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If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper.
Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-,” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. Thich Nhat Hanh |
Interbeing
Interbeing is a piece for 8 moving string players exploring the space between sound and movement. As a violinist I am not just a sound source, I am also a body in space. You could say there is already interdisciplinarity when I play the violin but because of our assumptions, previous experience and training we are not used to perceive it this way. Over the course of a year I have explored my own movement and physicality with and without violin. In my improvisations, collaborations and creative process I have focused on shared practice and the visual and physical aspects of my own practice as a violinist. During the rehearsals with the 8 string players I have taken them through making process using creative writing, movement exercises and mindfulness.
During the 30 min performance the string players listen to a pre-recorded mindfulness meditation on their earphones in which I guide them through the piece, focusing on their movement and physical experience. To share this with the audience the performance starts with a film showing metaphors of 'how it feels to play a string instrument' followed by a film of the string players mindfully exploring their movement without instruments. This slowly transforms into the live performance of the string players moving through the space while playing their instrument. They end the piece together as one moving organism in a corner of the space.
'Interbeing' was part of my practice-based research at the Leadership Pathway of the Guildhall Artist Masters Programme. Practice-based research is original investigation undertaken in order to gain new knowledge partly by means of practice and the outcomes of that practice. It is research where some of the resulting knowledge is embodied in an artefact.
During the 30 min performance the string players listen to a pre-recorded mindfulness meditation on their earphones in which I guide them through the piece, focusing on their movement and physical experience. To share this with the audience the performance starts with a film showing metaphors of 'how it feels to play a string instrument' followed by a film of the string players mindfully exploring their movement without instruments. This slowly transforms into the live performance of the string players moving through the space while playing their instrument. They end the piece together as one moving organism in a corner of the space.
'Interbeing' was part of my practice-based research at the Leadership Pathway of the Guildhall Artist Masters Programme. Practice-based research is original investigation undertaken in order to gain new knowledge partly by means of practice and the outcomes of that practice. It is research where some of the resulting knowledge is embodied in an artefact.
process, thoughts and ideas
Joe Moran explains the term ‘interdisciplinary’ in his book interdisciplinarity as follows:
"It can suggest forging connections across the different disciplines; but it can also mean establishing a kind of undisciplined space in the interstices between disciplines, or even attempting to transcend disciplinary boundaries altogether … Interdisciplinarity is always transformative in some way, producing new forms of knowledge in its engagement with discrete disciplines."
I have been searching for this more integrated model for interdisciplinarity, which goes beyond simply putting individual practices together. I want to establish something which is not definable by the boundaries of discrete disciplines but by the unique combination of people involved in the collaboration. I asked myself the question; what is building between people and within my own artistic practice when there is interaction and exchange?
An artist's practice refers to both the conceptual and making processes of an artist and their artwork. It examines how the artist develops ideas, concepts and themes through the influence of their global and personal world and other artists and their movements. Often exchange in a collaboration is there to create a final product but you could also see collaboration as a tool to develop your own artistic practice without sharing it with an audience in a material form. When working with more people than yourself there is a need to formulate your thoughts and ideas out loud, explain them to someone else and respond to possible feedback. All people involved have their own background and will bring their own skills, knowledge, experience, personality and working methods. Together you will have an enormous amount of resources, knowledge and experience. When there is an open, safe and challenging working space in which you can explore and experiment together without the pressure of a final product, this can create fruitful exchange in which all involved will grow. It is a process driven by the question; What do we think, feel and observe and what do we need to explore this further?
All which has been shared and explored will develop the personal practice of the individuals and feed into their future projects and activities. At the same time there is something building between the collaborators. A foundation of shared experience, common language, understanding and trust will grow by sharing and exchanging experience, skills and knowledge. This process does not only include the exchange that happens when creating work together, it includes every shared experience as artists, friends and human beings depending on how we choose to frame and reflect on it. When choosing to share a process, outcome or product with an outside audience this can be seen as part of the exchanging process and has grown out of the always building foundation.
Miranda Tufnell and Chriss Crickmay wrote a beautiful description of this element of sharing in their book A Widening Field
“Creating or making springs from a need within all of us to communicate and to share with others. Without expression our sense of ourselves shrinks and contracts. The presence of a partner who goes with us in our journeys of imagination making alongside of us, watching, looking at and sharing in what we create, enables us to get to know the life and significance of our images more deeply. What we make, or do, or say, grows and comes more alive for us as it is heard, received by others. To enter another’s imagery is to get to know the feel of their world to sense them much more fully than we can in everyday life. And we discover a world that is shared, no longer simpy inside ourselves, but coming alive and growing between ourselves and another.”
