Tang Etude #0 performed by Mei Yi Lee

Entropy is a process not result. Fig.1 indicates a process of entropy. When an initial energy point being triggered, the action starts which leads to entropy process. The entropy process will reach an equilibrium and then goes to chaos or order.

 Fig.1

 Not I  S.Beckett                                                                                       Fig.7                                                                                   

Entropy in Music Theater

Entropy in Muziektheater

Abstract

What is happening in the process of making art? What is the psychological and physical reaction of artists during the process of making? When I work with other artists, am I fully aware of my role in this collaboration? Am I satisfied with myself?  Do we believe what we made is what we really want? Do we know our audiences? These are the questions I have asked myself repeatedly last year. I was eager to find an answer to my questions. In the process I discovered the entropy theory. In this research, I'll try to analyze, explain , experiment and experience the idea of entropy in the process of making. Entropy happens when there is an energy trigger point(an action), it is not a result, it is a state of process.


Introduction 

The motive of this research attempts to understand the process of creating. In the book of Erin Manning Relationscape - Movement, Art, Philosophy, she offers an insight of relation between movement and sensational thought. Incipiency and pre-acceleration are important elements in her thought. The two elements are in a state before a movement in motion, the intensity of movement. This thought always fascinated my thinking of how an artist creates an artwork nowadays and how a musician performs a new composition. When I analyze the process, first comes the basic training and knowledge of your own discipline, second comes the understanding and sensation of your media and yourself. To be able to sense the incipiency and pre-acceleration in the process, intuition is the key. In my work, intuition is always the overall cloud above my creating prograss. Last year, I read an essay written by Rudolf Arnheim Entropy and Art. His discussion about order and disorder in Art from scientific perspective. I was inspired by the state of function of Entropy and decided to research on the creating process of a performance based on it. Before my study in T.I.M.E, I made several instruments. All the instruments are related to body and mind except the last one, Sugar instrument. Sugar instrument is made of crystallized sugar. During the process of making and researching, I experienced two results from entropy process, order and chaos.(This will be explained later in the research)

Order: Every step of making was clearly documented, temperature, duration and reaction.

Chaos: Every time when the sugar being pulled into the mold, the activity of the reaction is random. And this randomness determined the sound character of sugar instrument.

Last two years, I learned and observed how to create a Muziektheater piece and work together with artists from theater background. I found it is a very unique discipline in Holland. The aim of this artistic research is not to analyze what is Muziektheater but to take a peek to the discipline of Muziektheater in Holland. 

Entropy

Entropy1 is the state of function in second thermodynamic law. It's a measure of the process of happening, a measure of the probability of chaos.  It's in between order and disorder. When particles are moving from A to B , the moving process is the state of entropy. In physics, entropy can be calculated. In art practice, entropy is a metaphor for the creating process.  

The happening of entropy requires an initial energy trigger. An initial energy trigger means the action. When there is action, there will be entropy. When the energy lead to chaos is entropy and leads to order it is negentropy.   

Entropy = fluid 

Entropy indicates a state of second thermodynamic law. It's a equation within the element of energy(heat). Energy flows like fluid which is the same as air and liquid. The root of all fluid movement is Navier-Stokes equations2. The fluid never stops moving.

Macrostate and Microstate

Before we continue about entropy, I would like to first explain Macrostate and Microstate. Macrostate refers to macroscopic properties in a system and microstate refers to microscopic properties in a system. For example, reading a book. The book is macrostate. The text and reading is microstate. Or, a strawberry cake. The strawberry cake is a macrostate of a cake. The strawberry inside the cake is a microstate of a cake

As we know entropy is a process not a result in a system, macrostate and microstate are the structure of the system and it has order and disorder. Macro-order v.s. Micro-disorder and Micro-order.  For example, a score (Macro-order), the notes and signs in the score(Micro-order), the interpretation of score from performer(micro-disorder).

