A presentation at “Serendipity - The Unsought Discovery”, the Orpheus Doctoral Conference 2022, Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium by Elina Akselrud, the founder and artistic director of Intertwining Arts.
Registration required
ABSTRACT
One of the major factors in any performance genre is the use of time and the decisions one makes in this regard. Artists have a particular temporal perception when working alone or with collaborators within their own medium. However, the sense of the time as an artistic device might alter significantly, when the art genres are crossdisciplinarily blended and artists from various media work simultaneously on the same material in an experimental setting. The focus of this presentation is the non-verbal artistic communication that occurs between two performers during art making and how can the actions of one duo partner from a certain artistic discipline influence the decisions of the other one in another discipline, respectively, when only one of them works with the score.
With the help of a crossdisciplinary exchange and due to the sharpening of the human senses in such setting, artistic intake can be manifested in ways that create a profound impact for both, the audience as well as for the performers themselves. Allowing for openness creates an opportunity for the aesthetic of chance; acknowledging this aesthetic and giving it space lets the work thrive and transform itself, due to the freedom the performer has, even in the context of working with a classical solo piece, while in an expanded crossover setting. Starting a brand new collaboration with no particular expectations makes it possible for the serendipity, intuition, and divination to come into play and lead to limitless possibilities of expanding the musical practice into a crossdisciplinary dialogue, namely a true synthesis of the arts that enriches the musical interpretation with unforeseen qualities.
I will present a case study of character miniatures for solo piano written by Alexander Scriabin during the middle and late periods of his life and legacy, intertwined with contemporary dance improvisation, and discuss possibilities brought by the In-Betweenness, the layers of the communication that are frequently transient, barely definable, and oftentimes imperceptible, unless paid a special attention to. Particularly these are the sense of the flow, movement, and structure of the work; the role of the space, i.e. the physical distance between performers and its relation to the use of the time; the density of the content (i.e. musical material) in a crossdisciplinary context; and the gestural communication between the artists that evolved from being a spontaneous reaction to each other’s temporal decisions into a means of intersubjective contact that to a large extent defined the interpersonal interpretation of the given works, each of which represents a transient character that is very unique and poignant.
To illustrate my arguments I will present excerpts from my case study documentary “Vers le Mystère” (“Towards the Mystery”), featuring the collaboration between piano and dance, a discussion of the project concept, the development of the intersubjective communication between the artists, the process of creative experimentation itself, and the research outputs of the case study sessions.