During my research I have been struggling with my classical background. Although I am very grateful for the education I have had, sometimes the ingrained skills and way of thinking constrained me in my creative process. As a classical musician I was used to working from the instrument to an outcome. In my training I was programmed to create in a certain way and understand how to develop specific skills. I think we sometimes get stuck in the skilfulness of the discipline itself. It can become extremely specialised and self-perpetuating which does not leave much space for own exploration and development of the knowledge. Because, how do you create something which does not exist yet if you already know the final outcome?
This struggle with my classical training is something that kept coming back and it gave the research an extra layer. It pushed me to search for my own interests and identity in combination with trusting the creative process. I learned to explore a starting point or idea through action, investment and decision making in the moment. The actions, investments and decisions in the present would create the next present and this made a new path guided by constant reflection questions. What am I doing and why? If there is a enquiry, how does my current activity relate to that? If there is no enquiry it might be that through doing you find out what it is you would like to investigate. This way of working creates space for unexpected, new and exciting personal learning and ‘product’ material.
Process experiments:
"It can suggest forging connections across the different disciplines; but it can also mean establishing a kind of undisciplined space in the interstices between disciplines, or even attempting to transcend disciplinary boundaries altogether … Interdisciplinarity is always transformative in some way, producing new forms of knowledge in its engagement with discrete disciplines."
I have been searching for this more integrated model for interdisciplinarity, which goes beyond simply putting individual practices together. I want to establish something which is not definable by the boundaries of discrete disciplines but by the unique combination of people involved in the collaboration. I asked myself the question; what is building between people and within my own artistic practice when there is interaction and exchange?
An artist's practice refers to both the conceptual and making processes of an artist and their artwork. It examines how the artist develops ideas, concepts and themes through the influence of their global and personal world and other artists and their movements. Often exchange in a collaboration is there to create a final product but you could also see collaboration as a tool to develop your own artistic practice without sharing it with an audience in a material form. When working with more people than yourself there is a need to formulate your thoughts and ideas out loud, explain them to someone else and respond to possible feedback. All people involved have their own background and will bring their own skills, knowledge, experience, personality and working methods. Together you will have an enormous amount of resources, knowledge and experience. When there is an open, safe and challenging working space in which you can explore and experiment together without the pressure of a final product, this can create fruitful exchange in which all involved will grow. It is a process driven by the question; What do we think, feel and observe and what do we need to explore this further?
All which has been shared and explored will develop the personal practice of the individuals and feed into their future projects and activities. At the same time there is something building between the collaborators. A foundation of shared experience, common language, understanding and trust will grow by sharing and exchanging experience, skills and knowledge. This process does not only include the exchange that happens when creating work together, it includes every shared experience as artists, friends and human beings depending on how we choose to frame and reflect on it. When choosing to share a process, outcome or product with an outside audience this can be seen as part of the exchanging process and has grown out of the always building foundation.
Miranda Tufnell and Chriss Crickmay wrote a beautiful description of this element of sharing in their book A Widening Field
“Creating or making springs from a need within all of us to communicate and to share with others. Without expression our sense of ourselves shrinks and contracts. The presence of a partner who goes with us in our journeys of imagination making alongside of us, watching, looking at and sharing in what we create, enables us to get to know the life and significance of our images more deeply. What we make, or do, or say, grows and comes more alive for us as it is heard, received by others. To enter another’s imagery is to get to know the feel of their world to sense them much more fully than we can in everyday life. And we discover a world that is shared, no longer simpy inside ourselves, but coming alive and growing between ourselves and another.”
During my research I have been struggling with my classical background. Although I am very grateful for the education I have had, sometimes the ingrained skills and way of thinking constrained me in my creative process. As a classical musician I was used to working from the instrument to an outcome. In my training I was programmed to create in a certain way and understand how to develop specific skills. I think we sometimes get stuck in the skilfulness of the discipline itself. It can become extremely specialised and self-perpetuating which does not leave much space for own exploration and development of the knowledge. Because, how do you create something which does not exist yet if you already know the final outcome?
This struggle with my classical training is something that kept coming back and it gave the research an extra layer. It pushed me to search for my own interests and identity in combination with trusting the creative process. I learned to explore a starting point or idea through action, investment and decision making in the moment. The actions, investments and decisions in the present would create the next present and this made a new path guided by constant reflection questions. What am I doing and why? If there is a enquiry, how does my current activity relate to that? If there is no enquiry it might be that through doing you find out what it is you would like to investigate. This way of working creates space for unexpected, new and exciting personal learning and ‘product’ material.
Process experiments:
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'Human string sounds' is an exploration of the phenomenological experience of string players. By focusing on the physical experience of the players I tried to capture their movement in the sound.
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'Gouden Regen' an exploration of cause and effect between sound and movement in the process of composition and a mindful observation of the hidden field in Hackney.
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