Monday 12 December 2011
Friday 9 December 2011
The body as an organ of the soul is the result of the informing, creating activity of the soul itself
I am guessing that I could call the option of wireless internet my main source of information. Wherever I go and if I have an appropriate tool, such as my notebook, netbook or my iPod touch and there is internet available I take a look, if I´ve received any e-mails or what is new in Facebook. I deliberately don´t have a smartphone with permanent internet access, as I think it would drive me up the wall. Questions are frequently popping into my head, as I go through life and I am happy to look things up, if they are important enough for me to have remembered them until the evening, or if I have taken note of them, but if I were constantly looking things up on the go, I think my life would be a more dangerous one. (Mobile phones and traffic are definetly not compatible)
At home, other than being connected to my wireless network, I almost always leave the radio switched on. I grew up with my mother listening to BBC Radio 4 on a huge old longwave receiver. My choice of radio stations tend to go in the cultural/thinking allowed direction and many of the ideas I have bloged on are actually things I saw on the radio. In combination with the internet, where you can now quite easily access additional information on the program played, it is something I would never ever want to miss again. I have also found podcasts to listen to on the go quite handy, but I also need a break from everything too, so I take the information giving drugs in healthy doses ((O;
Another important of information to me are books and the library. Without wanting to sound too much like a nerd-face, once again I grew up with books instead of furniture and I still believe you can find anything you want in a book. Books make great friends to pass on, you can use them as a headrest, you can pencil in your own notes at the sides and you can tear out a page you don´t really agree with. Knowledge in finding what you want makes any form of research more efficient, of course and I am quickly learning how to make the most out of the state library, where I am living, which is a storeroom library, but it also provides online versions of articles and degree-papers amongst others. The use of online-libraries is something I still have to accustom to, but in general I can say that the ones I have used are handy, although I hardly ever found the book I was looking for.
Magazines make up a great deal of my life. To me they are more a pleasurable by-product, when taking the train, sitting on the toilet (sorry, but that´s the truth...I have a huge basket chock a block with mags), hanging out in the office at work, spending a day in bed and so on. I used to also read the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” on a regular basis, but somehow someone wearing a gray suit and hat came to steal some hours of the day and it became impossible to fit in anymore. If I find something resembling paper and information lying about I pick it up and read, what interests me. Simple. How anyone could ever have thought about getting rid of the printed page seems a mystery to me. I don´t see, how you can wrap your christmas presents with an iPad, nor do I find Kindle´s note-taking facility very user-friendly. I live close to Mainz, where Gutenberg´s invention of movable letters caused a revolution of the printed word in the 15th century. Maybe there´s something in the air here?
Of course I am also inspired by other people. Even if I don´t always see eye-to-eye with everyone, it feels good to be challenged by another opinion and to be presented with another point of view. I really enjoy reading through other people´s BAPP blogs and I really like, how some people have asked and inspired me to think differently about things. There is always someone around you, who knows something you don´t and I take great pleasure in “tickling” conversations.
So as I sit on a pile of old magazines, my arms comfortably supported by some books, the radio is joyfully gabbing away in the background and I have my world at my fingertips....I say to myself "life is good" ((O;
Tuesday 6 December 2011
"Morality is the symbolic generalization that reduces the full reflexive complexity of doubly contingent ego/alter relations to expressions of esteem"
Although I found the reader on "The Networked Professional" a highly stimulating read, I must admit, that I don´t really agree with challenging the usefulness of every concept, as the failure and success of each individual idea depends very much on the context, the personality of the person dealing with a situation and at what point in their life they are. I found that in a historical context many of the theories have worked in the past, they might not work right now, but could possibly work again in the future.
I also had to think a lot about myself and who and most of all where I am at this moment in my life.
At first I took a good look at the theory of cooperation and the closely affiliated game theory by the political scientist Axelrod. I played a game of "prisoner´s dilemma"and to be quite honest, thought it was rather dull, but then again maybe I should have given it more than one chance...
I can see, how the game theory might help predict, how people, markets, countries and organisms would react to a specific threat, but can´t see how it has helped predict, let alone prevent the many financial crises we seem to be stumbling into (in an "oh..oups...I did not see that coming"-manner), where few are playing a successful game at the expense of many.
Further research led me to the book "After hegemony: cooperation and discord in the world political economy" by Robert Owen Keohane (1984), in which he describes, how cooperation with the hegemony the United States represented after the Second World War, led to an overall survival of the western world and ideas and thus gave me a good enough example of successful cooperation.
"Sophisticated institutionalists do not expect cooperation always to prevail, but they are aware of the malleability of interests any they argue that interdependence creates interest in cooperation" (pg.8)
Next I decided to take a closer look at "Communities of Practice" and the book by the same name from Etienne Wenger. The general idea of this theory seems to be that learning is part of a process that happens through engagement in social relationships.
"Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuing our physical survival to seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and we tune our relations with each other and with the world accordingly. In other words, we learn.
Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense, therefore, to call these kinds of communities communities of practice" (pg. 45)
This of course led me to think a lot about the community that comes together every day in the microcosm of a theatre, where sustained engagement of each individual working there, be it technician, musician, actor, singer, seamstress or dancer, leads to overall processes of learning- especially, when personal or professional interests collide. I see a certain need to openness and a will to learn and embrace new and different situations. Especially in the world of art, where the need to cultivate a strong ego through being colorful and different is practiced and leads to a lot of explosions. However sustained engagement within a community of practice such as the theatre also leads to a better understanding for other departments and thus provokes learning.
Personally I find this a useful concept, as I am confronted by it every day. I do however want to strongly hold on to my belief, that you can only learn from another person, if you really want to and if you have the cognitive ability to do so.
Next- without wanting to be to abrupt, but I need to get on with it, I would like to report on my closer look at Social Constructionism. I started off by punching the German word for constructionism in to "Wikipedia". Little to my surprise it came up with many options. There is a philosophy, you can construct international relations, then of course we have our social aspect, the term exists in the psychology of learning, maths, architecture, art and literature. Then I took a good look at the book lying to my left (now covered with little yellow page-markers), "Die Wirklichkeit der Medien" by K. Merten and S.J. Schmidt. (the reality of media). It explains how Social Constructionism is one of the many forms of constructionism around. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann pioneered this field in 1966, when their book "The social construction of reality " was first published. One of the first things the book lays out in the first chapter on the reality of the observer is that the term must never be confused with the colloquial version of it meaning a creation of something.
"...Ganz im Gegensatz dazu benutzen Konstruktivsten dieses Wort, um Prozesse zu bezeichnen, in deren Verlauf Wirklichkeitsentwürfe sich herausbilden, und zwar keineswegs willkürlich, sondern gemäß den biologischen, kognitiven und soziokulturellen Bedingungen, denen sozialisierte Individuen in ihrer sozialen und natürlichen Umwelt unterworfen sind. Über so viele Bedingungen kann ein Individuum überhaupt nicht verfügen...Wirklichkeitskonstruktion widerfährt uns mehr als dass sie uns bewusst wird- weshalb wir die Konstruiertheit unserer Wirklichkeit erst dann bemerken, wenn wir beobachten, handeln und kommunizieren...." (aus Die Wirklichkeit der Medien pg.5, "Die Wirklichkeit des Beobachters" by Siegfried J. Schmidt.)
The reader states, that we construct meanings and experiences of the world through social interaction and that effectively our understanding of the world is a construction or creation of our own making. I have always understood and believed in that fact and you cannot deny, that two people- no matter how much they share or how alike they are (even twins), will always experience things differently, depending on their life experience, personality and attitude. We construct our reality, give names to things and I find it interesting to observe, how subtle differences in language for example cause a completely different understanding of the same thing.
"Kaum ein Problem hat die Europäer so beschäftigt wie die Frage nach dem Verhältnis zwischen Sein und Bewusstsein, nach der Möglichkeit oder Unmöglichkeit wahrer bzw. objektiver Erkenntnis." (aus Die Wirklichkeit der Medien pg.6, "Die Wirklichkeit des Beobachters" by Siegfried J. Schmidt.)
