The Absolute Creative Space
A VIRTUAL LABORATORY IN THE ABSOLUTE PLANE
While devising TRIPTYCH, I experimented with the three planes of existence, their physical location on stage and the "transcending" level of the characters to be able to navigate between these planes. The third plane - THE ABSOLUTE PLANE - was nirvana-like plane , a physical and spiritual plane that only could take place in the safety of the "sacred space" the actors strived to achieve on stage after they themselves had transcended to what I called their ABSOLUTE CHARACTER. The reasoning was that once the actors and the audience left the theater, the protection of this "safe bubble" they had created, would fade and they would - if the experience of the play had been successful - move down to the second plane or THE TRANSCENDED PLANE. Only in THE ABSOLUTE PLANE the actors - if they managed to reach that level of transcendence during their performance - would feel completely free to be themselves and free themselves of limitations imposed both by the outside world and themselves. THE ABSOLUTE CHARACTER is a level of transcendence that very few of us have been able to experience and when we do, it doesn't last too long. A few years back, when working on BECOMING A ROSE, I transcended to my ABSOLUTE CHARACTER and felt all the euphoria and intense mixed feelings that come with it.
Reaching THE ABSOLUTE PLANE on a regular stage is quite difficult because unless you engage the audience you will not be able to move up from the second plane but on a virtual stage - and in a solo show like Becoming a Rose was - it is much easier to create this "safe bubble" or "virtual womb". On a regular stage, the audience is right there with you but in a virtual stage ... you are on your own in this bubble and even if you know people are watching - unless you somehow open communications with the audience - they can't hurt you, judge you or break into your personal pod. In virtual theater, because of the intimacy that this platform provides, more than a regular audience ... the spectators become some sort of voyeurs and not knowing how they are reacting could go from being terrifying to incredible encouraging. It was this element of virtual theater - which I strongly believe to be unique to this language - that inspired me to open up and share a "secret" but "essential" side of me which I only get to let free in the safety of THE ABSOLUTE PLANE.
Like I wrote in my post: Honesty vs. Too Personal and ... now that I think about it ... told my actors repeatedly when rehearsing ... it's not about what you do or say on stage or in front of a camera but "why" you do it that the audience/viewers react to. Sharing with you my ABSOLUTE CHARACTER is important to my transcendence as an artist and as an individual and that's why I have decide to experiment with the idea of recreating THE ABSOLUTE PLANE in this virtual laboratory ... a VIRTUAL ABSOLUTE PLANE ... the ABSOLUTE CREATIVE SPACE.
Someone once told me that I was a "generous artist" ... which might be true but I believe that while I'm perfectly able to create for myself - and value my integrity as an artist more than recognition or fame - I'm a Sensory-Somatic Artist in practice and a Creative Energy Coach at heart. My work is not a statement of my own truth but a mere reflection of your musing energy and a bridge between you and the world.
RELATED POSTS
Honest vs. Too Personal
FINDING THE POINTS OF CONNECTION
While living in Montreal I had the opportunity to assist - as a casting director - several general auditions hosted by The Quebec Drama Federation. I saw hundreds of actors audition for the many casting directors, agents and so forth. I had held and continue holding auditions for my own projects throughout the years but, I guess since I wasn’t there to really cast anybody but just to watch the auditions, I learned many valuable lessons which I was sure to pass on to my acting students. One thing that became evident to me from the start … actors usually mistake honesty and vulnerability with being too personal.
As an artist, I have always pursued honesty in my work and as I have grown and transcended creatively, I have become less concerned about social limitations and strived to be myself without excuses or self-imposed boundaries.
In my virtual play: Becoming a Rose, I shared a video of what I called my Sacred Secret Photo Sessions … a sample of a private ritual I often perform but that no one had ever seen. I suppose it doesn’t get any more personal than that but … the first word coming out of an old friend was … I appreciate the honesty in the work. As I contemplate sharing more of my secret and sacred world with you on the Absolute Creative Space, I remind myself and share with you the findings about honesty vs. too personal I gathered from my acting coaching sessions.
