10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective
Abstract
Multiple disciplines, especially in the social sciences, have long emphasized the human mind’s universal natural elective affinity for a dichotomous, symmetrical, and well-delineated topography of human knowledge. In a grid inspired by this preference, inter-disciplinary professional dialogues are constructed as a proactive overcoming of longitudinal distances and defined professional boundaries. The chapter challenges this interpretation and highlights the importance of “depths” as cross-pollinating disciplinary intersections. Specifically, like uncovering different and sometimes precious geological layers and formations when digging deeper in a single confined space, digging deeper within a given discipline ‒ as opposed to “looking sideways” for collaborative opportunities - produces “sideways”-like results, often of unexpected nature. This approach is exemplified here through the personal experience of professional improvisational acting. The chapter argues that honing an actor’s craft entails a trajectory of multiple encounters with other domains of knowledge, which are an integral part of an increasingly deep understanding of acting. More generally, in the post-modern condition of the information age, any discipline makes meaningful encounters with other domains of knowledge that lie within a deeper understanding and mastery of itself. These encounters take place not necessarily across a grid; rather, the grid lies within narrow, highly professional corridors marked by an expertise which necessitates the opening of multidisciplinary doors.
Abstract
Multiple disciplines, especially in the social sciences, have long emphasized the human mind’s universal natural elective affinity for a dichotomous, symmetrical, and well-delineated topography of human knowledge. In a grid inspired by this preference, inter-disciplinary professional dialogues are constructed as a proactive overcoming of longitudinal distances and defined professional boundaries. The chapter challenges this interpretation and highlights the importance of “depths” as cross-pollinating disciplinary intersections. Specifically, like uncovering different and sometimes precious geological layers and formations when digging deeper in a single confined space, digging deeper within a given discipline ‒ as opposed to “looking sideways” for collaborative opportunities - produces “sideways”-like results, often of unexpected nature. This approach is exemplified here through the personal experience of professional improvisational acting. The chapter argues that honing an actor’s craft entails a trajectory of multiple encounters with other domains of knowledge, which are an integral part of an increasingly deep understanding of acting. More generally, in the post-modern condition of the information age, any discipline makes meaningful encounters with other domains of knowledge that lie within a deeper understanding and mastery of itself. These encounters take place not necessarily across a grid; rather, the grid lies within narrow, highly professional corridors marked by an expertise which necessitates the opening of multidisciplinary doors.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Content V
- List of Illustrations VII
- Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
- Acknowledgements XV
- 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
- 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
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Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
- 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
- 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
- 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
-
Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
- 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
- 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
- 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
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Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
- 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
- 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
- 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
-
Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
- 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
- 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
- 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
- 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
- About the Contributors 232
- About the Participant Artists 238
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Content V
- List of Illustrations VII
- Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
- Acknowledgements XV
- 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
- 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
-
Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
- 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
- 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
- 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
-
Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
- 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
- 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
- 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
-
Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
- 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
- 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
- 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
-
Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
- 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
- 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
- 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
- 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
- About the Contributors 232
- About the Participant Artists 238
