Creative Terror

Today I had a really great meeting with my residency mentor, Ben.  I had a chat with him about my first creative workshop exploration on Vorticism and he was really excited about some of the questions which were raised.

I had tried to change the 'shape' of the theatre space by creating a spiral of pebbles with a candle in the middle, and when my fellow workshoppers arrived I asked them to walk around the space and react to things and change things if they wanted to.  It turned out that everyone was reluctant to go near the spiral or walk through it, or mess it up.  When we had a chat about it, the general consensus was that it had felt like a sacred space, and slightly pagan.  I thought that was an interesting response because I hadn't intended it to be that, and as we interogated it further it became clear what was being read into it.  It felt pagan because I had used elemental objects (pebbles and fire) and the shape of the circle.  It felt sacred because it appeared as if a lot of work and detail had gone into it.  This is a little off topic for Vorticism, but fascinating anyway.

One of the major ideas we tried to explore was Pound's concept of the 'primary pigment'.  We tried to find it in describing an article of clothing, and then we tried to apply those principles to two classic dance styles - the waltz and the tango.  We thought we might have found it, but upon reflection I think all we have done is deconstruct it.  We need to go back and rebuild it to find the 'most expressive' element.  We have only found the 'basic elements'.  We did a bunch of other interesting stuff too.

One of the more interesting comments which came out at the end was one person questioning whether these concepts were transferable to text.  The next session will look at Pound's poetry and see if we can dive in and identify his concepts in his writing.

One of the questions I had for Ben was whether there was an ending point for these explorations.  Can you go for several weeks without producing anything, or is that just wasteful and pointless.  His opinion was that this undefined exploration is exactly what I should be focussing on, and in his opinion is raising some really important and interesting questions - I agree with that.

I actually think it was my fear of going into sessions without an outcome in place which made me question it.  I just need to be braver about it I guess.  I have to remember that one of the important goals for me this year is to allow myself to not be product oriented - to teach myself to be in it just for the exploration, and therefore be open to whatever I can find.  Obviously I still have to maintain a focus and trajectory, but I don't have to find a place to stop.

One of the big parts of the discussion with Ben was about what the point of this year is for me.  I decided that what I want to do is not find specific answers, but to find the questions I like to ask, and a framework to undertake the investigation engendered by those questions.

Foot-a-scray

Asian food
Dirty mood
Italian sofa
College loafer

Road works
Train works
Nothing works

Gentrification
Cafe nation
Smelly drains
Fetid rains

Franco Cozzo
IGA
Paint Spot

Dingy pubs
Yankee subs

Food galore
Streets a bore
Wanting more

Foot-a-scray

Expanding The Mind

Today I have been working hard, preparing for tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will begin running a couple of workshops exploring the Vorticism movement from the early 20th century and seeing if it has performance applications.  This project is a big blank open space with few specifically defined outcomes.  It is pure research and exploration, and this makes it rather scary.

In my typical fashion, I combat that fear with cramming and over preparation.  To give you an idea, I started the day painting a swirling spiral on two pieces of butchers paper.  I have printed out multiple copies of a summary of stimuli I sent to my participants and signage. I have also spent the last four hours googling.  Some of my searches include:

Cantos by Ezra Pound
Images of vortices
How are whirlpools made
How are cyclones made
How are fire vortices made
Meisner technique

The Meisner technique might seem an odd one.  One of my volunteer participants was telling me he has some acting colleagues who are currently doing Meisner sensory work who might want to participate.  I was looking it up to find out if it compatible with what we are investigating.  It kind of is.  It seems Meisner is about the actor experiencing the real emotion, not calling on previously experienced emotion.  That truth, or 'primary pigment' as Pound would say, is definitely in line with what Vorticism is about.

One of the fascinating challenges will be how to respect and evidence the old in the creation of the new.  I know it sounds contradictory, but Vorticism is not about destruction and wiping away everything in it's path.  It is about using the frictions of the past to continue to create generative energy which is used to create the future.  The energy is not fully spent though...I think...:s