Viewpoints: Difference between revisions

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{{Other uses|Viewpoint (disambiguation)}}

'''Viewpoints''' is a movement-based pedagogical and artistic practice<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=9781513613611978-1-5136-1361-1 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=vii |language=English}}</ref> that provides a framework for creating and analyzing performance by exploring spatial relationships, shape, time, emotion, movement mechanics, and storytelling. Rooted in the ___domain of [[Choreography (dance)|dance composition]], the Viewpoints operate as a medium for thinking about and acting upon [[Motion (physics)|movement]], [[gesture]], and the creative use of space.<ref name="BogartLandau2004">{{cite book |author1=Bogart |first=Anne Bogart|author2url=Tinahttps://books.google.com/books?id=yk_6CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 Landau|title=The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition |urlauthor2=https://books.google.com/books?id=yk_6CAAAQBAJ&pgLandau |first2=PA7Tina |date=1 August 20042005 |publisher=Theatre Communications Group |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-55936-677-9 |___location=New York |pages=7–12}}</ref>

{{context|date=September 2018}}

'''Viewpoints''' is a movement-based pedagogical and artistic practice<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=9781513613611 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=vii |language=English}}</ref> that provides a framework for creating and analyzing performance by exploring spatial relationships, shape, time, emotion, movement mechanics, and storytelling. Rooted in the ___domain of [[Choreography (dance)|dance composition]], the Viewpoints operate as a medium for thinking about and acting upon [[Motion (physics)|movement]], [[gesture]], and the creative use of space.<ref name="BogartLandau2004">{{cite book|author1=Anne Bogart|author2=Tina Landau|title=The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yk_6CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|date=1 August 2004|publisher=Theatre Communications Group|isbn=978-1-55936-677-9|pages=7–12}}</ref>

The Six Viewpoints was originally developed in the 1970s by master theater artistpractice and educatortheory [[Maryprofoundly Overlie]],enables lateraccess conceptualisedto in her book ''Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice'' (2016)''.'' Overlie's Viewpointsinspiration and practicecreativity arethrough seenits todistinct contributefocus greatly toon the [[Postmodernism|postmodernmateriality movement]]of inthe theatre, dance, and choreography, grounded in its opposition against [[Modernism|modernismactor's]] emphasisbody, onas hierarchicalwell structureas inthe performanceelements creation,of fixed meaning, andthe lineartheatrical narrativesevent.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perucci |first=Tony |date=1916 DecemberFebruary 20172015 |title=OnDog StealingSniff ViewpointsDog |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.20172015.1384188991598 |journal=Performance Research |volume=2220 |issue=51 |pages=121-123109 |via=Tandfonline}}</ref> The Viewpoints, if practiced and conceptually integrated in performance composition, is found to be indescribably powerful and effective in all areas of investigation of, and for making art. In the simplest form, it is a theatrical practice for improvisation.

== Background ==

The Six Viewpoints has been studied and practiced for decades in theatre and dance. Overlie's practice and theory profoundly enables access to inspiration and creativity through its distinct focus on the materiality of the actor's body, as well as the elements of the theatrical event.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perucci |first=Tony |date=16 February 2015 |title=Dog Sniff Dog |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2015.991598 |journal=Performance Research |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=109 |via=Tandfonline}}</ref> The Six Viewpoints, if practiced in the purest form, is found to be indescribably powerful and effective in all areas of investigation of, and for making art. In the simplest form, it is a practice for improvisation.

The Six Viewpoints was originally developed in the 1970s by master theater artist and educator [[Mary Overlie]], later conceptualised in her book ''Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice'' (2016)''.'' Overlie's Viewpoints and practice are seen to contribute greatly to the [[Postmodernism|postmodern movement]] in theatre, dance, and choreography, grounded in its opposition against [[Modernism|modernism's]] emphasis on hierarchical structure in performance creation, fixed meaning, and linear narratives.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perucci |first=Tony |date=19 December 2017 |title=On Stealing Viewpoints |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2017.1384188 |journal=Performance Research |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=121-123 |via=Tandfonline}}</ref>

A key principle of the Viewpoints practice is [[Horizontalidad|horizontalism]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perucci |first=Tony |date=16 February 2015 |title=Dog Sniff Dog |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2015.991598 |journal=Performance Research |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=105 |via=Tandfonline}}</ref>, where non-hierarchical organisation of the performance elements, such as engagement with space, body, text, time, shape, and emotion, is at its forefront. The practice subsequently constitutes a shared agency of creation amongst performers and creators in working through the individual body and its surrounding material environment as part of a collective ensemble. The Viewpoints thus encourages the performer to incorporate their own bodily impulses personal experiences in the act of creation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perucci |first=Tony |date=31 August 2021 |title=The Viewpoints and the Secret of the Original Anarchist: Mary Overlie and the Undercommons |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2020.1930784 |journal=Performance Research |volume=25 |issue=8 |pages=95-100 |via=Tandfonline}}</ref>

The Six Viewpoints theory was adapted by directors [[Anne Bogart]] and [[Tina Landau]] over the course of 10 years, ultimately resulting in the delineation of nine "physical" and five "vocal" Viewpoints. Bogart and Overlie were on the faculty of the Experimental Theatre Wing at [[New York University Tisch School of the Arts|NYU Tisch School of the Arts]] in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which Bogart was influenced by Overlie's innovations. Overlie's Six Viewpoints are considered to be a methodology to examine, analyze, and create art in a non-hierarchised and deconstructed way, whilst Bogart's Viewpoints are considered practical in creating staging with actors.

