[Realism Now!] [Perf Art MAIN page]
Performed Art
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Also: Main link: -[Performance Art]-
See also: [(art) concepts]
[Art MovementsPerformed Text]
-[Performance, Absurd]-
-[post post-modernism]-
[Dada]
[Dadaism] (an art "ism")
[Performance frank: Realism Now!]
[Why Bother?]
[ "PARTS ONE, TWO, THREE" ]
[The Performed Art Act]
[The Performed Art Technology]
[The Performed Danse]
[Performed Art: Filmed]
[The Performed Performance]
[The Performed Score]
[The Performed Text]
[The Performed UFO's] (and esp, etc)
[The Performed WEB (including programming)]
[Fluxus]
[Street Art]
[Interventionist Art]
[T.A.Z.] (Association for Ontological Anarchy)
(Hakim Bey, chief janitor)
[Frank's stuff]
Performed Art
On this page: {Intro}
{Stuff}
{Performed ArtWorks (paintings, sculptures)}
{Elements}
Intro
In this series of files (essays? explorations? substitutes for
low-cost fire insurance?), i've been trying to figure out what
are the similarities and differences between what we loosely
refer to as "performance art" and other forms of the arts.
To my way of thinking, the arts consists of the following:
Art - now how did that happen?
Theatre - live's the thing
Music
History
Writing
and
Danse - I always take from the Russian "tansivallii" - i'd
been forced to perform square dance for the various
civic groups during those hard, cold winters in
Nebraska and was never really taken with danse
(well, at least in groups - i've always liked the
"Teaburry Shuffle") so i got to see the Boloshi (yep
them) and a troup of Georgian Danseurs (from the
Georgia located on the Black Sea not the Atlantic
Ocean. Way cool. Nice to see things live - oh, well
"just another one of life's many transforming moments)
-[Of Tibilsi]- -[Of Atlanta fame]-
START AGAIN
Anyway, each of these "things" has a certain way of looking at the world.
And each is not only highly subjective to the viewer, but in the way it's
presented. You'll note the inclusion of history; who wins the battle, writes
the history.
One thing is the concept of the "amateur" vs the "professional", i'll simply
take it as read that this is pretty much a value judgement by people who
have something to protect. If an "rank amateur" such as Rouseau could be
welcomed by the surrealists (even they all knew that he hadn't been
*formally* trained), and we must at least in some small measure accept
Rodia's "Watts Towers" as *art*, and if then what do we do with theatre?
and music? and history?
Prior to the 20th century (and the latter bit of it), there wasn't really
an "academic track" for artists as such. Indeed, we can go back to the
science of anthropology and look at people like Zora Neale Hurston who
formally trained with the *great* Franz Boas? We might be tempted to
look at her "research" as not of the same high calliber that we might
judge the work of Albert Einstein.
And that's part of the "measuring fallacy" itself.
That what ever it is that artists do, its somehow not as amazing as what
physicists do. There's this sort of arrogant "pecking order" of accomplishment
and of course it derives (i would take as read) by the same sort of appraisal
derived from evolutionary survival tactics/skills/selections/etc that let us
determine social interaction, co-operation, and hostility levels in others.
Translate that into "whose number one", and you get the absurdity of saying
(as in times past) that one race is more evolutionarily fit to survive than
another. (Refer to Stephen J. Gould's "The MisMeasure of Man" for starters).
Or, of course: An historian is no match for a nuclear physicst in terms of
intellectual abilities, deserving of awe/admiration/hero-worship/etc.
So, it goes.
START AGAIN
Essentially, all creative works "fill a void". The void is the "un-answered
question" (which arrised from the "as yet, un-asked question"). Prior to
Einstein embarking on relativity, his parents though his interest in being
a physicist a waste of time, since with the discovery of electricity and
all of the modern wonders of the "fin d'cycle'" 1900 everything had already
been done.
Thus, electronics (Lee de Forest noticing one of Edison's failed light bulb
creations), rocketry (the mad dreams of people like the un-celebrated
Konstantin Tsilikovski (multi-stage rockets, space stations, etc), and in
fact radio (predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations), but until all
of the "static" that kept cropping up in telephony un-known and un-suspected.
And of coure, this is in the more or less deterministic world of science.
After all, electrons/positrons, radio waves, action/re-action are fundamental
properties of our universe and exist whether the mere humans (see map) can
figure out how to "discover" them or not. See the TV series "Connections" by
John Burke (as a reporter, he covered the Apollo 11 moon landing for the BBC).
But, then think about then things like art, music, danse, theatre, history.
One might argue that history has much in common with science - things are
"out there" - just waiting to be studied, cataloged, and structured. Of
course (again going back to anthropology) - everything is relative to
the culture that is writing the history. This forced historians to
"step outside the stage of the human drama" and at least *try* to be
objective. See, "Telling the Truth about History" by a grand trio of
writers, Appleby, Hunt, and Jacob. They use the backdrop of how the
"truths" of American History have been taught.
