Interpretation of space / Improvisation of play

THE INTERPRETATION OF SPACE From bungee to dwelling Homo faber THE IMPROVISATION OF PLAY Participatory creation, inclusion Homo ludus

Angeliki Meli

Master Studies on Contemporary Circus Practices FINAL THESIS

THE INTERPRETATION OF SPACE From bungee to dwelling Homo faber THE IMPROVISATION OF PLAY Participatory creation, inclusion Homo ludus

Angeliki Meli Stockholm 2016-2018

While we try to find a personal homeland we end up by creating more and more non-places In which our own ethical rules create normality.

Growing up in the massive urban system, dealing with the borders, facing a constantly changing city i built up the tools to travel through this intensive information and environment by adapting every time to new parameters and keep improvising even though systems adapts faster than our ability to create the new something.

The desire has always been the place called “topos”. But i was constantly constructed spaces that they were able to have only something of this meaning. Finally “topos” turns to be my utopic1 meaning to understand the world. I was in need of an apparatus (or vehicle) to be able to travel and cross that adaptive and still improvised system of being.

“Topos” is the place where everything can happen. Is the place that intersects with the infancy, the violence, the lust. Is the place which absorbs the shape of its users. Letting the users to interact totally free so that they can face their own memories, feelings, movements. At the end “topos” becomes a space because of the users.

If the aerial movement is the apparatus for the architectural “topos” then the system is a space which is always changing and the users deal up with their personal notion of belonging to.

1. Utopia< ou+topos= The place which doesn’t exist

This thesis is not a research on philosophy, but it takes philosophy as inspiration, as a tool for finding missing links between the doing and the being.

Is not a guide to a research method but is a poetic creation that constantly changes for the shake of keep moving.

Philosophers and writers are coming as visitors to have a creative exchange when the practice itself is not serving any longer.

Sketches and drawings are coming as a friends to take care of the space between practice and thinking, while the virus is growing up.

Words and terminology are extra players so the play of creation can keep going.

You can read this text in any preferable order so you can create your own journey in time and in mind.

Do not take any information for granted but also do not underestimate any of them.

THE INTERPRETATION OF SPACE From bungee to dwelling Homo faber Vocabulary machine: is the medium that helps the body to move or/and travel Embodied machine: is the machine that has a clear connection to/with a body topos: is the place where all of our emotions and images find the way of leaving in peace. non-place: a space that tries to not relate to any types of emotions, cultural or social images. Defines Itself only by the now.

Spacialvisation< space+Improvisation improvisation: is the constantly change of making, accepting the new rules and understating the process of destroying as part of creating a dwell. discipline: a concrete way of moving that has been approved without doubts apparatus: is the circus objects that can manifest their use building: is the process of making with a clear way of doing it dwelling: is when the making finds its purpose

The landsape of a rope.

Several diagramms of movement and space combined with fantasy. The green lines are the “virus”. All these thoughts and desires that still haven’t found the way to become movement or action. (notes 2017)

WHAT IS A RESEARCH METHOD? The approach As i started my research program i had firstly to identify my way of approaching, by using some architectural tools, that later on i will rething or even change.

1. How can we visualize the aerial movement (through diagrams, plans, sections, views) ?

2. How can we map the space is been created?

3. Hacking the medium / Brake the machine 4. Using paradoxically the axes.

5. Affecting the space so that becomes interactive one.

6. How we can proceed to synthesis?

The apparatus can be defined as a place where many spaces are being created through time. Is of cnsideration how we keep clear the one space from the other and what elements are these which define the arrival of another, new space.

To frequent space Michel De Certeau (Certeau, Michel de 1984) writes, “is to repeat the gleeful and silent experience of infancy. Is that of the first journey, of birth as the primal experience of differentiation, of recognition the self as self and as other, repeat it later in the experiences of walking as the first use of space.” Most narratives goes back to infancy. And “space narratives” are both what “travers” and what “organize” places. So circus can be a space of narratives which are the ones that traverse and organize that place (or system).

As aerial movement I define the movement that happens between two levels by using a medium (machine) which affects that movement.

This is subscribed as a system. If we break an aerial movement into concrete systems and identification points we will be able to free ourselves as performers and as makers. This medium together with the

body can be described as an embodied machine.

The notion of space is an intersection of moving bodies. Referring to aerial movement several spaces are created because of several intersections.

1.Between the body and the machine. A very small space that is being carrying and transforming through the aerial movement.

2.Between the levels and the embodied machine. Sometimes very strict (around the rigging point) and others very loose (around the floor).

3.Between the container that contains the embodied machine.

4.Between other moving spaces (audience) and the embodied machine.

2.

1.

3.

4.

VERTICAL SPACE AS A NON-PLACE Theory ‘‘A space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place.”

(Marc Auge, Non-Places, Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, Verso, London- New York 1995)

Moving bodies can describe a geometric space but the relation between the moving bodies can lead to a new anthropological space. A space which will be narrative, neutral and without labels, without giving proposals or direction but only give elements so that occurrences (events) can take place. When this will happen then we can recognize and enjoy the performative body and the performative object. inversion | rope in between the legs front view

front balance view

inversion | rope in between the legs top view

front balance Top view

How we define space relate to aerial movement? Either is a vertical space, either a parallel, either a diagonal, either whatever because what matters is the angle from which we see things. It is an open dialogue between the one who makes (audience) and the one who acts (performer). ‘’we could say that today there is not even a single instant in which the life of individuals is not modeled, contaminated, or controlled by some apparatus. Apparatus, then,

is first of all a machine that produces subjectifications, and only as such is it also a machine of governance.‘‘ (Agamben Giorgio, 2009)

SPACIALVISATION A method for breaking systems/apparatus In the aerial movement what is obvious is the intension to move in different ways inside the “space” of the apparatus. It is very rare that in this space also the rigging points are included . How can we create spaces so that there is a reason to move? ^Putting limits on the aerial space can lead to improvisation attitudes.

All the freedom that we gain because of hard training how can we perform it only in the space between our hanging hand and our feet? ^ Place the apparatus in another axe but still trying to approach it with the notion of the aerial movement. We are still working on aerial space rather than aerial movement. ^ Keep the apparatus on the typical position in the general space but change the way it is rigged by making it movable in other axes than the

usual one. Only because this is “how we do it” does not mean that we can not do it the other way.

EXPERIMENTS Braking the machine 1. A wooden surface with 4 rigging points. On them a gri-gri. The body is changing the surface. The surface it can be vertical, horizontal, and in all the in between positions. Body has to adapt.

2. Dancing trapeze and three big boxes In this experiment the dancing trapeze was my vehicle for approaching the boxes. The interaction with them was focused on the ‘what’ was giving energy to the way i was moving.

Stockholm, October 2016 Graphics made out of an improvisation session (Putting limits on the aerial space) on a static rope where i had clear limits to move on the vertical axe. This diagrams where also read as time, rhythm or sound.

After this i started working on what i can do to have this as the actual graphic of my embodied machines. This was the starting point to gradually arrive to the aerial bungee rope.

3. Low Dance Trapeze 20cm from the floor,close to wall trying to do again the “coreography” that came up from the boxes

4. The small metal cube I found it by change and i try to found the way to move in and out. I ended up to constantly move on a ‘S’ movement.

