Comprehensible clues to multivocal improvisation

Improvisation in Multivocal Poetic Discourse (Part #5)

As indicated above, rather than focusing on any theoretical insight into multivocal improvisation, the concern here is to identify various familiar domains in which there is already recognition of what it may imply. The challenge is then how to "re-cognize" the familiar in terms of its aesthetic dimensions. Ironically there is a delightful contrast to Molière's Bourgeois gentilhomme, who discovered that:

Par ma foi ! il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j'en susse rien, et je vous suis le plus obligé du monde de m'avoir appris cela.

... namely his capacity to faire de la prose sans le savoir (see various adaptations, applications and translations into English of that much-cited phrase). There is however the strange possibility that many are in fact making poetry without being aware of it -- whether individually or in challenging collaboration with others.

From a musical perspective this implies a cognitive process of "musicalizing" familiar patterns -- hearing the music they imply. From a dance perspective this can be framed by their choreography -- recognizing the dance they represent.

From a poetic perspective, this involves recognition of the poetry inherent in those patterns, as notably argued in an unfinished study by Martin Heidegger (Introduction to Philosophy -- Thinking and Poetizing, 2011, variously reviewed (Frank Scalambrino, Philosophy in Review, 33, 2013, 4; Katherine Withy, Philosophical Reviews, 2011). The latter notes Heidegger's efforts to reconcile:

Our guides in this course are Nietzsche, the poetizing thinker of homelessness, and Hölderlin, the thoughtful poet of homecoming. An encounter with Nietzsche's poetizing thinking and with Hölderlin's thinking poetizing will guide us towards a dwelling in our essence....Heidegger privileges Nietzsche and Hölderlin in this text for several reasons. First, in each (yet in different ways), "poetizing and thinking are interwoven with one another in a single and wondrous way" (p. 13). Second, according to Heidegger, such interweaving has been seen before only at the beginning of the Western philosophical tradition -- in Plato and Parmenides, Pindar and Sophocles (pp. 6, 14). That we see it again now in Nietzsche and Hölderlin shows that this tradition has been completed. Thus a world-historical and philosophical necessity governs the interweaving of philosophy and poetry in these two figures.

A trace of an understanding of poetizing is cultivated through the term autopoiesis -- clearly derived from poiesis -- recognized by science as the self-maintaining capacity of a living system. This implies the possibility that sustainability, as the "holy grail" of current governance, might be best comprehended through poetry in some way -- through aesthetics (In Quest of Sustainability as Holy Grail of Global Governance, 2011).

The merit of an alternative approach is that, notably in the case of poiesis, these are characteristic of the explanatory abstractions of academic discourse curiously divorced from the experiential dimension and the challenges of society.

Passing patterns in ball games and frisbee: As noted above, an understanding of such patterns is the focus of intensive study in sports such as basketball and football (in its various forms) -- possibly termed football plays. Arguably much of the worldwide fascination with such games lies in a degree of cognitive resonance with the patterns observed -- and possibly emulated. Given frequent allusion to the "spirit of the game", presumably this is elusively carried by such patterns.

The question is then how such patterns may echo the possibilities of multivocal improvisation in poetic terms. How is "poetry" recognized in the game -- if not "music" or "dance"? Conversely, how are the patterns suggestive of creative improvisation in poetry? How can they be understood as systems of notation?

It would be presumptuous to seek to answer such questions in this context. The argument is that they merit attention and a call to re-read the patterns embodied in such games. Is the patterned movement of the ball suggestive of patterns of associations which might otherwise be embodied in poetry?

It is appropriate to indicate the set of resources of Marcus DiBernardo:

Cognitive Soccer Passing Pattern: developing players' problem solving skills, and soccer IQ, Amazon Digital Services, 2014;
Tiki Taka Passing Patterns and Exercises: improving players' passing speed and first touch, 2014;
The Science of Rondo: progressions,variations and transitions, 2014;
Professional Soccer Passing Patterns: passing patterns that develop technical ability, increase coordination of player movements, establish timing and rhythm, increase passing accuracy and player focus, 214).

As the subtitles indicate these are variously designed to improve collective team movement and rhythm and improve passing technique. Equivalent resources exist for rugby and basketball.