And theatre. It has so many versions and forms that it extends out into
almost every other form of human behaviour/expression/thought. In fact
Monty Python brought this clearly into view with their "Wuthering Heights"
performed entirely in signalling flag semaphore. And then we go to all
of the extremes from mime (play without words) to the chorus of classical
Greek drama (story stripped to pure word, an almost voice-less mirror
of the play and its context/public/times).
Danse which mirrors all that we are in the form of movement. We walk and
run - to have covered the entire globe, and then stylised into all possible
emotions; story told by movement and gesture (thus returning to mime but
with rhthyms).
Music - oddest of all. Rhthyms of the body/nature/seasons captured into
the mind and reflected back out into the externalisation of what the
mind perceives as pattern. Indeed, as John Cage noted (who explored all
of the possibilities of sound and music - almost going deaf from listening
to the rhythms of a jack-hammer breaking up concrete), he went so far
as to say that of the patterns of music A, AA, AAA, ABAB, etc "many
are possible, few are tried".
And then "un-written" around this is "writing". Even in cultures that
did not have a *written* language (language is above all else, a LIVING
thing - think about the so-called "dead" language of Latin). Spoken text,
a speech, announcement, poetry (rhymed, meterted, etc), and then the
various fomrs of the written word (from hieroglyphs to caligrphic forms).
And then there's art.
Probably the least formed of them all. For the most part, it has had been
under the guiding principle of representation/conformity/utilitiy. Even
in tribal art, the artist's work is guided (often required) by the mores
and sesnsabilities of the groups common views about art.
And then art really isn't like the others. (In the following, i will
use the word "tribal" to mean "attributes of a group of humans in ANY
possible time Past/present/(future?) on any part of the planet Earth
(see map).
When we hear a tribal story teller talk about the ancestors, and some story
we don't always know if we are listening to history, myth, or entertainment.
We we watch a tribal danse, we know that what we are seeing is something
created to give "voice" to the movements in and of themselves.
And of course theatre (and we include film, recordings, etc) - which literally
can encompass all other forms, and yet the structure of the space and the
performers cue us to the fact that it IS a performance.
As with all human things, certain cultural cues are taken up and incorporated
into common practice. Thus, a mime who holds up their thumb at arm's length
is *immediately* brings us "a artist". And so forth.
So, how as artists do we dig into the other "art spaces" and bring those aspects
of their practice into "our space"?
That's the main problem.
When is a work of "performance art" (single or group)
different from theatre, musical performance, etc.?
What are the "border-line" aesthetics of it?
What can we hope to achieve, and how does relate
to what we try to achieve "usually"?
Onward, into the fog.
Mixed Media
(still images, puppets, maquettes, etc)
(Listening to the "Nutty" album with
John Coltrane (sax, natch)
Thelonius Monk (playing something called
piano forte - indeed his forte!)
may help in understanding this section
)
I take it as read the following:
1) We have all of the various technologies -
including digital ones: But to be used in new/various ways
traditional stuff - again new ways, etc (torn canvases,
a canvas "on a stick" - used as
finger puppet, maquette, etc, etc
2) We shouldn't be afraid to explore new ways of using new/old
materials. Thus, we might use a canvas as a puppet (will
the surgery be painful?) or mixing some nicely (professional)
film clip (video/film/aud/game/cartoon/live-action/etc) with
say a hand made sign or use of maquettes, etc, etc...
3) Don't be afraid if the story ISN'T CLEAR or that there might
not be a "story" at all - this isn't commercial TV you know!!
What if in the new "Transformers" film (always, been a fan
of the theme song and of course even i've heard of "Optimus Prime")
say all of a sudden they start knitting - yarn and all, maybe
either some "chatter" - or in the B/G some jazz (Nutty? In Walked
Bud? Popeye the Sailor Theme? etc, etc) and then they just all of
a sudden with NO (yes, absolutely NONE) explantaion get back to
their whole destructo/save-o thing (good/evil, action/adventure),
etc.
This gets back to John Cage's concerto for toy piano - it's not that
it's strictly done for shock value (as might be argued about say
Naim Jun Paik's "shampooing John Cage's hair" at the classical music
concert). But, all of the BAGGAGE that we bring to the happening/event/etc
thing. Also the fact that Leng Tan is playing the piano here
(think Pink Floyd, Fifty Cent, Pavarotti, etc).
This goes back to our old friends allographic (generic/copy) vs
autographic (authentic/original) - when we hear a live/recording
of say Thelonius Monk (esp in a live or at least un-edited studio)
playing the piano then there's that *something* - the same way if
say it's Lee Ann Harington doing an energy drawing then that differs
from say Jim Dine, me, or gORAN, etc. Again going back our old friend
"The Powers of Presence" (refer as usual to Robert Plant Armstrong's
book of the same name, as well as "But it is Art?" and
"Believing is Seeing" by the Dynamic Duo of Freeland and Stanzenski)....
So, where are we anyway?
The problem is that HOLLYWOOD/CABLE/SATELITE/ETC -- all want to sell
us professional things - packaged, sealed, PERFECT - ie, mostly boring.
So start looking at things ascance! Look at Weird Al's "UHF" or even
Pee-Wee Herman's "PlayHouse" or "The Simpsons" or Saturday Night Live's
"The Killer Christmas Trees".