5.Bungee aerial rope (which turn to be my basic method for destruction) documentation: https://vimeo.com/242033981 Rigging the rope from a bungee. At this exactly moment i was affecting the machine. The machine didn’t broke down just change its function.

What is crucial in circus is its discipline. A discipline that seems so fundamental but actually is been designed in such a way so that can cause obsession rather than extract fantasy.

Cities are acting in a similar way of discipline about urban planning, social rules, methods of living and co-existing, all together seem to set the human being free. Actually no! The systems is only producing new problems for them to be solved and the final trick is never final. (notes 2017) The landscape of a rope.

Metastasis. When the virus need to find more space and starts to move inside-out by vreating new spaceand new rules to play with.

RECREATE THE EMBODIED MACHINE Attemps to find new relations between body and space

FROM MACHINES TO SYSTEMS (and reverse) Aerial Bungee Rope- How did the time came?

After the experiments came the need for something clear, minimal and concrete that will be governed from some elements that I came across previously.

Which is the phenomenon around rope? Its image through aerial development it turns to be very strong and so difficult to find another approach or just some space to fit in. So trying to find a way to gain back my independence and my freedom I Create an algorithm which can affect always the dialogue and in the same time introducing the floor, the ceiling and the embodied machine as one space with many possibilities to explore.

Putting a bungee between the rigging point and the rope i can create a new unknown variable “X”. Depending on how strong or loose the bungee is, every time I have to face a new space in which I dive, bounce, move. I came up with a machine that gives me many reason to “why” this and not something else. To this new equation we have the variable x= bungee and then the duration, the speed, the weight. But mainly the presence of time. The “how I’m falling” or “what moves me” or “how much I move” they become parameters on this equation while the when am i moving, or for how long i do so seems to be the most important.

Suddenly after a drop you have the memory (or what it seems to be a memory) of what happened to your body and how was the way you traveled from point A to point B. And then you have the time until the bungee stops to recall the path. And somehow to travel again the space that few seconds before we were falling in.

For having the biggest possible drop you should really gather all your energy so that everything last longer. You should force yourself to be-

come heavy, by filling your belly with air. Be the heaviest you can so that gravity travels faster.

Moving from one system to another ,I went to the static rope trying to do exactly the same, climb the heaviest I could and then fall the more intensive i could. The result was a catastrophe. The pain was amazing and the rope was floating in my hands almost reed. And then again to the bungee rope trying to define the new possibilities. How starting from breathing i started to move and reach the floor just to use it to fly back to the air, back to the connectors encountering the moment when the embodied machine can face its stillness.

These are some notes that came from my broken machine and lead to the understanding of a (new?) system (bungee rope) the understanding of the other (old?) system and give the first elements for an authentic and new dialogue through the apparatus, the body and the space (in and out of this).

Then how I can proceed in the space formulation of this algorithmic equation? All the systems in the space and then how we can capture the parameters that every time they give different results.

After i broke a system i came up with a new one, that this new one gave me different tools to approch the old one and become a constant imporvisor of myself.

Notations for (and from) aerial bungee rope. First try December 2017.

Graphic presentation of the bungee movement in time and space

Notes 2017, notations of movement / notations which lead to improvisation

December 2016 If i have had to describe my way to this application as fragments of space then it would have been like borders, cement walls, lot of water, roof, ropes, woods, paper. An unstable environment inside a concrete world. Coming from Albania, living in Greece, flying in Spain, and then hanging playgrounds from the ceiling. Lost in between the architecture notion and the circus attitude seemed the only way to balance in the moving space.

Circus is also that action that turns any material-object, into a space.

Takes the “small” and makes it “bigger”. It is about making. How the juggler almost “delete” the image of the ball and turns it into a turning space which is marked by small white balls. Is how the rope artists gives all this possible types of space which are marked by the rope line. Out of this the space of the object turns to be a meta space. Circus artist like a craftsman is creating something for its own shake.

They use objects not to describe their material but to describe what an object is (meta object). On the other hand, industry pushes for new objects and new materials. The commercial product should not only create the form or the meta but mainly the trend and the short lasting existence.

“To a rationalized, expansionist and at the same time centralized, glamorous, and spectacular production corresponds another production, called “consumption.” The latter is devious, it is dispersed, but it insinuates itself everywhere, silently and almost invisibly, because it does not manifest itself through its own products, but rather through its ways of using the products imposed by a dominant economic order.“(Michel Certau, 1980) In the circus field after the technique is coming the equipment. Sometimes there is nothing of technique expect from formalism such as the aerial spiral, the cube, the triangle, the aerial pole, the aerial plastic etc. No matter if basically there is no

innovation it is enough if it is something we have not seen. Many of the new circus products they cannot really be reproduced as they cannot be timeless or be re used on another way. Many new apparatus they lack of spontaneity. I can totally see someone desperately grabbing a bar, hang it from two ropes and create the trapeze. I can see the spontaneous action out of corporal desire, to swing. Sometimes material is giving the way and some other times the shape is giving the path or the movement.

For which space are we talking about?

Which movement can define the space?

How the orientation create the (circus) space?

Who or what have inspired their shapes?

For who am i designing for?

Where the inspiration is coming from?

Should i have a final product?

Who am i trying to please?

What is real about circus?

Where does the circus live?

What it an apparatus?

What is the circus space?

What is the space of circus?

What is the aerial space?

How do i live inside the apparatus?

How time is marked?

Making is thinking?

Does circus think?

What i am thinking when making?

What am i making?

Autumn 2016

INTERPRETATIONS OF SPACE FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE AND BACK 0. THE PRACTICE At first the practice is standing “there” as the very concrete thing you know very well to do. Sometimes it’s seems to be the only thing you know until you take a step back and suddenly there is nothing there except from a heartbeat. Every practice starts with a practical “Now what?” that comes along with a “how am I feeling? (Traveling the space of the system by using the apparatus while the dialogue is been created is leading to an interactive relationship, notes, October 2016) OUPS! BACK TO PRACTISE Working on aerial equipment and thinking of the aerial movement I realized that the “aerial” wasn’t there. Any freedom or joy of doing something beyond the norms wasn’t really there. The aerial apparatus as every apparatus “is first of all a machine that produces subjectifications, and only as such is it also a machine of governance” (Agamben, what is an apparatus, p.20). I was given (from the apparatus) every time limited choices. At the end this system I realized it was a restricted system which was giving me the illusion of feeling free. But being free1 means the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited(Cambridge dictionary). Referring to the aerial practice; limit is what makes you move NEW QUESTIONS ON THE TABLE How can i create a new system which will provide me with less re1. (Greek freedom means Eleftheria (ελευθερία)1. Any action that comes from the desire of Eros .2. Going/ moving to the land.

strictions meanwhile it’s going to provide me with an interactive dialogue? How will i provide my system with more freedom?

How i will express all the images are coming along while i am moving and they are the poetic images which are there before the thinking.

SYSTEMS AND DISCIPLINE “Discipline sometimes requires enclosure, the specification of a place heterogeneous to all others and closed in upon itself It is the protected place of disciplinary monotony” (Foucault, 1975) so, going back to the static system of rope we see how this is a closed system between two borders (floor - ceiling) and the radius around it. This system with its users it turns to be a closed and protected one. But as the most discipline based practices “imposes the best relation between a gesture and the overall position of the body, which is its condition of efficiency and speed. In the correct use of the body, which makes possible a correct use of time, nothing must remain idle or useless: everything must be called upon to form the support of the act required.” (Foucault, 1975).