Conclusion

 

Entropy is a state of process. By analyzing entropy in an open system, a closed system and isolated system, I started to rediscover some artworks or performances from a different perspective.  For example, the reason why I always want to play in a free improvisation session. I want to play in these kind of sessions because it’s in an open system and entropy is low. Low entropy means there is more space to develop and to fill in/leave out materials. In other words, there will be always surprise happening during the free improvisation session. Muziektheater environment and performance brings new ideas and surprise in the art world. It’s a safe zone for possibilities and opportunities. At the same time, I ask myself :

 

“What is the entropy process in this research? Is it high entropy or low entropy? ” The answer is low entropy. This process started in a closed system(low entropy), all the discussions, experiments, attempts to grasp the entropy process in words in time is very difficult for me as there is constantly new understanding or explanation of entropy. I’m in the equilibrium state at the moment. When I finish my research, I inevitably will reach a result either in order or in chaos.

 

Muziektheater is about a mixture of situations, materials, personalities and multi-culture environment in Holland. It is a unique form which brings people together and be themselves. Few years ago, I graduated from Royal Art academy of Den Haag, ArtScience interfaculty and now I’m finishing my study in T.I.M.E (This is muziektheater education). Both studies shared the same mentality. Discovering the entropy process is to understand my creating process. Although I can’t answer all my questions, but I know it’s in the process.  

 


  

The process of making Sugar instrument Tang, 2016, Nida Art colony                                           

Open system, Closed system, Isolated system

Open system- A box , nothing inside, everything can be added in or out freely

Closed system- A box, something already inside, you can only add more.

Isolated system - A box, everything is inside, you can’t add more.

For example(Fig.2): You are in a kitchen and you have a cup in your hand, imagine three scenarios. In the open system, your cup is empty, you can decide what you want to drink. In the closed system, your cup already has tea or coffee, you can still decide if you want to add milk or sugar. In the isolated system, your cup already has tea with milk and sugar, there is nothing you can add anymore.

Fig.2

An example of creator and spectator in an higher entropy process

“Title with Logo” Muziektheater performance (open system+closed system+isolated system)

This performance was created by 12 performers and creators(isolated system).  The theme is about Advertisement(closed system). Everyday, each person brings in new materials and later they decide how to use all the materials they bring in(open system). The materials include, interviews of people in the advertisement business, music of advertisement, scenery of advertisement, text and songs of environment...etc. Everything relates to our daily life which builds a bridge between the creator and spectator. In this production, the creators bring in a lot of different ideas and decide how to combine or use them during the performance. It is a half improvised and half structured performance which brings in a lot of unpredictable results and excitement.

For the spectator, the subject and materials relate to everyday life. It helps the spectator easily to navigate through different acts of performers. As the method the creators use is improvisation, it is not easy for the spectator to predict what is going to happen. In this manner, the spectator is actively thinking or feeling about the acts from the performers.  

 

How does entropy happen in the process of making in Muziektheater?

First of all, it’s an open system. Artists from different disciplines can communicate freely in the Muziektheater field. All kinds of ideas can come in and out. There are no rules of which idea doesn’t belong in this field. Whe artists work together and find a common interest, they start working together towards a goal, for example, a performance. During the preparation, they create music, texts, lighting, sound, decor..etc. These elements create various isolated system.  In this way, there is a lot of high and low entropy happening in Muziektheater.  

In Fig.6 the arrow indicates when artists start creating a performance(closed system) and different acts, compositions, movmenets..etc.(isolated system)

 

Fig.6


















Rhythm and text (horizontal line)

Rhythm is essential in music and language. Text is the score of language.  Since we were baby, we learn to copy other people or materials around us. We tried to behave like others in order to realize our own behavior. We learn to play.  Imitation is one of the elements in our play. Huizinga states in his book Homo Ludens ‘PLAY is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing…., ….By some the origin and fundamentals of play have been described as a discharge of superabundant vital energy, by others as the satisfaction of some "imitative instinct", or again as simply a "need" for relaxation. In Muziektheater, performers sense the rhythm between each other or materials. Through the instinct of imitation, performers find their way to interpret all the materials, including text.  

 

Harmony and sound(vertical line)

Harmony builds on chords. Chords are formed by music notes. For example, the C Major chord is built on three notes, C, E, G. A harmony considers the position and progression of chords. A nice sound of a harmony requires the balance of the chords. When we sing or play a harmony, we have to listen carefully if the sound of the harmony is right. No sound is innocent mentioned by percussionist Eddie Prevost. We interpret sound as the sensation of noise or tone.  In Muziektheater, harmony is the vertical line of the composing structure. Performers need to listen carefully to the sound of harmony otherwise the vertical line of the structure will be unstable. How does a harmony sound different space? The key of listening is not to see but to hear. Hearing is an active action. A simple exercise to active your listening is called " bomb"! When you hear bomb, the first reaction is to cover your ear with your hands. So, this exercise is position your hands in the front of the ear, in the back of the ear, and completely cover the ear. Through three simple steps, you hear your environment differently.

