“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” Friedrich Nietzsche
I finally loaded up my car with the pile of items I had collected for recycling over many months. Now, in my car I followed the voice of the navigation system leading me to the nearest recycling station. Following the directions, I was filled with hope and desire to unload and recycle responsibly the odd selection of items that filled my car: old socks worn to threads, a pair of work pants beyond repair and some underwear washed thin — each with some…
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” John Dewey
I don’t know anything about football or other team sports and yet it’s a powerful image when I see players propped in stillness on one knee instead of swirling around on the field. I appreciate the moment of reverence for the injured athlete in a high school game, and the immediacy of Colin Kaepernick’s silent action — lowering his strength and power to the ground.
Taking a knee brings pause. It connects us to the ground. Such kneeling is a humble and complicated act that allows…
“Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life”.F.M. Alexander
Imagine, a masquerade ball with lots of glitter, feathers, great music, fabulous company with hundreds of guests moving shoulder to shoulder, dancing, laughing, hugging, and flirting… All you can see are people’s masked faces and their movements.
Think of the thrill of guessing who is who under these fantastic masquerades and who or what the person we are guessing is masquerading as. Let your mind travel to Venice during Carnival time — you have seen the images, heard the tales and maybe even experienced it first hand. …
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Carl Jung
“Honey, I am home,” no one said anywhere this past month. It was only a few weeks ago that social distancing and the stay-at-home order arrived in Vermont. Since that day, time feels suspended and the scale of place feels warped.
Ordered to stay at home, I walk from my bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen to the kitchen table and reverse and repeat, my mind drifting to memories of building forts under the kitchen table or between the sofa cushions…
“Change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life.” FM Alexander
Remember last time you walked by someone who just farted a really stinky fart? Or the last time you smelled old fish or a rancid piece of meat? What did you do? Most likely you pulled away and maybe even let out an “ewww” sound while wrinkling your nose. Our reflex is to pull away from the source of the smell. It’s a built in survival mechanism. Bad smells signal a threat to our wellbeing.
We all have a built in distancing reflex based on early experiences.
“Civilization arises and unfolds in and as play” (Huizinga 1950)
When I released my new website less than two months ago, nobody could have anticipated the level of anxiety, fear and confusion we are currently experiencing.
It seems banal to write about play and websites in a time when the world as we know it is uprooted by a matter that is 0.004 to 0.1 microns in size — even smaller than a bacteria and completely invisible to our eye. Fear of the unknown permeates our physical and digital landscapes. …
An Artist’s Exploration
I make multi-media and multi-sensory site specific art. That’s a mouthful to say, but really quite straight forward, it’s art, set in a particular location, that awakens the senses. Because my art engages smell, touch, taste, not only sight and sound, it always seemed impossible to share online. Indeed, the idea of creating a website that communicates my work used to catapult me into complete anxiety. It felt like singing under water with the audience on land.
As I thought about creating a website that could be a resonant extension of my art, I struggled with these questions:
- How can…
Playful fear is when I lean a bit outside of my comfort zone. Fearful play is different.
Fear is survival
Fear makes you run or freeze
Play is creating immersive softening
Slowing down
Playing with friends
Fear the enemy
The one in control and out of control
Waves are physics
They don’t think
Waves are force
Water moved by gravity by the moon and the sun
Water shaped by wind and terrain
I am a human Obeying these same laws of our physical world And I can think I can study the waves, Their shapes Their rhythms Their movements and…
These past two weeks have been cold, very very cold. The first cold week, between Christmas and New Year’s, aligned with my week off line. I had decided to spend the time between the holidays completely analogue. I looked at the thermometer to decide how many layers to wear for my daily playtime in the snow. There were days I only could be outside for 30 minutes and other days hours went by.
This time also aligned with the production phase of costumes for a site specific outdoor performance in Montpelier, VT. Based on my experience and observations during my…
Erika Senft Miller
As an artist, I invite you to join me on adventures where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the art of becoming truly human begins to unfold.