AGAIN! I’m facing the strict shape of this system. If you don’t fit the shape then you are obliged to do so. The system becomes more and more harsh the more interaction I am asking for.

Can everyone fit in the same shape or system? We are changing only the way we are moving, not what we are moving with (or moves us)notes, November 2016 1. LIVING OBJECT Very soon i realized that for the aerial movement i should always chase the disciplinary monotony just for being able to move inside the

rules i was “given” by the apparatus.

Overcoming a rule when this rule Is not efficient any more or Is already a new rule- Notes, September 2016 Firstly i tried to make the rigging point movable by using a bungee connector. As a result the rope was moving inside the same space that before was static. I had time to recall my desires and more important my memories. I was moving as strawberries inside a jelly. Just because i was inside a system that everything seemed equal didn’t have to pre decide what I’m going to do next. I had time to travel through the vertical axe by using the floor and the same time understanding that together with my body also my organs, my thoughts, my vagina, my emotions, etc. are traveling too. I was able to start a movement just because i was breathing. The rope was moving even if i was breathing on the floor. I was stepping on it and was pushing me away if the conditions were not the right ones. From acting i moved into activating and from performing i moved into living it.

2. BREATHING [plastic] SPACE [system] After that i realized that a fixed space wasn’t anymore what i was looking for. The making of my new space was creating my thinking.

Moving for its own shake it’s the same element for both apparatus and body. As the body is never the same also the apparatus should be plastic.

And if we think the aerial apparatus as the dwelling of the artist then we can be more than sure that this dwell should bring with it all this characteristics that would create this one and very special spatial system. The user should be greedy so that they can make this plastic, breathing system. The more it reaches this point the better net is created between the bulding, the dwelling and the thinking (Heidegger, 1951)

APPARATUS AS A DWELLING (personal space) Making, Dwelling, System 1. Making is could be dwelling -making something for its own shake transfers all the unspoken feelings and memories through bodily action into a material environment. Transforming it into personal space.

2. Dwelling is the manner in which users are moving to all axes.

3. Apparatus as dwelling unfolds into the apparatus that cultivates growing things and the apparatus that erects apparatuses - dwelling is someone’s personal space. Through the process of turn it into a personal space the user will come across with deep thoughts and actions. Obviously a new apparatus will be created and will be able to motivate new discourses and apparatuses with the same characteristics such as: 1. The heterogeneity which is following, discourses, institutions, laws, philosophical proposition etc. and the apparatus having the role of the network.

2. Its’ function will still be concrete relating to power relation.

3. Providing also relations of Knowledge (Agamben, What is an apparatus) DISCIPLINE! IS THAT A PLACEBO? I didn’t know many feelings of my practice until i changed practice.

Not method of moving but method of manipulating my objects. Affecting them until the point they were out of order or until the point i new what i was looking for.

Discipline was there providing the user with tools so that he/she can overcome a specific problem: the relation between user as living be-

ings and the set of institutions, of processes of subjectification and of rules in which power relations become concrete (Agamben Giorgio, 2009) AERIALIST CIRCUS PRACTITIONER (a.c.p)/ DWELLING As i was trying to break the equipment the very same moment i was creating many more off them. I was the maker of my own space. Since the whole process was just for its own shake, as a craftsman is doing, without realizing it i was creating a place of memories and feelings, reaching my personal topos. Even if the materials were the same the whole synthesis was more than equipment.

As an a.c.p materiality is more than just a medium. It is almost equivalent with the way and the reason of how and why we are moving. And for that reason we should be more aware of what and how we are using and combining every material.

Later i will explain how out from a material (knitting threads) i came up creating a whole narrative of poetic images, that the process together with timing and making, were leading in to a per formative space within a per formative action (Bristol, Circus CIty festival, Island residency, 2017).

4. HOMO LUDENS, HOMO FABRIC As an a.c.p i recognize two identities that are of the same importance. The one is of homo ludens (Huizinga Johan, 1989) as play is primary to and a necessary condition of the aerial movement and more specific aerial practice can be described by the Latin word ludus; as ludus simultaneously refers to sport, play, school, and practice. The second one is the one of homo faber who is something more than just 10,000 hours of discipline but is the line which connects the thinking, the instructions and the inspiring tools which are produced by

the a.c.p. Good instruction is not necessarily precise, but needs to be sufficiently expressive and fantasy-inspiring. Undoubtedly through the process of making the thinking and the feeling is equally present (Sennett, 2011) MAKING YOUR PERSONAL SPACE After i made the first moving system i tried to multiply it. More ropes with elastic connectors, each connector of different elasticity. When i started climbing i felt as i was inside organs. Every rope was “breathing” in a different way and i had time and space to find and define my own breath until the moment that this two different breaths became one. The way i was moving wasn’t aggressive or powerful. Again i was swimming into a jelly environment. It was not only about breathing but my body it was just muscles and nerves and the space i had created was the missing organs. It was a personal space totally connected with the user.

5. INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS In any case my practice and my experiments are not only about the rope.

It is more about understanding the how something is breaking and why something is moving. So in the next level i

was trying to “break” the dancing trapeze. Basically it is a steel bar with two ropes. Everywhere there were static connectors. Again i made some changes so that i can get a moving bar. The bar was reacting to my weight. I was pulling the bar down and after a while was pushing me back. Again my trapeze vocabulary was almost useless. The “new” apparatus was giving me all the reason to move or better said react.

It was not very clear what was first. I acting or I reacting. At the very end was not important. The quality of movement was honest and clear.

Maybe this can be an answer on how interactive systems can be produced so that they can refer to more users than just circus artists.

Interactive and movable systems can raise the playful notion. As there is always a “partner” to keep motivating. On the other hand in such systems there is enough time and space for the users to find their own way of moving (This later become the basic concept of my “making space” studying case).

Let’s thing of a user who cannot move the right arm. Instead of fitting to a fixed vocabulary by empowering all the other muscles the user can take the time to get involved with the system so that both they will create a new dialogue of acting and reacting.

Now lets thing of a user who cannot understand the order “push”, every time the instructor of this fixed vocabulary tells him so, the user is doing nothing. As soon as the apparatus is more plastic the user will be able to build a new relationship by not using even once the order “push”.

The examples above are not far away of how children are playing or even cats. We can see children play in playgrounds that there is a very specific setting of -HOW, WHY, WHEN. This happens because parents belong to a disciplinary society and children are getting prepared for this. But still when they are in the first years of their life they are trying to be part of interactive systems.

INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION â&#x20AC;&#x192; The equation i came up with, after experiments on making and having the experience on working with other users: A.C.P = aerialist circus practitioner Homo ludens = playfulness Homo faber = making Interactive system = living objects, breathing space, dwelling (apparatus) NEW USERS A.C.P ->Homo ludens+ Homo faber=Interactive system ->NEW USERS OR NEW USERS->Homo ludens +Homo faber =Interactive systems->A.C.P

METASTASIS When the virus is creating a whole new shape of body and space. Thoughts and fantasies incapable to become movement they turn to be the basic ingredients of play and making.

