“The Snake to Conquer All Fears”
We all enter the stage from the audience we stand with our back to the audience.
Create a circle by the people at the ends of the line coming together in the shape of a circle.
Begin to walk toward the middle of the circle at all times grabbing someone from across the circle’s hands.
We are now tangled and must get out.
We begin to untangle ourselves, and when we do we will form another circle.
Turn out to the audience.
Back up until we are touching each other shoulder’s with shoulders.
We put our hands in the air and cross them with the person next to us.
One of us [It doesn’t matter who] needs to slowly take themselves out of the circle, and into the middle of the circle.
Then they crouch.
Spread our legs and do the same, as we did with our arms, crossing with the person next to us.
Sit down, with the same crossing formation.
The person in the middle will then shimmy themselves up and act at the head of the snake. When this person is up, one person at a time will stand.
The first person to stand (and the only one standing other than the snake head at this point) will walk to the back of the snake head.
Begin to walk out of the circle and slowly one by one, people stand and follow making a snake.
Come to the front of the stage, by twisting and turning in a line.
Crouch in the fetal position at the front of the stage.
The snake head will then stand and jump over the newly formed line saying their fear and then going to the end of the line.
Every subsequent person will do the same.
When our new line is formed we will stand and bow.
END.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
The World On Stage (part 2) Notes
NOTES:
The World on Stage (2nd half)
o Everything onstage was put there for a reason and can be explained
o You can link this to everything being a ‘sign’
o Theatre can be simple “things are what they seem to be”
o Art has the objective to make things unfamiliar
o Humans stray away from reality
o The word sign is embedded into many other words such as; signifier and significant, these can support one another in their meanings
o Can reduce plays to just symbolism, such as Macbeth and you are left with signs of daggers and blood
o But they play goes beyond that and farther than it has to in order to explain the significance of the play and characters
o Everything embodied onstage is art
o How would theatre be described?
o The word theatre derived from the word “theatron” which means to see
o How can this derivative be applied to what we know about theatre?
o It is brought up that the actor is there onstage instead of us
o Furniture has an interesting meaning onstage and it is left up to the audience to decipher that
o The actor takes us into another world
-Miranda Blackman
The World on Stage (2nd half)
o Everything onstage was put there for a reason and can be explained
o You can link this to everything being a ‘sign’
o Theatre can be simple “things are what they seem to be”
o Art has the objective to make things unfamiliar
o Humans stray away from reality
o The word sign is embedded into many other words such as; signifier and significant, these can support one another in their meanings
o Can reduce plays to just symbolism, such as Macbeth and you are left with signs of daggers and blood
o But they play goes beyond that and farther than it has to in order to explain the significance of the play and characters
o Everything embodied onstage is art
o How would theatre be described?
o The word theatre derived from the word “theatron” which means to see
o How can this derivative be applied to what we know about theatre?
o It is brought up that the actor is there onstage instead of us
o Furniture has an interesting meaning onstage and it is left up to the audience to decipher that
o The actor takes us into another world
-Miranda Blackman
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Reading Notes :) -Kaylie Caires
Poets Creed Reading Notes
-Looking at the rhythm of language – all language can be looked at as a metaphor- as a symbol – as a representation of reality (reminds me of Semiotics)
-What is metaphor’s use in design? – Allows for audience interpretation/ can also create a particular idea or suggestion
-One is honest as an artist when you are being true to the imagination- (Borges)
-Idea: Beauty is timeless, forever endeared. – There is a relationship invested between the feeling and the actual form of something- feeling and form help to shape audience perception, as well as the meaning/ significance of a particular design.
The World on Stage Reading Notes
-All that is on the stage is a sign- Theater and performance can be viewed from a semiotic perspective- everything on stage becomes a self contained illusion outside of reality, that can conceptually refer to the world in either a literal or abstract method
- New word: phenomenological ☺
- Art/ Theater perceived as an act of removing things from a world in which they have become inconspicuous and then seeing them anew
- Objects always carry their worldly meaning with them- which makes us as theater practitioners ask how do we instill/ develop/create new meaning and what is its significance in different contexts
- Phenomenological philosophy is a continual de-symbolization of the word
-When looking at a signs: is it repeated? How and why? What is the sensory experience created by this sign and the relationship it shares to other signs? What is the difference between sign and image- what it the relationship between the physical image and it’s intended objective? How is meaning revealed in the sign? What limitations are imposed on the sign or object?
- An efficient sign is a recognizable sign
-Looking at the rhythm of language – all language can be looked at as a metaphor- as a symbol – as a representation of reality (reminds me of Semiotics)
-What is metaphor’s use in design? – Allows for audience interpretation/ can also create a particular idea or suggestion
-One is honest as an artist when you are being true to the imagination- (Borges)
-Idea: Beauty is timeless, forever endeared. – There is a relationship invested between the feeling and the actual form of something- feeling and form help to shape audience perception, as well as the meaning/ significance of a particular design.
