VANESSA DAOU | Degrees of Freedom, Gravity & Spontaneous Sculptures @ SVA — LECTURE TEXT

Impromptu sculptures made by students of Suzanne Anker's Digital Sculpture class following my lecture/discussion "Degrees of Freedom", an analysis of the language of Dance as it relates to Sculpture:


MAIN DISCUSSION POINTS:

    ▪    Degrees of Freedom (Lecture text)
    ▪    The Scientific Method
    ▪    Jack Kerouac: BELIEF & TECHNIQUE FOR MODERN PROSE
    ▪    Resistance, Freedom
    ▪    Martha Graham: movement, energy, motivation
    ▪    Motion, movement, momentum, motivation
    ▪    Bill T. Jones: "labor, work and action"
    ▪    Concerning the Spiritual in Art, by Wassily Kandinsky
    ▪    William Forsythe: structure & visualization
    ▪    Michelangelo’s "Unfinished" Slaves
    ▪    Yvonne Rainer: The Mind is a Muscle
    ▪    Wallace Stevens: Anecdote of the Jar
    ▪    Trisha Brown: moves, measures
    ▪    Kenneth Koch: One Train May Hide Another
    ▪    Emily Coates @ Yale: Dance and academia
    ▪    Antony Gormley: body as instrument
    ▪    Anne Carson: The Physicality of Poetry
    ▪    Robin Rhode: mind in motion
    ▪    Soft Sculpture [PDF]
    ▪    Gravity   
    ▪    'Joe Sent Me' & the Hidden Language of the Body
    ▪    Vanessa Daou's Essentials for the Artist




Resistance, FreedomWherever there's freedom, there's resistance.


re·sist

–verb (used with object)
 
1. to withstand, strive against, or oppose: to resist infection; to resist temptation.

2. to withstand the action or effect of: to resist spoilage.

3. to refrain or abstain from, esp. with difficulty or reluctance: They couldn't resist the chocolates.
–verb (used without object)
4. to make a stand or make efforts in opposition; act in opposition; offer resistance.

 
Origin:

1325–75;  ME resisten  (v.) < L resistere  to remain standing, equiv. to re- re-  + sistere  to cause to stand, akin to stāre  to stand

 
Resistance & Freedom are themes heavily explored in both Dance & Sculpture due to the inherent FLEXIBILITY & PLASTICITY of materials

 
I want to talk today about resistance.

The root word comes from the Latin, to remain standing.

To remain standing is a physical act, but beyond that, it's a symbolic one.

To take a stand - to make a stand - is to take a position for or against something: often, it's a moral act.

To remain standing is both the starting point and the end point for the Dancer.

Whereas gravity is the constant, to remain standing is the variable. 

Every Dancer - when engaged in the physical act of dancing - flirts at the precipice, at the edge of Physics and Mystery, of Imagination and Materiality

How many of you here have studied Dance?

Dance is the only art that uses the body as the primary vehicle of communication

It merges principles of Physics, Psychology & Philosophy

There are many reasons why it's the least studied of all the arts, and that's a topic for another conversation


And I hope that after today some of you will be intrigued by the possibilities of studying Dance as a way of broadening the language of your sculpture making

We all understand the concept of 'freedom' in making our art, and today I'm more interested in 'resistance'

For the dancer, the starting and end goal is to remain standing

It's a physical act, and beyond that, it can be a symbolic one

At its core it's a form of protest

It's sometimes a defiant act

Standing requires balance, and where there is balance, there is equilibrium

Whereas balance is an external attribute, which can be measured and discerned, as a scale does, equilibrium is internal, an inner state of being which is felt and cannot be measured

To master equilibrium is something the dancer does on and off stage

There's a constant awareness of the physical capacity of the body - an understanding of its thresholds

On stage, there's an awareness of space, of place, of purpose - an awareness of architecture as it relates to self

This deep rooted understanding gives the dancer a unique and heightened perspective

For the Dancer, the movement of the body is inextricably tied to that of the mind

Degrees of Freedom

"In mechanics, degrees of freedom (DOF) are the set of independent displacements and/or rotations that specify completely the displaced or deformed position and orientation of the body or system." Wikipedia

 

RoboticsResearch

 

The Tech Museum: Degrees of Freedom, Robot Arms

 

The Scientific Method

Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.^[1] To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.^[2] A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.^[3] 

^Wikipedia

1. Problem/Question  
2. Observation/Research  
3. Formulate a Hypothesis  
4. Experiment  
5. Collect and Analyze Results  
6. Conclusion  
7. Communicate the Results
   
   
   
   
   

    

   Link

Jack Kerouac: BELIEF & TECHNIQUE FOR MODERN PROSE

LIST OF ESSENTIALS

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house
4. Be in love with yr life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You're a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

Resistance, Freedom

re·sist

–verb (used with object)

 

1. to withstand, strive against, or oppose: to resist infection; to resist temptation.

