Free Flow Imagination Journeys
The first step - was to simply have closed eyes - breathe - and allow the imagination to wonder - describing out loud, with movement, words and sounds, what is happening on the inside.
- Simply trying to put the imagination from the mind - Into the world -
Asking the Audience what they see.
The video above - with the red dress. was made in front of an audience of 4 people. They took notes while I performed, describing what they saw/thought was happening.
In my world - I was imagining that I was made up of a mess of strings floating in the darkness - filled of knots - then I was inside a small metal ball - compact - I fell on a carpet - A carpet full of colorful geometric shapes - that slowly starts to engulf me - swallow me.
In the world of Audience1 - I was holding a bunch of strings - filled with knots - trying to untangle myself - I weaved a carpet with the strings - a long carpet, full of geometric lines and dots.
In the world of Audience2 - I was standing in the middle of a bunch of strings - I reminded her of her grandmother, untangling the knots of the hairs of her doll - I was small - a baby - playing on a carpet - full of geometric shapes.
In the world of Audience3 - I was a string - floating and merging with many others - no gravity - I enter something - I see a carpet - similar to the one in his living room -
In the world of Audience4 - I was a human - my hair was a mess of strings - made with knots - each knot very compact - my hair turns into a carpet - a long carpet.
It fascinates me, the transformation and the reading of observation, so particular to each - how in every moment - parallel realities are lived, between the common and the individual.
For many years now, I developed a ritual for when I cannot sleep. I close my eyes, start with an image and allow it to transform visually and organically, by stimulating it and responding to the spontaneous wayfinding of my imagination. As I do, a story creates itself, narrative or abstract, similar to dreams, and thus, a fusion of memories, ideas, images and thoughts start flowing, uncontrolled, and as the flow of improvised imagination makes less and less sense, I am thrown into sleep. I have recently brought this practice in the studio, where I investigated how I could bring this process from the intimacy of my bed to the stage. The idea is to let this imagination take place and translate it into words, movement and sound, performing it for audience. My first experiment with this kind of performance that I called “Improvised Imagination”, was presented in Holland during my Master intensive, before a small audience. The feedback I received was motivating, as audience members felt enclosed in different imaginary worlds and each interpreted what had happened differently. This was very valuable, to realize that in this process, I am creating an imaginary path that is re-imagined in every audience member in a different way.
I started to relate what I am doing to the practice of Carl Jung of active imagination. Jung used images from the unconscious as a psychotherapeutic tool (Jung, 2015, p.1). He focused on play, fantasy and imagination, as he believed that creativity originates from childhood fantasies and is thus born of imagination. He believed that the moving principle of fantasy is play and spontaneity and sought to disclose the symbolic play of childhood (Jung, 2015, p. 1) “In such a state of pure being, no thought is 'unthinkable.' Nothing is 'unimaginable” – he said (Jung, 2015, p. 5) Similarly to what happens in an improvisation class, but in a clinical context, Jung asked patients to focus on an image, mood, emotion, disturbed state, vision from a dream, or fantasy, and allow it to become “pregnant”, so that when focused upon, it came to life and gave birth to things (Jung, 2015, p. 7). Jung believed that the symbol enactment through the medium of the body in movement is more effective than other forms of active imagination, such as using mediums including drawing, painting, sculpting, and weaving, among others (Jung, 2015, p. 8).
I am looking, through this practice, of live-imagining, of live-improvising what is imagined, to create a fusion, a blur, between the physical and imaginary that engages both performer and audience in the present moment - in a trance - in attention - in dissolving the I with the all - during improvisation, a flow can open up, in which language (or thinking in words), starts to fade, leaving space to movement and instant composition where the thinking is the improvisation, thinking is the movement, and the artist is improvising the imagination live. This, for me, is what Grotovski means when he wants to “free the time lapse between the inner impulse and the outside reaction” (Grotowski, 1968, p. 16; Lavy, 2005, p. 6).
