Primal Time

The imagination is not only holy, it is precise
it is not only fierce, it is practical
men die everyday for the lack of it,
it is vast & elegant - Diane di Prima, Selected Poetry (from "Rant")

(via the incomparable wood s lot)

Actors Training

Actors Training

Body
stationary rotation/isolation/stretch
space leaping (springing) through spine axis
lying & contacting breath + visualization/relaxation
rolling floor work
"touch the sky" mediatation
cat (slow & impulsive) towards imaginative associations

Voice
breath to vibration
leg tremours
vibrational body exploration

Text exploration: (Ash Wednesday - T.S.Eliot)

Song: (Korean)

Character
high voice & whispering (calling)
being pulled up (obstacle)
revealed as blind & deformed with ancient voice
Attack
Sight of tenderness with awe of the sky

Willingness

... "to people I meet:
1. Their willingness to listen to new ideas,
2. Their willingness to engage in dialogue.
I hope educators catch this concept soon...
I'm afraid it's not yet making a significant impact in most traditional institutions."
(gsiemens/elearnspace blog: What is Important to Me Now)

Buried

buried
just beneath the surface
voicing past darkened songs
the ancient dust and ashes sister
broken waits whatever comes
approaching
brother listening the skyward way
brought to his knees
by earthly whispers
like an archeologist brushes aside
depths of anger and despair
seeking what hasn't happened to happen
tenderness reveals
mercy fragmented utterances
parsed into
blind and deformed invisible hand witness
the warrior shock breath
stillborn turns

Word

. . . "thanks, but I've always understood singing as an act of self-abnegation involving the creation of beauty through the annhilation of one's own ego. I have no desire to sing alone." . . . (Alex/GolubLog. The Singer is a Mirror's Best Friend)

. . . "I think I like mode best. Of course, it helps that it contains the word ode, which comes from the Greek verb 'to sing'. . . . But what does a mode connote? An arrangement of notes. A way of doing things. A center of resonance. The most frequent value in a sequence. . . . Rather than thinking of blogging as a form, which would assign a sort of ethical value to it, or as a medium, which implies that it is a transparent channel, I would like to think of it as a mode. A mode is not a window into a new public. It is a tunnel through which certain things resonate - and are amplified or dampened." (Jeff/this Public Address 3.0. M(0de))

. . . "For the Navajo, the magical power inherent in the word itself has the power of healing: 'It commands, compels, organizes, ransforms, and restores. It disperses evil, reverses disorder, neutralizes pain, overcomes fear, elimintates illness, relieves anxiety, and restores order, health and well being'(Witherspoon. Language and Art in the Navajo Universe, 34) . It is the word itself which has psychological life. The word is the speaker, the move, the healer." (Ronald Schenk/DarkLight. Beauty as Healer)

viewRssBox

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idea

. . . The phrase "entertaining ideas" suggests that ideas have a life and desire of their own. The word "entertain" originally meant "to hold in the house." . . . ideas can be entertained by being given a place, listened to, and nurtured as our guests. Entertain also means "to hold in between." Ideas themselves are between existence and meaning. The abstract idea or "spirit" finds its place or home - its "matter" - in the concrete world through ideas, while at the same time the concrete world realizes its dynamic source or meaning - its spirit - through ideas. Existence and meaning, the material and the spiritual come thogether or coconstitute each other in the idea (Davidson 1985, 64-65)

. . . The word "idea" has its root in the Greek eidos, which refers to "that which can be seen," from which comes the Latin video, "to see." So ideas are like videos that can be imaginatively seen as they infulence us. We are always characters in one video or another! . . . What is healed when we entertain ideas? For the Greeks, eidos brought together the spiritual and the material, mind and matter, the unseen and the seen. . . For the Greeks "seeing" was the action involved in perceiving the eidolons, the particles that make up events whether materially present as a thing or spiritually present as a god. We now call this "imagination" . . . (Ronald Schenk. DarkLight, 1-2)

:: comment :: . . . writing to see the world through imagination and stimulating the imagination about the world . . . links are gifts & blogs are that place to visit face - what is seen sees back . . .