The World on Stage Reading Notes
-All that is on the stage is a sign- Theater and performance can be viewed from a semiotic perspective- everything on stage becomes a self contained illusion outside of reality, that can conceptually refer to the world in either a literal or abstract method
- New word: phenomenological ☺
- Art/ Theater perceived as an act of removing things from a world in which they have become inconspicuous and then seeing them anew
- Objects always carry their worldly meaning with them- which makes us as theater practitioners ask how do we instill/ develop/create new meaning and what is its significance in different contexts
- Phenomenological philosophy is a continual de-symbolization of the word
-When looking at a signs: is it repeated? How and why? What is the sensory experience created by this sign and the relationship it shares to other signs? What is the difference between sign and image- what it the relationship between the physical image and it’s intended objective? How is meaning revealed in the sign? What limitations are imposed on the sign or object?
- An efficient sign is a recognizable sign
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Notes on "The Use of Metapatterns" Tyler Volk
The Use of Metapatterns… Tyler Volk
Metapatterns are thought to be functional patterns or principle functions that are known to a large set of systems both drawing from and encapsulating both culture and biology by claiming that evolved systems are created from any repetitive sequence of replication, variation, and selection.
16 examples of Metapatterns
Spheres: Maximum volume, minimum surface, containment: grapes, domes
Sheets: Transfer surface for matter, energy, or information: fish gills, solar collectors
Tubes: Surface transfer, connection support; leaf veins, highways, chains of command
Web Networks: Parts in a relationship within systems; subsystems of cells, organisms, ecosystems, machines, society.
Borders: it’s a specialized system that functions to both isolate a system from the environment, and to regulate the exchange of matter, energy, and information with the environment, usually by using the ability to open and close pores. Ex.: thick protective perimeter walls that Renaissance Italy’s cities used to employ.
Binaries: minimal and thus efficient system: two sexes, two party system, bi-furcating decision making processes
Gradients: Continuum of variation between binary poles; chemical waves in cell development, human quantitative and qualitative values
Centers: Key components of system stability; DNA, Social insect centers, political constitutions and government
Layers, or Holarchy: Levels of webs, in which successive systems are parts of larger systems; biological nestings from biomolecules to ecosystems, human social nestings, engineering designs, computer software.
Emergence: general phenomenon when a new type of functionality derives from binaries or webs; life from molecules, cognition from neurons.
Holons versus Clonons: Parts of systems as functionally unique versus interchangeability; Hearts-lungs-liver (holons) of body versus skin cells (clonons) of the skin
Clusters: subset of webs, distributed system of parts with mutual attraction; birds flock, ungulate herds, children playing, egalitarian social groups.
Arrows: stability or gradient-like change over time: biological homeostasis, growth, self-maintaining social structures
Breaks: Relatively sudden changes in system behavior; cell division, insect metaphorsis, coming of age ceremonies, political elections
Triggers: initiating agents of breaks, both internal and external; sperm entering egg, precipitating events of war.
Cycles: recurrent patterns in systems over time; protein degradation and synthesis, life cycles, power cycles of electricity generating plants, feedback cycles, educational grade levels (cyclic design w/in an arrow of overall educational progress)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Kathryn's "Scenography as a Machine" Notes Part Deux
Here's the second half of my notes on the article.
Page 5:
*Different types of theatre able to “become” anywhere necessary for the performance.
*Craig wanted the act of living performance in the imagination of the audience to achieve this transformation of space, rather than the actual set construction.
-Art and scenography must combine to create performance space.
*Adolphe Appia: (paraphrase) Once the paint dries upon a surface it is static, whereas dramatic action and human emotion changes and grows…Therefore abolish painted scenery.
-Appia enacted his scenographic reform on Wagner’s work.
Page 6:
*Appia’s view of the scene as machine may therefore be understood as of a machine that controls dramatic action.
*Craig’s scenic designs represented lighting technology that only became possible at the end of the twentieth century.
-Not images of the stage, but representations of the qualities that the stage might create.
*Appia’s drawings have a hazy quality that indicates the qualities of light he sought.
Page 7:
*Appia worked with Emile Jacques Dalcroze.
*Dalcroze not theatre-affiliated, yet believe in the educative and social powers of performance.
*Dalcroze worked with training the body to move to music in order to liberate the conscious mind and be a force in the development of society and community. –Eurhythmics
*Appia’s contribution to this art form differed from his norm of designing scenes for performances meant to be viewed by an audience, which Eurhythmics was not.
