Plastic Culture: an Approach to the Study and the Main Characteristics

Rozin Vadim Markovich Doctor of Philosophy Chief Scientific Associate, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  109240, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, 12 str.1, kab. 310 rozinvm@gmail.com Other publications by this author

At the end of October, a scientific and practical conference-festival "Rhythm and plastic culture of personality" was held at the Psychological Institute of RAO. While preparing for this conference, I realized that if a lot is known and written about rhythm (by the way, in 2002, your humble servant was an opponent at the defense of an interesting dissertation by Mikhail Arkadiev "Chronoarticulation structures of New European music and fundamental problems of rhythm") ^[2]), then virtually nothing is known about plastic culture. On the Internet, about this expression, you can read the following: "Plastic culture is a special organization of body movements dictated by the artistic features of a particular stage art. It can be assumed that initially the body, being a visible object, has plastic expressiveness, but does not have plastic culture… Obviously, in order to have a plastic culture, you need to form it. This is where the answer lies. The plastic expressiveness of a person then acquires cultural value when it has passed the path of this formation. Then the part of nature that becomes the content of the cultural structure will not be the person himself, but his body." ^[5]

I think this is the correct definition within the framework of art criticism, but I would like a more detailed description, and most importantly, obtained in such scientific disciplines as semiotics, cultural studies, psychology, philosophy of art. It is these disciplines that suggest themselves if we keep in mind the intuitive meaning of the expression "plastic culture", as well as the modern methodology of the study of music, dance and other plastic arts. We will talk further about the very first, working hypotheses and positions that characterize plastic culture, about the scheme of this phenomenon, so to speak, but the scheme presupposes these disciplines. And in terms of approach, I will implement a variant of the humanitarian methodology based on cultural studies, semiotics, psychology and personology. ^{[6; 7; 10; 11]}

Let's start from the characteristics of plastic culture on the Internet. Is it only "body movement"? And poses, gestures, facial expressions (after all, masks are no longer practiced in the ancient theater), and expression, and the involvement of the artist and the viewer in external social movements and rhythms or in music, and internal movements and rhythms of the soul? Here, for example, is A. Schnittke's recollection of Prokofiev. "Meanwhile," he writes, "the beginning of the XX century promised mankind the long–awaited reliability of the historical route. Wars, at least great ones, seemed already impossible. Science has supplanted faith. Any still insurmountable obstacles would soon fall. Hence the cold, athletic life attitude towards the most useful, as well as the most spiritual, in the destinies of young people, including Prokofiev. It was a natural optimism–not ideologically inspired, but the most genuine. That multifaceted solidarity with the epoch and its attributes – fast trains, cars, airplanes, telegraph, radio, and so on – that gave a sobering ecstatic, once and for all achieved, the most accurate organization of time, reflected in Prokofiev's everyday habits... Apparently, every person at all turns of the path remains what he was from the very beginning, and time can't do anything about it. It should only be said that the gloomy beginnings of life were not alien to Prokofiev either. It is enough to recall the auto-dafe scene in the Fiery Angel or the scene of Prince Andrew's death in War and Peace, as well as many tragic and dramatic turns in the form of, for example, the Sixth Symphony, or the Eighth Piano, or the First Violin Sonata. And in the Second String Quartet, and in Five poems by Anna Akhmatova. And the brilliant double suicide scene in Romeo and Juliet? For too long, this most serious music has been judged only by its audacious shell, not paying attention to the deeply felt essence. We saw the carnival splendor of the outside world, without taking into account the seriousness – strict seriousness, which does not allow suffering to spill out and flood everything around… This man, of course, knew the terrible truth about his time. He just didn't let her suppress him. His thinking remained within the classical framework, but the higher was the tragic power of utterance in all his gavottes and minuets, waltzes and marches" ^{[14, p. 210]}.

