how to strike roots into the void – a trapeze artists view on artistic processes as permacultural growing

Carmen Raffaela Küster

This project researches body and object relationships through practical exploration (practice-led research) in suspension and on the ground. It illuminates connected thoughts linked to posthuman philosophy, permaculture, physical movement and contemporary circus. Our perception of the world is getting more global and connected, but we have not realised yet the full complexity of all the interdependencies and interplays. In fact it is more than questionable whether this might be graspable for any human to its full extend at all… The state of being ‘in suspension’ is taken as an analogy for the times we live in – life itself. In a world in which pop-stars sing ‘I have no roots’ (Merton, 2016), mass-migration makes people leave their homes involuntarily and others choose nomadic livestyles that leave them only loosely connected with a geographical place and a single culture. But at the same time, we are always tightly connected (digitally) with ‘the whole world’. 'How to strike roots into the void?' is the essential question of this interdisciplinary research, which has its roots deep 'down' in aerial acrobatic movement. How could this rooting be possible at all? And in which ways? – referring to the question of quality: 'HOW' can we in these times as human being strike out our own roots? Who and what can keep us grounded? To whom or what are we reaching out to search for connection? What nourishes us? And where to hold on to, if the substrate is emptiness – the Void – the uncertainty of life itself?

key notion of the VOID

in relation to AERIAL ACROBATICS

The void as ‘substrate’ for the process of rooting is referring to the unpredictable and uncertain nature of life itself, the ‘blank sheet’ of creative work and the pioneer journey into the Unknown as key feature of Artistic Research – and of course the natural habitat of the aerial acrobat.

»The aerialist's act refers to the imagery of the void... Even when risk-taking is not high, the smallest presence of the gravity defying makes the spectators feel the presence of an immense void; the void of this position that they are not familiar with, in weightlessness«

(Dumont, 2015)

The Call of the Void – »L'Appel Du Vide, is this tiny little voice that tells you to jerk the steering wheel just to the right and take a flying leap off the ledge...

that inclination to walk right into the ocean and never return...the Call of the Siren Song.« (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=L%27appel%20du%20vide)

Referring to the realm of aerial acrobatics more metaphorical expressions pop up in my mind – colloquially describing feelings most people could relate to in some way e.g. the german sayings: ‘in der Luft hängen’ (‘being lost in midair’) & ‘den Boden unter den Füßen verlieren’ (‘loose ones footing’).

»the momentary oblivion, the total self-loss, the encounter with nothingness threw me into a state of vague anxiety.«

»my temptation to panic is rooted in a primal sense of abandonment, in my final helplessness in the face of the vastness of the cosmos and the threat that in death I will be swallowed up into nothingness. How do I deal with this metafear – death, nothingness, the void?« (Keen, 1999)

it is curiosity, the biggest driving force in the universe, because it can overcome the biggest breaking force – fear.

this wise insight by Walter Moers, for me puts in a nutshell the essential nature of the pioneer attitude of an artistic researcher, this daring to confront this fearful lostness in the void out of passionate curiosity – what if...

key notion of the VOID

in relation to Artistic Research

Repeatingly I claim that at heart of Artistic Research lies the courage to set out for an adventurous 'Journey into the Unknown'. To 'search and search again' (Ingold, 2018) not resigning after failures or detours, but getting up again and again, find your own ways off the beaten tracks – this curiosity and openness is the key to be able to discover something beyond the one's own horizon.

But HOW in artistic as well as in scientific research you could eventually find something truely 'new' if you just follow worn-out trails, stick to the same old recipe, and plan the outcomes for your research in advance? The systems for project funding in both art and science unfortunately do ask this: to write an accurate plan, which is just to be carried out according to schedule.

This mere 'administration of the future' (Georgelou, Protopapa, Theodoridou, 2017) tries to avoid any surprises, and is not open minded enough to reveal any groundbreaking new insights...

For me the power of Artistic Research is about daring to look for something new, not knowing what it is, not knowing what you might encounter on the way, what might come out, if something comes out at all...

Creativity comes from NOTHINGNESS, out of the EMPTINESS we can create everything, it is the VOID that contains it ALL.

So for me mindfullness is a ridiculous thing – if the mind is full, how could you have time and space for a truely new idea? It is about emptying the mind as also the eastern philosophies teach. For me it is about a firm grip of holding on to something, standing for your own true believes – and balancing this out with lively curiousity and courage for letting go, allowing openness to be the only constant...

... and keeping in mind that balance is not a fixed state, but a process of constant change in itself...

»Creativity in the topos of nothingness is the principle which makes it possible for the universe to exist as an "open wholeness."« (Tanaka, Y.)

REFERENCES:

Dumont, A. (2015). Verticality, Weight and Gravity. Reflections on the concepts of verticality, weight and gravity in circus arts’ professional teaching. Retrieved

from: http://www.fedec.eu/file/350/download

CALL of the VOID. retrieved from: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=L%27appel%20du%20vide

Georgelou, K., Protopapa, E., & Theodoridou, D. (2017). The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance.

Tim Ingold (2018) Search and Search Again: On the Meaning of Research in Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://soundcloud.com/cca-glasgow/tim-ingold-search-and-search-again-on-the-meaning-of-research-in-art

Keen, S. (1999). Learning to Fly: Reflections on Fear, Trust, and the Joy of Letting Go (1st ed.). New York, NY: Broadway

Tanaka, Y (n.d.) Nothingness and Creativity. Retrieved from: http://tourikadan.sakura.ne.jp/Nothingness-and-Creativity.pdf

Did you ever experience the HORROR VACUI (lat. the fear of empty spaces) – the fear of the blank sheet of paper? because you are confronted with your own insecurity, where to begin how to do it, what to create at all, and why to do anything whatsoever...

It sometimes seem we have nothing, no idea, no words, we feel empty. Yet it is beautiful, because at this moment you are confronted with the vastest range of potential. And yet I say: 'there is no blank paper!'

...just look for the tiny seed with already so much information inside

"Wissen ist Nacht" (Moers) is a german wordplay actuallly referring to 'Wissen ist Macht'– 'knowledge is power', that he changed into 'knowledge is night'. Isn't the fear of darkness also originated in your own fantasies of all the things that might be 'in there'...? The Darkness can contain anything...

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