatives also take other leaps, they are rebels, the ones who are selected for and will evolve. In which case, is the physical aspect still essential or an evolutionary red-herring?


I would like to make a work using this inspiration. Perhaps a mirroring of water and air.

balance: movement meditation

The shifting of balance from one point to another - reaching always towards a point where one might be stable but never, reaching it, reaching for impossibility. Enjoying the constant movement, relax. To tense up to reach and try to hold stasis is to fall. Always falling - to walk is to fall forward. To walk on the floor with the same consideration as if on a rope creates the paradoxical possibility of falling off the floor and being caught by the same.

The illusion, constant movement. Never static. never stable.

How to work with these ideas?

Remove myself. (screenwash) re-do. better. different. clearer.

Remove the rope. (ariel) but still too close to 'look how clever/dangerous' the need for intense focus is sidelined by the 'sensational' visual of danger.

Work with film yes... the body's eyes. (screen wash) (so many ways...) forehead, palm, palm, sternum, hips. Live? Monitors? Durational? five images overlaid? five images on one screen? Long exposure photography? Traces? But what of the true sensation of walking with the back? The neck?

Work live? (cathedral) How to show the focus, the shifting but removing the 'circus' from the skill. How to work with meditative sensibility but without it becoming 'meditation themed circus'? Remove the circus from the skill, remove the imagery from the meditation. Reduce it to its most constituent parts - balance.

how contemporary circus reflects current society

my research says

traditional circus came from the marginalised
they wore their 'outsider' status like a badge, a costume. They became performers of their own lives. Art always mirrors society's interests and at that time of colonialism it was the exotic and nature that was being examined. 'Otherness' and mans triumph over nature were some of the most progressive and exciting things to be explored - travelling shows carried the news - even helping to spread word of Darwin's theory of Evolution (Corameli).

In the intervening times, art and entertainment have changed with society. Sometimes addressing societies search for purity, more recently expressing it's joy in hybridity (clarify), where once pure ballet or painting might have reigned, it has now become multi-disciplinary. eg. gandini, forkbeard, prison break

Currently, in the comfortable west, or at least in Bristol, we are seeking, perhaps, tangible experiences which link us to the here and now. Something we can feel. (the moment is of utmost importance)

Some current themes are 1) a search inside - to examine how far a human might go in search of focus, excellence etc. Contemporary circus certainly reflects this shift in the same way traditional circus reflected earlier concerns. A recent conference showcased 10 new shows thought to be some of the most exciting circus currently in development. Some of these could be described as (for example) a puppet show or a clown show referencing circus, these were the only ones to contain 'drum roll tricks', the others all used the circus skills as visual, metaphorical tools in a relatively understated manner. The themes within were emotion, politics...  all about our human landscapes. One interesting thing to be noted is the treatment of gender. From a brief look at historical circus material, women were always sexualised although it is also interesting to take note of Peta Tait's theory of it being a refuge for unconventional bodies. Whilst they still are sexualised more than the men, it is now possible, in more unconventional pieces for a woman to, for example, break the 'aerialists mask' and speak. (talk about FOoD.... dynamism/glamourisation). Historically, it was only male performers who spoke - men, women and animals in unspeaking roles being 'other' and 'exotic' rather than 'human'.

People used the skills to interact in different ways - becoming part of an animation on screen (sugar beast & illona) and with different themes - science, painting, relationships, our work life/inner worlds and also used it as a performance of a performance (caribena) which was particularly interesting in that it was a new marginalised group demonstrating, referencing, the 'otherness' of a different marginalised group.

Another trend (eeks) I've become aware of is the move towards more and more immersive works, especially that of games.  permeable, experiential activities where what is at stake is a raising of the pulse, a heightened awareness. I would suggest this has to do with our relative distance from our evolutionary states, as we become more removed from our bodies, the more the notion of physical freedom - flying, running or swimming takes hold (elaine morgan) and also from our current ability to be involved, media's coming of age - with the possibility for any one of us to become worldwide phenomenon's from our bedrooms, we can have our say, we can, or at least feel that we can, have an affect on society, on policy, on politics, via our internet connection. The computer geek is master of all S/he surveys - but we are physical creatures too. We need to use our bodies. (evidence of art & involvement)(slingshot) (relevant to rise of computer games & dungeons & dragons type too?)

