i have a super-fundamental question about vassily (or wassily) and his whole integration thing. i admit i am not so well-read on the matter. hep me. please.
my main objective (along with learning what he's all about): are there things to directly lift from his work to put into our program? this is to serve the goal of avoiding wheel-reinvention.
does anyone have a link (or even a traditional footnote) leading to a succinct (or moderately not) accounting of mr. kandinsky's specific approach to:
* integrating the arts
* the integration of visual and auditory art forms
* the whole thing of all that stuff being interrelated
* the fundamental unifying premise of all this unity jazz
* a manifesto of sort of the type of tethering to be found in the art-music continuum?
i wanna know what kandinsky's experience of this idea was-
* did he speak of specific moments of inspiration that are to be noted?
* did he speak of art education?
* did he teach artists with music?
* what ideas did he have of specific ways to look at art and listen to music?
* what music was he speaking of?
i'd love to hear these ideas articulated in his words. if that's difficult to pin down, it would also be good to hear it in the words of a scholar who is concise- i need to know the general vibe.
i'm hoping the man's words will inspire me to come up with some real-time activities/ exercises to use in the program.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
There is much to respond to. Here's a few:
I suggest we speak of a "Music/ Sound Department" rather than a "Music Department". When we say "sound" our field of reference is immediately much larger and includes the totality of our students' lives. We are seeking to encourage students to relate to their senses, and sound is what the sense senses. Music is: a construct/ a type of purposeful sound/ a category we project onto experience. By encouraging a wider appreciation of the sonic environment we will deftly contextualize and include sonic experiences that would otherwise be debatable as being music. I am, of course, referencing mindful environmental listening and avant-garde music. In a nutshell, the "silent" John Cage piece.
A workshop- the intent is to open the ears and to become more present in the sound environment.
The Paper Pass:
A large sheet of paper is passed around a circle of standing students. Instructions are given to do this as silently as possible. Moving slowly/ moving quickly. Listening becomes wonderful and vast. After several rounds, a different paper is used, one that makes it easier or more difficult (use paper/ tissue paper/ light cardboard). Use a contact mic to amplify the paper as it is passed- always a hoot.
Variations are to ask students to make a sound on purpose when the paper is theirs or to maintain a particular sound/ sonic texture as it is passed around. Totally awesome. I love this one- got it from R. Murray Schafer.
Another workshop- same basic idea as the first.
Environmental Listening:
Students in small or large groups go to a place to actively listen for a given amount of time- let's say 1-3 minutes. After the listening event, the students take notes on paper of what sounds they experienced and discussion is had. If possible, a recording of the event is played back repeatedly. This can be done anywhere, but finding a great, colorful spot (many layers of soft and intermittent sounds) would be nice, as well as a much more mundane environment.
These above exercises are bedrock experiences in listening that will enhance any "music" that follows.
A fundamental musical experience:
Time: Maintaining a Rhythm:
Establishing a short-lived rhythm is usually not a huge challenge- maintaining it over a span of time usually is. As solos and as groups students will produce extremely simple rhythms (beginning with 2 sounds arranged in short phrases of 4 pulse length) using hand or mallet percussion and challenge themselves to not stray from tempo or rhythmic structure. Complexity is ratcheted up, demanding higher and higher concentration. This experience will teach students to raise their level of engagement with their bodies and aspects of the sounds they produce.
*************
On "commemoration of emotions"/ the emotional content in art/ music:
I have to raise a question to this as a default presupposition.
In my experience, that happens rarely in the creative process and only slightly less rarely in the moment of receiving. In my experience there are many more times when the creative process is simply that moment of being present with the materials/ getting out of the way. I see creating as a thing to simply do- a process-based mindset to enter without referent to product or "inspiration". Getting into it. Being engrossed. Being there with the materials. Seeing a show or an art object is a moment to appreciate another person's beautiful moment of creativity/ presence.
The emotional content piece is valid, but only as one of many angles.
I feel it's important to include that not all pieces of art work carry a "meaning" or were intended to "express" anything or that they do in fact do that. Framing the subject is crucial- I am uncomfortable with limiting "art" as a goal-oriented communication.
I am not entirely comfortable with going down the path of ascribing emotional meaning to art objects or Beethoven pieces or Hank songs. It's never made sense to me. Sensual experience of anything is subjective and complex- this angle has always seemed limited to me. It has always seemed a distraction from the immediate, fundamental sensual experience- that of luscious sensation. Writing "meaning" on top of a flavor or a color or a sound or any sensation is to leave the mental/ experiential place where the action is- the world is happening! It smells and is noisy and has shape we can see and touch and taste.
