Love Monkeys

Something I was learning about that I found related in a weird way to PAWC. Bear with me...

So, our closest primate ancestors are the Bonobo's. (I think they are particularly interesting because they are constantly having sex with each other... regardless of male/female, and sex has completely replaced any violence within their culture. Make love not war).

BUT!

one of the signs of cultural similarity between humans and these chimps was their rudimentary "tool" use. The most common example is using a stick to retrieve termites out of a mound. Some different groups of bonobos would take the leaves off of the stick first, and others wouldn't, creating distinctions among group behaviors. The beginning of culture.
It is also suspected that the chimps wouldn't necessarily teach the others how to use the tools. Learning came through immitation. mimesis. Mimesis led to the development of culture!

Think about it.

Courtesy of my lovely roommate and brilliant scholar, Kyla McCracken

this is perfect. Kyla found it, give her all the credit. Cept she posted it on the discussion board which is of course as Dr. MacFarlane puts it, "far too linear for our purposes." SO! because I am certain sooooo many of you read This! Here:





good story Katie Holmes.

Aesthetic Object versus Art Object example

Have you taken Desiree's "Dramatic Activities in the Elementary Classroom?"

If you were in my class, you might remember a potent and spectacular performance by Annaleigh and Katie Pelkey concerning a dorky duck in the classroom. That was part of the lesson "Found Objects." In this lesson, students pass around a "grab bag" of goodies and pull out an object. The objects can be anything, such as a roll of tape, a rubber ducky, stapler, etc. The students get in to groups and create dramatic scenes, creating a character for their object. They can personify the object and use it as it is intended, or imagine it is something else all together. In this case, I would think, an aesthetic object becomes an art object. The objects are manipulated by humans, and the materials have been worked on to create a performance art.

So then I ask, what about the tools one uses to create art? Are an artist's paint brushes or an actors props aesthetic objects turned art? A paint brush is a part of the gesture, does it not perform work?

This leads me to discuss gesture. As we know, gesture is a huge part of theatre, especially the theatre we have created for ourselves within this department. Especially concerning, Chekhov's infamous "Psychological Gesture." After splitting with Stanislavski, Chekhov's METHOD is based on the physical and the imaginative. Working from the outside in, Chekhov's work encourages the expression of a character's internal process or desire in a grand gesture. After physcializing the wants on the character, it can then be internalized, provoking a visceral, trained physical recollection of a particular struggle or feeling. This pyscological gesture is a means of work-ing on art - a character, script, play, performance. Just as displaying a piece of "art" in a museum requires work, simply experiencing the gesture is enough for "art" to take place. (If music should be a verb, why not through art in there as well... I arted. Well, now that just sounds silly).

"What's the thing about the beach...?"

This questions came up in class one day in relation to music in relation to multi-sensorial art. The more senses the better. Personally, that's why I think theatre is the shit, because it can invoke sight, sound, touch (especially in the Ed. Theatre world, our base is contact... and the variation between touch and space), sometimes smell (in the case of...lets say Chekhov's "The Seagull," even though that's a comment on the extremes and failures of "experimental" form in theatre.) Anyway, there is constant involvement in theatre both by the performers and the audience. But I digress. The ocean. Being from San Diego, I have been constantly near the ocean all of my life and it is a HUGE part of my life world and experiences. I have spent many, many hours, here:



Sitting and watching the waves crash and the sun set. And it is an incredible multi-sensorial experience. There is something unitentifiable about the ocean that has attracted humans in inexplicable ways. We are drawn to it. To its beauty, to its vastness, to is smell, feel, taste, its memory. To its "permanence versus change." The ocean was one of the first entities the Earth had to offer. It is ALWAYS there, and its not going anywhere. It is permanent. YET at the same time it is constantly changing. Waves are crashing and the Ebb and Flow of the ocean's tide shows itself in many other aspects in art. It is a basis for music and art, the ebb and flow of character objective achievement and plot, the ebb and flow of uncertainty and melody and dissonance. Humans are mostly water. We are connected. We are one. The ocean IS zen.

Ibsen was obsessed with human's connection to the sea as well. Take "Lady From the Sea." Here are some of Ibsen's first notes:

"The lure of the sea. Longing for the sea. People`s affinity to the sea. Tied to the sea. Dependent on the sea. Compulsion to return to it. A species of fish forming a prototype in the development of species. Are there still rudiments of this in the human mind? In the mind of some individuals?
The images of the turmoil of life in the sea and of «what is eternally lost».
The sea has power over moods, has its own willpower. The sea can hypnotize. Nature can in general. The great secret is the dependency of the human will on «what is without willpower».
She has come from the sea, where her father`s parsonage lay. Grew up out there - by the free, open sea. Became secretly betrothed to the irresponsible young mate - an expelled sea-cadet - , who spent the winter ashore in an outlying harbour on account of a shipwreck. Had to break off the relationship in accordance with her father`s wishes. "

Ellida's obsession with the sea is relatable and beautiful. AND MADE GREAT ART.

Poem Electronique

Here's an interesting "2001-esque" interpretation of "Poem Electronique." I had never heard of it before, so here's a chance for you to hear this "famous" work that has been frequently mentioned. It's kinda creepy.

I think this could be a basis of a unit plan or teaching artist work. Create your own "poem electronique." It seems very sound based, so could be a good intro into students learning instruments. Showing them that, well, just about anything can be interpreted as music. It would be cool to even bring in some sort of electronic devices, have them record or whatnot. It can also be paired with a study about Brussels or World's Faires...

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poème_électronique), 425 different speakers were used for the first "sounding." That is one of the most intriguing aspects about music, live performance. A song, a sound is never, ever the same twice. And in the case of the Grateful Dead, every recording of the same song is different. (<3).

Throw them all into a well, if they cannot tell - INTRO

What’s up, directors? Grab your knives!
It’s time to take all all of the lives
Of the people who cannot see
The somnolent genius of Tarkovsky

Come on authors, grab your guns!
It’s time to murder everyone
Who has never heard of Apollinaire
Send them all to hell, it’s only fair

Cast them all into the flames
If they don’t know any names
Of the principles of Arte Povera
Or are unfamiliar with le serpent mascara
That’s right, mascara snake!

Come on painters, alive or dead!
Give all the cretins a boot to the head
If they don’t extoll convincingly
Tempered Elan era Kandinsky

Throw them all into a well
If they cannot tell
An Arto Parv feast of repitition
From a Schoenberg 12 tone composition

Come on artists, the day is here!
And your mission is very clear
Put an end to the bourgeoisie
And death to everyone who’s never heard of me

"Art Snob Solutions" - Of Montreal

Goodmorning! Won't you be my neighbor? Welcome to my PAWC blog. I am deciding to create one of these dumb-founding sites in an attempt to organize and re-relate the material presented in this class in "non-music major" ways. This goes out to all those Ed. Theatre kids out there, to the phenomenological envelope and the ecclectic movement...of sound. We may not know the Schoenberg 12 tone composition, and we most likely will not be able to "name that tune" in class, and we DO get credit for dancing to drum beats (lets see you try it. African dance is hard work compared to sitting around listening to music all day. I jest. kinda. Being a clown mime is not as easy as it sounds! Respeck!...we should also get credit for Jetman...) This blog is not an attempt at extreme intelligent insightfulness. This is not my place for essays nor do I expect anything I say here to be published. This will be treated as a BLOG, in the most playful meaning of the word. So lets get started shall we!