Festival of dance theatre BAZAAR 2016 is behind the door. This weekend the festival dramaturgy presents artists from central, southern and eastern Europe in three Prague venues. The programme includes also workshops, discussions and informal reunions with artists. Main topic is human identity as a personal space, which may be interfered from outside and therefore influenced. Polish-American author Wojtek Ziemilski will present his own piece Pygmalion – he says it is about communication, its imperfections and extreme empathy. Read below what he revealed about the Czech premiere of this piece.
In the annotation, you talk about communication and its imperfections. What does the term communication mean to you and what are those imperfections? And also what is your opinion about nowadays communication via media including internet?Let's start with the last question! You e-mailed me the questions for the interview a week ago and it took me all this time to reply. It's a long time - considering the medium. What has certainly changed is the dynamics of interaction. We expect quick answers, instant reactions - and we are right! Whatever doesn't get addressed instantly disappears somewhere in the virtual jungle. This is quite logical - we want our interactions to be as spontaneous as possible, so the internet is now much closer to a (strange, multifaceted, constantly interrupted and often superficial) conversation than, say, to an exchange of letters. Every change in the type of communication brings about new, imperfect protocols. I'm interested in how these protocols can be addressed via a conventional situation like the stage. One example is the live online transmission of stage performances (like Forced Entertainment's Tabletop Shakespeare). But changing protocols doesn't necessarily mean making an online performance. For instance, sharing has changed character in the last years. So what does it mean to share something today when we talk about the contemporary stage? There is a lot of talk of sharing and building a community, but, well, easier said than done. I'm interested in exploring the actual possibilities of sharing something on stage.As well you state that it is an exercise in extreme empathy. Empathy itself is a base of feeling transmission in between the performer and the spectator. What is then the extreme empathy?It's when things get more difficult. The stage is a convention made for clear messages, or at least, for a basic transmission from stage-objects to audience. But that makes any sort of onstage event problematic, because it's set up for the audience to see. One meaning of this "extreme empathy" is the situation when what is on the stage is not pointed towards the audience, when it "forgets" about the spectators or aims at something else. The spectators are left on their own and that may require more empathy than what they are accustomed to. The other meaning of "extreme empathy", related to the first one, is broader - it's any situation where communication is far from our own picture of it. Where we need to put ourselves in the position of someone who does not correspond to a comfortable idea of the Other as someone fundamentally like us. How to embrace radical difference?In the annotation you also talk about determining/conditioning, which is crucial for belonging to any culture. Where does this interest in enculturation process come from? Is there any impact of your personal story of being Polish-American?Ha! Being born in the US doesn't make one American - you just get a passport. But in my case there was quite a lot of indoctrination - until my early teenage years I was convinced I was American. It's still astonishing to me today that I could actually think so. After all, my parents and grandparents were all Polish; I only spent a few months in the US after I was born, and then another few when I was 6! But it's a broader issue - I find it fascinating how we are conditioned to be this or that, to function in a certain way. Language plays a big role here - it gives us the tools to communicate. And the tools, of course, are also the framework of possibilities.
Festival of dance theatre BAZAAR 2016 is behind the door. This weekend the festival dramaturgy presents artists from central, southern and eastern Europe in three Prague venues. The programme includes also workshops, discussions and informal reunions with artists. Main topic is human identity as a personal space, which may be interfered from outside and therefore influenced. Polish-American author Wojtek Ziemilski will present his own piece Pygmalion – he says it is about communication, its imperfections and extreme empathy. Read below what he revealed about the Czech premiere of this piece.
In the annotation, you talk about communication and its imperfections. What does the term communication mean to you and what are those imperfections? And also what is your opinion about nowadays communication via media including internet?
Let's start with the last question! You e-mailed me the questions for the interview a week ago and it took me all this time to reply. It's a long time - considering the medium. What has certainly changed is the dynamics of interaction. We expect quick answers, instant reactions - and we are right! Whatever doesn't get addressed instantly disappears somewhere in the virtual jungle. This is quite logical - we want our interactions to be as spontaneous as possible, so the internet is now much closer to a (strange, multifaceted, constantly interrupted and often superficial) conversation than, say, to an exchange of letters. Every change in the type of communication brings about new, imperfect protocols. I'm interested in how these protocols can be addressed via a conventional situation like the stage. One example is the live online transmission of stage performances (like Forced Entertainment's Tabletop Shakespeare). But changing protocols doesn't necessarily mean making an online performance. For instance, sharing has changed character in the last years. So what does it mean to share something today when we talk about the contemporary stage? There is a lot of talk of sharing and building a community, but, well, easier said than done. I'm interested in exploring the actual possibilities of sharing something on stage.
As well you state that it is an exercise in extreme empathy. Empathy itself is a base of feeling transmission in between the performer and the spectator. What is then the extreme empathy?
It's when things get more difficult. The stage is a convention made for clear messages, or at least, for a basic transmission from stage-objects to audience. But that makes any sort of onstage event problematic, because it's set up for the audience to see. One meaning of this "extreme empathy" is the situation when what is on the stage is not pointed towards the audience, when it "forgets" about the spectators or aims at something else. The spectators are left on their own and that may require more empathy than what they are accustomed to. The other meaning of "extreme empathy", related to the first one, is broader - it's any situation where communication is far from our own picture of it. Where we need to put ourselves in the position of someone who does not correspond to a comfortable idea of the Other as someone fundamentally like us. How to embrace radical difference?
In the annotation you also talk about determining/conditioning, which is crucial for belonging to any culture. Where does this interest in enculturation process come from? Is there any impact of your personal story of being Polish-American?
Ha! Being born in the US doesn't make one American - you just get a passport. But in my case there was quite a lot of indoctrination - until my early teenage years I was convinced I was American. It's still astonishing to me today that I could actually think so. After all, my parents and grandparents were all Polish; I only spent a few months in the US after I was born, and then another few when I was 6! But it's a broader issue - I find it fascinating how we are conditioned to be this or that, to function in a certain way. Language plays a big role here - it gives us the tools to communicate. And the tools, of course, are also the framework of possibilities.
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species