And of course the classic prototypes - Monty Python, Frank Zappa,
Galliger, Marcell Merseau, etc.
The problem is of course: Repetition is the death of art.
But, on the other hand: We always vibe to repetition as the recognised.
(insert McCrongle's cmcl here)
gl'rimmib ?? where was i???
(there isn't anything on god's green earth that can't be changed_
START AGAIN
Na-me
(pronuskiated: naw-may)
Surrealistic transformations of the thing to
create the cartoon character
"Call an agent 24/7"
so the secret agent (who is of course a master
of disguise, so hence takes on *any* appearance
-- but with "front of prop only" kind's of
in-consistencies.
Thurber: "And even i could tell from a distance
of not less than 30 feet that a wolf
in a sleeping gown looks less like
your grandmother than does Calvin Coolidge..."
He should know about rockets.
He knows about everything.
A bottle of Dr. Baud's Hair Tonic
(picture of me, bald on the label)
as a cartoon char - Mr. R.
And of course Spikey and Blonkowitz (the SPAAAAACE CREATURES)
Performed ArtWorks (paintings, sculptures)
This topiv (pls excuse the typing the old gout has
taken mostly my right arm; again - sheesh, at least
this time i don't have an art show!!
Anyway, let's say we're going to perform Edvard Munch's
"The Scream" we could obviously "mock" the picture itself.
And then we might mime thieves stealing it. But, of course
we could use sound effects (Snd/FX), lights flasing, etc.
And onto this could be layered, eg:
1) Edvard Grieg's music, a "Pipo" (stocking cap), and possibly
even a bit of Henrik Ibsen's poetry (less well known;
except for Peer Gyntt), or some of his plays; eg, "hedda Gabler".
2) Running in and out with streamers of paper with an
arctic circle motif, fjords (natch), or perhaps the
Monty Python standard - vikings.
3) any other textual stuff - brought in and crosss producted
into other cultural things.
4) and of colurse anything absurd.
Performed Art: Elements
Cage's AB, AAABAABAAC, etc Patterns
These can be applied of course either as a primary layer:
Obviously constructed Cards in promenant places
that appear and then get covered up, only to
re-emerge again - and of course with either the
standard "rule of three" or any sort of progression.
or intermittent:
After an obvious pattern (eg, "pictures at an exhibition"
by Modest Musorgski) or "the bull on the roof" by Darius Milhaud
(pr: mee you), bring in a re-current theme.
And of course "progress/evolution/devo-lution" can be used if the
work involves extant time; eg, contrast the way that Stravinski's
"Rite of Spring" is portrayed as a rite as such in "normal" performance
with how it is used in Disney's "Fantasia" where the entire piece is
laid down as a time-track against the history of "primitive" life
as seen their rendering evolution. Similarly, noe the use of
Beethoven's 1st symphony in the short aimation "Evolution".
And then further in "The History of Evil" as featured in the (1980)
film "Heavy Metal" by Cornelius Cole using our good friend
Viktor Pendereski's music as the track.
And of course if each element (or at least an actor/prop/scene/etc)
has either themed music associated with it or possibly colour
themes (eg, in fil version of Stephen King's "The Shinning" in the
use of soft orange as "homey" and then blue/yellow as "madness"),
then these can be juxtaposed and/or clashed/harmonised/etc.
Intrusions/Flanges/Extensions
Given that any element can have a look and feel (and we take it
as read that if an element has different forms (eg, Jeckyl & Hyde)
that their relationship is fixed (or not) - and our design
of such alternate "states" establishes (or not) the connection
via aud/vis/etc cues), then we can "tack on" other elements to
an element and these become robust alternate views/sounds or
behaviours of the element.
If we "intrude" into the element some attribute or behaviour or
prominent THING, then this becomes part of the element's
"bag of tricks". An intrusions usually are interrupting to the
element's "normal" behaviour/appearance/etc. Thus (eg, hicoughs)
this becomes a destracting pattern (possibly of length one) that
interrupts the normal "flow" of the element's STORY.
Flanges are the catch all for things picked up along the way.
Think of a flange as a flourish or a stylised "add on".
We can think of this as the IVENTORY in adventure game as the
player moves along the flow of the play. Obviously, such flanges
can be usefull or merely distracting. In the limiting case a flange
IS INTRUSIVE and thus can alter (even terminate) the element's
performance. Note the use of this in "The Black Knight" in
"Monty Python and The Holy Grail".
Extensions are to the extent that two elements are merged or
closely interracting; the most obvious example is, "and baby
makes three". In adventure stories, as the team is built the
different characters necessarily interact and thus INTER/WORK.
Also, when a distinctive sub-element is introduced the normal
behaviouristics of element are (often radically) altered.
Thus, in RPG's (Roll Playing Games), when a player gains a
major LEVEL then this can go far beyond a simple flange or
intrusions. Thus, the extension of an element is often tied
to a TRANFORMATION and especially in a REVEALING TRANSFORMATION
of the element's capabilities, POV (Point of View), and
behaviours, interactions, etc. Eg: Luke Skywalker exercising
the first "feeling" for the force.