THE HOUSE OF APPARATUS Building-Dwelling-Thinking

What is the apparatus (Agamben Giorgio, 2009)? The circus objects are normally referred to as apparatus(es). How do we relate to them?

In this research I will approach it as a dwelling (Heidegger Martin, 1951) intending to understand and create a method around the system of building, dwelling and thinking.

The circus apparatus is a space in which the circus artist grows and spends most of their time. Whether for the performance, the act or the show, at the end of this, a tight and extra-ordinary relationship has been created between the artist and the object (the object, that as i will try to elaborate later, turns to be a signified object, or even better a performative one).

What is the process of moving our thinking of circus from the apparatus to the dwelling? As in the case of houses, what turns a house into a home is the memories, the smell, the personal freedom of expressing our selves inside the home-place1 and the desire of wanting to go back, as a returning to somewhere. More than anything else it is also the effort put to “bring” all this together. All the four dimensions are involved as are our five senses. Something like this happens with the apparatus, if instead of approaching just a rope that someone bought and sooner or later will replace, we put the focus on this very delicate, spread in the time, think of the co-existence of the being and the object.

This situation of circus artist-apparatus is not something that happens with all the object our bodies encounter. For example, in the gym 1. As a place I am referring to the space that turns to be our very personal, four-dimensional space.

ceiling

body connector

floor

Graphic of aerialistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling, memory, 4parts | Angeliki Meli

the objects have a specific order of use. for using them. How can we en-lighten that perspective and work towards the direction of understanding and building a dwelling, where body, object, memory and feelings live together? What if we approach this place as a projection of many feelings, memories, smells etc. that never found expression, except of the one and so over-estimated corporal one. What is the way to transform the object into a very personal and unique place to return to? The project proposes that one way to do this is to re-design the apparatus, not for commercial industry, but as something unique for each user. Another direction can be to reconceptualizing the apparatus, highlighting the life of the object itself. For example, I was watching Joh-Paul Zaccarini’s performance (Stockholm, 2016) and I realized that the rope he was using was pretty much the same artistic age as him. It was an old rope, nothing to do with all this fancy comfortable and smooth ropes, the rope was taking an equal space on stage as the performer. This had the effect to create an extra-experience for me as the other, the witness.

Redesigning the Apparatus Going back to the first direction to redesign the apparatus, so it can become a place, we must begin by to asking “Where does the inspiration is coming from?” A story doesn’t need to be told. It is more an attempt to find the shape of a personal, anonymous and unknown story. At the end it is all about synthesis1 and how unrelated things as soon as they emerge from our inner ego can create something new.

What does it means ‘to Dwell2’? How is the meaning of building is included in dwelling (Heidegger Martin, 1951)? Most buildings (like the factory, the train station, the circus building etc) provide us with shelter but this does not mean that they support actions were dwelling is 1. Synthesis = Combination of simple things so we can produce something more complex.

2. “Was ist das Wohnen?” from the original book of Martin Heidegger

Graphic of Bachelardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house | Angeliki Meli

taking place. Generally the building is the medium, the dwelling is the aim. However, what if the idea of dwelling is already contained within the action of the building? The building is a step towards dwelling from the start: building as a means to protect and cultivate (Latin: colere, cultura) not only defined as the act of constructing. How are circus artists building their dwelling? How do they protect and cultivate their space of being?

How can an apparatus include this notion of protecting and cultivating?

(Heidegger Martin.1951) proposes:; -The building in its meaning is dwelling -The dwelling is the way human beings are/exist on earth -The building as dwelling is the cultivating/ growing towards development.

Heideggerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concept of dwelling1 is also a state of being satisfied, in peace2. Being in peace means being free and protected from any threat or harm. The state of being free and meanwhile protected from threats and damages. This is also some of the characteristic that the apparatus has or should have.

A System of Four Parts â&#x20AC;&#x192; Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take as an example the rope as an aerial equipment and as an equilibrium equipment. In the first sense, the rope is attached to the ceiling and is touching the floor and on the rope itself an action is taking place. What is the ceiling? From a constructive point of view is the strong top which covers the rest of the space. On other occasions it marks the floor of another space on top. Many things have been written about this, but little about ceiling as a surface to hang. What wuld happen if we consider the erial equipment (rope, silks, straps, dance trapeze, etc) as a dwelling, as a place of four parts? What stories can 1. Wunian (gothic ger.)

2. Friede (ger.)= piece

Aerialistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dwelling | magnetic gravity | How the space between floor-ceiling-connector is transformed

we develop if we realize that we are not just performing on a rope hanging from a ceiling, but instead that we are performing on a system of four parts.

-Ceiling (loft) -Floor (Basement) -Connector (rope etc.) (stairs) -Body (memory) In this system we can also imagine the connector as an object which has two huge magnets at the endings which hold on to what is at the edges (ceiling and floor). What are the actual forces of this system?

Heidegger uses the example of the bridge and how it connects the two shores of a river. A new space is created by the relationship between the continuation of each shore and their connection in the bridge (p.49). In Heidegger’s example we can see the simple shape of two sides and a connector in the horizontal structure. I would propose that this is similar to the vertical-circus-axis. The connector can be sees as a symbol instead of an object and, as a symbol, can create other dynamics in the physical space but also in the vision space. Moreover the space (object) and the place (symbol) are no longer just a “thing”. They become a place to be, a dwelling a topos. Topos is the space which allows the entrance of earth, of sky, of gods and humans (p.55). If I ask myself where do these elements can be found, the answer turns to be a dream, or better said the state of dreaming. What a better connection than this; trying to find where the circus enters the dream- state. In circus the dream-state creates poetic pleasures also for others.

The poetic of space | Aerialist’s dwelling In The Poetics of Space (1957) Bachelard proposes that the soul is establishing the shape, to create the dwelling. This is what the project proposes for the circus artist, to find a way to allow the soul to establish a form so that they can live within, reinventing the meaning of dwelling

so that they can “built” the new, unexpected space. Like as a poetic image doesn’t need a draft only a movement from the soul “(Bachelard, 1957). Similarly, the circus place needs the artist’s soul to be present during the “building” process which will create the dwelling.

How will the circus artist be present during the creation, during their state of being?. As Leschure had proposed, “the artist doesn’t create like they live but they live like they create” .(Bachelard, 1957). At this point is where we should distinguish between the poetic image with the metaphor (Bachelard, 1957). In the circus artist’s reality is more than the reality of everyday life. As soon as the circus artist creates a flow of poetic images we can expect the building of a place which leads to a dwelling. In the Poetic of Space Bachelard discusses how fantasy helps understand space without taking into consideration actuals of numbers and geometry. This is something that a circus artist is able to deal with as part of their general world-view: spatial meaning without being fully aware of it whilst also being ‘heretic’ (in as much as the everyday laws are broken) about space.

There is a delicate space of our memory’s house where we return every time we feel so; just to cuddle ourselves as if a wounded animal (Bachelard, 1957). I propose something similar happens to an aerialist. There is this delicate space in this verticality where the artist is cuddling themselves like a wounded animal.

What is common between Bachelard’s house and aerialist’s dwelling? Bachelard mentions that the house of our memory is a vertical one. We tend to place the basement in the lower level, where our fears are. As we move on we can find the loft on the top of the memory house, where concerns don’t exist and everything has more space. The main space Bachelard describes is the stairs where, depending if we go up (from the basement to the loft) or if we go down the stairs becomes wider and brighter as we speed up or narrow and darker as we slow down.

