Can you each talk a bit about a phrase suggested by Hilary: ‘the logic of slow-motion movement’?
Michael
What is meant by that expression exactly and what are the implications on performance of entering into this different logic of movement?
Michael
Does it ever feel like you are operating heavy machinery (especially you, Franc) after being ‘sedated’?
Michael
Franc:
I’m not sure I know what Hilary means. I find slow-motion work pleasurable and challenging. I enjoy and struggle with the sustained placement of weight and the different tensions put on muscles throughout the body. It brings a different quality of attention and awareness, and that’s part of the pleasure.
Franc:
No, not at all like being sedated and operating heavy machinery. Again, for me, there was a lack of familiarity with the instrument so I was unsure whether or not I had the best position and distribution of weight for playing, and this had consequences for the slow motion. The strain on my right leg was tiring, but I couldn’t know whether this was normal for a double-basser or not. Taking the movement as it was, though, it was an ordinary experience of slow-motion movement.
Franc:
The slowness does feel different and when I watch the video I get a sense of how this is experienced from outside. When I watch the video I get a sense of mobile stillness, tiny movements like little ripples across water, or leaves in a breeze. My experience from inside the movement is subtly different, as far as I can remember. It’s difficult for me to describe, but the difference is something like this: when I watch the video, I see the movements ripple across the space yet there is an overall sense of stillness. When I pay attention to my memory of being in that moment the emphasis is on the small movements rather than the stillness, a sense of relating with those to slow down even more.
Hilary:
For me, slow motion movement has the effect of dilating my felt experience of time and place – both dimensions attain what I think of and experience as a kind of volume. Working with the piano, I was particularly attuned to how I used the muscles of my legs to help maintain the continuity of action that I was after, particularly in sitting/standing and in grounding the reach of my torso over to the left-hand side. The attempt to maintain a continuity of slowed-down action is essential to the ‘logic’ of slow-motion movement and gives rise to an interesting tussle between the effort needed to maintain a continuity/the appearance of continuity and, perhaps, effortlessness, and the actual effortful nature of the task.
Hilary:
No, probably the complete opposite of feeling ‘sedated’. Rather, hyper-alert and attuned.