the limits of notation.
Reading A Viable Way reminded me that, yes, expressions of truth are dependent on human language. (and hence constrained by the expressive range of language).
It would be difficult to express the truth of Hamlet using mathematical notation.
We may have developed a "good enough" system of musical notation, but nothing comparable exists for dance notation. The closest attempt, Laban notation, is incredibly difficult to master, and none of the choreographers I've worked with have ever used this. From time to time they might draw little stick figures, but most of the choreography remains in their mind. They have to demonstrate it to the dancers step by step.
I've bought quite a few Taiji books with diagrams of a standing man with arrows pointing this way and that from his arms and legs. It's been impossible to learn a Taiji form from such books. At best, they can serve as memory-aids after I've learned the movements from a master.
After over a year of learning the Zhaobao Taiji form from my teachers, I am still discovering new details in the familiar movements. From session to session, my attention shifts from the broader to the finer aspects of each movement and back again. To notate this would require many transparent layers superimposed on each diagram.
(and this is related to this previous post of mine, because the makers of the Known Universe video had to make certain fudges-- compromising approximations-- in their attempt to depict multiple spacetime scales in a single presentation. These fudges are quite ingenious in their own right, and so are adopted into the notational convention... kind of like geometrical perspective being codified for painters by Brunischelli in the 1400's... kind of like the invention of zero greatly simplifying calculation).
But of course, neither of my teachers learned Taiji from diagrams and notation.
Reading my Alexander Technique teacher's book, I realize that it takes pages and pages of very precise writing for him to convey in words the inhibition and direction he demonstrates to me in a matter of seconds by touch.
It would be difficult to express the truth of Hamlet using mathematical notation.
We may have developed a "good enough" system of musical notation, but nothing comparable exists for dance notation. The closest attempt, Laban notation, is incredibly difficult to master, and none of the choreographers I've worked with have ever used this. From time to time they might draw little stick figures, but most of the choreography remains in their mind. They have to demonstrate it to the dancers step by step.
I've bought quite a few Taiji books with diagrams of a standing man with arrows pointing this way and that from his arms and legs. It's been impossible to learn a Taiji form from such books. At best, they can serve as memory-aids after I've learned the movements from a master.
After over a year of learning the Zhaobao Taiji form from my teachers, I am still discovering new details in the familiar movements. From session to session, my attention shifts from the broader to the finer aspects of each movement and back again. To notate this would require many transparent layers superimposed on each diagram.
(and this is related to this previous post of mine, because the makers of the Known Universe video had to make certain fudges-- compromising approximations-- in their attempt to depict multiple spacetime scales in a single presentation. These fudges are quite ingenious in their own right, and so are adopted into the notational convention... kind of like geometrical perspective being codified for painters by Brunischelli in the 1400's... kind of like the invention of zero greatly simplifying calculation).
But of course, neither of my teachers learned Taiji from diagrams and notation.
Reading my Alexander Technique teacher's book, I realize that it takes pages and pages of very precise writing for him to convey in words the inhibition and direction he demonstrates to me in a matter of seconds by touch.