(There is hardly a problem that has occupied the Europeans as much as the question of the relationship between the being and the consciousness, of the possibility or impossibility of true or objective knowledge.)
It seems impossible to write about Constructivism without mentioning the German Sociologist Niklas Luhmann. He saw society not as a collection of humans with blood circulating in their veins, but as a closed process of social communication.
"Ein soziales System kommt zustande, wenn immer ein autopoietischer Kommunikationszusammenhang entsteht und sich durch Einschränkung der geeigneten Kommunikation gegen eine Umwelt abgrenzt. Soziale Systeme bestehen demnach nicht aus Menschen, auch nicht aus Handlungen, sondern aus Kommunikationen." Luhmann, Ökologische Kommunikation. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1. Auflage 1986. ISBN 3-531-11775-0, 1986, S. 269.
Maybe it is this strong head through the wall point of view that lead me to the next point (aha...) Connectivism. Obviously today all things are connected, especially through the internet, but it is also very clear to me, that through connecting to other people you can not only learn. I can really associate with the theory that was introduced, that learning does not exist in peoples heads, but is in fact all around us and can be freely accessed (or not) according to our needs. As I am sitting in a library surrounded by thousands of books and at least 20 or so people, reading, studying, typing away at their computers it seems like a logical thing to say.
Connectivism makes complete sense in the fast-paced word we live in today. As our foundations rapidly change you have to be quick to decide and adapt to new situations and thus rapidly choose which connection must be stronger or weaker in this moment. "Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision" Siemens, G. 2004
Right now I feel like I am completely running out of steam (+the library is closing) and probably whoever has read this far should be rewarded a prize. (Alternative Nobel Peace Prize anyone???)
I have covered all points save affiliation, which actually interested me the most out of all the ideas given and lead me to almost completely read...I can not help noticing that I am finding psychology- especially from a social point of view frightfully interesting. Maybe that is the point of it all. I always believed that every performing artist has to have a great understanding of society and all its key players.
I hope I haven´t bored anyone and I wish even more so that the days would have 36 hours to fit in all the reading, thinking and writing I would like to do.
I also had to think a lot about myself and who and most of all where I am at this moment in my life.
At first I took a good look at the theory of cooperation and the closely affiliated game theory by the political scientist Axelrod. I played a game of "prisoner´s dilemma"and to be quite honest, thought it was rather dull, but then again maybe I should have given it more than one chance...
I can see, how the game theory might help predict, how people, markets, countries and organisms would react to a specific threat, but can´t see how it has helped predict, let alone prevent the many financial crises we seem to be stumbling into (in an "oh..oups...I did not see that coming"-manner), where few are playing a successful game at the expense of many.
Further research led me to the book "After hegemony: cooperation and discord in the world political economy" by Robert Owen Keohane (1984), in which he describes, how cooperation with the hegemony the United States represented after the Second World War, led to an overall survival of the western world and ideas and thus gave me a good enough example of successful cooperation.
"Sophisticated institutionalists do not expect cooperation always to prevail, but they are aware of the malleability of interests any they argue that interdependence creates interest in cooperation" (pg.8)
Next I decided to take a closer look at "Communities of Practice" and the book by the same name from Etienne Wenger. The general idea of this theory seems to be that learning is part of a process that happens through engagement in social relationships.
"Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuing our physical survival to seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and we tune our relations with each other and with the world accordingly. In other words, we learn.
Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense, therefore, to call these kinds of communities communities of practice" (pg. 45)
This of course led me to think a lot about the community that comes together every day in the microcosm of a theatre, where sustained engagement of each individual working there, be it technician, musician, actor, singer, seamstress or dancer, leads to overall processes of learning- especially, when personal or professional interests collide. I see a certain need to openness and a will to learn and embrace new and different situations. Especially in the world of art, where the need to cultivate a strong ego through being colorful and different is practiced and leads to a lot of explosions. However sustained engagement within a community of practice such as the theatre also leads to a better understanding for other departments and thus provokes learning.
Personally I find this a useful concept, as I am confronted by it every day. I do however want to strongly hold on to my belief, that you can only learn from another person, if you really want to and if you have the cognitive ability to do so.
Next- without wanting to be to abrupt, but I need to get on with it, I would like to report on my closer look at Social Constructionism. I started off by punching the German word for constructionism in to "Wikipedia". Little to my surprise it came up with many options. There is a philosophy, you can construct international relations, then of course we have our social aspect, the term exists in the psychology of learning, maths, architecture, art and literature. Then I took a good look at the book lying to my left (now covered with little yellow page-markers), "Die Wirklichkeit der Medien" by K. Merten and S.J. Schmidt. (the reality of media). It explains how Social Constructionism is one of the many forms of constructionism around. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann pioneered this field in 1966, when their book "The social construction of reality " was first published. One of the first things the book lays out in the first chapter on the reality of the observer is that the term must never be confused with the colloquial version of it meaning a creation of something.
"...Ganz im Gegensatz dazu benutzen Konstruktivsten dieses Wort, um Prozesse zu bezeichnen, in deren Verlauf Wirklichkeitsentwürfe sich herausbilden, und zwar keineswegs willkürlich, sondern gemäß den biologischen, kognitiven und soziokulturellen Bedingungen, denen sozialisierte Individuen in ihrer sozialen und natürlichen Umwelt unterworfen sind. Über so viele Bedingungen kann ein Individuum überhaupt nicht verfügen...Wirklichkeitskonstruktion widerfährt uns mehr als dass sie uns bewusst wird- weshalb wir die Konstruiertheit unserer Wirklichkeit erst dann bemerken, wenn wir beobachten, handeln und kommunizieren...." (aus Die Wirklichkeit der Medien pg.5, "Die Wirklichkeit des Beobachters" by Siegfried J. Schmidt.)
The reader states, that we construct meanings and experiences of the world through social interaction and that effectively our understanding of the world is a construction or creation of our own making. I have always understood and believed in that fact and you cannot deny, that two people- no matter how much they share or how alike they are (even twins), will always experience things differently, depending on their life experience, personality and attitude. We construct our reality, give names to things and I find it interesting to observe, how subtle differences in language for example cause a completely different understanding of the same thing.
"Kaum ein Problem hat die Europäer so beschäftigt wie die Frage nach dem Verhältnis zwischen Sein und Bewusstsein, nach der Möglichkeit oder Unmöglichkeit wahrer bzw. objektiver Erkenntnis." (aus Die Wirklichkeit der Medien pg.6, "Die Wirklichkeit des Beobachters" by Siegfried J. Schmidt.)
(There is hardly a problem that has occupied the Europeans as much as the question of the relationship between the being and the consciousness, of the possibility or impossibility of true or objective knowledge.)
It seems impossible to write about Constructivism without mentioning the German Sociologist Niklas Luhmann. He saw society not as a collection of humans with blood circulating in their veins, but as a closed process of social communication.
"Ein soziales System kommt zustande, wenn immer ein autopoietischer Kommunikationszusammenhang entsteht und sich durch Einschränkung der geeigneten Kommunikation gegen eine Umwelt abgrenzt. Soziale Systeme bestehen demnach nicht aus Menschen, auch nicht aus Handlungen, sondern aus Kommunikationen." Luhmann, Ökologische Kommunikation. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1. Auflage 1986. ISBN 3-531-11775-0, 1986, S. 269.
Maybe it is this strong head through the wall point of view that lead me to the next point (aha...) Connectivism. Obviously today all things are connected, especially through the internet, but it is also very clear to me, that through connecting to other people you can not only learn. I can really associate with the theory that was introduced, that learning does not exist in peoples heads, but is in fact all around us and can be freely accessed (or not) according to our needs. As I am sitting in a library surrounded by thousands of books and at least 20 or so people, reading, studying, typing away at their computers it seems like a logical thing to say.
