There is no journey
I always thought of Cynefin's work as providing this journey for people. I now see what bunkum taht is.
The interesting thing about Labyrinths is that although they are 'promoted' as a journey, or inner journey, in actual fact they go nowhere...around and around in circles or, as in the case of the interior Labyrinths we create, up down around in no particular direction.
For those in the 'doing' mode this can be frustrating...and is so until they give up on the utility of this persuit and just give in to the pointlessnes of it. It's at that point when presence descends...there's no seeking, no trying, just being with whatever happens.
We are so emboldened with choice...from which breakfast cereal to which parter, which football team to support, which insurance policy to take out. And with each choice grows this sense of personal identity and autonomy. The Sensory Labyrinth Theatre, I think, gives us a break from all of this, or infact restrics our ability to choose. There is only one way. But because one is always moving the feeling is not being trapped...there is a sense of agency.
This last point is very clear to me since the last Labyrinth production, in Plovdiv last month. There the site, although absolutely magical, was not right for a Labyrinth. There were several chamres coming off other chambers so that it was not possible to make one path. The inhabitants guided the visitors to each room. So while there was no choice for the visitor neither was there a sense of agency and although the Labyrinth was still a significant experience for those who went through and those who were in it too, it did not have the same kind of effect as our other work has.
I felt the same going through Enrique Vargas' last one in Copenhagen (about Hans Christien Andersen). One chamber to the next, one performance to the next, never a feeling of being alone and lost and coming upon something.
What a strange paradox this is. To succeed the Labyrinth must make the audience feel a sense of personal agency and secondly that there is no choice.
I'm not being coy about the existential dimension of the Labyrinth and so below is the latest source of insight for me on why th ework works and how to make it work better -
Check out Tony Parsons
Could you think of a more normal name and a more normal person to deliver such an extrordinary radical view of the world...absolutely rivetting.
http://www.theopensecret.com/audio1.htm#new_clip
If anyone is reading these notes let me know with a comment below. Feels lonely talking to myself.
The interesting thing about Labyrinths is that although they are 'promoted' as a journey, or inner journey, in actual fact they go nowhere...around and around in circles or, as in the case of the interior Labyrinths we create, up down around in no particular direction.
For those in the 'doing' mode this can be frustrating...and is so until they give up on the utility of this persuit and just give in to the pointlessnes of it. It's at that point when presence descends...there's no seeking, no trying, just being with whatever happens.
We are so emboldened with choice...from which breakfast cereal to which parter, which football team to support, which insurance policy to take out. And with each choice grows this sense of personal identity and autonomy. The Sensory Labyrinth Theatre, I think, gives us a break from all of this, or infact restrics our ability to choose. There is only one way. But because one is always moving the feeling is not being trapped...there is a sense of agency.
This last point is very clear to me since the last Labyrinth production, in Plovdiv last month. There the site, although absolutely magical, was not right for a Labyrinth. There were several chamres coming off other chambers so that it was not possible to make one path. The inhabitants guided the visitors to each room. So while there was no choice for the visitor neither was there a sense of agency and although the Labyrinth was still a significant experience for those who went through and those who were in it too, it did not have the same kind of effect as our other work has.
I felt the same going through Enrique Vargas' last one in Copenhagen (about Hans Christien Andersen). One chamber to the next, one performance to the next, never a feeling of being alone and lost and coming upon something.
What a strange paradox this is. To succeed the Labyrinth must make the audience feel a sense of personal agency and secondly that there is no choice.
I'm not being coy about the existential dimension of the Labyrinth and so below is the latest source of insight for me on why th ework works and how to make it work better -
Check out Tony Parsons
Could you think of a more normal name and a more normal person to deliver such an extrordinary radical view of the world...absolutely rivetting.
http://www.theopensecret.com/audio1.htm#new_clip
If anyone is reading these notes let me know with a comment below. Feels lonely talking to myself.
posted by ArmchairDJ at 8:07 am
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