In my opinion, this blur between imagination and reality is essential in performance-making; by smudging the line between the inner and the outer world and reconsidering the view that concepts are locked inside the mind and the movement improvisation is locked out in the material world. It is important to see how in this “smudging” exists a mixed state which is not in or out, but both at the same time, where thinking in the action takes place and where improvised imagination takes place, where one is fully present, in a trance of spontaneity. Ingold speaks extensively about this blending of the inner and outer world, mind and body, in his book The Perception of the Environment. He depicts how western thought and modern science have created a clear cut between the inside and the out, alienating humans from their environment. Ingold notes an observation recounted to him, where the material and the mental world, the imaginary and the real, are portrayed as a “two-way way traffic” without a set barrier, one entering the other, without set limits (Ingold, 2010, p. 17) This two-way traffic takes place “through the gateways of the senses” (Ingold, 2010, p. 18)
As I started to repeat the exercise over and over, I realized that imaginative patterns started to arise. I also realized that even though the imagining and the improvising is happening live infront of the audience, I had to find a way to frame it - not to limit it - but to give it even more freedom. In the same way, Grotowski thought of discipline as an important element of theater work, which he believed must be structured and spontaneous concurrently. In his opinion, a lack of discipline would create chaotic and amateur working results, so he searched for ways to create spontaneity through discipline. (Griffith, 1998, p. 15)
Starting from my own patterns while practicing free improvised imagination, I started to create some maps, some tasks, some scores. In parallel, trying out the exercises with other people, to look into, the diversity of imagination.
--- Looking for containers where the wild can manifest ---- freely.
Reflections
In this kind of exercise I was able to coin different approaches.
Having no score and just following impulses allows one to feel very confortable and focused. When we tried the exercise outdoors, we realized that the coincidences and little accidents arising from dealing with an environment that is alive, often wake up the imagination in a different way.
However, when the exercise is made indoors, often the people feel more safe and focused, less interaction happens with the environment and movement seems to be directed more inwards.
It appears to be easier to make the exercise with eyes closed, and interesting to open the eyes at some point to feel and realize the altered state of focus and the sensorial new approach to what is surrounding.
Something else we explored through this exercise was ways to make it more interactive with the public - for instance, the performer in his journey asks questions to the audience, and this way asks them to be a more active creator of the journey. "There is a carpet... can you see what color is it?"
Through the doing - I felt the need to create a more compact score, or task for the improvisation
: to direct movement and allow the performer to go more outwards and not drown inwards
: to create something that has a frame for the audience and does not end up in random chaos.
So I started to make - Imaginative Maps -
Imaginative Maps
The idea of the map is to have the performer memorize a preconceived path to use as a score in the journey. For example, as in the map below, you start by imagining what you are, then where you are, then you follow a pathway, you smell something, you feel an emotion, then you sing a melody, etc...
So in this case, the performer knows the various steps to follow, but improvises live with mind and body what happens in each step. In the video on your right you can see an excerpt of me performing this map.
Another way I explored, is not to have an actual map, but just a general task or a destination like - you are going to travel to mississipi - you are going to be ingested by an animal - you are meeting aliens - you are a plant in a garden - - - - In this video, I am travelling to mississipi.
I found inspiration for this exercise from a passage from Ingold, where he tells of how they way of mapping in a specific Inuit community involved a performance by the traveler where the journey was recounted using hand mimicry and gestures to describe the features of the landscape and the encounters (Ingold, 2000, p. 232).
Reflections
I realized that when I introduced the map or the task, there is often more fullness and variety in the movement, the rhythm changes and the result is more performatively pleasing. Another task I started to give myself and others is to play with opposites and not always follow the words with the same movement (looking up when I say down) This allows another layer to form in the audience, in which the space is distorted and one wonders what is actually happening. I also observed, then when one repeats the same map a couple of times, new patterns emerge and often similar experience take place, so I found it essential to keep on creating new maps. The creation of the maps I make, are also, improvised – often inspired by a session of free imagination with eyes closed - but I design them in a way that provokes movement, provokes stops, changes in rhythm, sounds, words. I also realized as I started to share my process with more and more people that these exercises need preparation and rehearsal. It is very easy to fall into a simple improvisation, saying random words here and there to make it aesthetically pleasant. However, this is not the goal of the exercise, and it is fundamental for the performer to ACTUALLY be imagining and embodying the experience. So it is very important to find the balance between the performative and the inner journey, in a way that neither eats up the other. I also found essential to find the balance between the score and the improvisation, so that the steps or the tasks are not too precise, to give space for the imaginary to be alive, while still creating a frame and a structure.