The Six Viewpoints theory was adapted by directors [[Anne Bogart]] and [[Tina Landau]] over the course of 10 years, ultimately resulting in the delineation of nine "physical" and five "vocal" Viewpoints. Bogart and Overlie were on the faculty of the Experimental Theatre Wing at [[New York University Tisch School of the Arts|NYU Tisch School of the Arts]] in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which Bogart was influenced by Overlie's innovations. Overlie's Six Viewpoints are considered to be a methodology to examine, analyze, and create artperformance in a non-hierarchised and deconstructed way, whilst Bogart's Viewpoints are considered practical in creating staging with actors.

==Overlie's Viewpoints==

SSTEMS is a mnemonic device for the six elements of Overlie's viewpoints (the actual acronym is spelled SSTEMS: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement, and Story,) and also signifies which elements Mary Overlie considered the most important. Note the change from the classical and modern periods in performance art, where story always took precedence over the other elements. Viewpoints is part of the post-modern tradition, in that there is no hierarchy in the different elements that make "theatre."

=== Introduction and Overview ===

===Space===

The Six Viewpoints is a philosophical and practical approach to articulate a post-modern perspective on performance. The practice involves deconstructing the physical stage and physical performance into its six Materials of composition: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story. These six elements have existed historically within a rigid hierarchy which gives prevalence to story and emotion in theatre, and shape and movement in dance. The Six Viewpoints releases the Materials from this fixed construct into a fluid non-hierarchical environment for re-examination. The act of deconstructing performance into its Six Materials invites the performer, director, and artist to engage with the individual materials "allowing these elements to take the lead in a creative dialogue".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-5136-1361-1 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=3 |language=English}}</ref>

*[[Architecture]] - The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.

*Spatial Relationship - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.

*Topography - The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design and colours.

For Overlie, this shift in attention re-defines art and the role of the artist from a "creator/originator" mindset to what she called the "observer/participant," which centers on "witnessing, and interacting, ... working under the supposition that structure could be discerned rather than imposed".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Training of the American Actor |publisher=Theatre Communications Group |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-5593-6268-9 |editor-last=Bartow |editor-first=Arthur |edition=1st |___location=New York |pages=189 |language=English}}</ref> Overlie observed this redefinition of the artist's endeavor to correspond with the artistic shift from modernism to post-modernism.

===Shape===

*[[Shape]] - The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.

*Gesture - a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it every day. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.

The theory and practice of the Six Viewpoints are organized in two parts: '''The Materials''' and '''The Bridge'''.

===Time===

*[[Tempo]] - How quickly or slowly something happens on stage.

*[[Time|Duration]] - How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.

*Kinesthetic Response - A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external [[Stimulus (physiology)|stimulus]]. (realistic/non-realistic)

*[[wikt:repetition|Repetition]] - a) Internal: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.

=== The Materials (SSTEMS) ===

===Emotion===

When working with the materials, the artist is instructed to turn off the impulse to control or own the material, and is challenged to work very specifically with each material as an independent entity. Overlie recommends the artist to gather as much "useless" data as they can and to take time to explore.<ref name=":1" /><blockquote>The seed of the entire work of The Six Viewpoints is found in the simple act of standing in space. From this perspective the artist is invited to read and be educated by the lexicon of daily experience. The information of space, the experience of time, the familiarity of shapes, the qualities and rules of kinetics in movement, the ways of logic, how stories are formed, the states of being and emotional exchanges that constitute the process of communication between living creatures ... Working directly with these materials the artist begins to learn of performance through the essential languages as an independent intelligence (Overlie).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Six Viewpoints |url=https://www.sixviewpoints.com/thesstems |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=The Six Viewpoints |language=en-US}}</ref></blockquote>The Six Materials of composition, referred to with the acronym SSTEMS, are:

Psychological or narrative content ascribed to movement.

; S (Space)

===Movement===

: Space contains blocking, placement of furniture, placement of the walls, doors and windows, angle of gaze, distance of projection, and spatial alignment of the actors to the proscenium, to the audience and to each other.

*Movement of your body, different ways of moving - for example, jerky versus smooth/flowing versus very slowly or fast. The movement of different parts of your body.

; S (Shape)

: Shape contains geometry, costumes, gestures, and the shape of the actors' bodies and of all the objects onstage.

; T (Time)

: Time contains duration, rhythm, punctuation, pattern, impulse, repetition, legato, pizzicato, lyrical.

===; E (Emotion===)

: Emotion contains presence, anger, laughter, pensiveness, empathy, alienation, romance, pity, fear, anticipation, etc.