2. to withstand the action or effect of: to resist spoilage.

3. to refrain or abstain from, esp. with difficulty or reluctance: They couldn't resist the chocolates.

–verb (used without object)

4. to make a stand or make efforts in opposition; act in opposition; offer resistance.

Origin:

1325–75;  ME resisten  (v.) < L resistere  to remain standing, equiv. to re- re-  + sistere  to cause to stand, akin to stāre  to stand

visualwords.com: resist

visualthesaurus.com

 

visualthesaurus.com

Martha Graham: movement, energy, motivation

"There's always one person to whom you speak in the audience, one." – Martha Graham

"I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but with movements . . . I wanted significant movement. I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge." – Martha Graham

MARTHA GRAHAM

"Lamentation"

Herta Moselsio
"Lamentation,"ca. summer 1937
Silver gelatin prints 

"Martha Graham's impact on dance was staggering and often compared to that of Picasso's on painting, Stravinsky's on music, and Frank Lloyd Wright's on architecture. Her contributions transformed the art form, revitalizing and expanding dance around the world. In her search to express herself freely and honestly, she created the Martha Graham Dance Company, one of the oldest

dance troupes in America. As a teacher, Graham trained and inspired generations of fine dancers and choreographers. Her pupils included such greats as Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, and countless other performers, actors, and dancers. She collaborated with some of the foremost artists of her time including the composer Aaron Copland and the sculptor Isamu Noguchi." Link

Bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer

Title: Bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer

Medium; TechniqueBronze

CultureGreek

PeriodHellenistic

Date3rd–2nd century B.C.

DimensionsH. 8 1/16 in. (20.5 cm)

Link to JSTR: Dance Research by Dee Reynolds

Motion, movement, momentum, motivation

mo·tion (mshn)

n.

1. The act or process of changing position or place.

2. A meaningful or expressive change in the position of the body or a part of the body; a gesture.

3. Active operation: set the plan in motion.

4. The ability or power to move: lost motion in his arm.

5. The manner in which the body moves, as in walking.

6. A prompting from within; an impulse or inclination: resigned of her own motion.

7. Music Melodic ascent and descent of pitch.

8. Law An application made to a court for an order or a ruling.

9. A formal proposal put to the vote under parliamentary procedures.

10. a. A mechanical device or piece of machinery that moves or causes motion; a mechanism.

b. The movement or action of such a device.

movement [ˈmuːvmənt]

n.

1.a. The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position.

b. A particular manner of moving.

2. A change in the location of troops, ships, or aircraft for tactical or strategic purposes.

3. a. A series of actions and events taking place over a period of time and working to foster a principle or policy: a movement toward world peace.

    b. An organized effort by supporters of a common goal: a leader of the labor movement.

4. A tendency or trend: a movement toward larger kitchens.

5. A change in the market price of a security or commodity.

6. a. An evacuation of the bowels.

    b. The matter so evacuated.

7. The suggestion or illusion of motion in a painting, sculpture, or design.

8. The progression of events in the development of a literary plot.

9. The rhythmical or metrical structure of a poetic composition.

10. Music A self-contained section of an extended composition.

11. A mechanism, such as the works of a watch, that produces or transmits motion.

momentum [məʊˈmɛntəm]

n pl -ta [-tə], -tums

1. (Physics / General Physics) Physics the product of a body's mass and its velocity. Symbol p See also angular momentum

2. (Physics / General Physics) the impetus of a body resulting from its motion

3. driving power or strength

[from Latin: movement; see moment]

motivation [ˌməʊtɪˈveɪʃən]

n

1. the act or an instance of motivating

2. desire to do; interest or drive

3. incentive or inducement

4. (Psychology) Psychol the process that arouses, sustains and regulates human and animal behaviour

motivational  adj

motivative  adj