In terms of circus, these narcissistic shifts towards our innerworlds/human excellence and the need to use our increasingly irrelevant bodies comes to mean that contemporary circus is 'putting the 'us' in circus'. At the forefront of this, in light of the desire we have to 'be involved', it would seem that Il Pixel Rosso (and to some extent invisibles) and You Me Bum Bum Train (where you actually have to have a medical to ensure you're healthy enough to be part of the audience), are at the absolute cutting edge or what society is exploring. Il Pixel Rosso are making a conceptual circus piece where through the use of (???) technology, the audience are given the experience of being in the circus, on the flying trapeze.

Although they this can also be seen in the way the audience at festivals/invis gigs/prison break etc join in, even this adult play event, keen to be part of it.

heading towards the end and into the light

Sitting at my desk. Months it's been... finally cleared a path through the stored toys and the stashed materials. Behind me is chaos. I daydream of building shelves in the 'workshop' but don't do it. What care I for material goods?  Why make anything? And yet one might have a moment whilst viewing - even the viewing of the making, glass for example, being made in a cave by torchlight, creating a fleeting  performative moment.

But being a hoarder (or sorts) has its uses... How might the caves have played out if i hadn't had a van and a whole scrap-store of my own?

The caves is over and work experience is done. And still i look for more. Always happy to find more work experience, never looking for paid work. Learning. always learning never applying. Soon I go to Cardiff to meet No Fit State. Lighting internship. Fleeting, ephemeral. Both the internship and the output. moments in time.

To be welcomed on the one hand and yet pushed out with the other. Is an academic welcome? No one likes to be examined - to be watched and admired yes, but to have someone 'read' ones performance, drawing parallels between life, society, politics... this unpicking is another thing entirely.

'Other'. If being 'other' is your bread and butter then there is (is there?) an automatic conflict between requesting legitimacy and acknowledgment and remaining intangible. It seems that (the role of the academic) we seek to understand, and through understanding comes familiarity - perhaps then, with familiarity comes a lessening of respect/wonder/awe or whatever makes it special and thus financially possible. But it is changing. The focus is not so much on 'other' as exotic, distant, now the interesting thing perhaps is a narcissistic, inward looking, examination on what might be possible for this body, in this space, an acknowledgement that with focus we are all capable of brilliant things.  Perhaps this fits with permeability, with the need to experience, not simply view.

OOBE - Out Of Body Experience

permeated is an important word

i ran for 'hounded'. I chased people wearing foxes tails through the city streets.

a new use of space, a new way of interacting with the city. A reclamation, of ourselves, of our entertainment, of our bodies, of our cities. For the children that never grew up, we need a playground, the city is our playground. For the kids who played computer games inside when they were kids, we need to get out, the streets are our woods.

A reaction to spoonfed culture, a rejection of consumption of culture. A need to be involved, to heighten our senses, use our bodies, make choices, feel alive, a little danger, make decisions. A real life computer game.

experience. we are all artists. we have leisure time. we have humour.

"there was a sense that Liverpool was being permeated in a fundamental an subtle way" Total Theatre magazine (p.9 vol 23 winter 2011/12) although speaking about a different event in a different city, there is an overall sense of 'getting out of the gallery/venue/pub/theatre'. A need for creative cultures to touch individuals, for individuals to be touched, to make, to share, to participate. Now that we all have free time, that we all have internet access, we are becoming equal and we want equal influence in our real-time worlds as we do online. In the way that a home-made video might 'go viral' on the internet, in the physical world we also want to permeate, to participate, to directly experience and influence.

There is a fundemental shift - we are beyond post-modern, we have become permeable.

Oktay Novruzov Slack wire