Connectivism makes complete sense in the fast-paced word we live in today. As our foundations rapidly change you have to be quick to decide and adapt to new situations and thus rapidly choose which connection must be stronger or weaker in this moment. "Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision" Siemens, G. 2004
Right now I feel like I am completely running out of steam (+the library is closing) and probably whoever has read this far should be rewarded a prize. (Alternative Nobel Peace Prize anyone???)
I have covered all points save affiliation, which actually interested me the most out of all the ideas given and lead me to almost completely read...I can not help noticing that I am finding psychology- especially from a social point of view frightfully interesting. Maybe that is the point of it all. I always believed that every performing artist has to have a great understanding of society and all its key players.
I hope I haven´t bored anyone and I wish even more so that the days would have 36 hours to fit in all the reading, thinking and writing I would like to do.
Thursday 1 December 2011
the strength of loose ties
Although I am extremely cautious about the internet and using it as a prime tool for networking I must admit, that I realized, as I was working through "Reader 3" that I personally rely an awful lot on it already to keep in touch with people (I find myself thinking..."oh, it would be so much easier to be friends in "Facebook", rather than calling each other lets say once a month...") and could actually only benefit more from using it wisely to my advantage- especially from a professional point of view.
Maybe it lies within the nature of the job I currently fulfill. On a regular full working day I spend 7 hours in the ballet-studio, together with my colleagues, which often makes me too tired to spend the 3 hours I have in the evening to myself to be on the phone, or compose long e-mails. Quick "Facebook" news feeds come in extremely handy.
It has been great taking a good look at my internal mirror and self-reflecting, who I represent as a professional and observe my inner self-discrepancy (Crisp&Turner) between who I am now, whom I would like to be and who I am thinking I ought to be.
As I do tend to spend a lot of time at work my day-to-day professional network is a very up close and personal one. It is nice to comfort my inner animal by knowing the heard I have around me almost every day and being able to observe and read my colleagues actions.
My broader professional network is very much tied to the phone, through which I keep on touch with close personal friends, that were once my peers or colleagues, or of course, for the lump-sum of my past, present and maybe future fellows, the internet.
Like Alicia Beck, whose writing I greatly admire, states in her blog entry from the 19.11.2011, upon entering the world of professional dance you "quickly wisen up to the cut-throat world you have let yourself into". Being clever you quickly realize that without the right amount of "vitamin C" you are very easily overlooked and forgotten. Some have a natural gift of weaving a strong professional web, that will catch them at any given moment, others less so. But the general notion seems to be that "if you can´t beat ´em- join ´em".
Now without wanting to sound too one-sided here there seems to be a great tendency to centralize our lives around the internet. Almost every more established practitioner I know of seems to have their own web-site. I can totally grasp the beauty of creating a key, in form of a simple web-address, to a parallel universe that exists on the internet, where you can add numerous links, videos, pictures and keep people up to date with RSS-feed, posts and tweets.
What must not be underestimated though is that in order to keep a contact it must first have been created- which also nowadays still tends to happen at personal, face-to-face basis. Many dancers, choreographers and company managers come together and meet at performances (especially premieres), dance/choreographic competitions and other dance events and symposia. Here again you are often introduced to someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone. Or you build a bridge yourself, by introducing people to one another.
Personally I tend to use the internet a lot. I don´t have a TV at home, but I am getting "square eyes" by spending most evenings in front of my beloved computer. It is also funny, how dull the thing seems to me, if I don´t have an internet connection! I am almost shocked at how dependent I have become to the ease of having the world at my fingertips, having grown up in a world, where you looked the unknown up in the "Brockhaus", you wrote letters to your friends (squiggly handwriting and little doodles included), where your mom typed out her exam-papers on a tipe-writer and you carefully decided, what you wanted to take a picture of. And where you did not get green hair over the automatic spelling corrector, but actually knew, how to spell correctly yourself!!!
But like every new technology- you can either jump on the boat, go with the flow or however you want to put it, or not. You can make the most out of it and use it wisely to your advantage, or you are left behind. Like a friend of mine said, who bravely relented joining Facebook until he recently caved in, "if you don´t go to the playground, the other kids won´t play with you."
I´ve been toying with the idea of having my own web-sites, since the internet has become more accessible to me and the people around me (wireless everywhere). I also went through a phase in my life, where I wanted to leave Facebook, went back to a dial-in connection and a pay as you go mobile-phone, but was quickly frustrated, when I read an interesting article, there would always be a web-link for further reading, additional photos or videos concerning the subject.
I have however kept the "tradition" of sending a letter to people once a year- printed on paper and sent by snail-mail. To me that is a way of keeping a more personal private network, by making something special for the people that are special to me.
I really like Phil´s way of keeping people up to date, by sending out his monthly "Flipper Chronicles". I don´t think that is something that would work for me at the moment, but I will keep it in mind for the future.
We must never forget, that our close "private-network" can very easily in some part become part of our professional network, so taking care of it or as they say in German "pflegen", to foster, nurse and nourish it, should not be underestimated.
I know many "young choreographers" who keep a stable network of dancers, assistants and photographers at hand, so that if they should need them for a project or a performance or so, they know, whom they can ask. The other day for example I read that a German theatre is looking for choreographers. So I quickly copied and pasted the link to a friend of mine, who I know is looking for work as a choreographer. Maybe a fine example, how a networked connection also works in both ways? (I have also participated in one of his projects.)
So now to come back to myself and my ideal professional network. I would really like to make my own web-site. One in order to promote my work as a photographer and another in order to sell myself as a choreographic assistant, assistant in general and as a dancer. I think having such a simple key in your hand is a wonderful thing, because you can spread the word quite easily and invite people to take a look behind your personal façade. I am secretly hoping to find time to do so after this module is finished and before the next one starts.
I would of course also like to take better care of my private network. There is always room for improvement and I am finding this course offering me many new alleys to maybe go down and further explore.
Well having said all of that..and having pulled my ears down to the floor (African Elephant Style)...I did try to build my own web-site this summer but was completely overwhelmed by the masses of raw-material I had accumulated. I need to plan ahead, make site-map and organize the material. I also have to be clear as to what and which aspect of myself I want to represent and whom the site is intended for.
I need to find the time to e-mail people. Sorting through my address books, compressing them to one and then making groups, so I can just send out a group e-mail once in a while would be a time-saving method.
I think I also need to be seen more again at certain theatre events. Not all, but some more. Again, self-reflection will help me find the right ones!
And here is another closing thought. We all started this course by learning about web 2.0. What it is about and how the sites are only as good as the people making use of them. I see a great parallel to professional networks there. (Actually to human-networks in general) The more we sow into a network the more we can one day harvest.
Maybe it lies within the nature of the job I currently fulfill. On a regular full working day I spend 7 hours in the ballet-studio, together with my colleagues, which often makes me too tired to spend the 3 hours I have in the evening to myself to be on the phone, or compose long e-mails. Quick "Facebook" news feeds come in extremely handy.
It has been great taking a good look at my internal mirror and self-reflecting, who I represent as a professional and observe my inner self-discrepancy (Crisp&Turner) between who I am now, whom I would like to be and who I am thinking I ought to be.
As I do tend to spend a lot of time at work my day-to-day professional network is a very up close and personal one. It is nice to comfort my inner animal by knowing the heard I have around me almost every day and being able to observe and read my colleagues actions.
My broader professional network is very much tied to the phone, through which I keep on touch with close personal friends, that were once my peers or colleagues, or of course, for the lump-sum of my past, present and maybe future fellows, the internet.
Like Alicia Beck, whose writing I greatly admire, states in her blog entry from the 19.11.2011, upon entering the world of professional dance you "quickly wisen up to the cut-throat world you have let yourself into". Being clever you quickly realize that without the right amount of "vitamin C" you are very easily overlooked and forgotten. Some have a natural gift of weaving a strong professional web, that will catch them at any given moment, others less so. But the general notion seems to be that "if you can´t beat ´em- join ´em".