Cha

". . . The initial words of Sappho: May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve not only invoke the presence of an ancient, Western, female literary tradition, but also establish the resounding undercurrent of the text as a whole: that of the intricate connection between human body and textual body, spoken voice and written voice, visual expression and verbal expression, and the eroticism of a language possessed. . . "

(Theresa Hak Kyung Cha) Theresa Cha: In Death, Lost and Found By AMEI WALLACH (despite eventual linkrot see nytimes: Arts)

preventing performance

This year's Lincoln Center Festival, opening July 8, has booked Israel's Batsheva Dance Company and Daedong Gut, a Korean shaman ritual, which includes a performer born in North Korea. "Kim Keum-hwa. She's 72. We've got a fair number coming from Korea and I don't know which ones were born where," says festival director Nigel Redden.

He's not sure if he'll have to travel to the State Department, as he did last summer "to plead the case" for the Iranian artists in Ta'ziyeh, a Persian theatrical epic.

"The law is, the individual consular officer has the absolute right to turn down an application. The president of the United States cannot reverse the determination of the consular officer. The superior of the consular officer can say, 'Why don't you look at this again?' but it was very painful when nine of the Iranians couldn't come. The performances would have been better. It's essential that we know something about the people in countries with which our government has an antagonistic relationship.

One of the best ways of finding out about a people is through their culture, especially if you don't speak the language. I don't know if [by summer] France or Germany will be on the watch list. Frankly, we'll be able to bring in Bulgarian artists and people from Spain and Britain." (Preventing Performances by Kate Mattingly: Village Voice) (via greg at greg.org : On The Cultural Price Of Homeland Security)

environmentalists

. . . "76% of North Americans consider themselves environmentalists" (more . . .)

Memories of Teachers

"When I think about my memories of teachers, what I remember most about most of them was their passion, not the specifics of the curriculum they taught.

They cared. They did their best to make me care. They did their best to communicate a sense of wonder at the scale of it all. It wasn't just those in the humanities that pursued that strategy - during my brief foray into the Geology department, the same thing was true there. That sense of wonder can live in the sciences too. For me, that's what a real education is about - not creating malleability, but impressing the sense that we live in a world filled with wonder, with mystery - not predigested facts."- (Jeff Ward. this PublicAddress)

:: comment :: . . . Yes !!! . . . a student speaking candidly stated that seldom were answers learned during that fist year class but an awesome array of questions which have continued for four years presented themselves . . . that sustained and nurtured the drive to pursue knowledge . . . with a passion & precision . . . reaching deeper into the mystery . . . to all learners (students&educators) blessings . . .

Kaethe Kollwitz

Kaethe Kollwitz lived in Berlin in the first half of the 20th century, but her prints and drawings remain as relevant, and disturbing, today. Her stark, black and white images of the victims of war, poverty and oppression are testament to Kollwitz's pacifist philosphy, born of her own witnessing of human suffering. Now, "Kaethe Kollwitz: The Art of Compassion" is on at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. It includes 75 prints, drawings and sculptures that explore Kollwitz's 50-year career as an artist. It's at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto until May 25.

IVAN ILLICH

IVAN ILLICH IN MEMORIAM Ivan Illich died at the age of 76 in Bremen, Germany on Dec. 2, 2002. A priest, and a penetrating social critic, he was one of the most brilliant and interesting men of his time. (cbc radio one: ideas)

:: comment :: . . . a fabulous memoriam by David Cayley . . . listening to the voice of a radical explorer . . . once again contemporay institutions prove themselves tyrants of manipulation and compulsory dependance . . . the voice of redemptive and powerless love, of a teacher prophet friend . . . who is our neighbour . . . the unique other . . . "as the world grows darker his flame will grow larger."

Rhythm

The purpose of rhythm, it has always seemed to me, is to prolong the moment of contemplation, the moment when we are both asleep and awake, which is the one moment of creation, by hushing us with an alluring monotony, while it holds us waking by variety, to keep us in that state of perhaps real trance, in which the mind liberated from the pressure of the will is unfolded in symbols.