This is how the aerialist’s house is being designed in our memory. The

aerialist is starting from the floor (basement) where there is a mortal with all of their fears and insecurities, while close to the roof (loft) everything becomes brighter, stronger, spacious. Bachelard’s stair is the rope, the silk, the pole, (as I said before the connector). When the artist is going from down-up the connector becomes stronger, safer, longer, in contrary on their way down the connector becomes thinner, slippery, shorter.

Everything becomes clear and bright, strong and wide as soon as the artist is on the connector. On the floor (basement) they are still in everyday state where they are most of the time trying to get rid of, as the dark memories and feelings which are hidden (from a psychoanalytic perspective) when they are really up, close to the ceiling (loft) they are to complete the trick, and leave from this in-between mortality state as again they have to face lots of their inner desires. I would propose that in contrast to Bachelard’s house when it comes to aerialist’s reality then face two types of “basement”; down on the floor and up to the ceiling. The space becomes brighter, wider, quieter on the connector.

When reviewing the graphics of the aerialist’s dwelling (SEE XXXX) one notes that another aspect of the aerialist’s dwelling is magnetic gravity.

Magnetic gravity Someone wrote that his house is transparent although it’s not made by glass; but more like steam. The walls are dense or dilute depending on his desire. Sometimes he tightens them around him like an armor and some other times he leave his house’s wall to expand inside their space, that this is infinity. This is such a nice description that it can be the beginning of a new architecture, or a poem but what it can be for a circus artist and their apparatus? What makes it such a good example is the ability to be both very abstract but also something very concrete and familiar to everyone. This is what I am trying to achieve referring

to this dwelling state. All the apparatuses we know are locked up in a well-know and strict geometry. A trapeze, a rope, a hoop for example do not open a proper space that in turn can allow someone to feel attached to a memory that is coming from their own “house” His house his apparatus is transparent although it’s not made by glass; is more like steam. The walls are The contour is dense or dilute depending on his desire. Sometimes he tightens them it around him like an armor and some other times he leaves his house’s wall apparatus’s contour to expand inside their space, that this is infinity.

What is missing from the circus apparatus is breath. Few take a moment to recall the memory which is made by breath and rhythm.

When Sennett (2008) refers to the craftsman he describes the craftsman gives breath to their creation: they transfer their thoughts, vision, soul via their hands to their craft. The circus apparatus has a double layer of craftsmanship: the first craftsman who did the building, and a second one, even more important, the craftsman who is sculpts it with their body.

For example, an elastic fabric gets stiffer and thinner as time goes by, a covered rope becomes slippery, a non-covered turns out, a trapeze growls etc. All these are marks of time performing on the apparatuses. if we consider these objects as time then the risk is related to them. What if we perform on stiff fabrics, turned out ropes, growls trapezes? Definitely something new is coming.

Dwelling In order to describe two different methods of how the aerialist’s dwelling can be created; the first one would be the actual building of it: how the artist could “leave” and “sleep” during the building of their apparatus. The process an intensive one that at the end they would be able to know exactly how their new thing is moving, without even trying it. They will work so much on the building process so they will understand all the details; what makes their object-space break, fail, fly or

stay. The more time they spend on their craft, like artists and not like makers, the more breath and soul they will deliver to their dwelling.

The second method would be the one that wants the aerialist to keep â&#x20AC;&#x153;livingâ&#x20AC;? with their object as if it is part of them; trying continuously to (re)discover the spontaneous creation of time.

THE IMPROVISATION OF PLAY Participatory creation, inclusion Homo ludus

When the virus is growing and taking over the actual space.

Virus are all this thoughts, desires, fantasies, images that until now they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it to the surface. Not until now that the virus has shaped its own rules in a spacious play where everything is possible except from the option of stopping.

VOCABULARY OF PLAY (spring 2017) AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE see: Lila An earthquake has happened. Bzz.Shake.Bzz.Boom. Everything down - everyone out. What comes after is a tottaly new space of material, failure, scraps. You can see that window which is hanging but still moving.

BUNGEE PLAYER see: playsite There is a rhythm, a time, a phrase, a time of action and re-action. The player is aware of this but investigates them one after the other.

EARTHQUAKE see: Lila, Joy, after the earthquake There was a big earthquake in Athens on 1999. I was sitting on the toilet when the earthquake started. It was the most destroying joy.

EXPECTATIONS see: making Doing without being too attached to the outcome, because the doing is its own outcome.

FLUX see: pattern The state of constant change in which all things exist.

FREE PLAY see: playsite Experience creativity and free play as the same as our ordinary activity.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all about moment to moment nonstop flow. Play exist because of its own action.

IMAGINATION see: expectations Its purpose is to propagate the understanding, joy, responsibility, desire and the insticts,about the peace that comes from the full use of it.

IMPROVISATION see: ludic time In improvisation there is only one time, that of inspiration, of realizing the play,the time of playing and the time of communicating. And all are one.

JOY see: expectations, after the earthquake Where does the play of imagination come from? It needs your full co centration to put all the little pieces together so that the joy of destrution can be bigger.

LILA (sanskrit word) Divine play, the play of creation, destruction (deconstruction),recreation (re-construction), the folding and unfolding of the cosmos. Freedom depth delight of this moment.

LUDIC TIME see: improvisation, training Before ludic time there was a training. Now training can be a tool, a reference or even a ground to land on.Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no longer a driving force.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the time where the creation becomes present and the training is a memory coming from an imaginary space.

MAKING (is thinking) see: expectations Giving life to a wooden beam brings with it an incredible rush of energy, coherence and clarity, axaltation and exultation. Like many joys, it can betray us by appearing in one moment and vanishing in the next.

PATTERN see: user, player The use of patterns it is a mimetic action where the user tries to choose one pattern instead of another. The player is only engaged in the process.

PLAYSITE see: free play, the play of improvisation Playgrounds were invented. The same as childhood. We may have ‘i vented’ childhood, but we did not invent play. So play will always be under construction.

PLAYER see: pattern, user The player is part of the play (or system). As long as he/she is presentthe play is continuously transformed into something new that can be endless.

THE IMPROVISOR-PLAYER see:earthquake The improvisor-player has to be like a person walking backwards.

They see where they have been, but pay no attention to what is coming.

The play can take them anywhere, but must still “balance” it, and give it shape, by remembering (incidents) . The play of improvisation not only generates new material, but remembers and makes use of earlier events that may have been forgotten.

THE PLAY OF IMROVISATION see: free play The players have been thrown into a scrap yard or into a construction site. The demand of the play (of improvisation) concerns not only the self-creation of the player(s) but also the self trancedence of being present during the play.

TRAINING see: ludic time, joy Studying,working,socializing, living in cities, making tricks or piro ettes, being religious or an asshole is part of our social training. We train ourselves on something, without a particular reason so that we might get one(reason). PATTERN see: user, player The use of patterns it is a mimetic action where the user tries to choose one pattern i stead of another. The player is only engaged in the process.

USER see: pattern, player The user tries to understand how systems are working. Once the i formation is received, the recipient is no longer present and the act has come to an end.