Now without wanting to sound too one-sided here there seems to be a great tendency to centralize our lives around the internet. Almost every more established practitioner I know of seems to have their own web-site. I can totally grasp the beauty of creating a key, in form of a simple web-address, to a parallel universe that exists on the internet, where you can add numerous links, videos, pictures and keep people up to date with RSS-feed, posts and tweets.
What must not be underestimated though is that in order to keep a contact it must first have been created- which also nowadays still tends to happen at personal, face-to-face basis. Many dancers, choreographers and company managers come together and meet at performances (especially premieres), dance/choreographic competitions and other dance events and symposia. Here again you are often introduced to someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone. Or you build a bridge yourself, by introducing people to one another.
Personally I tend to use the internet a lot. I don´t have a TV at home, but I am getting "square eyes" by spending most evenings in front of my beloved computer. It is also funny, how dull the thing seems to me, if I don´t have an internet connection! I am almost shocked at how dependent I have become to the ease of having the world at my fingertips, having grown up in a world, where you looked the unknown up in the "Brockhaus", you wrote letters to your friends (squiggly handwriting and little doodles included), where your mom typed out her exam-papers on a tipe-writer and you carefully decided, what you wanted to take a picture of. And where you did not get green hair over the automatic spelling corrector, but actually knew, how to spell correctly yourself!!!
But like every new technology- you can either jump on the boat, go with the flow or however you want to put it, or not. You can make the most out of it and use it wisely to your advantage, or you are left behind. Like a friend of mine said, who bravely relented joining Facebook until he recently caved in, "if you don´t go to the playground, the other kids won´t play with you."
I´ve been toying with the idea of having my own web-sites, since the internet has become more accessible to me and the people around me (wireless everywhere). I also went through a phase in my life, where I wanted to leave Facebook, went back to a dial-in connection and a pay as you go mobile-phone, but was quickly frustrated, when I read an interesting article, there would always be a web-link for further reading, additional photos or videos concerning the subject.
I have however kept the "tradition" of sending a letter to people once a year- printed on paper and sent by snail-mail. To me that is a way of keeping a more personal private network, by making something special for the people that are special to me.
I really like Phil´s way of keeping people up to date, by sending out his monthly "Flipper Chronicles". I don´t think that is something that would work for me at the moment, but I will keep it in mind for the future.
We must never forget, that our close "private-network" can very easily in some part become part of our professional network, so taking care of it or as they say in German "pflegen", to foster, nurse and nourish it, should not be underestimated.
I know many "young choreographers" who keep a stable network of dancers, assistants and photographers at hand, so that if they should need them for a project or a performance or so, they know, whom they can ask. The other day for example I read that a German theatre is looking for choreographers. So I quickly copied and pasted the link to a friend of mine, who I know is looking for work as a choreographer. Maybe a fine example, how a networked connection also works in both ways? (I have also participated in one of his projects.)
So now to come back to myself and my ideal professional network. I would really like to make my own web-site. One in order to promote my work as a photographer and another in order to sell myself as a choreographic assistant, assistant in general and as a dancer. I think having such a simple key in your hand is a wonderful thing, because you can spread the word quite easily and invite people to take a look behind your personal façade. I am secretly hoping to find time to do so after this module is finished and before the next one starts.
I would of course also like to take better care of my private network. There is always room for improvement and I am finding this course offering me many new alleys to maybe go down and further explore.
Well having said all of that..and having pulled my ears down to the floor (African Elephant Style)...I did try to build my own web-site this summer but was completely overwhelmed by the masses of raw-material I had accumulated. I need to plan ahead, make site-map and organize the material. I also have to be clear as to what and which aspect of myself I want to represent and whom the site is intended for.
I need to find the time to e-mail people. Sorting through my address books, compressing them to one and then making groups, so I can just send out a group e-mail once in a while would be a time-saving method.
I think I also need to be seen more again at certain theatre events. Not all, but some more. Again, self-reflection will help me find the right ones!
And here is another closing thought. We all started this course by learning about web 2.0. What it is about and how the sites are only as good as the people making use of them. I see a great parallel to professional networks there. (Actually to human-networks in general) The more we sow into a network the more we can one day harvest.
Monday 14 November 2011
what would happen when dancers, choreographers, cognitive and neuroscientists came together to talk about movement?-Task 2d
Like birds, who are motivated by the first rays of sunshine to sing their song in the morning, us humans need something to inspire us and help us get out of bed...be it even at 6am in the middle of Winter.
Personally I am really enthusiastic about life and the happiness I am able to find inside myself. Not wanting to sound ridiculous here I am still curious about the challenges that lie ahead and like to remind myself of the wonders our lives have to offer. Sometimes, when you have had an eventful day at work (and believe me, being in the performing arts sector can be very emotionally charged), putting things back into perspective really helps. Sometimes seeing the world through the eyes of a two-year-old, who is just discovering the world around him works wonders on a tired, adult mind!
I personally am really affected by music. As John Powell states in his book "How Music Works"
http://www.amazon.de/How-Music-Works-listeners-harmony/dp/1846143152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321280902&sr=8-1
we all are. I feel whichever track I first listen to at the start of the day, sets the course for what kind of mood I am steering into. Of course music is an integral part of my current daily practice and the fact, that Stephan Thoss, the choreographer I am working with at the moment is so incredibly musical, really really helps and has, over the last three and a half years not only given me wings of inspiration, but also taught me to listen to music in another way. I sometimes feel, as if I am dancing on the instrument in the orchestra (literally) or as if you can see the music in the room- a bit like with synaesthesia.
Here is his web-site....it has just been taken on-line, so some pages are still not complete, but there are some excerpts to demonstrate, what I mean!
http://www.stephan-thoss.de/
What really gets to me is the political situation of dance and the arts in general. Especially here in Germany (again, I work and live here, so I know most about this particular subject matter and am confronted with it on a day to day basis) where the dance departments of many houses have been shut down (dance, our primal, universal language tends to always be the first to go!!!) and many more are on the table to follow.
As I am writing this, my thoughts take me back to the first round of auditions I did in 2003, when a teacher at English National Ballet school told us all to go to Germany to audition, as the country is swamped by dance companies. Now, not even 10 years later, the situation has alarmingly changed.
Germany is a country with a long standing theatre tradition. It has some of the most beautiful theaters with headers such as "Dem Wahren Schönen Guten" (for the true beautiful and good) (Alte Oper Frankfurt am Main) or "Der Menschheit Würde ist in Eure Hand gegeben. Bewahret sie!" (Dignity of man has been handed to you. Conserve it!) (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and my thoughts course around the necessity of preserving and developing this tradition.
This is something I would like to do more research on.
Someone, who has really touched me concerning the necessity of theater and of play is the austrian/hungarian writer Ödön von Horvadt, or the founder of the epic theatre Bertholt Brecht. Again a subject I would like to elaborate more on and see, if their thoughts can be brought into the 21. century.
What I really love is the paradox of it all. That life actually makes no sense, if you think about it, but you can find so much sense in it. That art seems so dispensable, but that us humans are lost without it. That dance is the most primal version of human communication and the most natural thing for us to do, yet it has become something so unaccessible, nicely tucked away in theaters. The people that inspire me the most in continuing to do what I love, are the people that keep on doing, what they believe in even if they seem to be fighting against windmills. Such as street artists, who are hated by many. To name one would be Banksy.
http://www.banksy.co.uk/
Not everyone likes nor understands graffiti, but many people love his work and even consider it art, without even questioning, what it is about.
What I really do not understand are the seemingly panicked and short-sighted decisions that are made in politics concerning art. At the end of the day more pressure is put on individual houses to bring in a certain amount of money within a year. This again leads to short-term decisions in the direction of the individual theatre, who often make fatal mistakes in management, yet again putting an awful lot of weight on each individual employees shoulder. Although there is not really one person of whom I can say that they answer my question in this case, but I am inspired by people such as the late Christoph Schlingensief
http://www.schlingensief.com/start.php
who make their own theatre- against all odds.
