Beauty and Originality

by theschan4

I liked the reading about the concept of beauty. Beauty seems at first to be quite simple, but the more one thinks about it, becomes increasingly hard to define.

The author’s idea of extracting the concept of beauty by addressing the idea of music is something that I can relate to, being a musician. While I generally tend to think of beauty as being generally aesthetically pleasing, beauty is much more than that. For instance, there exists a vast range of music that strikes the listener as beautiful; so then what is beauty? The author mentions that beauty is recognized when our being resonates with whatever it is at the moment, it could be a sound, a thought, an action,or a feeling.  

I also find there to be contrasting pressures for young artists. I can relate as I tried to compose some music once, that I felt compelled to either produce a composition that was “accessible” (what I thought other people would like), or to try to be so “different” from the past that I knew for myself that I was trying too hard. In this vein, there were a few closing thoughts I particularly liked: “Originality doesn’t mean being unlike the past or unlike the present, it means simply acting from your own being.” and “There is no need to alter your voice to please others.”

 

Thinking too much

by theschan4

In his article on Spontaneity, Johnstone mentions that artists who try to be “original” are actually trying too hard, and ironically end up being less original than if they went with their initial answer.

The concept of “thinking too much” is one that I find extremely interesting about improvisation. In life, we are generally trained think things through. We learn that there are “right” and “wrong” answers, that there are consequences for things you say. As a result, we often filter and think through thoughts before we say them. 

Part of the reason I also tend to over-think my answers is because I am afraid of being “wrong”. To any sort of question, I will have a mental conversation to myself, accepting and rejecting potential answers, even to ones as simple as “What is your favorite color”? In my mind, it has to be right, and I have to have a reason for it. In contrast, the improvisational atmosphere has no “wrong” answer, and is quite freeing in this way.

In this sense, I am glad that this class is teaching us that it is okay say the first thing that comes to our head, and accept it for what it is. Even if our answer does not make sense or isn’t the best we could have said in that situation, it is nevertheless important to begin the flow of the thought process, similar to conquering writers block. The first step to learning spontaneity therefore, is accepting the way your thoughts flow.

Watching Professional Improvisors at Work

by theschan4

Last Friday’s improv show at the BATS was my first time seeing professional improvisors on the stage. I like the range of genres represented by the scenes, and seeing how the same crew of actors changed into completely different characters between scenes. I thought it was also really neat how there was an improvisor pianist who provided the music to enhance the mood, literally in real-time. In addition, the “fear of the dark” and the “sci fi” scenes were actually scary  (…I’m guessing due to a combination of music, audio, and lighting, the plot and my imagination).

One particular thing I noticed was how an entire scene can be spun out of very little (almost no) material. In the “fear of the dark scene”, the only material to work with was that the Billy was afraid of the dark.  What was interesting was that it kept getting voted to continue, even though there was sometimes very little momentum going into the next scene (i.e. “Billy just got a love note from the dark.. what will happen next?”) . I think that was part of the intrigue: the minimalism was so challenging that the audience wanted to see what the director and the actors could come up with to advance the storyline.

 

The Hidden Element of Interaction

by theschan4

In his article, Johnstone touched on an element of interpersonal interactions that I hadn’t really known was there: status. I didn’t fully realize what status was until midway through the article. But once I realize that it is basically the process of putting yourself “above” or “below” the other person, it begins to make some sense.

This concept explains why apparently “plotless” scenes can be so engaging.  For example, the picnic scene in class between Alexandria and Florian was extremely hilarious. Yet it was not intuitive in understanding why, as there was no clever or complicated plot, and was mostly banter and complaints from one person to the other. However, in light of “status”, it is precisely the back-and-forth ( “see-saw”) between the two that makes the scene so interesting.

Still, the concept of “status” is still a bit foreign and theoretical to me and I think it may take some practice before I become more comfortable with how “see-saw”ing works in improvisation.

When a projection is disrupted

by theschan4

In the article, Presentation of Self, the writer mentions that as actors enter a scene and “project” their definition of what is going on, the others can then respond to it and further this projected definition, or  completely alter or disrupt it in the interaction. I found this comment quite insightful, as it explains why I am often perplexed or caught off guard at an unexpected turn of events. This also reminded me of the exercise we did in class, where we began a scene with a certain action, someone would react to us as if we were doing an entirely different action, and we were to adapt to that. At first, it was a bit bewildering, because I had gathered mental momentum from “washing my hands” when Kristin asked why I was “peeling a banana”. However, once I got over my initial surprise and denial, I learned to let go of what I had presumed, and instead started to enjoy the challenge of adapting to the spur of the moment.

What a little “Turning toward” can do

by theschan4

“Turning towards” each other can bring ideas to life. My experience this weekend was one example. I was sitting around at a party (on my department’s ski trip) and no one was really doing much. In other words, there was plenty of room for someone to initiate something. Well, two girls were sitting on the couch with their legs propped up on the other couch, forming a little bridge. I pretend limbo-ed underneath just for the heck of it.

My friend immediately exclaimed, “Hey lets do limbo and use the ski for it!!” Little did I know, but she was “turning toward” me just then.

A few minutes later, we had a full-scale game going, with the ski as the limbo post and music blasting in the background. It was a lot of fun, and who would have guessed this came about because of a bit of spontaneity on my part, and a positive response on my friend’s end.

Does Education destroy Spontaneity?

by theschan4

In “Notes on Myself” I found his argument that “education destroys spontaneity” by imposing negations/classifications interesting. I never thought of education as “a destructive process” before, and I do agree with some of the logic supporting this argument. Education necessarily imposes limitations to the individual’s concept of “what is possible”, simply by passing on what previous generations have learned about the world. Furthermore, I do feel that as a Stanford student, I have learned to distance myself a bit from things in order to analyze and think, “leaning back away” instead of responding in the moment.

At the same time, there remains the concept that “the more you know, the less you know.”  It’s necessary to have some degree of education in order to be aware of the possibilities that one’s spontaneity can draw from. For, example, in this class, we are re-discovering our spontaneity  by learning the basic concepts of improvisation.

Embracing the Weird Twists of Improvisation

by theschan4

Improvisation can take bizzare paths. I remember in class that during the word-by-word story, we ended up with something like “Julie’s eyebrows were falling”. This is a rather gross scene if you envision it. I thought the strange result of this game was simply a one-time occurrence, but then I read the passage about the improvised end of the Hansel and Gretel story, in which the children became cannibals and ate the witch, then the hunters that wandered into the forest. These two impressions lead me to believe that bizzare-ness, in improvisation, is rather commonplace. On that note, I should learn to get over any trauma I may logically feel about the scene, and instead embrace and run with the most unexpected twists, whether they be gruesome or not.

Sarah