If certain sensitive persons listen persistently to the ticking of a watch, or gaze persistently on the monotonous flashing of a light, they fall into the hypnotic trance; and rhythm is but the ticking of a watch made softer, that one must needs listen, and various, that one may not be swept beyond memory or grow weary of listening; while the patterns of the artist are but the monotonous flash woven to take the eyes in a subtler enchantment. - Yeats's, "The Symbolism of Poetry." (Pensate Omnia)

:: comment :: . . . three rehearsals with the consciousness, word and drum . . . the sacred and the profane . . . the four voices moving in the rhythm of contemplation . . . Yeats in action . . . the drum and patterns . . . it is an honour to be working with students of such power and openess . . .

Student Reflection

"The class itself, the one that exists on paper and in school itineraries has a birth, life and death. The class is in the death stage but what we have learned (the non-tangible, the experiences) and what we take with us from the class and hopefully apply to other schools of thought is in the birth stage. That is how I see it. But I must say that I think that I would have gotten more from the class if I could only remember what happened in every class. I am paying attention but I can never remember anything that is said or done for the most part."

- from a student journal

Rupture

. . .The key concept here for Bachelard is that of rupture, which has four epistemological aspects or categories. These he terms breaks, obstacles, profiles and acts (Gutting, 1989). . . The implications for education from Bachelard's work include at least: the account of rationality; the importance of teaching the history of science and not merely science as it is now; the implications for those research methodologies which appeal to 'a' philosophy of science; the importance of the imagination (in his sense) for rational thought; and the notion of conceptual discontinuity in scientific thought.

- (Jim Marshall. Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education: Bachelard)

as time passes

home is less and less
what's around
lose yourself
to find yourself
enter the battle
the words of students surprise
if you let them
human frailty demands a human wall(wail)
we met for a reason
the scars are (in) visiible
sweat it out
how do you know
no
when caught they take you home
i gotta go now
the sun is coming up
. . . it's part of what makes someone a true Artist.

There must be a willingness to risk all with a work that eminates from that quiet place where only you can go. . . My guess is that your students lack(ed) the willingness\ability to do the hard self-introspection required to do anything beyond the surface. Most people lack that trait.

(fivecats in the comments of jill/txt: dare)

the abyss

beneath darkness
cannot hide the pain
she told me:

"What matters is what is out there in the large dark and in the long light, Breathing."

I always forgot
to forget
the darkness of sleep
is no respite
from the elemental blood ghost
haunting the territory of the heart.
Never ask why.

Deschooling Society

ah . . . asking the questions . . .

'What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?'

(Illich. Deschooling Society)

TheaterWork 2

Session 1: Sunday, April 6, 2003
Focus - moving towards character
Beginning with voice & element:
(Rod the stick)(AeRan the silver jug) Each works alone establishing body/voice connetion towards character.
Text: The Epic of Kotan Utannai from (Songs of Gods, sons of Humans - Donald L. Philippi)

Session 2: Tuesday April 8, 2003
Focus - meeting in voice
Each rolls towards object establishing vibration & entering voice
Full sustained voice & many meetings

Session 3: Friday April 11,2003
Focus - finding the meeting Physical energy exchange & contact exercises.
Character meets non-character(shape shifter)

Session 4: Wednesday April 23,2003
Focus - establishing contact Full physical contact/ no voice

Session 5: Thursday April 24,2003
Focus - Text Work Full open vibration to working with obstacle and moving into text with meeting. Poetic Narrative emerges:

buried
just beneath the surface
voicing past darkened songs
the ancient dust and ashes sister
broken waits whatever comes
approaching
brother listening the skyward way
brought to his knees
by earthly whispers
like an archeologist brushes aside
depths of anger and despair
seeking what hasn't happened to happen
tenderness reveals
mercy fragmented utterances
parsed into
blind and deformed invisible hand witness
the warrior shock breath
stillborn turns

Session 6: Saturday April 26,2003
Focus - Bringing objects to character meeting Text, chararacter, physical memory, contact & all the enviroment of the past work.