Snapshots of Soccer Passing Patterns


Reproduced from a presentation by Don Herlan (Passing Patterns, Smedley's Soccer site) Diagrams created using Tactics Manager (Soccer Tutor.com)

Passing patterns in juggling: In this case, one Wikipedia entry helpfully clarifies (with animations) the wide variety of recognized one-person juggling patterns (including cascade, shower, fountain, columns, box, Mills mess, Burke's barrage, Rubenstein's revenge). A separate entry on passing clarifies the nature of juggling between two or more people, most commonly recognized as toss juggling, how "balls" may be passed between two players -- suggesting how significance ("memes"?) might be transferred in two-person intercourse.

Classic passing pattern 4-beat juggling passing with 2 jugglers and 6 balls.	Selection of patterns
	Jugglers	Static	Dynamic
	3	6	9
	4	17	22
	5	7	11
	6	11	16
	7	7	3
	more	5	6
Animation made using Juggling Lab software (released under GNU licence), GFDL [reference]	Patterns for 3 jugglers and more

Passing patterns between more people, with more "balls", are then highly suggestive of possibilities of multivocal poetic improvisation. In this respect a valuable resource is the extensive checklist of Patterns for 3 jugglers and more (including videos) in the Passing Database. Patterns are clustered in terms of number of participants from 3 to 7 (or more). The site also includes simulators in contrast to animations.

As offering a template for exploration of multivocal improvisation for the aesthetic exchange of memes, the website for the Juggling Lab software offers a wide range of resources which invite reframing in that sense:

Animates all solo and passing siteswap patterns, including synchronous and multiplexed patterns, and patterns involving movement of the juggler bodies

Support for bounced throws, including multiple bounces and hyperlift/hyperforce throws

Can display stereo image pairs to provide depth perception

XML-based pattern description language JML (Juggling Markup Language), permits fine-grained control of ball, hand, and body movements

Graphical pattern editor

Realistic hand model, with cubic spline hand paths that match the velocities of balls at throwing points

Ability to save animated GIFs

Integrated siteswap pattern generator

Of particular interest is the possibility of switching between juggling patterns ("on the fly") -- as being suggestive of how multivocal improvisation may shift between modes. From the patterns offered by juggling it is however less evident whether the increase in the number of jugglers necessarily requires a higher degree of coordination -- thereby reducing the degree of improvisation. Perhaps coordination and improvisation can be more skillfully combined.

In relation to the aesthetic dimension, it is appropriate to note the recognized association of juggling with meditation (Juggling and Meditation, Literacy Portal; Todd Strong, Juggling and Flow; Jessica Hamzelou, Learning to juggle grows brain networks for good, New Scientist, 11 October 2009). As may be the case with poetic improvisation, there is ongoing discussion as to whether meditation may enabling juggling skills (Can meditation help you to learn to juggle? Wild Juggling, 10 June 2013).

Card games, point to a range of possibilities of interaction between collaborating and competing parties in which "improvisation" is integrated into game strategy. There are web sites under the theme "poker poetry". Dave Morice (Poetry Poker: Misfit Improvisations on Language, Teachers and Writers, 1992, ) describes a strategy that allows a student to write a poem by playing cards.

The playing card metaphor has been explored separately in a way which is of some relevance to this argument (Radical Localization in a Global Systemic Context: Distinguishing normality using playing card suits as a pattern language, 2015).

Dance patterns: The possibilities of multivocal poetic improvisation could be readily informed by the variety of dances -- and of patterns employed in a given style of dance. These patterns may of course range from those which are highly formalized to those which involve a high degree of improvisation. The patterns may be variously "interpreted" by the dancers. In the case of a couple, the creativity may be exhibited by either (as "composer" of the movement), as with leadership (as "conductor" of the moment).

Dance is readily used as a metaphor for some forms of dialogue, as being descriptive of the process around a negotiating table -- and the invitation to "lets dance together" (Lisa Gilman, The Dance of Politics, 2009; David B. Magleby, Dancing Without Partners: how candidates, parties, and interest groups interact in the presidential campaign, 2007; Gary MacDougall, The Political Dance of Necessity, The Guardian, 18 April 2015).

Dance offers both a considerable range of dance moves (integrated into more complex dance patterns) as well as the possibility of improvisation (see Glossary of dance moves). Any codification of the patterns could be indicative of possibilities for poetic interaction within groups of different sizes whose contrasting perspectives were represented by distinct sub-groups. Square dances provide an example of formalized dance patterns.