===; M (Movement===)

: Movement contains falling, walking, running, blood pumping, breath, suspension, contraction, impact.

; S (Story)

: Story contains logic, order and progression of information, memory, projection, conclusion, allusions, truth, lies, associations, influences, power, weakness, reification, un-reification, constructions and deconstruction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory and Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-5136-1361-1 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=84 |language=English}}</ref>

===Story The Bridge ===

The Bridge is a sequence of nine laboratories that function as philosophical and pedagogical frameworks in which to engage with the Materials. The Bridge presents the origins of the Viewpoints' approach to art and introduces into practice the philosophical concepts that are used to disintegrate and then reintegrate performance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-5136-1361-1 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=67 |language=English}}</ref>

*Perceptual ability to see and understand logic systems as an arrangement of collected information<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sixviewpoints.com/Theory_3.html |title={title} |access-date=2014-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107213237/http://sixviewpoints.com/Theory_3.html |archive-date=2015-01-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The nine laboratories of The Bridge are:

All of the different elements influence each other and work together, and can "cause" a change in a different element. For example, the shape of your body may carry a certain emotion with it as well - something in the space of your environment may make a story out of what you are doing - etc.

* News of a Difference: Noticing Difference in Increasing Levels of Subtlety

The actors must focus first on the isolation of each separate viewpoint element on its own, before integrating and working them all together. It is often that a performer finds one of the elements comes naturally, and perhaps uses that one element they really understand to access the other elements, which they must work to become more familiar with.

* Deconstruction: Investigating Theater by Separating the Components of its Structure

* The Horizontal: Non-hierarchical Composition

* Post-modernism: The Philosophical Foundation

* Reification: A Reflection on Creativity, Communication, and Language

* The Piano: The Interface between Artist and Audience

* The Matrix: The Ingredients are in the Cauldron

* Doing the Unnecessary: The SSTEMS Dissolve

* The Original Anarchist: A New and a Very Old Idea<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overlie |first=Mary |title=Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory and Practice |publisher=Fallon Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-5136-1361-1 |edition=1st |___location=Billings, Montana |pages=66 |language=English}}</ref>

As a practice at large, The Six Viewpoints "is dedicated to reading the stage as a force of Nature".<ref name=":0" />

==Bogart's and Landau's Viewpoints==

In their book, ''The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition'', (2004), [[Anne Bogart]] and [[Tina Landau]] identify the primary Viewpoints as those relating to '''Time''' - which are Tempo, Duration, Kinesthetic Response, and Repetition - and those relating to '''Space''' - which are Shape, Gesture, Architecture, Spatial Relationship and Topography. In addition, Bogart and Landau have added the [[Vocal]] Viewpoints which include [[Pitch (music)|Pitch]], [[Dynamics (music)|Volume]], and [[Timbre]].<ref name=BogartLandau2004/>

In the book, the authors outline the basics of the Viewpoints training they both espouse, as well as specific methods for applying thetheir Viewpointsexpanded practice to both rehearsals and production. For Bogart and Landau, the Viewpoints represent not only a physical technique but also a philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic approach to many aspects of their work. Bogart references her work with the [[SITI]] company, and Landau with the [[Steppenwolf Theater Company]].

Bogart's Viewpoints, a re-conceptualisation of Overlie's Viewpoints, are:

*[['''Architecture]] -''': The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.

*'''Spatial Relationship''': - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.

*'''Topography -''': The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design and colours.

*'''[[Shape]] -''': The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.

*'''[[Gesture -]]''': a) ''Behavioral gesture'': realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it every day. b) ''Expressive gesture'': abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.

*'''[[Tempo]] -''': How quickly or slowly something happens on stage.

Bogart recognizes that these are not the only '''Viewpoints''', just the ones she finds most useful for the [[actor]]s with whom she works.

*[[Time|'''Duration''']] -: How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.

*'''Kinesthetic Response -''': A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external [[Stimulus (physiology)|stimulus]]. (realistic/non-realistic).

*[[wikt:repetition|'''Repetition''']]: a) ''Internal Repetition'': repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) ''External Repetition'': repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogart |first=Anne |title=The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition |last2=Landau |first2=Tina |publisher=Theatre Communications Group |year=2005 |___location=New York |pages=35-53}}</ref>

==Works cited==

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==Further reading==

* Bartow, Arthur,. 2006,. "''The Training of the American Actor."'' New York, Theatre Communications Group. {{ISBN|978-1-55936-268-9}}

* Bogart, Anne. 2001. ''A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-23832-3}}.

* Bogart, Anne. 2007. ''And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-41142-4}}.

* Overlie, Mary. 2016. ''Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice.'' Billings: Fallon Press. ISBN 978-1-5136-1361-1

* Bartow, Arthur, 2006, "The Training of the American Actor." New York, Theatre Communications Group {{ISBN|978-1-55936-268-9}}

* Dixon, Michael Bigelow and Joel A. Smith, eds. 1995. ''Anne Bogart:Viewpoints''. Career Development Ser. Lyme, NH: Smith and Kraus. {{ISBN|1-880399-94-6}}.

[[Category:Improvisational theatre]]