non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient music

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 flyer

Well, I’ll admit it.  I’m procrastinating.  I should be writing a seminary paper on podcasting.  But at the moment I’m pondering more about non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient music.

Yeah, I know.  You were thinking the exact. same. thing!

Specifically, I’m looking forward to Via Crucis :: Immerison 2010 that we’ll be creating this Spring. (if you want to play, let me know)  Every year we’ve had some kind of opening night event.  In 2006, Aradhna played a beautiful concert in the round.  In 2008, Isaac Karns (of the Pomegranates) conducted an ensemble of brilliant musicians who created a fantastic musical happening (I’ll repost the mp3s that we recorded soon).  In 2010, I’d love to push the envelope a bit further and create music together as a gathered body – but do it in a non-linear, emergent, participatory, ambient way.  I’ll attempt to delineate deliberately in reverse:

music

- It matters.  As much as worship isn’t only music – a helpful corrective from folks like Lilly Lewin – music remains a powerful and visceral way we connect with God, the world around us (in a sonic, vibration sorta way), and one another.  There is something about music that quite literally rings in our ears and penetrates to the heart.

ambient

- I’m thinking here of the musical genre, which our friend Wikipedia defines thusly:

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an “atmospheric”, “visual” or “unobtrusive” quality.

As such, this would be building on the work and thought of Brian Eno.  Deep resonances and earthy electronica that evoke (and perhaps, provoke) more than they instruct, lead, or demand.  Allowing the space between to be attended to as much, if not more, than the actual notes, sounds, or chords.

participatory

- One of the bones to pick with typical “worship music” – be that “traditional” (hymns, organs, choirs) or “contemporary” (bands, guitars, drums) is how non-participatory it actually is.  In both cases we watch the professionals/experts on the stage conduct us to minimally participate at the lowest common denominator.  Sure, we may sing – or some do – but that’s it.  Deciding what we sing, when we sing, how we sing and the notes to which we sing – that’s the expert’s job.  So, what if Via Crucis :: Immersion was a deeply participatory event?  Not just those who create the stations and engage the stations – but what if the music that is generated on opening night is fully participatory.  What if what existed that night would not exist if not for each person gathered – not merely in the spiritual presence sense – but in the actual live creation of music.  I’m thinking here of an Aural Event – that resonates from our the soles of our shoes to souls of our brains.  Sort of like a musical wiki.

emergent

- Imagine an aural event of ambient music created together by active, live participation that EMERGES out of a set of simple rules that everyone follows.  I’m thinking here of the complex behavior of ant colonies or bee hives.  All created by leaderless systems of autonomous individuals following specific behavioral codes.  This music would be birthed out of people following a simple set of guidelines.  Nothing pre-ordained, no sheet music, no conductor.  Rather when the gathered assemble we would instruct them of 3 rules about how, what, and when they can play (this might be vocal or instrumental) – out of this social matrix (something that is intentional and crafted) the musical aural event would emerge.  Think fractals.  See also emergence on Wikipedia.

non-linear

- This would not be a 1, 2, 3 process.  Sure, the Stations of the Cross are linear – they follow a path that leads from point A (Jesus’ condemnation) to point B (Jesus in the tomb).  And the music event would have a beginning and an end (though you could debate that to an extent).  But within the (parenthetical) confines of the Aural Event the music would follow it’s own path – not one that we predetermined.  It would be the Worship Music equivalent of a Spirit-led walk in the woods.

So, what do you think?  How could we pull this off?  What would we need to pull this off?

Via Crucis :: Immersion – in re(ar)view

Here’s an email I sent to the Via Crucis creators (feel free to comment or email your evaluations and thoughts as well):

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 is over. Really it is. You’ve probably moved on into new and exciting (or same-old and boring) things, as have I. But we need to put Via Crucis 2008 to rest and to do so I wanted to share some reflections and illicit yours. Check out these blog posts and quotes…

Blog Posts:
http://hopehasreturned.blogspot.com/2008/03/via-crucis.html
http://www.captivethoughts.net/?p=1736
http://thewholepeace.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/

The reflections of one of my students:
“It was amazing to see what something so simple as this event could do to bring together different denominations, and people who otherwise would probably not meet, or be friends with each other. It was a chance to lay aside stupid technicalities and minute differences in belief, and take up one uniform task of bringing the passion and love of Christ to people in a different light than usual. …. An event like Via Crucis really brings into grasp the audacity of Christ. This is far more powerful an experience than drinking half and ounce of juice and eating a piece of stale bread. Overall Via Crucis was an amazing experience, from planning and not really knowing what it was about, to it being done and knowing on a more personal level of what Christ went through for each and every one of us.”

The reflections of a youth pastor:
“I took a drive down to Norwood today to experience via crucis immersion 2008 with two of my 8th grade students. As we left the church and began to process the experience one girl stated that she now understood what Easter was all about. Wow! We were all deeply moved by sharing together in the journey.”

I would love to gather your reflections and thoughts (evaluations, critiques, or ideas for next time). Feel free to send me links to blog posts, email me, or call. I’m already getting ideas for 2010 Via Crucis :: Immersion and I would love for you all to be involved again! We have 2 films being created about Via Crucis and I will share those as they become available. The music is still available from Opening Night – http://www.viacrucisimmersion.com/music.html.

