GMU:Construction - Destruction/Cosmo Niklas Schüppel: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 09:54, 7 February 2023

Describe, by listing…

All space, natural or human-made, is comprised of actors that fulfil actions. In the contemporary western world view, non-human and non-sentient (objects) actors are often reduced to their effect to humans. This is how we define their ‘function’.

Through the interplay between these ‘functions’ humans ascribe ‘meaning’ to a space. Most of the time, we are unaware of the exact functions and relationships between these actors - and the meaning we are projecting into them.

The participatory Performance ‘Describe, by listing…’ sets out to guide the participants into an awareness about these relationships. By asking the participants to describe their surroundings, the performative exercise goes back to the basics of human perception and meaning-making. Starting with simple descriptions, the exercise builds up gradually - to ultimately dive deep into the topics of subject/object-relationships, differences between function and meaning, and into a pictorial understanding of the interactions that exist in every space.

The exercise can be done in any space, the content might change, but the experience is universal. A space outside is preferable.

The performance is conducted, as follows: After welcoming words, the participators are asked to start a voice memo on their phones. The act of recording the voice helps to focus the attention while describing. The performer sounds a gong and gives the first instruction: “Describe, by listing: What do you see?”. The participants turn into their perception and start describing.

Question after question they sink deeper into details of the space - focusing on different layers of the space and themselves: Interactions, consequences, function, meaning.

They are entering into a meditation on the complexity of relationship patterns and are beginning to feel themselves being united with the other actors in the space. They may see memories rising up, morphing with the trees surrounding them. They may see the logical mind coming to its limits, and are being left in a silent awareness of their detailed perceptions. They may not find truth and meaning, but they experience what it means to search for the absolute.

Performance is set to take place on Feb 8th 2023 in Ilmpark, Weimar.

Words of the performance.doc (spoken out to the participators):

File:07.02.23decribe, by listing... performance script.pdf

Edit of a participants recordings (test Performance 17.01.23, Berlin, Jahn-Sport-Park)

https://soundcloud.com/cosmo-schueppel/describe-by-listing-audio-documentation/s-1PVmXl2hH6n

''concept state of 16.01.2023''

''concept state of 01.12.2022''

''concept state of 08.01.2023''

old idea (contiued in Migas class)

not all who die are gone

''project documentation''

Detailed process documentation on:

https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Sustainable_Aesthetics/Cosmo_Niklas_Sch%C3%BCppel