Page 8:
*Much of Craig’s writings stir the imagination of the architect rather than offering achievable architectural solutions.
*Appia, through his work with Dalcroze, the first practical vision of the experimental theatre space, the atelier.
*Appia’s vision is an architectural shell, a scenic tabula rasa within which scenographers may articulate a space of performance suitable for a specific project.
*The audience is no longer placed in a dark room and asked to observe a brightly lit spectacle placed beyond a segregating archway.
*Appia’s design for Helbrau could make the entire interior structure of the hall a machine that could reflect the atmospheric qualities of the performance and physically embrace all participants.
*Both Appia and Craig understood that the physical scenography would be given form, color, texture, and dimension by the use of light.
*Both appreciate the quality of performative ‘tension’ in the liminality of the empty stage space.
*Both saw the stage as a place that could achieve its ultimate artistic life through the act of live performance.
Page 5:
*Different types of theatre able to “become” anywhere necessary for the performance.
*Craig wanted the act of living performance in the imagination of the audience to achieve this transformation of space, rather than the actual set construction.
-Art and scenography must combine to create performance space.
*Adolphe Appia: (paraphrase) Once the paint dries upon a surface it is static, whereas dramatic action and human emotion changes and grows…Therefore abolish painted scenery.
-Appia enacted his scenographic reform on Wagner’s work.
Page 6:
*Appia’s view of the scene as machine may therefore be understood as of a machine that controls dramatic action.
*Craig’s scenic designs represented lighting technology that only became possible at the end of the twentieth century.
-Not images of the stage, but representations of the qualities that the stage might create.
*Appia’s drawings have a hazy quality that indicates the qualities of light he sought.
Page 7:
*Appia worked with Emile Jacques Dalcroze.
*Dalcroze not theatre-affiliated, yet believe in the educative and social powers of performance.
*Dalcroze worked with training the body to move to music in order to liberate the conscious mind and be a force in the development of society and community. –Eurhythmics
*Appia’s contribution to this art form differed from his norm of designing scenes for performances meant to be viewed by an audience, which Eurhythmics was not.
Page 8:
*Much of Craig’s writings stir the imagination of the architect rather than offering achievable architectural solutions.
*Appia, through his work with Dalcroze, the first practical vision of the experimental theatre space, the atelier.
*Appia’s vision is an architectural shell, a scenic tabula rasa within which scenographers may articulate a space of performance suitable for a specific project.
*The audience is no longer placed in a dark room and asked to observe a brightly lit spectacle placed beyond a segregating archway.
*Appia’s design for Helbrau could make the entire interior structure of the hall a machine that could reflect the atmospheric qualities of the performance and physically embrace all participants.
*Both Appia and Craig understood that the physical scenography would be given form, color, texture, and dimension by the use of light.
*Both appreciate the quality of performative ‘tension’ in the liminality of the empty stage space.
*Both saw the stage as a place that could achieve its ultimate artistic life through the act of live performance.
World as a stage notes/ Shanna McCoy
Shanna McCoy
Cobras: Leaps and Bounds
“The World on stage”
All that is on stage os a sign
When you are on stage or watching a performance on stage everything on it is a sign and a symbol for the world within the play and everything from the outside world is put aside so as to make way for the objects on the stage that represent something new.
There are various significations of the sign
As long as there is a pretence of the word
Comes down to perspective
Impact the perception of the object to make things unfamiliar and have you look at them in a different way for a longer period of time—So that you are not thinking about the object you are thinking about what it represents… So that it leaves a longer standing impression upon you like a work of art.
If we approach theater semiotically we must surely agree with the Prague linguists that “all that is on the stage is a sign,” and that anything deliberately put there for artistic purposes becomes a sign when it enters illusionary space and time. That is, it becomes an event in a self-contained illusion outside the world of social praxis but conceptually referring to that world in some way, if only in the fact that the illusion is about hypothecial human beings.
Images are signs with a high degree of “iconic identity” the signs working together to create a deeper meaning despite theatres tendency to be what it seems to be.
The essence of the play
Art exists so that one may recover the sensation of life
-to make object unfamiliar
-to make forms difficult
-the object is not important
-seeing things anew that used to just be a part of the everyday life
-“we grow away”
art provides an “unfamiliar” route
-meaning conceal the objects
Art imparts “the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known,”
A sensory experience that cannot be accounted for by semiotic systems
The fact that the play (Macbeth) does far more than is necessary in order to mean whatever it may mean
MUST HAVE MUSIC
LIGHT
An imagined actual experience that floats wherever the text leads
Plays are dreams or interpretations of directors and designers-the audience has to see through that dream and get a meaning from that…we should all create our own plays!
Real engagement is an enhancement of being
The actor enables us to recognize the human from the inside
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