 

S.Beckett Not I is a fantastic piece for experiencing the mouth with words on a screen(isolated system). The rhythm of the text and the sound of voice creates a mentally feedback loop played in your head. The first time I watched it, I felt a constant movement as the time was running but at the same time not. The movement of the mouth is like many lines moving horinzontal and vertical continuously and the extremly white teeth are the center of each line(Fig.7). The sound of the voice and the rhythm of text generate high entropy in an isolated system. High entropy here shows that audience knows what kind of situation they walk into immediately. They are aware it is a performance and what to expect.

 

 

Open system in performance

Free improvisation without appointment - A group of people come together and improvise together. As less as possible appointment for the improviser.

Example: Oorsprong Concert Series in Amsterdam(open system+isolated system)

Oorsprong series is a blind-date improvisation series run by musician Raoul van der Weide. The series have several sessions every first monday of the month. Raoul organizes the location, travel and list of musicians, dancers, visual artists to come to play(each individual is an isolated system). Every session has three parts and each part has one curator. These three parts are dance, electronics and fusion. The curator can choose who will be played together. The rule is no rehearsal and the musicians who play in the same session never played with each other before(open system). No one can predict how the session will be and what will happen during the session. 

From the creator’s perspective : Open for all the elements and react to each other on the moment. Maybe sometimes they create a part which has clear articulation or some loose sound communication in between.

From spectator’s perspective: they expect maybe some interesting sound and performance will happen. Or, nothing will stimulate their feeling.

In an open system, there is lower entropy.


 


 


 

 

 

 


An exmaple of high entropy in performance

Dick Raaijmakers The Graphic Method Bicycle

 

The piece The Graphic Method Bicycle by Dick Raaijmakers. A naked man on a controlled bicycle, riding along a prepared path, it’s a simple image and has its order. The activity can be understood by everyone. When the man starts, audiences hear an abstract soundscape. Sound from breathing, through the processing of the sound, your mind starts being unfolded into various sensation. For example, looking at a naked man in slow motion, wonder what is the sound he is producing and what is happening in front of you. For the performer, he has a goal to be really slow and getting to the end of the path. For audiences, we imagine and guess what is going on and what will happen. The piece has a clear structure; A man, a bicycle, a path and syntactic sound. When the man starts, all the elements also start. Each element has its own trajectory. On the other hand, audiences are experiencing a combination of all the elements. As it is not a conventional performance, audiences keep puzzling all the elements in their mind. They generate much more possibilities than the performance itself. This performance is in a closed system, audiences know the beginning and end. Most of the time, a closed system has lower entropy. But, in this performance it is different. Dick has very specific timing in this performance. It prolongs the expectation of audiences and creates an isolated system inside the closed system. It's amazing!




The Graphic Method Bicycle(1979) Dick Raaijmakers 

                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                              

when the cooking start(action), the entropy also start. 

                         Fig.5

During the process of making the sugar instrument, each state of sugar has a different sound and it’s unpredictable as the reaction and crystallization won’t be 100% controllable. This process of making is micro-disorder.

                      Fig.4

From the closed system perspective, as I don’t know when the desired sound of sugar instrument will happen, it takes a long time to reach a result(order/chaos), so it’s in a low entropy.

When the process happening in each state of sugar, I can hear the sound from the sugar instrument faster as the crystallization is finished. This is then the isolated system inside the closed system which has high entropy.   

Low entropy and high entropy

Low entropy means more space the high entropy means less space. In an open system, everything has a lot of space to be added in or left  out, it has a lot of space in entropy process which is low entropy. In an isolated system, everything is already inside, it has less space in the entropy process which is high entropy.

Important note!