The sculpture of my nose, Bristol, 2017

Snapshot from the performance-presentation, Bristol, 2017

Installation of soft sculptures, Bristol, 2017

The mouth, soft sculpture, Bristol, 2017

Rositaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head, sculpture, Bristol, gallery, 2017

FROM PRACTICE TO THEORY Dwellling | The improvisation of making During my residency at Circus City Festival (Bristol, 2017) my main artistic research was to find a way to live inside my creation, to transform it into my dwelling. Before I started the process I engaged in contextual readings, to understand how I can work through the urge of my personal fantasy defining my mind or subjective play (Smith Brian-Sutton, 1997).

From the very first day I started sculpting a nose. My own nose. The nose I was remembering from my life: from being a kid who knocked on her nose, from being a teenager- whose friends were making fun of her nose- from being a circus artist who had never realize how important her nose was for being alive- even when I had a flu. I built my nose with balloons, and plaster; when I ran out of material I stole all the toilet paper from the residency place and I filled my nose.

Everything was useful to fill in my nose. Like my nose’s snots, this nose was full of shit too. It was memory that was serving as the source and power of the creatice impulse.

There was yet a no consciousness of the relativity of the past. (Bakhtin, M.M 1981) After the nose I tried to create my mouth.

Both nose and mouth have an important role My grotesque body, Bristol, 2017

Process of creating one long, thick rope, Bristol, Studio, 2017

Process of making a new rope with the participants of the residency Bristol, gallery, 2017

Performance, Bristol, Studio, 2017

Process of making a new rope with the participants of the residency Bristol, gallery, 2017

in the grotesque body (Bahktin, 1965), they are also a great starting point to re-occupy my very personal space, my own body. From my mouth all my inner world can break away: nothing fancy, just my intestines. Imagine a body, my body; moving around only with a big nose, the nose of memories, a mouth and my intestines. As soon as you imagine this then see it explode all over the space: the destruction of the body in the space literally, understanding the rhetoric of the imaginary (Brian-Sutton Smith, 1997 While I was working, sitting, reading, thinking and drawing in the small studio I had to connect my intuition with the images that were living in my head. I didn’t really have a way to twist my intestines, or walk with my nose, like Collegiate Assessor Kovalev is doing in Gogol’s story “The Nose”. I couldn’t even lick my inner body with my tongue.

Inside this small space, where no color was present, I had to understand how or from where the inspiration was coming from.

I had to find a starting point and the English ambient wasn’t very inspiring. I went to a shop and bought some threads. Pink and more pink. Light pink, dark pink. I really hated pink. For hours I was inside the studio trying to create long, thick ropes out of the threads.

Suddenly it was there. Everything was making sense. I was trying to recreate my own grotesque body, deconstructing what I knew of my aerial equipment. The rope always had to be strong, durable, intact, white or black. The whole time it was like I was weaving in my intestines, thoughts and fantasy. Piece by piece I was building a new world.

Like a proper craftsman I knew my craft, although I had just met it. I knew all the micro sounds of stretching, until it breaks, how it is “sweating”, how I grab it, the weakest points or the glamorous one. It was something like 600 meters of thread by the time I moved to the gallery. Although in the begging nothing was clear the process was very determine.

Finding the craft Take all the images which come from the imaginary world as they are Re-create all the images through the new craft.

Copying oneself each moment Repeat every mistake Don’t search for bug ideas Accept Copy Repeat (the improvisation of play) I had to recreate the image of the vision I had on the first day, of “my own grotesque body” in to a three dimensional space and I had to find the fourth one. The time.

Weaving is an actual form of time. Time is so present on the actual thing. Time is the necessary alienation, the environment where the subject becomes real by getting lost, by being something else so that can become the truth of itself (Guy Debord, 1967). Even when I wasn’t training on my movement and circus skills, I was building a circus space. I was turning some of my fantasies into reality. No matter what the exact fantasy was about, because the image was more important than what was the actual reason which produced it. The poetic of these images can be stronger and richer since they have made their travel through the unconsciousness to the conscious. (Bachelard Gaston.

1957) When members of Ilona’s residency decided to come and share the space with me, as part of the ongoing process of me, things worked faster than I thought. All the movers repeated the process. It was clear that I didn’t want to repeat a circus/dance creation, rather I wanted to see if a content, not related to my installation/sculptures could create an unexpected narrative.

Even though no one was really giving attention to creating narratives it was clear to me that this improvised composition of space, movement and craft could bring many intimate, rough and pink stories. Why are these women connecting threads in front of a soft mouth, around a nose? I already had the fantasy of a story that I didn’t know, it wasn’t mine, but it was as bizarre as i would have liked it.

Things came up on this random meeting but the most important one was the creation of material which didn’t need technical installations, such as rigging. Yet, circus was there. We were climbing, hanging, twisting, jumping, risking.

Heidegger says that architecture is not only buildings, but all the works that man makes with his hands in the course of his daily occupation. Inspired by this (I have already mentioned how circus had inspired my architecture and vice versa (November, 2016) I will apply this quote to circus’s architecture. Circus is not only tricks, but all the works that artists makes with their hands in their daily occupation. Circus by definition and as part of their practice, turns anything that comes to their hands, or is created by their hands, to produce a new artistic product. Circus artists have to trust their makings and engage themselves in the designing/creation time the most possible.

They are capable (this doesn’t mean that everyone is doing it, not at least as long as they are inside the market industry) of throwing their bodies inside any space, by expanding or exploding it; depending how they approach it; their bodies in the space, make anything extensions of it. This will take me to Nietzsche’s saying about the grand logic that was always about body. Circus, like philosophy- if we can say so-, should not be a reflection on things and concepts from an extreme or transcendent point of view. Should be a practice which does things, initiating, challenging or transform other practices. Circus is a product that is been generated out of body’s impulses (a body of organs and processes which follow strategies of impermeable categories such as

truth, morality, logic, subject) this exact body can perform the so overrated “i”. This is what circus is able to do. “Not only speak for the “I” but performs it”. (Nietzsche) Risk made out of threads When i was making this long ropes out of threads i didn’t exactly new what I was going to do or why; It was just a part of a bigger image my body was producing. As long as i placed them in the space and i kept working on my dwelling thing i saw how i could challenge risk.

During my performance/presentation, though i wasn’t doing anything dangerous or of high technique the tension was raised up since the threads i was climbing on were gradually breaking, making everyone focused and aware of what was going on. I was very aware of every cracking but still very confident of what i was doing. It’s not about how high you fly, or how many flips you are doing on air as long as you keep it excited and unfamiliar to yourself too. I have mentioned again music improvisation (April, 2016) and how musicians are keeping exciting and surprising themselves due to the creation of the moment. It can be like cooking, where you have spare ingredients in your fridge -that are a collage of various tasty desires during the last week- but there not able to create a known food, so you have to cook something that will surprise you and probably you will be never able to make it again. But this is the ultimate fantasy; Living once something that you will never be able to live again. Just replicas of the memory. Again this is the satisfaction of the improvisation of play In this improvised presentation i tried to speak to the audience, just sharing thoughts and processes. Before the presentation started i gave everyone a stick with a long thread to wrap it around it. This was my “trick” to somehow to captivate them in my doing. They directly understood how fragile and soft this material was, while the got a glimpse of my craft and understood that the installation was a three

dimensional image of time. Someone from the audience said that the action of wrapping the thread made him almost obsessed; coming in and out from my world to his.

