Monday thoughts.

Today's oblique strategy

Trust in the you of now.


I'm in my 'dance clothes' today, since it's Monday and tonight is improv class. I noticed this morning that I really love wearing my dance clothes. They're starting to feel like my 'work clothes.' I feel a sense of focus and motivation to do something productive and artistic when I put my dance clothes on. It's as if I'm going to do something more useful because I'm in clothes that are loose fitting enough for me to move in any way that I need to. It makes me believe that I need to do a physical warm up and movement series before I can get any other work done.
It reminds me of the Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. Of course, she actually *is* a dancer, so it would make sense that her rituals in the studio are part of her creative practice. I'm also reminded of the conversation with Katsura about learning being a full body experience.

I've always found release in my free form dancing moments:

- when I was a child, I'd shut the doors to the living room and dance around in my 'dance clothes' from that era (turtleneck, thick tights) for hours on end. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Salsoul Orchestra, Tijuana Brass, Saturday Night Fever, K-tel compilations...

- teen years the movement centered mostly on singing and laughing endlessly with my friends. Laughter is a real workout. 'dance clothes' were grubby men's suit jackets and torn jeans from the thrift store.

- college/20s saw me at the goth club 1-3 times per week in 'my spot' on the dancefloor for hours in my own swirly little world. 'dance clothes' were big big boots and lots of black but no corsets or other constricting garments that were popular with the goth scene.

Tuesday Oblique Strategy.

This is already starting to feel like a horoscope and today's strategy is just to fortune cookie like:

don't be frightened to display your talents

Have I shown you my tricky magic show? Watch:

Simple Subtraction, evening edition.

Monday Night Improv found me in the middle of my first contact improvisation class. I hadn't fully made the connection that I'd mostly been doing solo improvisation, maybe interacting with other dancers, but definitely not much actual contact with other dancers in the class.

And in keeping with the day's oblique strategy, the instructor had us do the bulk of the class with our eyes closed! After alot of time with a partner, we were told to go off on a solo exploration of the space with our eyes closed. By the end I was stunned at what a good sense of the layout of the room and my proximity to others had become. This was mainly due to SOUND. I also tend to move very slowly, and counter-intuitively felt more free to have phrases that involved alot of rapid movement and traveling across the room. There was a pliability to the air that made me not afraid of crashing into anyone. When an encounter happened, I couldn't help but feel like I was being attacked by zombies....but in a fun way.

So! Improv lesson of the day:

simple subtraction of one element leads to the amplification of others.

Today's Oblique Strategy

I was introduced to Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategiesat the beginning of my MA last year in a workshop with FrenchMottershead.I was Already a fan of Eno's music, but hadn't come across these cards before. My pals at Medialab Prado showed me that you can get them as a widget for the macintosh dashboard! So now I start most days with an Oblique Strategy.

I'm going to post them here...frequently, and would love to hear what they're inspired in thoughts, actions, daydreams, visions, etc. for you. It's just fine if the reaction isn't immediate. I'm a strong believer in the power of suggestion to have an echoing/ripple effect for days, months, years to come. So share whenever seems appropriate.

Here is today's strategy:

simple subtraction

My first, uncreative take on this is related to a little blizzard of application activity that has come my way:

1) 500 word abstract for a round table that I would like to run at next year's International Symposium on Electronic Art. I'd like to run a round table to discuss how electronic artists can use - and are using - our position as non-traditional performers to question and redefine our relationship with our audiences. I've taken a pretty radical position on this topic which I think would be a useful bookend for a discussion of the spectrum of possibilities open to artists.

The obvious application of the oblique strategy? I have loads of thoughts and some writing related to this, so it's just a matter of pulling out the most relevant parts and creating a clear abstract.

2) Call for work for Trampoline's Radiator Festival in January. Would love to do a site-specific iteration of opticnoodling there and the timing is perfect. This would be a great opportunity to revisit the setup I created for my MA and see what it's like to use it in a space that isn't dedicated to art.

The obvious application of the oblique strategy? Is twofold: I decided that I was going to pitch my opticnoodling performance as is. I have so many ideas for ways in which I would like to evolve it and other performances I would like to try to do. However, reading the call for work, I think opticnoodling in its current incarnation would be a lovely addition to the festival. I also need to edit the footage from the last performances into a show reel! What is editing if not subtraction?

3) Application for a job in Portland that has nothing to do with my art practice, so I won't go into details here. The ways in which it is related is that it would set me up with a solid position before relocation, which would calm my nerves about this big move before it happens.

The oblique strategy? It is again just a matter of some slight repositionings and elegant editing of words, imagery, etc.

First up: Janet Cardiff anyone?

Welcome to what is hopefully the first post of the new noodle blog. Is this thing on?

Modern Art Oxford has an exhibit of past works by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller through January.

Info here.

I'm so there!
Anyone up for a field trip?