In preparation for the MoveScape Octa seminar later this week, I have been thinking a lot about human effort. As Rudolf Laban perceived, “the animal world is rich in effort manifestations, but each animal genus is restricted to a relatively small range of typical qualities.” Human beings manifest a much richer range of motion and “can establish complicated networks of changing effort qualities.”
The results of human effort are all around us, for increasingly we spend our time in man-made environments, in homes, in office buildings, in vehicles that transport us from one to the other. At work or play, we employ a variety of implements that are also man-made. Some were crafted by hand, but the majority were produced by a machine. Yet, behind each machine stand the human beings who conceived it, designed it, and oversaw its production.
Man-made artifacts are palpable products; we can see and feel them. The complicated networks of changing effort qualities that produced them have disappeared. Human effort becomes invisible. In fact, we take it for granted. It takes a special event to remind us of the richness of our own efforts and the potential for the perfection of their application.
In the next blog, I explore a recent event that reminded me of the importance of effort in human endeavor.