People from audience holding the rope. Angeliki performs â&#x20AC;&#x153;aerialsâ&#x20AC;? on the floor. Top view

MAKING SPACE The improvisation of play Learning from other bodies

Left fotos first edition Installation,playground Stockholm 2017, D.O.C.H

The improvisation of play first edition During the first year of MA studies, i had worked on the destruction of space focusing on the notion of free play and improvisation.

How people can enjoy play without rules? How they can create new ways of moving playfully? The more our societies move on, the more labels they create so that we reach the ultimate political correctness.

The notion of inclusion is more subject of theory rather than practical concern. From toilets, to games, to clothes,to movement, we tend to separate everything so that they can fit to a possible group. Everyone can find a way to be in a group and blend themselves in, as soon as the context hasn’t specific answers, so no-one knows how they will perform.

There different approaches on inclusive groups and disabilities. One has to do with the understanding of disability and the adaption to their needs (extraordinary bodies, seminar, Bristol 2017). Example: If there is a deaf person then we need a light room, visual exercises and interpretors. If there is someone with visual impairments it’s very important that our speech should be very descriptive and the space should remain the same. In case of a wheelchair you should be aware of the accessibility and also give tools which abstract so that they can adapt any mobility difficulties. For a person with Down syndrome always the directions and roles should be very clear, and any kind of program and schedule should be running on time as it was planned. In all the cases time should be given to and for everyone so that they can get famil-

iar with the space, the subject and the participants. Since everything has been taken into consideration, then the design of each activity can start. The goal to this approach is everyone to be able to take part in the same situation.

The second approach, had to do with the understanding of the process itself. Nothing had been adapt to specific needs or issues, but it was designed for a clear action. In that case the group had to find a way to communicate, solve any issues and continue with the process (Un-Label 2015). So a deaf person had to find a way to communicate even if an interpreter wasn’t there.

Even though it’s seems very crucial the understanding of each disability, questions are arising on how people are free to create and be without make a point for any personal needs. A woman J. she has nanism and a very rare affection of brittle bone disease (glass bones that brake easily) she mentioned that speaking directly for your disability has nothing to do with honesty, or understanding as you are losing your right to share your own personal stories with whoever you would like at any moment you feel so. Just because you have other abilities this doesn’t mean that you have to share any information at any time just because the others are unsecured or afraid.

Moreover the adaption to every disability, even if it looks quite philanthropist treats the person as something special that can patronized them. For being correct the difference between disability and handicap is that: A disability is a condition that can be caused by genetics, an accident, disease or trauma that may limit a person’s abilities like vision, hearing, speech, mobility, or cognitive function. A handicap is a physical or attitudinal constraint that is imposed upon a person. Regardless of whether that person has a disability. Steep ramps, stairs, no elevator in a building that has more than one floor level, narrow doorways, are just some examples of handicaps or barriers imposed upon people with disabilities who use wheelchairs.” (Raluca Oancea &

Chris van Maanen, 2013).

So actually, disability is something that happens to someone, while handicapping is something that society imposes to. Moreover even the too friendly, open , adaptive version again place the others to a weird bubble. Since no environment is perfect for anyone then why we have to make them “perfect” just because we think this is the best approach? It’s more important to create common survival and awareness mechanism. “A broad definition of disability leaves no one behind because everybody has to surpass some limitations range in severity and duration (partial to total, temporary to permanent) at some point in their lives. Everybody has a disability in their own way, just that in some cases the limitations are more pronounced.” (Raluca Oancea & Chris van Maanen, 2013). For that exactly definition is why i insist on step by step phenomenological built up process of co living.

Where circus can fit on this subject? On one hand we have the social circus projects around the world that uses circus as a tool of a spiritual uplift either inside vulnerable groups, either for vulnerable ones.

On the other hand we have some inclusive circus groups, such us Extraodrinary Bodies, Diverse City, etc, which create performances with mixable artists. The applied method is quite common on both dancing and circus inclusive groups.

Most of the time people with disabilities they built up a strength so that they can still perform what we are used to see on the exact same equipment. The question that i would like to rise, is why in this context different bodies instead of bring different image they are following the same track. Of course is difficult to get away of the well known zone that industry provides but we need more diversity not only for the image but also on the approach. For example, instead of different bodies (all bodies are different) trying to learn the same vocabulary of rope, or silks, or trampoline, they can try to figure out what should be their own, personal equipment and space of expressing and living.

Everyone’s house is different. Depending on their needs, on their taste, on their culture, they have minimalistic, retro,funky, kitsch, spacious or cozy or whatever, but is this very intimate and unique. Like our houses why the approach to movement, equipment and space cannot be the same personal and intimate?

A more clear perception is coming once more from sex industry.

“For the most part, sex toys and the sex industry in general are ahead of the curve when it comes to being accessible for people with disabilities,” she said. “I don’t think that [sex toys are] made with that in mind, but when you’re thinking about designing for the body and for pleasure you’re thinking about how to make people feel good. Things are going to conform to the body better.” Says Gehrig, who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Again here we can recognize that neither the adaptive design can create something new, or the all time fashion one can. What can create something new is the one that doesn’t define themselves as target oriented but as innovative for its own shake. Gehrig referring to sex pillows says, “Though Liberator wasn’t created with disabled bodies in mind, it’s actually better at providing support than pillows specifically designed to prop up and offer relief to people with disabilities. Because the Liberator is intended to stand up to the high impact of hardcore fucking, it’s much higher quality—and much more comfortable—than products intended for more lightweight activity.”

Maybe the sex topic doesn’t seem related to the subject of inclusive design, but sex involves the body hundred percent. Leads it to movements that we don’t perform every day and it’s intimate and depends to the person involved thus the improvised playfulness is probably the best way to be inside these moments. Sex industry doesn’t have a specific target to focus in. It is just experimenting around the feeling of lust. This is what we want if we would like to find out what is there that we still don’t know. “I think that toys are really great for people with disabilities in general, because they provide a higher level of stimula-

tion, and that level of stimulation can break through pain and make it easier to achieve orgasm,â&#x20AC;? Gehrig it talking for sex toys, but as soon as she mentions in general, then it becomes a great quote for circus, toys, free, improvised play.

The improvisation of play #2 From thoughts to practice During 2017-2018 i started working with people with disabilities in one to one sessions. I started writing in details about this meetings but since it can be a whole research on this i will keep it short by highlighting some important conditions a came up with.

I was not a physiotherapist They were difficulties because of someones condition and because of themselves.

Time for someone to feel confident to themselves is the biggest part.

Do not assume but first meet the one General movement propositions, such us circles with joints, stretch out body parts, body turns etc. Can lead to a desired openness.

Although there are difficulties for someone to follow a free/improvised practice since they are used to concrete exercises.

Time is needed.

Difficult days occur and there is nothing to do about it.

Copy ourselves before we come the other.

Repeat mistakes.

Ghange roles.

Tools for social development, Serbia â&#x20AC;&#x192; As part of my internship i went to Serbia to work with a mix group of people (non professional artists, Balkan and Mediterranean based).

The aim was a methodology to be created so that a manual come up (https://issuu.com/people2peopleserbia/docs/manual_tfsd_2017).