The Hank Williams song you mentioned does have lonely/ sorrowful lyrics (like most of his songs), but the music is actually not so much of that feel- it's a danceable major-key waltz. Other words could be written for that exact music and it would be a "happy" song. The issue I have is that the sound is being ignored for the sake of the text of the lyric. That reading of the song would work just fine in a literature class, but I feel limited using this model in a music class.
I get the therapy angle, but I don't want to lose the fundamental of experience angle.
I suggest we speak of a "Music/ Sound Department" rather than a "Music Department". When we say "sound" our field of reference is immediately much larger and includes the totality of our students' lives. We are seeking to encourage students to relate to their senses, and sound is what the sense senses. Music is: a construct/ a type of purposeful sound/ a category we project onto experience. By encouraging a wider appreciation of the sonic environment we will deftly contextualize and include sonic experiences that would otherwise be debatable as being music. I am, of course, referencing mindful environmental listening and avant-garde music. In a nutshell, the "silent" John Cage piece.
A workshop- the intent is to open the ears and to become more present in the sound environment.
The Paper Pass:
A large sheet of paper is passed around a circle of standing students. Instructions are given to do this as silently as possible. Moving slowly/ moving quickly. Listening becomes wonderful and vast. After several rounds, a different paper is used, one that makes it easier or more difficult (use paper/ tissue paper/ light cardboard). Use a contact mic to amplify the paper as it is passed- always a hoot.
Variations are to ask students to make a sound on purpose when the paper is theirs or to maintain a particular sound/ sonic texture as it is passed around. Totally awesome. I love this one- got it from R. Murray Schafer.
Another workshop- same basic idea as the first.
Environmental Listening:
Students in small or large groups go to a place to actively listen for a given amount of time- let's say 1-3 minutes. After the listening event, the students take notes on paper of what sounds they experienced and discussion is had. If possible, a recording of the event is played back repeatedly. This can be done anywhere, but finding a great, colorful spot (many layers of soft and intermittent sounds) would be nice, as well as a much more mundane environment.
These above exercises are bedrock experiences in listening that will enhance any "music" that follows.
A fundamental musical experience:
Time: Maintaining a Rhythm:
Establishing a short-lived rhythm is usually not a huge challenge- maintaining it over a span of time usually is. As solos and as groups students will produce extremely simple rhythms (beginning with 2 sounds arranged in short phrases of 4 pulse length) using hand or mallet percussion and challenge themselves to not stray from tempo or rhythmic structure. Complexity is ratcheted up, demanding higher and higher concentration. This experience will teach students to raise their level of engagement with their bodies and aspects of the sounds they produce.
*************
On "commemoration of emotions"/ the emotional content in art/ music:
I have to raise a question to this as a default presupposition.
In my experience, that happens rarely in the creative process and only slightly less rarely in the moment of receiving. In my experience there are many more times when the creative process is simply that moment of being present with the materials/ getting out of the way. I see creating as a thing to simply do- a process-based mindset to enter without referent to product or "inspiration". Getting into it. Being engrossed. Being there with the materials. Seeing a show or an art object is a moment to appreciate another person's beautiful moment of creativity/ presence.
The emotional content piece is valid, but only as one of many angles.
I feel it's important to include that not all pieces of art work carry a "meaning" or were intended to "express" anything or that they do in fact do that. Framing the subject is crucial- I am uncomfortable with limiting "art" as a goal-oriented communication.
I am not entirely comfortable with going down the path of ascribing emotional meaning to art objects or Beethoven pieces or Hank songs. It's never made sense to me. Sensual experience of anything is subjective and complex- this angle has always seemed limited to me. It has always seemed a distraction from the immediate, fundamental sensual experience- that of luscious sensation. Writing "meaning" on top of a flavor or a color or a sound or any sensation is to leave the mental/ experiential place where the action is- the world is happening! It smells and is noisy and has shape we can see and touch and taste.
The Hank Williams song you mentioned does have lonely/ sorrowful lyrics (like most of his songs), but the music is actually not so much of that feel- it's a danceable major-key waltz. Other words could be written for that exact music and it would be a "happy" song. The issue I have is that the sound is being ignored for the sake of the text of the lyric. That reading of the song would work just fine in a literature class, but I feel limited using this model in a music class.
I get the therapy angle, but I don't want to lose the fundamental of experience angle.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Some Thoughts...
A few of us at TAS are involved in developing not just the art and music program, but the Contemplative Education program as well.