Blessing upon you all and Thank You for how you followed Jesus in the Via Crucis,
ak

Via Crucis 2008

Via Crucis 2008

Originally uploaded by **CRT**

Click this photo to view Cindy’s Flickr set of Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 images. Like DG she’s a great photographer and captured the event well. I love the warm colors of many of her photographs, which I think evoke the atmosphere of the event at night. I particularly like this photo of the crown of thorns… not sure I can describe it well, but Charlie Levine created it out of nail and glue and other “industrial-type” items. So, it’s kinda like a 21 Century dystopian crown of thorns… very cool.

the death of sin

the death of sin

Originally uploaded by D.G.Flickr

Click the photo to go to DG’s Flickr set of Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 photos. He has a great eye and sense of color. I think he captured the tone of the experience well.  Plus he played with some cool new featues on his camera, so there you go.

——

Here are DG’s words that he posted about this particular image:

“the most senses filled station, the Death of Christ. They had this cross on the floor and all around you was videos on each wall, and sound surrounding you. The video was filled with images and videos of Christ dieing and other painful events from all over the world. Amazing! I wanted to keep the color of the picture of the same as the time I took it (lots of blue in the videos being played above.”

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2006 video featuring Aradhna's Yeshu Raja

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AnTgW9xDDI]

Aradhna

More thoughts on Immersion

Below is a diagram of the four realms of experience, taken from an unlikely source*. Though I am not fond of the term “escapist” this is the quadrant that I perceive our Stations engaging. We (all who go through the stations) should be active participants – not mere observers. There should be some kind of engagement, physically, emotionally and spiritually. As opposed to Entertainment or Education, we are not attempting to get the worshipper to necessarily “ingest” some bit of information. Rather than reducing the “meaning” of a station or the stations to a few bite-sized morsels the meanings of the experience will be intentionally like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

There will be layers upon layers of meanings and messages, not all of them (or any of them) tied up neatly for “taking home”. Certainly, we hope that persons come away from this experienced changed and that that will likely mean that they “got something out of it”, but this will be a by-product of the experience. In fact, in many ways this experience – the Stations – stand alone as a sacramental event. They have the potential of being an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace (Thank you, John Wesley). The Stations exist not so that we can get something out of them, but so that we can put ourselves into them.

Hopefully, we won’t escape from something (our lives, our families, our communities) as much as we will escape into the sufferings of Christ. We will actively engage our own suffering and (even more?) actively engage in the world’s suffering.

We will be embraced into Christ’s reality – a kingdom realm – and in this way we will be transformed. Perhaps we will even be converted. Converted – changed – both to Christ and for the world. We will find life through the death. Resurrection is not merely a future reality; it is a present expectation of the kingdom breaking in. As much of Christ calls us away and unto himself, he likewise calls us into the world – to a solidarity with those on the margins. But these things are not up to us (we who would be so bold as to attempt these Stations), it is the Spirit who moves and who does the changing. We can only be faithful to his work within us – not passively, but with active anticipation of the change that he is doing in us. As we do this we will be privileged to witness his work within one another as well. This is what the Stations are – an opportunity to observe the Spirit’s working.

This may also be why the Stations make such a good setting for this kind of Holy Spirit work. The muck and the mire of our lives are laid bare as we identify with Jesus’ suffering. It is in the compost of our souls, the pain, the hurt, and the wounds that we see the Spirit active. It is in our brokenness that we can become whole.

Big Long Quote on Immersion

“The experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place is pleasurable in itself, regardless of the fantasy content. We refer to this experience as immersion. Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus. We enjoy the movement out of our familiar world, the feeling of alertness that comes from being in this new place, and the delight that comes from learning to move within it. Immersion can entail a mere flooding of the mind with sensation, the over flow of sensory stimulation experienced in the televisor parlor in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Many people listen to music in this way, as a pleasurable drowning of the verbal parts of the brain. But in a participatory medium, immersion implies learning to swim, to do the thing that the new environment makes possible.” pp.98-99

From – Murray, Janet B. 1998. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The MIT Press.

* Pine, Joseph B. and James H. Gilmore. 1999. The Experience Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. (link)

Via Crucis – the PDF and the stations

I tried posting this before…. but it didn’t come through….

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 vision and details letter (pdf)

The Stations (first come first serve, let me know which one your group would like to do):
First Station: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41)
Second Station: Jesus, Betrayed by Judas, is Arrested (Mark 14: 43-46)
Third Station: Jesus is Condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22: 66-71)
Fourth Station: Jesus is Denied by Peter (Matthew 26: 69-75)
Fifth Station: Jesus is Judged by Pilate (Mark 15: 1-5, 15)
Sixth Station: Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns (John 19: 1-3)
Seventh Station: Jesus Bears the Cross (John 19: 6, 15-17)
Eighth Station: Jesus is Helped by Simon the Cyrenian to Carry the Cross (Mark 15: 21)
Ninth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem (Luke 23: 27-31)
Tenth Station: Jesus is Crucified (Luke 23: 33-34)
Eleventh Station: Jesus Promises His Kingdom to the Good Thief (Luke 23: 39-43)
Twelfth Station: Jesus Speaks to His Mother and the Disciple (John 19: 25-27)
Thirteenth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross (Luke 23: 44-46)
Fourteenth Station: Jesus is Placed in the Tomb (Matthew 27: 57-60)

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008

Via Crucis :: Immersion 2008 intro letter (pdf)

You are invited.

Wanna play? Email me.

Via Crucis :: Immersion is an experiential Stations of the Cross. Via Crucis is based on the 14 Stations of the Cross … remixed. Our expression of this ancient Christian practice will be multi-sensory,multi-denominational, multi-layered, and multi-media. Via Crucis :: Immersion is a pilgrimage. A journey into the heart of God. It is an immersion into the suffering of Jesus and a discovery of our own brokenness. It is Christ’s passion.