Jung claimed that during active imagination, alongside the psychological advance of the client, emerged their need to create something aesthetically interesting or artistically creative. For Jung, a balance between the two had to be found, not to forget oneself in the artistic part, and thus losing the psychological discoveries, and not to concentrate only on the psyche, thus losing the symbols emerging from the aesthetic experience (Jung, 2015, p. 12). Through my work, I found this to be very important in improvisational practice. Often the desire to create something aesthetically pleasing subtracts the authenticity of the moment.
Vocal Graphs
This exploration 3 main forms - Here are some of the exercises that I looked into.
* The voice score is someone reading a free immaginative journey to you (live or through earphones) - you close your eyes, imagine it, embody it and react to it.
*The voice score is an instructive and interactive voice that guides you through your journey, asks you questions that you answer out loud, asks you to move, and takes your imagination on different roads - interacting with you - but giving space for your own world as well.
*The voice score is created as a group. Several people make a free immaginative journey, and react with closed eyes to each others impulses and words, allowing the imagination of each to be woken up in the others.
*The voice score, is pre-recorded - each performer is wearing earphones where an instructive and interactive vocal graph is played - the performers are in their own world - but at times feel the presence of the others - hear their words - and thus are influenced by each other. At the same time the audience creates connection between them, and witness a whole different layer to what they are aware of.
Reflections
When the instructions, the score, the imagination, is coming from the outside, it seems easier to find the flow and enter in the sensorial. The improvisation flows with less effort. I also realized that, the earphones experiments, allowed the participants to go deep inside this state. The aural immersion made it such that we felt we were being transported to another realm. Corinne Skaff, the dancer in the second video, once finished the improvisation, started to cry. She later told me that the moment she opened her eyes, she felt like everything was overwhelmingly alive and that she felt herself somewhere completely different and I that was watching her in the sunset, felt very emotional and transported by her engagement. I had similar feedback from other people going through the exercise. I repeated various times, adjusting each time the voice recording in the earphones, allowing sometimes for more space in the imagination, other times giving more space for movement - using music sometimes.
In the 3rd video we are experimenting with free imaginative improvisation, allowing one to influence the other. In this exercise, it was harder to be able to concentrate and deeply be in our imaginary worlds, as the impulses were many and we got quickly distracted by the other and entered a more usual state of action reaction in improvisation. However the goal was to try to always come back to the imaginary embodiment and use clues from the words, sounds and movements of the others and embody them as well. I noted that the longer the improvisations lasted, the more we could deepen the states of conciousness and the more we could enter inside each others worlds.
The 4th video, the same three performers, but with earphones. Each of us is listening to a different pre-recorded voice graph, designed for three people, with some common moments and some completely different ones. In this experiment, again, due to the earphones, we were all fully focused and present, but also, listening to the others, on another plane - on an other level of attention. Some interesting moments took place, at some point Aymeric, one of the performers, said "something is touching me" and in that same moment by accident Corinne had touched his head. Another such moment of synchronicity happened when both me and Aymeric said "the desert" at the same time, each one answering a different question. These kinds of synchronicities, along with all the rest, the building up of invisible relationships we created not on purpose but by each following his graph, is an important layer when thinking of the audience. The plurality of performers, immersed in sensorial states - their movement - their relations - the stories - the emotions - come out to the audience. To interpret - in their own. way. And again, I am attracted by the outdoors experiments, I start to find them more engaging than the ones inside the studio. I feel the environment offers more food - more material to play with.
I see that what I experience as a performer - darkness in my eyes shut and sound from an external voice, is completely different than the audience, who sees the vivid colors of the environment and hears silence - and my voice - interprets my movements that seem abstract. When I open my eyes the environment is focused and trancelike, I feel altered and plunged into my awareness looking at things with new eyes, with a veil of calmness and depth. Being alive in an alive space, blending with the landscape and the environment. I feel drowned in the sensorial slowness of the movement in my deep attention to merge with the imaginary concepts that the voice suggest. Is it however interesting to me that the audience has no idea of whats been said in my mind? When I watch myself, I feel like I am making love to the environment. Is that what I am trying to do? Like the sufi dervishes - making love with god -