IDOCs » The Process of Materialisation of Fiction @ Vitlycke
an impression of working with The Process of Materialisation of Fiction that took place at the TR Residency at Vitlycke Centre for Performing Arts, on Saturday July 5, 2014
2014.07.06

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When proposed as facilitated group-work, I introduce The Process of Materialisation of Fiction by instructing the group I work with to lay on their backs. If I can, I darken the room as much as I can and instruct the participants that it’s OK for them to fall asleep; that is, if the opportunity shows itself. All of these actions I performed at the beginning of the research I facilitated in Vitlycke.
 
Next I calmed myself down (best I could), softened my voice and lead the group through a series of different physical, anatomical, intellectual, emotional and maybe spiritual focuses. 
 
When focusing:
I repeatedly remind the participants of their breath, attending particularly to their exhale.
I repeatedly remind the participants that they are currently working in a non-linear environment. In this environment: their impressions are not expected to follow a chronological order; in fact, their impressions are not expected to be ordered in any way and are not expected to necessarily and immediately “make sense” (at least during the time of practice).
 
In general, and ideally: there should be no expectation whatsoever assigned to any stage of this particular practice.
 
 
 
 
 
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After 40 minutes (this time I most often find is needed to warm-up and focus the attention in this particular context) I started playing soft music, as softly as seemed appropriate; to which I added the tiniest bit of light. (Nothing out of the ordinary at this stage of the experience, and in the conditions I was working in.)
 
At this point I started to address the participants, some of which have already engaged in movement perceivable to my eye, as if they were engaging in creating a dance, or as if they were dancing. > If, then I use the word dance deliberately; knowing that some of the participants might be engaging in activities they themselves wouldn’t necessarily consider to be dancing. I sometimes imagine that the subtlest the surprise, the more profoud the effect.
 
From here on out - I shifted my focus to the one of facilitating support: sometimes teasing the growing dance with my music choices and with the amount of light I'd be adding or be taking away from the room : until I finally recognised the dances as having found some sort of an agreement, maybe an end. I think this process, in Vitlycke, took about 35 minutes.
 
Music of which bits and pieces found their way to the space of practice / list cronogically reversed
River Deep Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner
The Air That I Breathe by The Hollies
Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac
Africa by Toto
I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney huston
So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music
Introduction to The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravisnky conducting Igor Stravinsky
Tassilone: “Sposa, mancar mi sento...” by Cecilia Bartoli
Howl read by Allen Ginsberg
Raise Me Up by Hercules and Love Affair
Wulthering Heights by Kate Bush
Tonight You Belong To Me by Patience and Prudence
Love is Lost - Hello Steve Reich Mix by David Bowie
Who by David Byrne and St Vincent
Stranve Overtones by We Barbarians
From Nowhere by Dan Croll
Skyscrapers by OK GO
At Seventeen by Janis Ian
Stars/Feelings by Nina Simone (Live at Montreaux Jazz Festival recording)
 
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The end of the Saturday dance was also the end of our working week. This is one of the reasons why I decided to bring the body back to the sense of heaviness and remind the body of joy. I proposed to do the Laughing Exercise I first learned from Oleg Soulimenko many years back.
 
The Laughing Exercise:
One person lays on his/hers stomach, on the floor. (I found two soft yoga mats and placed them to receive the bottom person.) The next person lays on top of the first person, as does the third on the second, as does the fourth on the third. Persons included calm down, actively allow their weight to release into and through the person/s beneath them. The bottom person is instructed to start laughing (“on purpose”, if necessary). What follows is contageous. :)
When the last laugh dies out, the bottom person gives a signal (most often by gently twisting their pelvis), which the persons on top follow by gently and softly sliding off and away.
The exercise is repeated so as to allow all participants to be the bottom one.
The top person will sometimes take the responsibility and use their arms:hands:fingers:floor connection to gently balance the stack, so as to allow others to completly relax into the exercise.
 
note:
The original instruction was for the bottom person to have their face on the side and arms on the floor, resting on either side of the body, back of the palm on the floor. This Saturday some participants prefered to have the arms bent in the elbow, hands facing above their head, front of the palm on the floow (as if giving in to police orders). They said arms-up offered an easier time at the sternum area.
This is to be negotiated between the facilitator and the participant; also between facilitator and the goal of the exercise.
 
note:
I recommend 4 people working together. 
5 for experienced in this exercise. 
I never did the exercise with more than 5 people per stack.
 
important note:
This exerice can produce strong reactions for people with strong fears sourced at the sternum area or fears of closed spaces. It is of utmost imprtance that the facilitator is present IF such a person decides to go into and through the experience. I recommend the facilitator to stay close and offer support (soft voice and eye contact included) but also let the person in fear know that there is no expectation placed on their behalf. There is no need for them to go through this experience, if they consider themselves as not ready.
 
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I concluded by bringing the group back to the circle, hands together, eyes closed.
This particular non-exercise I like to use to practice something I imagine is documentation at the level of physical, maybe molecular, experience or focus. I also like to use this exercise to practice gratitude and remind ourselves of the warmth granted by our palms. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 some photographs to be added soon...

Comments:
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Andrea Fäh Eligible Member // Teacher
2014.07.10
Thank you for sharing The Process of Materialization of Fiction.

I am, like you, very much interested in materializing imagination. Lately I participated at a workshop of Andrew Morris where we mostly worked with imagination. It was great. But above all, I've been working since several years with the materialization of thoughts and emotions and will pursue this kind of work.

Besides the interest I have for your work I very much appreciate your way to lead through the mentioned process! You seem to have strong pedagogical capabilities including a high sensitivity and big respect for others and their mental state.

Once again thank you for sharing this text with us. I wish you all the best for all your artistic work.

Andrea Fäh


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