SIMULTANEOUS ART : workshop score

By Gosha E 

The simultaneous art workshop offers simultaneous improvisation in four streams of art. 

Simultaneous art is a very democratic form of art that can be practiced in various communities, with a varied number of participants. Although this form is by definition open for anyone, it proposes certain ethical requirements within the structure of its canon. 

There are two canons: external, which is formalizing the event - and an internal canon that structures the relationships in the group. 

External canon is a framework that outlines the perceptual session. It contains several step-by-step elements of foundations of a simultaneous performance. 

First: the session is limited to 60 minutes. 

Second: participants are exchanging propositions through their chosen streams (visual, sound, movement or voice) and responding to each other’s messages, creating a dialogue. Soloing is not allowed as well as automatic production. 

Third: streams are not intersecting - each participant is required to stay within the chosen stream (visual, sound, voice or movement) during the entire session and can not combine/change streams 

Fourth: the session is stopped when every participant realizes that one of the streams has stopped making propositions (not paused!) 

Internal canon contains five consequential algorithmic steps of relationships within the performative field of the session. 

First: white noise, pure existence that creates the field of a performative session. 

Second: sensory singularity, a proposition-in-progress being formed by one of the participants that is not revealed yet for the others. 

Third: broadcasting, when a sensory singularity that exists as a proposition only for one participant is already presented and broadcasted as a proposition to the other participants in the perceptual session. And they can already consider it a proposition. 

Fourth: we’re abandoning our own automatisms and subjectivities to be able to pay close attention to other participants’ streams 

Fifth: when we’re finding ourselves repeating or automating our stream, we need to choose a different form to get back to actively acknowledging the presence of others, and switch our subjectivity into the communal mode. 

In this workshop, we're dealing with a collective sensibility which is not a goal in itself, and can always be dissected into individual streams. But it allows us to develop a better understanding of each other and interact with various art forms.