Effort – Hiding in Plain Sight

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Everything we do requires effort.  If we want to use our kinetic energies wisely, some degree of self-observation is required.  Yet this can be difficult because of what Michael Polanyi has termed subsidiary versus focal awareness.  Both aspects of perception are involved whenever working with tool.

For example, in hammering we attend to both the hammer and the nail but in different ways.  We watch the effect of our strokes in order to pound the nail effectively, yet we are also alert to the sensations in the hand holding the hammer.… Read More

Using Effort Wisely

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Effort stood out when the dancer Rudolf Laban was asked to provide advice on efficiency in factory labor during the Second World War.  It wasn’t what workers were doing, but how they applied their kinetic energies that became his key concern.

Shifting the focus from what to how isn’t easy.  If you are like me, you have a long list of things that must be done before the holidays and the end of the year.

Everything on that list requires effort. … Read More

Work Smarter

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The holiday season can be stressful, so it is worth making an effort to work smarter, not harder. We could take advice from an expert named Jonathan Bing. Praised in song and verse, he liked to save trouble.

For example, he reasoned that if he never got up in the morning, he could save all the trouble of going to bed. This came in handy during the gift-giving season, for here is what he did with the trouble he saved:

“I wrap it up neatly and sent it by post
To my friends and relations who need it the most.”… Read More

Adjusting to Technology

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As I mentioned in the previous blog, artists who paint from life also use photographs.  They are able take advantage of these technological recordings for two reasons.

First, if the painter has spent sufficient time painting outside, at different times of day, in various seasons, in sunny and overcast conditions, they have developed sense memories that allow them to continue work on a painting back in the studio.  The photograph of the subject becomes a useful point of reference in the context of their direct experiences.… Read More

Observing Nature, Observing Movement

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The landscape artist’s aim is to capture the effect of light on colored surfaces, to represent somehow the atmosphere of a particular place at a particular time.

Painting en plein air is not for sissies.  It requires carrying all the necessary tools of the artist – paint, brushes, canvas, and easels – out into nature, where one must deal with insects, curious passers-by, and changes in light and weather.

Because natural light changes rapidly, landscape painters take photographs while on site as memory aids back in the studio. … Read More

Live Observation versus Studying Video

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In making Movement Pattern Analysis profiles, it has been a principle that live observation is preferable to video.  The videotape of an interview can be studied as a backup, to confirm impressions after the initial face-to-face contact with the individual being profiled.  But we would rather not make profiles from videotapes alone.

The pandemic, however, has made it difficult to conduct face-to-face interviews.  This has called our long-standing principle into question.

At this moment we do not know if video study alone is sufficient for accurate movement analysis. … Read More

Crystallized Poses versus Continuity

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From a rapid sequence of movements, the camera singles out only one.  The result is a crystallized pose or, in the case of Muybridge’s work, a series of poses.  If these frozen attitudes can be mechanically reanimated, they will give an illusion of movement.

But, as artists and philosophers alike have pointed out, the essential quality of movement is continuity.  The French philosopher Henri Bergson stated this most emphatically — “It is not the single snapshots we have taken along the course of change that are real; on the contrary, it is flux, the continuity of transition, it is change itself that is real.”… Read More

Understanding Movement through Technology

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In the 1870s advances in photography made it possible to capture rapid movement. Eadweard Muybridge was the first to do so.  His instantaneous photos of animal and human movements created a sensation because they captured aspects of movement never before seen by the eye alone.

Visual artists took notice.  The painter Frederic Remington simply incorporated Muybridge’s images into his paintings of galloping horses.  Other artists, such as the sculptor Auguste Rodin, claimed that Muybridge’s photos gave the appearance of someone suddenly stricken with paralysis, destroying the illusion of movement.… Read More

Glide Reflection in Dance

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Glide reflection combines translation and reflection. In this symmetry operation, a shape is moved a constant distance and then reflected; that is, the shape is oriented in an opposite direction. Many ornamental borders utilize this combination of symmetry operations.

In dance, glide reflection patterns can often be created by having dancers face in different directions. For example, in a line extending across the stage, the dancers alternate facing downstage or upstage. Or two lines of dancers stand facing each other then and cross through each other’s lines, heading in opposite directions.… Read More

Translational Symmetry in Dance

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Translational symmetry involves repeating the same shape simply by shifting it a constant distance, usually in a line.  This type of symmetry can be found in many man-made objects, such as a row of evenly spaced identical pillars or the slats in a Venetian blind.

In dance, the choreography for the chorus line or the corps de ballet often utilizes translational symmetry.  The precision marching of soldiers on parade and even an unruly conga line will also display translational symmetry.

The Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall combine symmetry operations with synchronous timing to create the precise group patterns for which they are rightly famous.… Read More