Live Arts for the Everyday – 90 Applicable Thoughts

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #17 – Production

| María Ferrara

In live arts, production is the logistics department, dealing with the practicalities that are necessary in order to make work. It can seem like an unattractive and overwhelming job, but without production there would be nothing but ideas and inspirations. Practical aspects need to be taken care of in order to bring anything into existence. The I-Ching, an ancient Chinese divination and philosophy text, describes this synergy as the confluence of heaven and earth, of potential and materiality. There is no creation if one of them is lacking. Where am I in the continuum between creativity and practicality? How are these two aspects working to manifest my potential?

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #16 – Technique

| María Ferrara

It is true that success as an artist is not always dependant on technique. It is true that technique can quell individuality. It is true that technique itself is just a tool and not art. Technique needs to be assimilated so that it is at the service of the artist and not vice versa. The same happens with anything we learn from others in life. At first learning involves copying and reproducing, but at some point we need to break down the material and digest it, so that we can discard what stifles our nature and make the best use of what serves us and makes us thrive.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #15 – Resonance

| María Ferrara

Accoustic resonance is the phenomenon by which a sound wave is amplified by objects whose natural vibration frequency matches that of the wave. Resonance helps the sound carry. Likewise, when something moves us, people who resonate with us receive this and relay it back or further. The lack of such resonance makes the expressing and manifesting of what is vibrating inside us much more challenging.


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #14 – Background

| María Ferrara

Whenever there is a background/foreground distinction in live arts (see applicable thought #13), the background is meant to support what is happening in the foreground. In terms of perception, any change in the background changes the way in which the foreground comes across. Nothing happens in isolation, either on a stage or in life. Everything is part of a system of dynamic relationships. Everything is background until we notice it and see it as foreground and goes back to being background when something else takes the foreground as figure. By definition we are more aware of the foreground, but we can expand our awareness to perceive the effect of the background as origin and context.

María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #13 – Foreground

| María Ferrara

Live arts have traditionally used the distinctions between background and foreground: harmony/ melody, chorus/protagonist, corps de ballet/soloist to direct the attention of the audience. However, some contemporary approaches prefer to avoid this hierarchy and allow the audience by means of its attention to be the one that composes its own experience out of what is being presented. Gestalt therapy took from Gestalt psychology not only its name, but the notion that a figure and the ground it stands in are just parts of a field. According to this, it is the observer’s/listener’s attention that designates the figure. Sometimes it can seem that the same figure comes to the foreground obsessively in our lives. It might be interesting to ask ourselves what is making our attention pick out the exact same element out of an everchanging field.

María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #12 – Audience

| María Ferrara

Without an audience there can simply be no performance. Do we sometimes feel the same about our lives? Does every moment count even if there’s nobody to witness it? An intense use of social media to make our lives public might suggest that we’re depending a lot on an outside eye. In his poem Leap before you Look, W. H. Auden says that “to rejoice when no one else is there is even harder than it is to weep”. Judging by the kind of experiences that are shared most online, he would be right. Can we be our own audience and make every moment of our lives relevant, regardless of being alone, by being present?

María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #11 Projection

| María Ferrara

Projection is what makes one’s voice heard clearly and without strain from a distance. However, the same notion can refer to the body when what it does is clearly readable, for example in clowning or mask work. Projecting means making what you’re doing travel out into the space to reach the audience. Too much projection might come across as even aggressive for the audience and be counterproductive. If in our life we are trying to communicate something but are not succeeding, it might be interesting to ask ourselves if we are using the appropriate amount of projection.

María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #10 – Practice

| María Ferrara

An artist’s practice keeps their creativity and tools available and ready to use. Picasso said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working”. In the case of live artists, this is even more the case. Paintbrushes, chisels, canvases or clay do not degrade when they are not used. However, the performer’s instrument does and may not be ready to be used when inspiration comes. Every life has special moments of opportunity, beauty, joy and wonder. When we are in practice with our instrument, these inspirations do not pass us by and we can live them to the full.

María Ferrara

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #9 – Rehearse

| María Ferrara

In its most traditional sense, rehearsing means repeating something over and over until it’s performed in accordance to a certain intention. It implies acquiring an action pattern. When in life we repeat certain behaviours, it’s as if we had rehearsed them so that they happen automatically. It can be difficult to shake them off and do something new. However, new actions can also be rehearsed until they become second nature and are ready to be performed for real.

María Ferrara