Mess [antikvár]

Note: You may choose to read the following eight-page introduction, or you can choose to skip it and write your own version in the space on the left. You may also wish to begin the exercises immediately.INTRODUCTIONA few years ago I became fascinated by the work of Dutch-born artist Bas Jan Ader. The first piece I saw of his was the video "Broken Fall," which depicts a man hanging precariously by his hands from a high tree branch, swinging back and forth over a small creek. As the branch bobs and sways, I found myself waiting for the inevitable. Amid the tension of waiting, I also found myself smiling and laughing uncontrollably. And then it happens. The man plunges into the creek and crawls up the side of the bank, the whole thing lasting a mere 1 minute, 44 seconds.Ader often dealt with the subject of gravityvarious methods of falling, or dropping things. It seems completely ridiculous, and this is what I love about it. It is absurd, brilliantly simple, and completely serious at the same time.In the film, there is an interview with an old Dutch sailor that sums up Ader's work perfectly. He speaks indirectly about the process of improvisation, but the connection I made from it is that the point of Ader's "falls" is not the falling but the moment (1/lOth of a second) where he makes the decision to let go. That is the moment of transcendence when you leave everything behind and leap into the unknown.As improvisers, artists, or experimenters, we are trying to re-create that moment-when you leave everything behind and leap into the unknown. Because we've done it before11 Ift /