In simple words … the big difference between being too personal and being honest are what I called “the points of connection” or finding that in our work - monologue, scene, photographs, etc. - that is shared by others or that makes our “personal experience” into a “collective experience”. The most common mistake I found actors made was that they did exactly the opposite and … not to bash anyone … they actually enjoyed a little too much making it about them. So … what’s exactly the problem with doing so … that most people don’t want to intrude or pry into other people’s personal affairs or tragedies so … the casting director would “disconnect” him/herself from your monologue and the audience of your play would do the same as saying … that’s not my problem or my experience.
No … not everyone take private pictures of him/herself in secret or have lived whatever experience or situation you might present to them in your monologue, play, etc. but … there’s something in your intention, motivation or even the reason why you picked that particular piece that is part of a “collective experience” … a point of connection.
Jean Genet has always been a big influence and inspiration in my work. When I first discover his plays, I was immediately drawn by them. At that time I had no idea why the experience of a person who could not be more different from me and whose world I could not even conceive resonated so much with me. After reading most of his work through the years, working on some of his plays and “technique” and devising Becoming a Rose - which was inspired by his work - I finally grasped … and tried to share with the audience of my play … what is the “point of connection”. To put it in the words of another artist - “To create one’s own world takes courage” - Georgia O’Keeffe. It is also “courage” what connects my “honest” work with other people … they either admire it, appreciate it, wish they had it or see their own courage reflected … it has nothing to do with the actual work but the courage it takes to be myself in front of them.
RELATED POSTS
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
Dissenting Scent
The dancer’s intoxicating scent awakened my most primordial instincts evoking a Sensory-Somatic connection between us.
When your work as an artist is mostly inspired by your Sensory-Somatic System, having highly developed senses comes to a great advantage. From all the senses, the vomeronasal sense is perhaps the most acute and influential of all my senses. Even when surrounded by the breathtaking visuals of the fall transition into winter at the mountains, it was the sultriness of the soil and the scent of the stillness of the menacing snow what evoked the deepest of my sensory-somatic memories.
During an exploratory trip to New York City in the spring of 2013, I attended a physical theater performance at La MaMa’s main stage. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the company's nor the production’s name but, I remember the driving force of the show: a man’s fight to overcome a gender identity struggle.
The audience was sitting on chairs along the two long sides of the stage at the same level of the performers. The show was engaging and the performers powerful and inspiring. It was half way into the show when I experienced what I would call a “total immersion”, a "sensory-somatic connection” with the lead performer at levels far beyond the performers' intentions.
As the lead male performer/dancer eloquently expressed his character’s torment with a series of very physical and explosive dances, he began to sweat profusely, saturating the theater with his intoxicating scent. Every time he ran past me, his penetrating scent awakened my most "primordial instincts" which allowed me to feel his pain, taste the sweat streaming down his face and body and, smell the fear emanating from his groin, armpits and body hair.
After regaining “consciousness", trying to collect my “thoughts”, I reflected on both the theatrical reality we were being presented with and, the show’s proposal … is there such a thing as a “masculine” scent? Could any “rational” inference we the audience could reach from the show’s proposal possibly defy the bold statement being made by this male actor’s powerful dissenting scent?
RELATED PROJECT DEVISING PAGE
Dis-scent: a NYC Story
More information about this project coming soon
RELATED POSTS
The Bring-Your-Own-Menu Approach
I believe my role as a coach, director and photographer to be that of a guide and a creative partner. I believe in creating a collaborative space for the exchange of ideas, experience, inspiration and encouragement.
An actor, auditioning for one of my devised theater plays, once told me that “committing to the project without first seeing the script was like going into a restaurant and ordering without first seeing the menu” - to which I replied: “to this restaurant, you-bring-your-own-menu and we’ll prepare the meal together.
I believe my role as a coach, director and photographer to be that of a guide and a creative partner. I believe in creating a collaborative space for the exchange of ideas, experience, inspiration and encouragement.
As many times before and I’m sure, many times to come, this actor provided me with the perfect analogy for my approach to directing, coaching and photographing people.
I often tell my actors, students and models that mutual inspiration - between them and myself - is the key to a successful exploration and a fair exchange of creativity.
TO BE CONTINUED