PHASE 2 ENDS

Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans

; 2:02:46 AM: I was raised
by an elder sister,
and we lived
on and on.
This is how
she raised me
in a little grass hunt,
and we lived on.
During this time
sounds of some gods fighting
could be heard rumbling
throughout the land.
Many gods dying,
countless gods dying
continued to rumble
uninterruptedly.
Now finally
I grew somewhat older,
and these sounds
began to make themselves heard:
atop our grass hut
spirits of the yankur
from time to time
would come rumbling.
Going out to meet them,
my own companion spirits
would send forth their rumblings
atop the grass hut.
Gods of the same family,
they would prolong
their rumblings together.
What could be the reason for this,
I wondered.
So
I spoke
these words:

"My elder sister,
you who have
raised me will,
tell me, I pray,
the story!"
thus did I speak.

She appeared
to be awe-stricken
to an extreme.
Her forehead
quaked with fear.
Many sparkling teardrops
did she shed.
After a while
this is what she said:

"I would have told you
after you were a little older.
Then,
even if you killed me,
my heart would have been content
even after death.
Nevertheless,
since you wish to hear it,
I will tell you,
but it would be dangerous
for a mere boy to act rashly
when hearing a story.
Do not act rashly!
This is the story
I have to tell you."

(Songs of Gods, Songs of Humans - Donald L. Philippi)

Spring Awakening

Sheik also is nearing the completion of a four-year project to adapt Frank Wedekind's "Spring Awakening" for New York's Roundabout Theatre. The production, Sheik says, is "essentially about the sexual awakening of adolescence in an oppressive German society of the late 19th century." Sater wrote the script; Sheik wrote the lyrics. The play retains the setting of Wedekind's original, but actors "dressed in period costume will grab a mike and sing rock songs," Sheik says. The message is that "these themes are universal." (The Providence Journal: Duncan Sheik brings a bit of 'Daylight' to audiences)

:: comment :: . . . sometimes just need to document some note . . .

Art Therapy

In contemporary culture, the idea that the practice of art making is inherently beneficial to the human psyche is a surprisingly controversial one. It is only slightly less verboten in the mental-health professions, where it is grudgingly accorded a support role to more serious verbal or pharmaceutical therapies, with the caveat that if things get too touchy-feely, it's back to kindergarten with the finger paints and the modeling clay. Nevertheless, due to its repeatedly demonstrated effectiveness, art therapy has managed to adapt itself to every corner of the mental-health profession.
(LA Weekly: Art: Art Therapy)

Emily Dickinson &

Endow the Living -- with the Tears --
You squander on the Dead,
And They were Men and Women -- now,
Around Your Fireside --
Instead of Passive Creatures,
Denied the Cherishing
Till They -- the Cherishing deny --
With Death's Ethereal Scorn --
- Emily Dickinson

We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning. -- Baudrillard.Simulacra and Simulation (found in the Educational Technology Journal)

Emily Dickinson Again

The mob within the heart
Police cannot suppress
The riot given at the first
Is authorized as peace
Uncertified of scene
Or signified of sound
But growing like a hurricane
In a congenial ground

- Emily Dickinson (1745) from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson 1960

shock and awe

. . . shock and awe . . . art and outrage . . . provocation and controversey . . . . . . The artists' desire to startle and outrage audiences - especially those belonging to the ruling bourgeois class - was often politically motivated by a desire to contribute to social change by either reform or revolution . . .

'In the historical avante-garde movements, shocking the recipient becomes the dominant principle of artistic intent . . . refusal to provide meaning is experienced as shock . . . And this is the intention of the avant-garde artist, who hopes that such withdrawal of meaning will direct the reader's attention to the fact that the conduct of one's life is questionable and that it is necessary to change it. Shock is aimed for as a stimulus . . . to break through aesthetic immanence and to usher in [initiate] a change in the recipient's life praxis'

That this principle eventually became a convention was confirmed by a statement made in 1989:

That a work of art might outrage some members of society is a normal part of its conditions of existence.

(John A. Walker. Art & Outrage)

Emily Dickinson

1004
There is no Silence in the Earth - so silent
As that endured
Which uttered, would discourage Nature
And haunt the World.
- Emily Dickinson (1865)