The two programs have some overlap: in the art and music programs the idea is to push kids out of the perspective that art is something one “produces and consumes” and rather that it is a way of being deeply engaged with the world. The contemplative ed curriculum seeks to cultivate a small group of students who dedicate a school year to consistent mindfulness practice during the school day, which includes supporting each other in that practice and taking part in trainings to deepen that practice. I would like to bring in former students to discuss the ways that they use mindfulness in their own lives, as well as monks and teachers and practitioners of various modalities.
An important part of both of these programs is “seeing and listening”. A relaxed, meditative “taking in” of what is happening around oneself is in itself an integrative experience. We tend to analyze things first- put them in context, break down and seperate the elements of the experience, before we actually take the whole thing in consciously. Rather like when someone is talking to me and I focus just on the logic or the pausibility of their statements, missing the emotional tone, or the communicative intent of the things she is saying.
We do this with the arts all the time. It seems that most people who are not trained in one art or the other tend to like things for reasons that aren’t all that clear to themselves, and as such, attibute it to “taste”, which is a fairly passive way of experiencing something. They don’t analyze much at all. A lot of trained artists over-analyze, and are so busy contextualizing that they miss a more direct, communicative experience.
By learning to relax and observe more holistically as one experiences a film, or a painting, or a poem, or a piece of music, one has the whole experience available for later analysis, certainly, but also for later experience- in the sense that the experience is there for the mind to draw rich analogies to and from as new experiences trickle in.
This is an integrative experience. I am coming to believe that all experiences like these strengthen the brain’s ability to integrate new experiences and re-integrate old ones. And integration- neurologically speaking- is the main task for an adolescent.
That is the key to these programs: to ground them in the goal of integrative experiences. First, a relaxed, accepting awareness. Second, a physical, skillful application of materials. Third, the sharing with others. Self-awareness-> Skills-> Relationships.
The sharing with others is the feedback loop being completed, an important stage of integration which is the external representation of an internal process. There are parallels to therapy, where the stages of the deepening therapeutic relationship and the slow exposition of painful material is the indicator of the neural integration of painful past experiences.
Being a part of a community is a deeply healing experience. In a psychological or emotional or spiritual sense I presume "healing" to mean neurological integration. Art is the expression of a community. And for healing to happen, the experience must be shared. It includes others. It must. No one "heals" in isolation.
Thus, Art.
The two programs have some overlap: in the art and music programs the idea is to push kids out of the perspective that art is something one “produces and consumes” and rather that it is a way of being deeply engaged with the world. The contemplative ed curriculum seeks to cultivate a small group of students who dedicate a school year to consistent mindfulness practice during the school day, which includes supporting each other in that practice and taking part in trainings to deepen that practice. I would like to bring in former students to discuss the ways that they use mindfulness in their own lives, as well as monks and teachers and practitioners of various modalities.
An important part of both of these programs is “seeing and listening”. A relaxed, meditative “taking in” of what is happening around oneself is in itself an integrative experience. We tend to analyze things first- put them in context, break down and seperate the elements of the experience, before we actually take the whole thing in consciously. Rather like when someone is talking to me and I focus just on the logic or the pausibility of their statements, missing the emotional tone, or the communicative intent of the things she is saying.
We do this with the arts all the time. It seems that most people who are not trained in one art or the other tend to like things for reasons that aren’t all that clear to themselves, and as such, attibute it to “taste”, which is a fairly passive way of experiencing something. They don’t analyze much at all. A lot of trained artists over-analyze, and are so busy contextualizing that they miss a more direct, communicative experience.
By learning to relax and observe more holistically as one experiences a film, or a painting, or a poem, or a piece of music, one has the whole experience available for later analysis, certainly, but also for later experience- in the sense that the experience is there for the mind to draw rich analogies to and from as new experiences trickle in.
This is an integrative experience. I am coming to believe that all experiences like these strengthen the brain’s ability to integrate new experiences and re-integrate old ones. And integration- neurologically speaking- is the main task for an adolescent.
That is the key to these programs: to ground them in the goal of integrative experiences. First, a relaxed, accepting awareness. Second, a physical, skillful application of materials. Third, the sharing with others. Self-awareness-> Skills-> Relationships.
The sharing with others is the feedback loop being completed, an important stage of integration which is the external representation of an internal process. There are parallels to therapy, where the stages of the deepening therapeutic relationship and the slow exposition of painful material is the indicator of the neural integration of painful past experiences.
Being a part of a community is a deeply healing experience. In a psychological or emotional or spiritual sense I presume "healing" to mean neurological integration. Art is the expression of a community. And for healing to happen, the experience must be shared. It includes others. It must. No one "heals" in isolation.
Thus, Art.
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