The goal was to use performative tools as a way of a group development.

Again in this project the focus wasn’t on technique rather than tools for people to be able to express themselves. Some of the people with disabilities they were asking for a full adaption, others they were entering or exiting depending if it was suitable for them or not and some others they were closed to themselves.

Nothing was meant to be taken for granted. Some people loved body contact, other ones hated. Most of the participants had a very honest interaction when it was about the music or to share their own culture.

An example was of a Macedonian boy who had a mental impairment and most of the time was quite. When it was asked by him to present something of his culture it was the first time when he had a solo of singing and dancing.

As a general feeling wea that everyone need to find a personal reason to act and the equal freedom to do. Nothing special designed.

From practice to artistic tools right fotos Second edition Workshop for a mixable group Volos 12-3-2018

During this time of researching on different people,bodies, methods and mainly understanding the improvisation of play i gradually built up the need to co create with other people, so that i can go back to the system i had describe in the beginning of this thesis. How from other spaces/bodies i can bring back to my own artistic existence a new inspiration. The unexpected, constantly changing flow of creation.

An improvisation of play in the space which can define every single moment the new rule. Because of that i started designing a workshop with wooden objects instead of a playground or a per formative space.

Big wooden planks (170x15x10) cm and small woods (8x4x2)cm were there to serve in different exercises of technique and exercises of improvisation. Participants were able to create space and movement on their own or in groups only by understanding the variety of all. The whole methodology was designed trying to be open to every circumstances and trying to be new for all the participants.

Working with objects makes the fantasy world tangible. The fix weight makes it easy to constantly create a play since there is this at least one stable parameter that can give constantly energy to the improvisation go on.

The workshop that took place in Volos, Greece on March of 2018, it was working quite well but still it was a workshop where i had lots of control. The next part was to also challenge my role and find my way to play while I’m improvising and re discovering all the possibilities to create space, understand it and finally move to the deconstruction of it only to start all over.

This was a challenge i had to take April 2018 during our last presentations that took place at CIrkor. I would have two days and approximately 70 people to play with and find a way for me to be fluid, shapeless and playful.

THE IMPROVISATION OF PLAY From artistic practice to a participatory artistic project When i first applied for the MA in contemporary circus practices at that time i was building things on stage while performing and when the long duration performance came to an end people were free to play on my objects (which mainly were objects of play).

During the first year i thought of reversing the process and starting by this playground which would have lead either to new objects or to a performance itself. I was given some spatial proposition but the rest was free for the participants to act as they felt so. I was trying to give all the needed information by put it in the space so i wasn’t needed as a leader. This experiment had its up and its down. People feeling lost in the total freedom, others leading personal games, others observing.

People went crazy and really playful only when i was entering their space to take part and encourage the whole situation.

The potential of an unspoken, indirecting performance where everyone is included wasn’t since fiction but still i haven’t found the principles to make it work every time. People of different ages and different abilities they were up to play/collaborate but they didn’t know how to start or how to take part. Something that happens to our societies too.

People don’t feel comfortable on initiating actions so that they can produce en endless energy which moves them.

After my internship where i was working with people with disabilities as a circus instructor and also went to Serbia for a training for adults trainers of mixed groups i realize (even though i want my arguments for some methods) that the total lack of rules makes it complicate for people to follow, create and understand their pathway. Instead of strict rules i had to come up with open instructions which they can lead to a free but still understanding setting. For that reason i took again the

role of the leader (trying to define this term so it can fit better to my next step) and tried to find how people can create new images on a playful attitude by getting inspired by themselves but also from the other.

Giving classes to people with disabilities i understood that for being able to give them a more detailed information i had to “copy” their way of moving or their way of standing. As soon as i was copying their way new things were on table for both of us.

COPY EACH OTHER As soon as the copy was there i had to understand the new thing that was coming, trying to not get stuck on what i was thinking since what i had on my mind it wasn’t really working for these new types of bodies.

TRY TO FIND THE NEW THING While you are finding the new thing then we have to find the rule that will help the new thing to keep expanding until the moment when we are very sure what is it about and we can start playing around the rules and the constellation of them.

REPEAT THE MISTAKE In the process of moving with the rules mistakes are occurring. How do we solve this? By repeating and copying the mistake and this action will lead to a new thing, to a new play, to a new rule. Actually this is how innovations were done; by some mistakes and people in charge who were not afraid to follow them. When i am wathing these rules remind me of my research process that finally turns to be a method of repeating, new rules, mistakes all over again.

The improvisation of play #3 Right fotos Third edition 4sessions of the free play Cirkus Cirkor, ALby, Stockholm, April 2018

For our final presentation i decided the very last moment to give sessions of the “improvisation of play” and let my personal artistic creations of drawings, objects and installations as part of an exhibition.

During the presentations i worked with four groups where either were mixed (circus and non circus participants) only circus and only non circus participants. The smoothest group was the mixed one as everyone was really trying to leave their one ideas outside and try to find new elements during the sessions while everyone, in terms of risk and danger, were taking care each other. On the other hand the most difficult one to work with was the only circus group. Lots of artistic egos and big ideas came across the same space with almost no one to have the desire to ful the simple rule of “copy each other” and “don’t bring new things if you haven’t understand what is already happening “.

From my side i was trying to keep the same attitude as with the previous groups but sometimes i was struggling between the one who just gives impulses and the one who takes control. It was obvious that most of the participants on this group they didn’t want to take the responsibility of being and doing. This made me wonder how much aware all of us we are that every single minute we have to take the responsibility of being and doing something out of it (even if this is the doing of nothing) The difficult part for me as the one who gives impulses (finally i refused the role of the leader) was to accept the failure. That this can also be a group decision (even if its coming from many individuals) and what i have to do is not trying to save it, but leave it sing because this is what will make it, probably, take over a new energy and a new pathway.

For some improvisation sessions repetition was the answer to move

on. For some other sessions failing was the key to create something new and for the rest time. Time to understand, time to accept, time to appreciate and time to train on their endless flow of being.

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Some extra documentation of the year 2016-2017 you can find on https://amacir.tumblr.com/ THANK YOU.

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Henricks Thomas. 2008.The nature of play. An overview. Amercian Journal of Play. Verso Leach Neil. 1997.Rethinking Architecture. A reader in cultural theory. Routledge, London and New York Noys Benjamin. 2014. Malign Velocities. Accelerationism and Capitalism. Zero Books, Oancea Raluca and Van Maanen Chris. 2013. Guidance handbook on a healthy interaction with people with disabilities. Rock solid foundation, the Netherlands.

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Debord, Guy. 1967. Η κοινωνία του θεάματος / Guy Debord · μετάφραση Σύλβια. - Αθήνα Heidegger, Martin. 1951 Κτίζειν, κατοικείν, σκέπτεσθαι / Martin Heidegger ·μετάφραση Γιώργος Ξηροπαΐδης. - 1η έκδ. - Αθήνα : Πλέθρον, Huizinga, Johan. 1989 .Ο άνθρωπος και το παιχνίδι : Homo Ludens / Γιόχαν Χουιζίνγκα · μετάφραση Στέφανος Ροζάνης, Γεράσιμος Λυκιαρδόπουλος · επιμέλεια σειράς Παναγιώτης Κονδύλης. - 1η έκδ. - Αθήνα : Γνώση.

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