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+== '''Describe, by listing…''' ==
-old idea (contiued in Migas class)
-== '''not all who die are gone''' ==
-[[''project documentation'']]
-Detailed process documentation on:
-''https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Sustainable_Aesthetics/Cosmo_Niklas_Sch%C3%BCppel''
+All space, natural or human-made, is comprised of actors that fulfil actions. In the contemporary western world view, non-human and non-sentient (objects) actors are often reduced to their effect to humans. This is how we define their ‘function’.
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-[[''concept state of 01.12.2022'']]
+Through the interplay between these ‘functions’ humans ascribe ‘meaning’ to a space. Most of the time, we are unaware of the exact functions and relationships between these actors - and the meaning we are projecting into them.
+The participatory Performance ‘Describe, by listing…’ sets out to guide the participants into an awareness about these relationships. By asking the participants to describe their surroundings, the performative exercise goes back to the basics of human perception and meaning-making. Starting with simple descriptions, the exercise builds up gradually - to ultimately dive deep into the topics of subject/object-relationships, differences between function and meaning, and into a pictorial understanding of the interactions that exist in every space.
+The exercise can be done in any space, the content might change, but the experience is universal. A space outside is preferable.
+The performance is conducted, as follows: After welcoming words, the participators are asked to start a voice memo on their phones. The act of recording the voice helps to focus the attention while describing. The performer sounds a gong and gives the first instruction: “Describe, by listing: What do you see?”. The participants turn into their perception and start describing.
+Question after question they sink deeper into details of the space - focusing on different layers of the space and themselves: Interactions, consequences, function, meaning.
+They are entering into a meditation on the complexity of relationship patterns and are beginning to feel themselves being united with the other actors in the space. They may see memories rising up, morphing with the trees surrounding them. They may see the logical mind coming to its limits, and are being left in a silent awareness of their detailed perceptions. They may not find truth and meaning, but they experience what it means to search for the absolute.
+Performance is set to take place on '''Feb 8th 2023''' in '''Ilmpark''', Weimar.
-== Resonanzen of the abandoned ==
+[[File:describe, by listing... POSTER.jpg|400px]]
-''Project sketch''
+Words of the performance.doc (spoken out to the participators):
+[[:File:07.02.23decribe, by listing... performance script.pdf]]
+Edit of a participants recordings (test Performance 17.01.23, Berlin, Jahn-Sport-Park)
-In this text I would like to present the self-defined term of a ''transmorphic space''  and my approach to exploring it.
+https://soundcloud.com/cosmo-schueppel/describe-by-listing-audio-documentation/s-1PVmXl2hH6n
-The concept of a ''transmorphic space'' is a newly developed term to describe a space, that is transforming itself in a vacuum created by the withdrawal of meaning. It builds upon the following anthropological and philosophical concepts on classifying a space:
-'''Non-place (non-lieu).'''
-This neologism was coined by the French anthropologist ''Marc Augé'', to describe a place meant for a transient function. In such a space, writes Augé, a human remains anonymous and a non-space does not hold enough significants to be regarded as a “place” in the anthropological definition.
-''Michele De Certeau'' adds to this concept to factor of Dynamics. For him a non-place is characterised by the movement and restlessness. “To move means, to miss the place” he writes to describe the phenomena, that in a non-place no-one ever really arrives.
-''Examples for non-places are: train stations, motel rooms, highways and shopping centres.''
-'''Heterotropia.'''
-This term was used by ''Michel Foucault'', briefly in his early phase in the late 1960s. It describes places that implement their societal norms only partly or not completely. As well as places, that function by their own rules. For him these places play an important role, because they reflect the society that made them in a special way. Either because they represent, negate or subvert society.
+[[''concept state of 16.01.2023'']]
-''Examples for Heterotropias are: ships, cemeteries, bars, brothels, prisons and gardens.''
-'''Liminal spaces.'''
+[[''concept state of 01.12.2022'']]
-The term Liminality is shaped by the ethnologist ''Victor Turner''. It describes the state of surpassing a threshold. Anthropologically it is often connected to the concept of the right of passage and the performative nature of rituals. In the physical world the term is used to describe spaces of transitioning, spaces in between and spaces that only find meaning through their destination.
+[[''concept state of 08.01.2023'']]
-''Examples for Liminal spaces are: Airports, waiting areas, stairways, corridors, or light-houses.''
-Loosely based upon these existing concepts I would like to offer the term ''transmorphic space'' (trans: to go beyond, to change; morph: shape, form, structure). I would like to use it to describe  ''a space that transforms in a vacuum, created by the withdraw of meaning''. It defines a space by the performative state of redefining itself. This state of redefinition is the process of finding a new meaning
+----
-I am defining these spaces not through their relation to the human actors in it, nor through their shape or dynamics. I am using only their quality of transformation to characterise them. In these ''transmophic spaces,'' there are actors that perform the act of ''transmorphing''. These actors could be seen separated from the space, as outside influences. For me they are what makes up the space. A ''transmorphic space'' in the entangled net of actors transforming each other and by doing that, transforming the space.
-The key example for a ''transmorphic'' space is a house whose owner moved away, no new humans are coming to settle in and it is taken back by nature.
+old idea (contiued in Migas class)
-By the act of moving away, the intended meaning for the space was revoked from it. This creates a vacuum, which manifests itself in a search for new meaning.  Now the actors fill the vacuum. Insects, animals, plants, moles, fungi and bacteria start to shape the space. They transform it into something new.
-In this transformation the relationship between decay and reanimation is becoming important. The acts of transforming are almost always an interplay between destruction and construction, between dying and becoming alive, between falling apart and forming something new.
-Understanding this process is not meant to understand the new meaning of the space, but only to observe the state of change.The vacuum and its relationship to spatiality, the human perspective of what is meaningful, meaningless and what is filled and empty. The question of meaning, emptiness and most other relative human terms of description, are purely subjective. Firstly subjective to the human species and secondly subjective to every individual. Exploring these seemingly absolute states, loosens our hardened understanding of reality and our accompanying expectations.
+== '''not all who die are gone''' ==
-This way of exploring a space is, to me, the fundamental form of an aesthetic experiences - when following the definition of ''Erika Fischer-Lichte''. She describes an aesthetic experience as an experience where you perceive an object, while you perceive yourself. Exploring the space is exploring your self. You are becoming an actor of transformation, you are becoming part of the space, you are becoming space. You can experience how you influence the process of transmorphing and you can experience how you are being changed by the space. ''The process of exploration is perceiving the feedback between you and the world around you.''
+[[''project documentation'']]
-'''project realization'''
+Detailed process documentation on:
-In the artistic research project resonances of the abandoned I want to explore the concept of transmorhic spaces. I will pick a space and try to understand to actors of change. I will document with fotos and film, take samples, explore them in the Lab and try to make sense out of what is happening. Who is doing what and who is influencing whom.
+''https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Sustainable_Aesthetics/Cosmo_Niklas_Sch%C3%BCppel''
-In the end I would like to develop a technique, so that explorations like this could be adapted to workshop-like formats. Excursions with adults and children, that find ways to enter and explore a space not for finding concrete anwsers, but for the performative and transformational qualities of exploring.
+----