It is necessary to understand the movements and rhythms of a person broadly: both physical movements, and the movement of experiences, and external, social movements and rhythms that a person is forced to obey, and the "movements" of his thoughts, and collective group movements. And all these movements are somehow, indeed, organized within the framework of plastic culture. Of course, they exist by themselves, they have different sources of formation and areas of functioning. But the immersion of a person into an aesthetic, more broadly artistic culture, permeating, since antiquity, even the ordinary life of a person, not to mention specialization in a particular kind of art, triggers the process of organizing human movements and rhythms.

This organization is conditioned by two main factors – it satisfies the conditions and requirements of the sphere of art and artistic language, which is also understood extremely widely (not only signs, but also schemes, symbols, metaphors, tropes, and meaningful narratives; see our work on "narrative semiotics" ^[12]).

What is typical for the sphere of art? This sphere of life is public, sooner or later, but the works created in it are exposed to the public, which can discuss and comprehend them. Art is an area of life free from the limitations of production and ordinary life, here works are created not out of necessity, for the sake of food or protection from the elements and enemies, but based on the interests of an individual or a collective. This is a sphere in which an exit opens to another, usually attractive, reality (to gods, beauty, ideals, to another world; it is worth noting that one of the first characteristics of art was imitation not only of what is, but also of what can be conceived, as well as the idea of catharsis). Finally, art is a special type of communication (artistic communication), where the artist, solving his problems, pursuing his interests, creates in the form of an artistic work a special world of events to which he invites the viewer. In turn, the viewer, solving his problems and pursuing his interests, reads the work offered to him and creates his own world of events based on it. Sometimes these worlds coincide, but more often they don't. Within the framework of such communication, an "artistic reality" develops in which, sometimes similarly, more often differently, the artist and the viewer live. As a reality, it has similarities with the realities of dreams, games, communication, and ordinary activities, but it can differ greatly from them by the conventions and logic of events. For example, in art, events are possible not only similar to the events of ordinary life or dreams, but also those that can only be imagined or imagined.

Before describing the artistic language, let's consider one case – the formation of classical ballet in France. The pioneer of this undertaking, as is known, was "Louis XIV, the Sun King. He clearly felt like a God and wanted his subjects to see him as a God. I think the image was superimposed on this-the ideal of a Renaissance man who believed that if he wanted, he could become a cherub (angel). However, how was God conceived? He appeared to his subjects, dazzled them with his beauty and majesty, demonstrated life and deeds, after which he solemnly left. It was beneath his dignity to turn his back to the audience, bow down in front of them, generally act like everyone else, usually. On the contrary, his every movement should be filled with beauty and expressiveness.

This was the anthropological image and ideal that, judging by the testimony of contemporaries, possessed the young Louis. At the same time, he understood that he did not live on Olympus, and although a royal person, but still a person. This conflict and problematic situation is resolved by Ludovic due, on the one hand, to art, on the other hand, to the restart of physicality (he puts on and performs dances in which he most often acts as Olympic gods, and trains every day, learning new movements and poses). It is here that the "bodily canon", about which Fokin writes, begins to take shape (to be invented), and later a more complex version of it with images of flight, weightlessness and acrobatics. Gods and cherubs appear and disappear, soar, show beautiful faces and figures, perform deeds, as a rule, set forth in myths and elegant literature.

Creating a new kind of dance, Louis XIV, the Sun King, together with his assistants (we would say today, the directors of dances and performances), found a number of new artistic means (music, costumes, scenery, stage, etc.), helping to assemble new images of the body and movement into a single whole ("artistic reality"). Especially interesting here is the role of music written by famous composers, for example, Lully. As a temporary art, music made it possible to organize in time and temporally link new units and gestalts of physicality. How can musical events, free from specific subject associations, express (set, describe) actually "dance events" ^[9]. 

As I show in a number of semiotic works, schemas are one of the main tools for setting a new reality. They allow you to solve problematic situations, set a new reality, understanding and vision, as well as conditions for new actions. In this case, there were several such types of schemes: some set a new anthropological ideal, others ensured the formation of a new physicality, others actualized musical reality, and others created conditions for the synthesis (assembly) of all realities into a single whole, which later received the name of ballet, due to the script of the performance. At the same time, judging by some historical information, there was a kind of competition for the leading reality, which I called "immediate", and dance did not win the ballet immediately, competing with singing, music, scenery, costumes.

