Monday, December 8, 2014

A Thing in Itself


To understand Alwin Nikolais's Piece, "Noumenon" or "Noumenon Mobilus", you first must know the meaning of the word.



As seen in the link above, Noumenon, a thing in itself, exsists in oposition to phenomenon which is a thing as seen by an observer. Noumenon is completely without any thing invloving the senses. Many philosophers believe that humans cannot experience noumenon.

The way Nikolais choses to explore Noumenon is stunning. He covers the dancers in sretchy fabric and makes them appear as moving objects instead of human beings. He did this so tht the movement would be the focuse, not the individual people. Pictures of this dance look more like sculptures than people. Though philosophers may argue that humans can not see something without associating feeling to it, this piece may get as close as humanly possible.I do not associate any feelings to the dance itself but I am intriuged by the conept of it and the shapes made.


                                    

2 comments:

  1. To be truth, i like the Noumenon's feeling. I feel a kind of special. It has the strong sense of the globality.

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  2. I understand that Noumenon is a thing in itself. Everything else about the idea confuses me. I get that Nikolais is creating this piece that presents dance as simply the form and not the story, drama, sexuality, production, or race that is usually incorporated into dance. That is something that I think is amazing and I believe this style accomplishes that. I don't associate a lot of feelings with this dance other than wonder. That and confusion, more so because I want to know how the person inside is making the shapes they do. So I guess add curiosity to the list as well.

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