Monday 25 May 2015

"How can you be right here, if you're trying to be over there?"

- in Contact Improv class with Robert Anderson

Affective marketing

So I'm having these ambivalent feelings about how some of the loveliest shorts, photography or a stop motion like this get made on advertising budgets. Not that we needed confirmation of the affective power of artistic/aesthetic creation. And I guess it's not so much a matter of integrity, but just a matter of reality that some great stuff gets funded because it's used as a prop for money-making or for state propaganda. (Then I also get confused because on the other hand I believe in art for activism, for causes related to human rights, ecology, freedom and so on. Not that most of that really gets funded.)

That said I did enjoy this stop motion very much. And the marketing side doesn't make a difference to me personally because I'll never have the dough to be a credit suisse customer - and I doubt they'll take a chance on investing in art for art's sake since it has 0 potential for returns.

Eleven Questions

My classmate Joanna Kalm​ asked me for a list of questions that I'm considering in my creative practice at this moment. I gave her a blank look. But we talked about it again today and it turned out to be a great exercise. I came up with this!

1. How can I allow What is going to happen next, to happen next?
2. What the heck is wrong with these people/institutions/politics etc?
3. How can people survive society? Capitalism?
4. Why do I do all this to myself?
5. How does art exist?
6. How does peace exist?
7. Do we know what "dancing" is?
8. How can I make this about you instead of about me?
9. Will my mother hate this?
10. How can I make everything my choreography teachers would have failed?
11. Can I have a cookie yet?

Friday 8 May 2015

10 things I should have been told in my early years of Ashtanga

Reposting something another practitioner shared with my teacher Denise!

10 things I should have been told in my early years of Ashtanga.

1. Ashtanga Yoga is a lifetime commitment.

2. Pain (paining) is your spouse for better or for worse.
3. If you practice warming-up (stretching) you'll get better in warming-up not the practice itself. So just practice straight then the practice itself in the long run would be like a warm-up.
4. But some would say, "Warm-up/stretching is to avoid injury." Injuries OCCUR whether you do warm-up or not. That leads me to the next one.
5. If there's one thing that needs warm-up/stretching. It's the mind.
6. Ego + Yoga Asana = Injury
7. Humility (mandatory). Don't step on your mat without it.
8. Acceptance is the only new asana you need.
9. Being judgmental is a reflection of your frustration towards your practice and/or life itself.
10. Mindbending is more important than backbending.