I will explain a little the idea of the "realities of the psyche". Events of different realities (art, dreams, everyday life, science, etc.) are lived by an individual, and this is a condition of his behavior and activity. The events of reality are subject to certain logic and conventions that differ for different realities. For example, in art we allow one convention of events, in dreams another, in everyday life a third, in science a fourth. Realities are the internal conditions of a person's life and behavior, they are formed during the resolution of his problems, suggest switching attitudes of consciousness and methods during the transition from one reality to another…

As a person develops, realities self-organize into a kind of pyramid, the basis of which are the most valuable realities for a person ("direct"), on which "derived realities" rely. For example, for a believer, the immediate reality is God, and all other derivatives, since they are created and conditioned by him.  

Another important characteristic of realities for our topic is this: the pyramid of realities of an individual determines the organization of his sensuality (sensations and perceptions). Our sensuality develops precisely on the basis of a certain schematization, especially it becomes clear in deviant forms of behavior. 

I suppose similar processes take place during the formation of a ballet dancer. A pyramid of realities is being formed, including an anthropological self-image, a new physicality, musical reality, conventions and events of ballet as a performance. Not all, but many talented dancers, this pyramid of realities not only sets a new sensuality, but also a special, main world ? Dance with a capital letter. If this happens, a person can resolve many of his problems in it in the form of a dance and, probably, experience catharsis. One example of this is the story of Olga Kondratievna Popova, mentor and teacher of Aida Aylamazyan.

"I was," Popova recalls, "a child of terrible mental responsiveness. <...> It was very easy to get to anything, because my psyche was very sensitive, vulnerable, and life is such that… I have been thinking for a very long time, and all these years, and the previous ones (the girls <students> know), I have often asked myself: what did the musical movement give me – support? or vice versa? And only now I can say with absolute certainty: if there was no musical movement, I could have reached any degree of mental illness. Absolutely. What is it? And this is the ability to pour out all your unrealized experiences, and maybe this whole life... I am given a real opportunity to speak out. To pour it out, not to keep it all in myself, not to push and worry in silence, but I am given a motor path in this activity to survive… After all, I repeat again: we are not swinging, that I dance exactly like Bach – yes, this will not happen in my life! I'm dancing my idea in Bach, right? Your experience. And at this moment, apparently, such states and such moods are realized, which otherwise I would have had in my soul forever. And they would gradually kill me. That is, it is clear that this activity is some kind of powerful breakthrough and a stream that I release from myself. Now I am deeply convinced of this. This is an opportunity to live. And the ability to regulate their states" (cit. according to ^{[1, p. 227]})" ^{[8, p. 77-79]}.

I will comment on this case, which is a reconstruction of the formation of classical ballet. The process of becoming is triggered by schemes that resolve the contradiction in Louis XIV between feeling like God and understanding his earthly essence. These schemes also made it possible to form new meanings (expressions) of the king's physicality (movements, poses, gestures, internal states, etc.), emphasized and enhanced by clothing, music, dance partners. The new meanings also led to a new practice of bodily units and gestalts. The restructuring of physicality begins. At the same time, the artistic language of ballet (a new type of dance) is being formed.

Often the language of ballet is interpreted by analogy with ordinary language. For example, the corresponding interpretation of the ballet "Giselle". "Giselle is guessing on a daisy: "Loves, does not love" and gets the result – Albert does not love her. Giselle gets very upset and throws the flower away. Albert, while Giselle turned away, pulls out one petal and says to Giselle: "Look, you made a mistake! It turns out that I love you!" Thus, he deceives her, and this is important for understanding the further scene of madness: the scene is one of the central ones in the ballet, and the interpretation of gestures explains why the heroine goes crazy and dies. Also thanks to this scene, we see how the beginning and the end of the first act are inextricably linked.