I think I´ve been toying with these thoughts and ideas for a long time, as I am also personally affected by them and I would really like to comb through my thoughts and elaborate some more on the necessity of art in general and in particular dance.
Art is like a large bird (I´m thinking Pelican like here). If you give it the freedom to spread it´s wings and fly you will become witness of something truly amazing!
Personally I am really enthusiastic about life and the happiness I am able to find inside myself. Not wanting to sound ridiculous here I am still curious about the challenges that lie ahead and like to remind myself of the wonders our lives have to offer. Sometimes, when you have had an eventful day at work (and believe me, being in the performing arts sector can be very emotionally charged), putting things back into perspective really helps. Sometimes seeing the world through the eyes of a two-year-old, who is just discovering the world around him works wonders on a tired, adult mind!
I personally am really affected by music. As John Powell states in his book "How Music Works"
http://www.amazon.de/How-Music-Works-listeners-harmony/dp/1846143152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321280902&sr=8-1
we all are. I feel whichever track I first listen to at the start of the day, sets the course for what kind of mood I am steering into. Of course music is an integral part of my current daily practice and the fact, that Stephan Thoss, the choreographer I am working with at the moment is so incredibly musical, really really helps and has, over the last three and a half years not only given me wings of inspiration, but also taught me to listen to music in another way. I sometimes feel, as if I am dancing on the instrument in the orchestra (literally) or as if you can see the music in the room- a bit like with synaesthesia.
Here is his web-site....it has just been taken on-line, so some pages are still not complete, but there are some excerpts to demonstrate, what I mean!
http://www.stephan-thoss.de/
What really gets to me is the political situation of dance and the arts in general. Especially here in Germany (again, I work and live here, so I know most about this particular subject matter and am confronted with it on a day to day basis) where the dance departments of many houses have been shut down (dance, our primal, universal language tends to always be the first to go!!!) and many more are on the table to follow.
As I am writing this, my thoughts take me back to the first round of auditions I did in 2003, when a teacher at English National Ballet school told us all to go to Germany to audition, as the country is swamped by dance companies. Now, not even 10 years later, the situation has alarmingly changed.
Germany is a country with a long standing theatre tradition. It has some of the most beautiful theaters with headers such as "Dem Wahren Schönen Guten" (for the true beautiful and good) (Alte Oper Frankfurt am Main) or "Der Menschheit Würde ist in Eure Hand gegeben. Bewahret sie!" (Dignity of man has been handed to you. Conserve it!) (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and my thoughts course around the necessity of preserving and developing this tradition.
This is something I would like to do more research on.
Someone, who has really touched me concerning the necessity of theater and of play is the austrian/hungarian writer Ödön von Horvadt, or the founder of the epic theatre Bertholt Brecht. Again a subject I would like to elaborate more on and see, if their thoughts can be brought into the 21. century.
What I really love is the paradox of it all. That life actually makes no sense, if you think about it, but you can find so much sense in it. That art seems so dispensable, but that us humans are lost without it. That dance is the most primal version of human communication and the most natural thing for us to do, yet it has become something so unaccessible, nicely tucked away in theaters. The people that inspire me the most in continuing to do what I love, are the people that keep on doing, what they believe in even if they seem to be fighting against windmills. Such as street artists, who are hated by many. To name one would be Banksy.
http://www.banksy.co.uk/
Not everyone likes nor understands graffiti, but many people love his work and even consider it art, without even questioning, what it is about.
What I really do not understand are the seemingly panicked and short-sighted decisions that are made in politics concerning art. At the end of the day more pressure is put on individual houses to bring in a certain amount of money within a year. This again leads to short-term decisions in the direction of the individual theatre, who often make fatal mistakes in management, yet again putting an awful lot of weight on each individual employees shoulder. Although there is not really one person of whom I can say that they answer my question in this case, but I am inspired by people such as the late Christoph Schlingensief
http://www.schlingensief.com/start.php
who make their own theatre- against all odds.
I think I´ve been toying with these thoughts and ideas for a long time, as I am also personally affected by them and I would really like to comb through my thoughts and elaborate some more on the necessity of art in general and in particular dance.
Art is like a large bird (I´m thinking Pelican like here). If you give it the freedom to spread it´s wings and fly you will become witness of something truly amazing!
Friday 11 November 2011
être jeune, avoir soif du monde
...we are young...and so far we have spent most of our lives learning and trying to understand new things. The notion of stopping for just that little moment and reflecting on what we have been up to, reorganise our thoughts and ideas, develop new ideas or give them a new sense of direction can work wonders!
Since embarking upon my journey in BAPP I feel as if my mind cannot stop thinking- a bit like a whirlwind, that takes up on speed, the more debris it collects. (please don´t lecture me on the nature of whirl-winds here...I´m just trying to find a semiotic comparison to what is going on with me right now)
Writing my last blog-entry I realised, that taking notes before doing so is definitely something that works for me and needs to stay. No more gabbing on about something. (I do have a little philosopher inside me, I guess).
Part 2 is primarily concerned with keeping a reflective journal. A thought that crossed my mind is that blogging actually set out to be an "online" diary. I believe it´s O´Reilly (I´m just trying to quote of the top of my head), who also called the "Blogosphere" the "constant mental chatter"of the internet. And in our learning/ reflective journals we we have a powerful tool to sort through our constant mental gibberish and excerpt the essence of our learning.
So the point I am actually trying to make is that keeping such an online diary also helps us sort through our already cleansed ideas, get some feedback on them (hopefully) by getting them out in to the world. This will help us learn and develop new ideas, once again. (Kolb´s learning cycle at it´s finest??)
I think I´ve also grasped the structure of BAPP...we got the tools and the history, with part two we´ve been looking inward at ourselves and now we are starting to extend our personal sphere with part three.
I used to very religiously keep a diary. When I was about 8 years old it was more a thing inspired by the "Diary of Anne Frank"...full of little drawings, spidery handwriting and it still paints a smile in my face, when I think of it. With 15, when I seriously started thinking about becoming a professional dancer I litterally filled books with my aches and pains of growing into who I wanted to be. Nowadays I occasionally enjoy picking them up again and reading what the person I was then was living. Sometimes I also have a moment of realisation, that some things turned out in a way, because of what had happened, but what I had already forgotten. It´s a funny way of looking in the mirror!
Having said that the task of writing a journal- this time from quite a different standing- point, seemed like a welcome challenge and also coming at a good point in my life.
I thought Boud´s three aspects of reflectivity and the comment made in the reader about them opened a window in my head I decided to have a better look through.
A little like my note-taking before writing a blog or the storyboard of a film, where every excruciating little detail tries to be mapped out in order to save time and money once the camera starts rolling, reflection-before-action takes place, seems like a good idea to me. If you have time to do so, it gives you a wonderful opportunity to be prepared for some eventualities and also will help you get more out of the task you are performing. Having made that statement and being a dancer, we spend a lot of time rehearsing and reflecting on the steps we are about to execute, let´s say before a performance, so maybe that can also be considered "reflection-before-action".
Then again our actions are the consequences of our thoughts, or our mind. I´m getting to the point of acute reflection-in-action. The way in which as dancers movement is often an immediate result of muscle memory acquired through practice and visualisation. And also how fast dancers can react and adapt in the spur of a moment, let´s say, when the floor has a slippery patch, the music has a different tempo (or one of the instrument is taking a nap and you have to sing your cue to yourself....it has happened to me ((O;) or another dancer simply is in a place unlike it was rehearsed.
Ok, I still have a whole page of notes lying in front of me, especially about the social/ psychological aspect of working in the theatre and as a dancer, but I think that´s enough blogging for now.
Thank you for bearing with me this far..once again and I am looking forward to sharing some more of my thoughts soon.
