Tuesday, January 31, 2012

From mind trap to mind trip!

Talal Nayer


When I was invited for the participation in a workshop entitled “Synchronous Objects” I did not understand what is meant by the title and curiosity pushed me to find out more about this mysterious theme. My confusion increased when I found the explanations: They transfer dancing to the data and then to the objects, I saw in videos strange things; they divert choreography to cubes and sculptures by using the computer programs, the outputs are sophisticated graphics, endless data and incomprehensible maps. I faced strange formations, stressful visual objects and non-logical interpretation at first glance!




The intellectual language and hard academic expressions were not the only problem for me, but the subject itself was a challenge to my abilities and my absorptive capacity. First, I thought that my invitation to this place came by accident, or it’s just a mistake; I'm a cartoonist and writer and I have zero background in dance which I have not performed since years ago. I did not know what should I do, I did not realize a direct link between what I do and the workshop entitled “Synchronous Objects " which depends primarily on dancing.

 I realized that my old method of analysis did not work with this new mysterious theme, the classic attitude to judge things from its surface values was crashed completely with the reality of experience. Over time the puzzle began to jump quickly in front of me, I felt the philosophical depth of physical things which broke my dogma of categories. With “Synchronous Objects” the concepts will not be stable in my mind shelves regularly again. I realized that the sanctification of terms and categorization are the worst sin we commit against ourselves and the world which we thought that we knew it.



 I saw many recordings containing complex movements performed by dozens of dancers, their moves seemed random and non-harmonious; sometimes I got headaches when I tried to analyze their convoluted movements. My estimation: "These are just random motions", but after a while I found the decode; what seemed to me just like random motions became something like ballet music, all the dancers have specificly timed and known places. Most of these complex moves were not improvised because dancers start their movements only when they receive a cue from another dancer in the theater. The situation for the outsiders and people who didn’t have the code is totally irregular. They will easily fall into the trap of simple explanations and primary convenience: "These are random movements." But for sure they are not.
 


By working with the Australian dancer (Prue Lang) I saw new dimensions of the world. I discovered new angles in my body, I learned a beautiful mind game, which is almost a new birth of any thinker person. I detect that we are prisoners in traps of our minds and its easy explanations, and usually our minds like simplicity and brevity.

 The boundaries between the vision and dreams have been dissolved, all life details gained new meanings and several explanations; because with this gift now I am seeing the leaps of my rabbit (Borat) in a different way, and masses of books and their shadows are not the same, the random movements of people in the street change totally. Even my analysis of political issues has become deeper. The biggest discovery that the world is not flat as we think, we miss infinite dimensions even with our ability to see in three-dimensional ways, because some dimensions are inside of our minds.



In some discussion with (Norah Zuniga Shaw) about using this theory of complexity in my political analysis she said to me:
“For me complexity itself is a political act. Trusting people to work with complexity, realizing that life is complex, that we can work with complexity very well as humans. That if we get interested in complexity we also appreciate difference and allow for more difference in our personal, spiritual, creative, and political lives.”  I totally agree with her.

With the guide of complexity I broke the walls of traditional analysis and moved forward from the stage of mind trap to enjoying my trip into my indescribable world which is located in my brain. This trip is costless, if you want you can try it by yourself, all you need is to free your mind from categorization and start the adventure. Don’t be afraid, you don’t have to think before you leap because here there are no mistakes with the physical thinking, you are always right.

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