Virtual Laboratory for The Arts
A VIRTUAL CONNECTION TO MY CREATIVE PROCESS
It has taken me many years, countless hours of designing and working on numerous versions of my website, a pandemic, living in an isolated cabin in the woods and turning down the almost daily requests from web designers to “fix” my website to finally come up with a clear vision for my website: a virtual laboratory for the arts, a virtual workshop, a safe creative space where I can experiment, explore, transcend and grow as an artist and more importantly - a virtual space for sharing my creative process with you and collaborate virtually with other artists around the world.
I’m what they call … a “process oriented” artist … someone more interest in the “creative process” than in the “final product” or end result so, you can understand my frustration with the usual “online artist’s portfolios” which are just that … a showing of “final products”, “achievements” and “masterpieces”. As I often tell my actors when working on a play … it’s like a school project where we were young … sure, the final show when you invite your parents and all is significant but … where is the documentation of all the hours you spent learning, growing, working and yes … failing and screwing up? Doesn’t that count? I think it does.
I’m also a perfectionist so, the idea of showing “unfinished finished products” is not something I take lightly but … why can I allow myself to share “Non-Retouched” photos … like I describe them … on social media but not on my website? I supposed we both know the answer to that … because whatever you publish on a portfolio website is expected to be a “masterpiece” and not some random photo you took with your phone camera.
This website … my virtual laboratory for the arts is a work-in-progress, a virtual connection between you and my creative process and an online portfolio of my finish works.
The homepage or current projects page will be where I will share with you where I stand, what my motivating thoughts are that day and the ideas or creative proposals i’m currently developing, devising or simply “musing” on. This will be the most dynamic of the pages and it will change, transmute, progress … as fast as my creative energy or at least, as often as I can keep up. It is also - in spite of being the homepage and possibly the only page some people will see - where most of the “unfinished” works and “non-retouched” images will be. Un-edited images and videos on this page and on other “dynamic” pages of the website will be part of THE LIGHTBOX where - just like in the old analog lightboxes - you will be able to look at proofs, un-edited photos and videos from my most recent shoots and projects. Once a project is picked up or, in other words - if I decide to further work on this particular idea or proposal - the images and videos will be retouched and edited and will be moved to either the project page or to a particular gallery. The rough material from theatrical and other written works on this page will form part of THE DEVISING BOARD where you be able to read and collaborate with me. Once the project is picked up, the material will move to a project page.
The PHOTOGRAPHY landing page, will remain my photography online portfolio with all new and collected works galleries. However, it will also be the landing page for the LIGHTBOX and past and future photography and cross-disciplinary projects no longer featured on the current projects page.
The THEATER landing page, will be the home to the ABSOLUTE THEATER and the new LAT DIGITAL SPACE devising board and the raw stage. New and ongoing projects no longer on the current page will be featured here before they move to a project page on either the LAT DIGITAL SPACE or ABSOLUTE THEATER sections. This page will also hold the latest - or more relevant to the current projects - posts and a calendar with upcoming virtual performances and other connections on the digital space.
The TRAINING landing page - formerly Guido Luciani’s Studio - will contain the latest information on current Performing Arts, Sensory-Somatic and Photography Training classes, workshops and jams as well as thoughts on training, Absolute Theater approach, etc. and - I’m working on offering training videos also on this page. I will also publish some director’s notes and other training information on this section.
What takes me to the latest section of my virtual laboratory I’m musing on: the ABSOLUTE CREATIVE SPACE - a virtual safe space for members only area for creating and collaborating with other artists. THE BARE CANVAS will be the private extension to The Lightbox and, THE RAW STAGE will be a secure section of The Devising Board where artists participating in a project will find exclusive information, project notes, etc.
RELATED POSTS
Rebirth of The Old Man
BREAKING THROUGH THE IMPERMEABLE SHELL
“Energy … coalescence of earth, wind, water and fire … a boundless and inexhaustible force free of age, gender, physical appearance and social identity.”
Many years back, Salvador Dali’s painting “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” inspired many of my photographic and theatrical projects at the time and it became a symbol for my life-long search for a way to access and harvest my sexual/creative energy isolated from it’s “containing shell”; in other words: my body.
At the time, the egg-like object in Dali’s painting did not represent to me but just a “mental barrier” from which this man was “liberating” himself. I was more concern about the concept of freedom to be myself and the artist I wanted to be but today, that egg has become an “impermeable shell” which both protects me but also isolates me from the outside world.
“The Birth of a New Man” … as I then called my take on Dali’s painting has become the “Rebirth of The Old Man” because today, rather than re-inventing myself, as I was doing then, I’m looking to break out of a shell hardened by age and fear by means of re-awakening my sexual/creative energy from within that shell.
In order to break the shell I not only need to amass a great amount of energy but more importantly, I must be willing to renounce the safety provided by my mental and physical pod to venture into a world where my naked and vulnerable soul might not be well received or appreciated.
At the time this words were written, the main focus of my creative explorations is on both re-awakening my sexual/creative energy, breaking out of my “impermeable shell” and “making my unknown known”.
RELATED POSTS
The Impermeable Mask
Like many of my other ideas, projects, realizations, etc., the visual representation of my current personal and creative life came to me in a dream. There I stood in front of a group of people fighting to break out of this impermeable shell - my public self - which with age and the loss of my senses have become hardened and stronger in the last few years. After I woke up, I was able to put everything into perspective and visualize the path to follow to avoid loosing myself completely and becoming the mask.
“To create one’s own world takes courage”
Like many of my other ideas, projects, realizations, etc., the visual representation of my current personal and creative life came to me in a dream. There I stood in front of a group of people fighting to break out of this impermeable shell - my public self - which with age and the loss of my senses have become hardened and stronger in the last few years. After I woke up, I was able to put everything into perspective and visualize the path to follow to avoid loosing myself completely and becoming the mask.
I also recognized this struggle as a constant motivator in my creative work. In the summer of 2021, I experimented with the permeability of masks in a solo virtual theater show: “Becoming a Rose” and began exploring the concept of total deconstruction of the mask in a segment of the show entitled “Secret-Sacred Photo Sessions”. The intimate quality of the new virtual theater language encouraged me to pierce open the mask and establish a direct connection between my inner self and each individual watching the show. “Becoming a Rose” also gave me the opportunity to grow as a visual artist - not in the traditional sense but - as an artist who communicates with images. “Becoming a Rose” also marked the beginning of “Transcending The Impermeable Mask” - a journey of self-exploration journaled with photographs and videos - and because it was an intimate solo show, I had to put in practice my “bring-your-own-menu” approach - in other words - I had to peel off my own mask and could not hide behind another actor’s mask.
RELATED POSTS“THE MUSE MASK”