Reading Diary - Praxis Enrichment

PRAXIS ENRICHMENT

Let me begin by saying how glad I am to have the opportunity to take this course – as it really is the one I need most on the most fundamental level.

As a performing artist I am able to articulate and express proficiently through the mediums of movement, sound and related inter-disciplinary techniques – however, my ability to plough through text and summon and craft language leaves much to be desired!

TEXTS – Reader Sampler & Roland Barthes texts

It is difficult for me to find language to demonstrate my understanding of these texts. In fact, it might be more organic for me to express their essence in improvised movement and sound!

Reader

The short quotes all very efficiently put their respective messages across – however, I was only caught up by the use of language in a couple of cases.

The first one (Fioretos) is extremely sensual and gives the reader a sensory effect that reminds me of Lewis Carol’s ability to place his reader in an opium poppy field (as in the Alice books, for example).

Schjeldahl’s description of Twombly’s work is also very captivating in that it brings about a physical sensation in an empathetic reader – one of awkwardness and discontent.

The last one (Weiss) is the most virtuosic use of language. It guides the mind of the reader in exactly the same manner as the structure of the gardens it describes guides their viewer.

The Wisdom of Art

I took note of the fact Barthes used a strong underlying structural technique in his use of a series of Greek concepts to hold the piece together and give inspiration to developing his comments within each given context.

(… As a parody of this kind of technique, I think it might be amusing to form an essay using the Seven Stages of Alchemy to describe the artwork of my four-year-old niece!)

On Fact / Pragma, he hangs a discussion of Twombly’s materials, gestures of application and content.

Chance / Tyche describes the results of Twombly’s gestures on the materials.

Outcome / Telos – here this equals meaning or effect. The effect on the viewer that gives a sense of meaning. (This is what I would refer to as “essence”)

Surprise / Adodeston – a shock or jolt that opens up a new avenue of awareness.

Action / Drama is used to ask “What is happening?” What is happening in the painting? And what is happening in the mind of the viewer? It is seeking story.

My question here is: how is this different from “meaning” in the way he uses Telos?

I am also interested in his ideas of Ma and Rarus in an aesthetic sense that comes out of a spiritual practice or philosophical axiom.

From Work to Text

This was extremely weighty language for me! The only way I can think of to demonstrate my understanding of it is to equate “Text” and “Work” to other concepts.

The two examples that have come to mind are:

1)   In Psychological science, the difference between the neurology of the brain and the development and use of classical Psycho-analysis could be likened to the roles of Text/Neurology and Work/Psycho-analysis (also the fact that it seems to be rather backward which study came first – as it is the neurology that is the physical material in which any thought process – conscious or unconscious - can occur)

2)   In Dance, the capabilities of the human body in gesture, form and kinetic motion are the Text, while their use in any given specific technique and choreography is the Work.

Much contemporary dance since Post-Modernism is focusing back into the “text” of movement as it’s primary goal.