Since embarking upon my journey in BAPP I feel as if my mind cannot stop thinking- a bit like a whirlwind, that takes up on speed, the more debris it collects. (please don´t lecture me on the nature of whirl-winds here...I´m just trying to find a semiotic comparison to what is going on with me right now)
Writing my last blog-entry I realised, that taking notes before doing so is definitely something that works for me and needs to stay. No more gabbing on about something. (I do have a little philosopher inside me, I guess).
Part 2 is primarily concerned with keeping a reflective journal. A thought that crossed my mind is that blogging actually set out to be an "online" diary. I believe it´s O´Reilly (I´m just trying to quote of the top of my head), who also called the "Blogosphere" the "constant mental chatter"of the internet. And in our learning/ reflective journals we we have a powerful tool to sort through our constant mental gibberish and excerpt the essence of our learning.
So the point I am actually trying to make is that keeping such an online diary also helps us sort through our already cleansed ideas, get some feedback on them (hopefully) by getting them out in to the world. This will help us learn and develop new ideas, once again. (Kolb´s learning cycle at it´s finest??)
I think I´ve also grasped the structure of BAPP...we got the tools and the history, with part two we´ve been looking inward at ourselves and now we are starting to extend our personal sphere with part three.
I used to very religiously keep a diary. When I was about 8 years old it was more a thing inspired by the "Diary of Anne Frank"...full of little drawings, spidery handwriting and it still paints a smile in my face, when I think of it. With 15, when I seriously started thinking about becoming a professional dancer I litterally filled books with my aches and pains of growing into who I wanted to be. Nowadays I occasionally enjoy picking them up again and reading what the person I was then was living. Sometimes I also have a moment of realisation, that some things turned out in a way, because of what had happened, but what I had already forgotten. It´s a funny way of looking in the mirror!
Having said that the task of writing a journal- this time from quite a different standing- point, seemed like a welcome challenge and also coming at a good point in my life.
I thought Boud´s three aspects of reflectivity and the comment made in the reader about them opened a window in my head I decided to have a better look through.
A little like my note-taking before writing a blog or the storyboard of a film, where every excruciating little detail tries to be mapped out in order to save time and money once the camera starts rolling, reflection-before-action takes place, seems like a good idea to me. If you have time to do so, it gives you a wonderful opportunity to be prepared for some eventualities and also will help you get more out of the task you are performing. Having made that statement and being a dancer, we spend a lot of time rehearsing and reflecting on the steps we are about to execute, let´s say before a performance, so maybe that can also be considered "reflection-before-action".
Then again our actions are the consequences of our thoughts, or our mind. I´m getting to the point of acute reflection-in-action. The way in which as dancers movement is often an immediate result of muscle memory acquired through practice and visualisation. And also how fast dancers can react and adapt in the spur of a moment, let´s say, when the floor has a slippery patch, the music has a different tempo (or one of the instrument is taking a nap and you have to sing your cue to yourself....it has happened to me ((O;) or another dancer simply is in a place unlike it was rehearsed.
Ok, I still have a whole page of notes lying in front of me, especially about the social/ psychological aspect of working in the theatre and as a dancer, but I think that´s enough blogging for now.
Thank you for bearing with me this far..once again and I am looking forward to sharing some more of my thoughts soon.
Monday 31 October 2011
blogging, premiers und andere "verzettelungen"
It´s been 11 days since my last blog-entry and I think this one is overdue.
We had our premiere of "Magisches Kaleidoskop" this saturday....finally- after a never ending week of stage rehearsals and endless tiredness...all the costumes were ready (last minute) and save the minor glitch where part of the scenery got caught in one of the soap- boxes for the bubbles in "6 Tänze" thus flipping it by 180° and emptying the whole thing over the dance floor (big mess) in one of the intervals, everything went smooth. Even the revolving stage did not behave like a diva for a change and actually did, as the technical crew told it to ((O; (big smile)
Here´s a link to the web-site of the house....and of our program:
http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/?page=programm_detail&submenu=w3&eventClusterId=722536&language=de_DE
Other than all the buzz at work going on I´ve been spending a lot of time thinking and reflecting. As far as my blogging is concerned I feel I always just write, what pops in to my head...and not in a very academic manner...I guess that blogging is meant to be quite casual anyhow, but I have started to take notes on what I want to babbel on about, so at least I have a little sense and structure in what I communicate.
I´ve also been reflecting a lot on my sense of being a dancer, working in a theatre, being on stage, etc.
I was involved in a serious car- crash just over a year ago, which by some miracle I survived. However I sustained some injuries, that are sometimes making dancing literally quite a pain in the neck. I suppose all dancers hit a point in which they are in pain and in which they realize, that they cannot go on existing as a dancer for ever either. We all know, that one day we need to move from our more active careers to something less demanding on our bodies.
Many thoughts going on in my head about this right now. As they will mushroom into something a little more concrete I will keep on sharing them.
I´m also reflecting on my BAPP planning. I still sit down at the end of the week...take a look at what I was able to produce and then make a plan for the following week...printing an iCal document that sits on my desk, reminding me on what I need to do.
That works quite well for me so far...I only feel I need to spend more time catching up and commenting on other people´s blogs, as I literally have no time of that. I´m thinking to somehow get some internet device going at work (like an iPad, netbook like thing), so that I am able to use a free hour between rehearsals for such tasks. Another thought has been to set aside two days of the week to do this (going in my iCal right now). Of course the whole romantic thought of sitting under the tree in the sunshine in front of the opera-huose, with a coffee at my right, doing some course work, seems very appealing....especially as winter will be knocking on our doors soon ((O;
I have been looking into a wonderful book "The Study Skills Handbook" by Stella Cottrell. It is a wonderful, light- hearted book written in a way that makes it easy to dip into a chapter that you need at a time. (at least the German version is so ((O;)
It´s a book written for "normal" students of course, but also work-based learners like us can get their fix from it too, especially as planning, time management, reading and other study skills are concerned.
It also gave me this wonderful idea, that one should keep index cards on what you have read or whichever book you dip in to, in order to be able to make quicker references, when it comes to writing a text.
I got this wonderful piece of advice from a student of sociology called "Zettelkasten" based on the ideas and experiences of the renown German sociologist Niklas Luhmann.
It basically is a program which will save your reading, thoughts and ideas. I´m still getting to know it, so for now I will only post the link and report on how it supports my studying.
http://zettelkasten.danielluedecke.de/en/index.php
And here the wikipedia on Niklas Luhmann....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann
Another thing I would like to share with you today is a reflection I have had on the whole process of learning.
I like to be a person, who goes into the cellar to study and practice my steps without anyone watching and then finally, when I feel ready I will go on stage, or better said let people into my "finished" product.
I have come to realize that in life nothing is ever finished...nothing is ever permanent....and even if you hand in a final piece of work to lets say pass a semester or so, or have a really good performance that you will remember for ever....you will always live beyond that and draw and improve from that experience.
I am also starting to realize that letting people in to the development of my thoughts and ideas not only provokes an exchange of ideas and allows for improvement of the unfinished.
So therefore I have shared this blog with many of my friends and family...I am not going home to poor over books and texts every night, but I rather spend time cooking and exchanging many words with people after work...and I am really, really happy for any form of feedback I receive!!
As an example...The last part of this entry came about from a discussion I had with my mom the other night. She is here to watch the premiere (ever so the premiere-junky and the most supportive mom I could ever have dreamt of) and as we were catching up on our lives I was anxious to tell her all about BAPP and the preparations for the premiere and so on.
So spending time exchanging ideas with friends and family (people, who know you best) is actually also a very productive thing to do!!
I also felt last week, like I was being chocked by the amount of time we had to spend at work. I realize the importance of producing an almost perfect premiere (nothing is permanent, remember??) and that rehearsing everything to perfection is vital, but art also needs to breathe and it needs space to develop into the magical thing it is. Spending time on other things to refresh and recharge the batteries is vital in any form of production and at the end of the week I personally felt, like I was actually just auto-piloting the steps I had rehearsed to death and I was almost completely missing the freshness and buzz of the new and unknown.
