versatility of choice
Just came back from FIP - excellent workshop with Nina Martin. There was a lot of really engaged dancing and discussion which is both rejuvenating and exhausting all at once. The work is very simple and so of course extremely complex. Reducing choices to the most pared down version and then being faced with the multitudes of variation within that tight frame. It opens the consciousness of consequence and allows more sophisticated choice-making.
In terms of the work we're doing on this project, there was a lot of relevance in the movement material and also in the care needed in staging relationships (how easily power dynamics are set up).
one of the best quotes of the weekend:
low ambition in high-risk situations
Other things - I got pointed to a classic book that I'll have to find The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Erving Goffman 1959) and to a radio program: Thinking Allowed (in particular the episode Identity and Self-Imitation) that might be relevant to our work.
all good stuff
In terms of the work we're doing on this project, there was a lot of relevance in the movement material and also in the care needed in staging relationships (how easily power dynamics are set up).
one of the best quotes of the weekend:
low ambition in high-risk situations
Other things - I got pointed to a classic book that I'll have to find The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Erving Goffman 1959) and to a radio program: Thinking Allowed (in particular the episode Identity and Self-Imitation) that might be relevant to our work.
all good stuff
3 Comments:
neat... i looked into but didn't quite read Goffman in my research for dissertation last year.
"the individual develops identity or persona as a function of interaction with others, through an exchange of information that allows for more specific definitions of identity and behavior. The process of establishing social identity, then, becomes closely allied to the concept of the "front," which is described as "that part of the individual's performance which regularly functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance". The front acts as the a vehicle of standardization, allowing for others to understand the individual on the basis of projected character traits that have normative meanings. As a "collective representation," the front establishes proper "setting," "appearance," and "manner" for the social role assumed by the actor, uniting interactive behavior with the personal front.
Particularly...
"The actor, in order to present a compelling front, is forced to both fill the duties of the social role and communicate the activities and characteristics of the role to other people in a consistent manner."
I think what we're dealing with in a way is the crumbling or falling apart of the "front" on many levels...
very cool
strangely, when reading Alexis' post i was reminded of typography and many situations i find myself in as a designer: it is possible to create a very restricted system wherein your choices, because they are so narrow, suddenly become crucial to expressing everything from mood to textual hierarchy; complexity in a tight frame is much more sophisticated than complexity where anything goes!
as for the presentation of identity thing: it sounds as though you are articulating a basic question of this project. is that how you see it?
one thing i want to mention is that this identity construction, which i've read about in relation to speech patterns, is automatic and everybody does it. there is something sinister when people become aware of their own constructions and 'social power plays'. also, this behaviour just is, we can't 'not have' an identity to others. there seems to be a wealth of potential in examining the interstices -- fissures -- of these fabrications…
hmm... social construction and speech patterns... i wonder if Jeff would have something to say on that - i'll have to ask him
fundamentals - yeah, i think "presentation of identity" covers an awful lot of it... Alexis?
i think the idea of working within limits and "simple" structures is really key - we so easily jump to a kind of surface complexity - perhaps to avoid depth of complexity within simplicity....
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