Monday, June 04, 2007
Free Play
Been reading a book entitled Free Play by a gentleman named Stephen Nachmanovitch. The focus is on improvisation in the arts and in life. Nachmanovitch is a classically trained musician, so he references his personal exploration of improvisation in practice and in his performances, but the book does provide some useful insights and ideas for increasing one's capacity for generalized improvisation. Some of the things he mentions are tried and true methods of tapping into what is commonly thought of as our subconscious, i.e. breathing exercises, meditation, etc, with the focus being on putting one's self into a free, focused state of mind, so that we can create on the fly. The concept is about freeing ourselves to create without interfering with the creative process, to push personal boundaries, and explore our true potential.
I am only about half way through the book, but have been impressed with some of the ideas Nachmanovitch puts forth. Here are a few of my favorites so far...
"A creative life is a risky business. To follow your own course, not patterned on parents, peers, or institutions, involves a delicate balance of tradition and personal freedom, a delicate balance of sticking to your guns and remaining open to change."
"Impulse, like improvisation, is not "just anything", it is not without structure, but is the expression of organic, immanent, self-creating structure."
"...[E]verything in nature arises from the power of free play sloshing against the power of limits."
"Galumphing is the seemingly useless elaboration and ornamentation of activity...we galumph when we hop instead of walk, when we take the scenic route instead of the efficient one...when we are interested in means rather than ends."
For one reason or another, these quotes jumped out at me as I was reading. All of this came full circle in class tonight, as it was the first night of the Summer term and we were presented with a still life made up of a balloon animals (apparently a previous class had created a large pile of these things, and Mark decided that they would make a good drawing). At first, I started in with my usual contour drawing approach, then fell right into my usual habit of working from one point outward. It's something that is ingrained in me and in some ways it works really well, but I'm looking to expand so as to explore my true capabilities. So it was decided that I would do blind contours, which means that I would draw what was in front of me with a continuous line, that is, without lifting my pen/marker/pencil, and that I would draw this picture without looking at the paper I was working on. The idea is to connect your hand to your eye without having to watch your hand move across the paper. It's an interesting exercise and I found myself getting totally absorbed in the effort involved in "flying blind". If you haven't tried it and you enjoy drawing, I would highly recommend it.
So now I am assigned with the task of doing three, layered, blind drawings of a particular section of my bike, then doing a controlled, ordinary, contour drawing of the same afterward. It should be interesting and I have to admit that I'm eager to get started. :)
Speaking of the bike, I FINALLY got the pipes and air cleaner on, which means she makes a LOT more noise now. I can only describe the sound as being a cross between a bass drum and a thunderclap happening immediately to your right several times per second...music to my ears.
Sadly, my vacation is at an end. I have been off since Saturday, the 26th, so it's been a while since I saw the inside of the office. I can't say I'm happy to be headed back, but at least it will be a short week and a brief wait for the weekend. Here's to a quiet week in the cube farm and a sunny weekend of riding. :D
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