I´m feeling a little afraid, that reflecting on my current existence is making me extremely critical towards what I´m doing...on the other hand all I say is "bring it on"!!...and make the most out of it!!
Cheers!!
We had our premiere of "Magisches Kaleidoskop" this saturday....finally- after a never ending week of stage rehearsals and endless tiredness...all the costumes were ready (last minute) and save the minor glitch where part of the scenery got caught in one of the soap- boxes for the bubbles in "6 Tänze" thus flipping it by 180° and emptying the whole thing over the dance floor (big mess) in one of the intervals, everything went smooth. Even the revolving stage did not behave like a diva for a change and actually did, as the technical crew told it to ((O; (big smile)
Here´s a link to the web-site of the house....and of our program:
http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/?page=programm_detail&submenu=w3&eventClusterId=722536&language=de_DE
Other than all the buzz at work going on I´ve been spending a lot of time thinking and reflecting. As far as my blogging is concerned I feel I always just write, what pops in to my head...and not in a very academic manner...I guess that blogging is meant to be quite casual anyhow, but I have started to take notes on what I want to babbel on about, so at least I have a little sense and structure in what I communicate.
I´ve also been reflecting a lot on my sense of being a dancer, working in a theatre, being on stage, etc.
I was involved in a serious car- crash just over a year ago, which by some miracle I survived. However I sustained some injuries, that are sometimes making dancing literally quite a pain in the neck. I suppose all dancers hit a point in which they are in pain and in which they realize, that they cannot go on existing as a dancer for ever either. We all know, that one day we need to move from our more active careers to something less demanding on our bodies.
Many thoughts going on in my head about this right now. As they will mushroom into something a little more concrete I will keep on sharing them.
I´m also reflecting on my BAPP planning. I still sit down at the end of the week...take a look at what I was able to produce and then make a plan for the following week...printing an iCal document that sits on my desk, reminding me on what I need to do.
That works quite well for me so far...I only feel I need to spend more time catching up and commenting on other people´s blogs, as I literally have no time of that. I´m thinking to somehow get some internet device going at work (like an iPad, netbook like thing), so that I am able to use a free hour between rehearsals for such tasks. Another thought has been to set aside two days of the week to do this (going in my iCal right now). Of course the whole romantic thought of sitting under the tree in the sunshine in front of the opera-huose, with a coffee at my right, doing some course work, seems very appealing....especially as winter will be knocking on our doors soon ((O;
I have been looking into a wonderful book "The Study Skills Handbook" by Stella Cottrell. It is a wonderful, light- hearted book written in a way that makes it easy to dip into a chapter that you need at a time. (at least the German version is so ((O;)
It´s a book written for "normal" students of course, but also work-based learners like us can get their fix from it too, especially as planning, time management, reading and other study skills are concerned.
It also gave me this wonderful idea, that one should keep index cards on what you have read or whichever book you dip in to, in order to be able to make quicker references, when it comes to writing a text.
I got this wonderful piece of advice from a student of sociology called "Zettelkasten" based on the ideas and experiences of the renown German sociologist Niklas Luhmann.
It basically is a program which will save your reading, thoughts and ideas. I´m still getting to know it, so for now I will only post the link and report on how it supports my studying.
http://zettelkasten.danielluedecke.de/en/index.php
And here the wikipedia on Niklas Luhmann....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann
Another thing I would like to share with you today is a reflection I have had on the whole process of learning.
I like to be a person, who goes into the cellar to study and practice my steps without anyone watching and then finally, when I feel ready I will go on stage, or better said let people into my "finished" product.
I have come to realize that in life nothing is ever finished...nothing is ever permanent....and even if you hand in a final piece of work to lets say pass a semester or so, or have a really good performance that you will remember for ever....you will always live beyond that and draw and improve from that experience.
I am also starting to realize that letting people in to the development of my thoughts and ideas not only provokes an exchange of ideas and allows for improvement of the unfinished.
So therefore I have shared this blog with many of my friends and family...I am not going home to poor over books and texts every night, but I rather spend time cooking and exchanging many words with people after work...and I am really, really happy for any form of feedback I receive!!
As an example...The last part of this entry came about from a discussion I had with my mom the other night. She is here to watch the premiere (ever so the premiere-junky and the most supportive mom I could ever have dreamt of) and as we were catching up on our lives I was anxious to tell her all about BAPP and the preparations for the premiere and so on.
So spending time exchanging ideas with friends and family (people, who know you best) is actually also a very productive thing to do!!
I also felt last week, like I was being chocked by the amount of time we had to spend at work. I realize the importance of producing an almost perfect premiere (nothing is permanent, remember??) and that rehearsing everything to perfection is vital, but art also needs to breathe and it needs space to develop into the magical thing it is. Spending time on other things to refresh and recharge the batteries is vital in any form of production and at the end of the week I personally felt, like I was actually just auto-piloting the steps I had rehearsed to death and I was almost completely missing the freshness and buzz of the new and unknown.
I´m feeling a little afraid, that reflecting on my current existence is making me extremely critical towards what I´m doing...on the other hand all I say is "bring it on"!!...and make the most out of it!!
Cheers!!
Thursday 20 October 2011
Tamagochi got stuck in web 2.0...some more thoughts on task 1b
Hey there,
it´s been 10 days since I last posted..I´ve been busy up to both ears preparing for our premiere on the 29.10...lots of stage rehearsals...and also lots of other things to do...however I was waiting in hospital so long the other day, that I got all the reading done, that I had set out to do for this week...just not much time for the internet..plus I find myself getting stuck on facebook a lot longer, than I wish for...hmpf...
Today I managed to update my flickr account....I´ve added two more pictures, fixed all the tags and added, who took the picture. As I am on almost all the pictures I need to use photos by others, but being a photographer myself I also value, when my photos are credited, so that´s what I want to do for fellow photographers too.
I´ve also had some more thoughts on task 1b...I penciled about half a page in my BAPP note book that goes everywhere with me now...basically thoughts, especially on recent developments on security issues concerning the internet here in Germany, about the "occupy" demonstrations, that are not only organised on the web, but also are turning into an "online" demonstration.
I also had this genius thought (ok...I just need to tap myself on the shoulder once in a while) that the web 2.0 is actually very much like these little electronic animals that were all the rage in the 1990s...Tamagochis....you needed to feed them and play with them and then they would get all pretty and fat...or healthy...depending on how much time you were spending with them....I feel that web 2.0 applications are the same...the more time you spend with them, the better you know, how to use them and the "healthier" your relationship is towards them. The more you feed them, the happier (better/informative) they are. If you say went on vacation or needed a time out to let´s say...go to school or smth ridiculous like that....you could- in the high times of the phase, have someone Tamagochi-sit your electronic pet for you and therefore give it some other input. Now we don´t have 24 hours of the day to take care of all the web 2.0 sites, but there is always someone out there looking out for the most interesting, informative and busiest pages, so they also grow happy and healthy, while were not looking.
Ok...so I´ve been having all these thoughts (productive or not) and have been adding the good ol´ ink to my beloved paper (I´m very passionate about life 1.0..the one before the digital revolution)...and I realised, that I´m not really getting anywhere fast, because I think I have to deliver some finished product (a bit like in school-times, where the written word was the one you got the mark on)...but then life is never a finished project and studying and learning certainly will never be, so I should just get on with it.
So...I´m not too worried about this...I need to get used to sharing my work-process more with people...and I´ll be really happy for feed-back and of course to keep on updating on myself...
Cheers for reading this far...
All the best!
it´s been 10 days since I last posted..I´ve been busy up to both ears preparing for our premiere on the 29.10...lots of stage rehearsals...and also lots of other things to do...however I was waiting in hospital so long the other day, that I got all the reading done, that I had set out to do for this week...just not much time for the internet..plus I find myself getting stuck on facebook a lot longer, than I wish for...hmpf...