Low entropy = more space = takes more time to reach order or chaos

High entropy = less space = takes less time to reach order or chaos

An example of sugar instrument(Fig.3,Fig.4, Fig.5)

Sugar instrument focuses on sugar. Sugar is the predetermined subject. In this case, it’s a closed system

Sugar has different states of appearance in temperature. below is the chart:


Stage

Temperature

Sugar concentration

thread (e.g., syrup)

110 to 112 °C (230 to 234 °F)

80%

soft ball (e.g., fudge)

112 to 116 °C (234 to 241 °F)

85%

firm ball (e.g., soft caramel candy)

118 to 120 °C (244 to 248 °F)

87%

hard ball (e.g., nougat)

121 to 130 °C (250 to 266 °F)

90%

soft crack (e.g., salt water taffy)

132 to 143 °C (270 to 289 °F)

95%

hard crack (e.g., toffee)

146 to 154 °C (295 to 309 °F)

99%

clear liquid

160 °C (320 °F)

100%

brown liquid (e.g., liquid caramel)

170 °C (338 °F)

100%

burnt sugar

177 °C (351 °F)

100%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_making

This chart indicate the macro-order of sugar instrument in the closed system

                    Fig.3

Gate open(Action/energy trigger)

Gate closed (no Action/entergy tigger)

Entropy

Music Theater

Music Theater in Holland has exsits for more than 30 years. If you imagine a painting of Music Theater, the painting will be a colorful and no-rules collage.Music Theater is a free zone from Classical music and theater. It's a platform on which creative people from different disciplines try to understand each other and reach an agreement. 

Music Theater in dutch is Muziektheater. There is no space between music and theater like in English. It's only one word. It indicates the idea of Music Theater is not two seperate disciplines. It's already become one independent discipline. As Music Theater is usually being misunderstood as Musical,  in this research, I'll use Muziektheater instead of Music Theater for further discussion.  

Muziektheater = Holland

Muziektheater is an unique discipline in performance art in Holland. In the last 40 years, various composers, musicians and theater maker have developed their idea of Muziektheater. For example, Dick Raijmaakers or the muziektheater group De Veenfabriek. Each Muziektheater work shows the respectation of the use of music in theater and vice versa. None of the elements in Muziektheater neglect their own character. It requires a pure and fundamental understanding of the material.  

Language

Rhythm

Music

Theater

Muziektheater

Body Cello, 2012, Quartair Gallery, Den Haag

Destruction of Sweetness - ways of destroying sugar instrument

performance, 2018

 

Performing structure:

Action - cooking, boiling, listening, breaking, eating, touching, licking

Movement - always have physical contact with sugar
 

Entropy process

Maker's entropy process:

Destruction of Sweetness is a muziektheater piece(Closed system). Each way of destructing the sugar instrument has the same concentration of sugar but different state of crystallization. When I start cooking, the initial energy(action) is triggerd. When the process of destructing start, it creates an isolated system. Every isolated system has high entropy. When entropy reach its equilibrium, it goes to chaos/order, either way, it has a result. This is the entropy process from maker’s point of view.

 


Spectator's (possible) entropy process:

Now, I would like to discuss possible entropy process from audiences perspective. When audiences come to see this performance, they read the program book and know it is about sugar. They are being set in a closed system which means they know it’s a performance about sugar but they don’t know exactly what it is. They are wondering , imagining which trigger the entropy process, in this state, low entropy in the closed system. When the performance start, they learn it is about the destruction of sugar instrument, each of them follow the process of making and destroying of sugar in an isolated system. Each ways of destroying has its duration, it triggers the audiences to know the result. This entropy process is high entropy.


 

 

 

Ideas of a Muziektheater piece

My idea of muziektheater piece for my end exam is relating to the process I’ve been research, entropy. Entropy is a key to explore my thought and create mind map. The origin of entropy is en ‘inside’+ tropē ‘transformation’. Making a Muziektheater piece is a practice of realizing my past and what i experineced in everyday life. I’ve been playing music, from classical music to improvisation music and make my own designed instrument based on the situation around me. The first instrument I made is body cello(2011). It’s an instrument which my legs controlled half of the instrument and my upper body control the other half. The whole body has to work together for playing this instrument. I’ve been playing cello for more than 20 years and I felt the need of playing not only my hands but also legs. This feeling drives me to create the instrument. I did research on sound box, strings, shape of bridges and when the instrument is ready, I spent a lot of time practice all the possible sound from the instrument and the visual presentation( see fig.8). My body adapt to the essence of my instruement; the sound, the shape and the gesture. 

Fig.8