The gesture in the madness scene means "I was a bride." The reference to the ring finger in all ballets, including the Bayadere, can be interpreted as a marriage proposal or the fact of an already held wedding ^[4].

But I think the artistic language is significantly different from the usual one. Firstly, few people can see the indication of the ring finger, and few people know what it means. But that's not the main thing. Any gesture (movement, pose, state of the artist) can be understood and interpreted in different ways. In the ballet "Anna Karenina", "Anna at the beginning of the performance stands in a beam of light, and around her is a toy railway.

On the one hand, the railway can be represented as a vicious circle of circumstances in which Anna found herself, as strict rules and frameworks of the XIX century, in which the heroine lived. On the other hand, it can be understood as a symbol of the fact that all people walk in a circle, and the isolation of life, from which you can get out only after death – this is the path chosen by the main character in the end. The ray of light in which Anna stands here looks like a ray of hope, like something that every person is drawn to" ^[4]. And these interpretations are not the only ones.

"Words", "expressions", "narratives" of art presuppose understanding and interpretation (interpretation), they are multiple, conditioned by the capabilities and culture of the viewer. Meaningful constructions of an artistic language perform a different task than ordinary signs. They do not set unambiguous denotations, but should introduce into artistic reality and help the viewer to construct events in this reality. Each viewer understands and experiences Anna Karenina uniquely, in their own way, and therefore her pose is read by different viewers in different ways. For one it is a sign of tragedy, for another it is a conflict with society, for the third it is an example of self–will, for the fourth, fifth, tenth. Everyone has their own reality, although they read the same Tolstoy novel and watched the same ballet. But in the case of dance (ballet), the "iconic form" of artistic expressions is made in movements, gestures, human states, that is, it can be read as plastic.

Let me draw your attention to one more point: the contribution to the events of artistic reality, and artistic meanings are made not only by anthropological units and processes, but also by symbolic ones (for example, ideas, although Louis felt like God, on stage he had to embody his feelings in bodily representations). Staging Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy" by the forces of several groups of the musical movement, Aida Aylamazyan was forced to embody very complex ideas of Scriabin in the bodily movements of the dancers (for example, the fall of the spirit into matter), for this she had to create a concept for the upcoming performance ^{[13, pp. 322-329]}.

An interesting question: is music a plastic art? On the one hand, plastic, as a rule, refers to the visual, and music is not visual art. On the other hand, for example, dance is based on music, besides, don't we see the transformation of musical events by listening to music? Why are dance and music complementary and partly integral to each other? Here you need to consider the following. Firstly, sounds lend themselves well to organization and management (pitch, rhythmic, instrumental). Secondly, due to this and the close connection of hearing with the internal states of a person, music is an excellent tool for organizing mental states and movements (changes). And the latter are one of the motivating conditions for the organization of external movements (gestures, poses, states). It turns out that music prepares the human psyche for dance, makes it live in conditions of rhythm, melody, drama, acting as a condition of dance. Let us recall M. Bakhtin. It is necessary, Bakhtin wrote, "to enter into the visible, audible, pronounced by the creator and thereby overcome the material extra-creative-definite character of the form... when reading and listening to a poetic work, I do not leave it outside of myself, as the utterance of another... but to a certain extent I make it my own statement about another, I assimilate the rhythm, intonation, articulatory tension, internal gesticulation... as an adequate expression of my own value attitude to the content... I become active in the form and in the form I take a value position outside of the content – as a cognitive-poetic orientation" ^{[3, pp. 58-59]}.

Music makes a person "active in form and form", which is then used by dance.

So far I have been talking mainly about the formation of plastic art and its characteristics. Two words about "plastic culture". Culture is something that reproduces and forms a stable environment for human life, as well as something that is opposed to other cultures and non–cultures. On the one hand, tradition plays an important role in the reproduction of plastic culture, on the other – the conceptualization (awareness) of plastic art. The tradition of plastic arts stretches from ancient culture, and awareness and study refers only to Modern times.