Today I managed to update my flickr account....I´ve added two more pictures, fixed all the tags and added, who took the picture. As I am on almost all the pictures I need to use photos by others, but being a photographer myself I also value, when my photos are credited, so that´s what I want to do for fellow photographers too.
I´ve also had some more thoughts on task 1b...I penciled about half a page in my BAPP note book that goes everywhere with me now...basically thoughts, especially on recent developments on security issues concerning the internet here in Germany, about the "occupy" demonstrations, that are not only organised on the web, but also are turning into an "online" demonstration.
I also had this genius thought (ok...I just need to tap myself on the shoulder once in a while) that the web 2.0 is actually very much like these little electronic animals that were all the rage in the 1990s...Tamagochis....you needed to feed them and play with them and then they would get all pretty and fat...or healthy...depending on how much time you were spending with them....I feel that web 2.0 applications are the same...the more time you spend with them, the better you know, how to use them and the "healthier" your relationship is towards them. The more you feed them, the happier (better/informative) they are. If you say went on vacation or needed a time out to let´s say...go to school or smth ridiculous like that....you could- in the high times of the phase, have someone Tamagochi-sit your electronic pet for you and therefore give it some other input. Now we don´t have 24 hours of the day to take care of all the web 2.0 sites, but there is always someone out there looking out for the most interesting, informative and busiest pages, so they also grow happy and healthy, while were not looking.
Ok...so I´ve been having all these thoughts (productive or not) and have been adding the good ol´ ink to my beloved paper (I´m very passionate about life 1.0..the one before the digital revolution)...and I realised, that I´m not really getting anywhere fast, because I think I have to deliver some finished product (a bit like in school-times, where the written word was the one you got the mark on)...but then life is never a finished project and studying and learning certainly will never be, so I should just get on with it.
So...I´m not too worried about this...I need to get used to sharing my work-process more with people...and I´ll be really happy for feed-back and of course to keep on updating on myself...
Cheers for reading this far...
All the best!
Monday 10 October 2011
photos Task 1d
I´ve added some more photos to my Flickr account. Take a look!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rettenberger/
Cheers!
I´m still not so sure, what I want to do about Task 1c....I know I should not fret about it, but I really don´t want to film myself philosophizing about some ideas...maybe I can use my photographic skills to produce smth more exciting and appealing??
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rettenberger/
Cheers!
I´m still not so sure, what I want to do about Task 1c....I know I should not fret about it, but I really don´t want to film myself philosophizing about some ideas...maybe I can use my photographic skills to produce smth more exciting and appealing??
Sunday 9 October 2011
Task 1d- images of my work
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rettenberger/
Here it is...the link to my brand new flickr account.
Will update it more and more, as I go along...
Here it is...the link to my brand new flickr account.
Will update it more and more, as I go along...
planning module 1 !!
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ZRq69I3UkAODczY2VmNWMtNDM0My00NGRhLWFmYTMtYTE1NzNiODI3MzFm&hl=en_US
....and this is my 4 month plan for module 1...
This is actually I really good task!! I´m thinking of my future...maybe as a student, as a company manager....planning and thinking a little ahead to not get behind are invaluable skills we tend to forget about!! Fantastic!!
....and this is my 4 month plan for module 1...
This is actually I really good task!! I´m thinking of my future...maybe as a student, as a company manager....planning and thinking a little ahead to not get behind are invaluable skills we tend to forget about!! Fantastic!!
my schedule for the coming week
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2ZRq69I3UkAMzM3MGExNzQtZDMyMi00YjRlLTliMmItYWU5NmNlNzU1Njdm&hl=en_US
In my induction Skype call I had promised to Paula I would upload my iCal calendars.
Now I´ve figured out, how to do this, so let´s get cracking!!
I work in a theatre, where our plan comes up about 12 hours before it is valid, which means, that some days I will be working solid 10am-6:30pm, other days I might get a long break, I might have an hour to grab a cup of java in the canteen and to get a breather of fresh air between rehearsals. (We work in the cellar ((O;)
So this fact actually makes studying part time not only a challenge, but also a logistical nightmare.
What I´ve done for now, is to take the complete module one into my iCal up until January. (I might still upload this)
I´ve added all our performances (days I might be able to do some reading, but in general I would like to focus on the performance on those days), our free days (which luckily were up until end of Dec!!) and my short term reading goals for this module.
Then I´ve taken next week (we always get a weekly plan, so we kind of know, if we will have an afternoon free and a stage rehearsal in the eve...or such) and allocated my real working hours for monday and my hypothetical ones for the rest of the week.
Then I have added times I could do some BAPP work (in pink-I believe). I say could, because I would like to see these as variables-depending on how far I get every day and to also have some free time for other nice things life has to offer.
I will always have a text for reading in my bag...for my coffe break and general waiting situations. ((O;
Hm....this is..like everything else so far...a draft, part of the trial and error process that life seems to be.
If anyone has suggestions....
In my induction Skype call I had promised to Paula I would upload my iCal calendars.
Now I´ve figured out, how to do this, so let´s get cracking!!
I work in a theatre, where our plan comes up about 12 hours before it is valid, which means, that some days I will be working solid 10am-6:30pm, other days I might get a long break, I might have an hour to grab a cup of java in the canteen and to get a breather of fresh air between rehearsals. (We work in the cellar ((O;)
So this fact actually makes studying part time not only a challenge, but also a logistical nightmare.
What I´ve done for now, is to take the complete module one into my iCal up until January. (I might still upload this)
I´ve added all our performances (days I might be able to do some reading, but in general I would like to focus on the performance on those days), our free days (which luckily were up until end of Dec!!) and my short term reading goals for this module.
Then I´ve taken next week (we always get a weekly plan, so we kind of know, if we will have an afternoon free and a stage rehearsal in the eve...or such) and allocated my real working hours for monday and my hypothetical ones for the rest of the week.
Then I have added times I could do some BAPP work (in pink-I believe). I say could, because I would like to see these as variables-depending on how far I get every day and to also have some free time for other nice things life has to offer.
I will always have a text for reading in my bag...for my coffe break and general waiting situations. ((O;
Hm....this is..like everything else so far...a draft, part of the trial and error process that life seems to be.
If anyone has suggestions....
My professional CV
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TKE-y6LOMxn5iOSaHEX2EGlqgM4uspQAq7ur29miI0I/edit?hl=en_US
Ok, so this is the latest version of my professional CV- dance.
Please feel free to comment and to help me improve.
Cheers!
Ok, so this is the latest version of my professional CV- dance.
Please feel free to comment and to help me improve.
Cheers!
Thursday 6 October 2011
no title for now
a little movie on how I´ve been feeling lately...trying to get started...
No posts...nothing happening here so far.
Well...I think I´m one of the last ones to join on the program. I´ve never written a blog before, I realize, that I feel quite scared of the internet (I really don´t want to become a transparent citizen), but I feel, the more I know about the web, the more I feel like giving it a try. I´ve started reading some "Theories about the Internet" by Martin Warnke- a very interesting book. I did not know for example that the web was originally commissioned by the US Military so science could advance at a faster pace in the 1970s.
Here´s a little quote by Eric Schmidt, that has been stuck in my head for quite a while-
The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.
Eric Schmidt
So let´s embark on this journey...and see, where it takes me.
Enjoy the movie by the way...our pianist told me about it and I felt it really hits a nail on the head!
No posts...nothing happening here so far.
Well...I think I´m one of the last ones to join on the program. I´ve never written a blog before, I realize, that I feel quite scared of the internet (I really don´t want to become a transparent citizen), but I feel, the more I know about the web, the more I feel like giving it a try. I´ve started reading some "Theories about the Internet" by Martin Warnke- a very interesting book. I did not know for example that the web was originally commissioned by the US Military so science could advance at a faster pace in the 1970s.
Here´s a little quote by Eric Schmidt, that has been stuck in my head for quite a while-
The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.
Eric Schmidt
So let´s embark on this journey...and see, where it takes me.
Enjoy the movie by the way...our pianist told me about it and I felt it really hits a nail on the head!
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