As with juggling, there are extensive databases on dances and possible patterns within a dance. The could offer new approaches to multivocal improvisation, variously informed by different rhythms.

Sonification and auditory display: Sonification is the auditory display of data otherwise beyond the range of the human senses, or their capacity otherwise to resolve -- as explored by the International Community for Auditory Display on behalf of the US National Science Foundation (Sonification Report, 1997). (Sonification of Cognitive Resonance, 2010).

Given the considerable advances in artificial intelligence, and the experimental adaptation to poetry, there is a case for imagining the conversion of arid prose into poetic form in order to render it memorable through highlighting patterns of associations, as discussed separately (Convertor from Text to Poetry, Song or Music: computer-assisted aesthetic enhancement of treaties, declarations and agreements, 2007).

George Rochberg (The Aesthetics of Survival: a composer's view of twentieth-century music, 2004):

Any discussion of duration in music must necessarily probe the nature of duration itself, particularly as it relates to human experience. Without even the most limited understanding of the relationship between duration and existence, it becomes virtually impossible to comprehend how music becomes the living, dynamic, artistic embodiment of time; for music's great power over all men fundamentally derives from the engagement of the sense of duration in the listener, perceived as motion, as movement, as the occurrence of successive events which culminate in a sense of fullness of experience, of a sonorous content whose passage in time is rich and meaningful. (p. 61)

Carpets and pattern language: Insights from "pattern language", notably as developed by Christopher Alexander (A Pattern Language, 1977) as a part of a set of writings, themselves described as poetical (Jonathan Price, What Technical Writers Can Learn from Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language, 2001). One of its chapters is entitled The Poetry of the Language. In introducing the deep nature of patterns, Alexander comments (The Nature of Order, 2003):

A pattern language is a created thing. It is a work of poetry, a work of art. It is potentially as profound in its way as a building can be.

But there seems to have been no attempts to associate the focus of Alexander's 253 interrelated patterns (see comment) -- most of which have long been a focus of poetry -- with any attempt at structuring poetic insight into the pattern they constitute as a whole. The comment however indicates how the set of physically-focused patterns has been used experimentally as a template for the elaboration of 4 additional sets of patterns (5-fold Pattern Language, 1984): an abstract variant, a socio-organizational analogue, a cognitive analogue, and an intra-personal analogue.

In the light of Alexander's particular interest in the symbolism of carpet design, there is a case for reframing the imaginative appeal of "magic carpets" (Magic Carpets as Psychoactive System Diagrams, 2010). Clearly any form of multivocal poetic improvisation lends itself to such imagery.

Multipart singing: as discussed separately, and despite the particular constraint of prescription, this offers many relevant insights, whether involving only distinct instrumental voices or the addition of lyrics in relation to the separate melodic voices (Clues to Patterns of Dialogue from Song, 2011; All Blacks of Davos vs All Greens of Porto Alegre: reframing global strategic discord through polyphony?. 2007). The earlier reference forms part of a more general discussion (Enabling a 12-fold Pattern of Systemic Dialogue for Governance, 2011).

Piston engine operation offers a more mechanical insight into the manner in which a cycle of creative "sparks" can be used as the motive power of a common vehicle. An engine can have many pistons. The challenge is to convert the insights from any such technical metaphor into valuable features of a poetic debate -- each participant functioning as a "piston" in the creative initiative. In all types of piston engine the linear movement of the piston is converted to a rotating movement (via a connecting rod and a crankshaft or by a swashplate); a flywheel is often used to ensure smooth rotation. The more cylinders a reciprocating piston engine has, generally, the more vibration-free (smoothly) it can operate. The power of a reciprocating engine is proportional to the volume of the combined pistons' displacement.

Transactional analysis: In principle dialogue embodies complex sets of passing patterns, of which people are typically unconscious -- as detected in transactional analysis (Eric Berne, Games People Play, 1964). Here the point of a discussion may be understood as the "ball" variously passed between those participating.

Martial arts: especially those inspired by Eastern philosophy (such as aikido), offer creative ways of combining useful rules, whatever they might be, with the possibility of a "no holds barred" approach that would avoid inhibiting creativity. The possible relation to poetry is discussed separately (Ensuring Strategic Resilience through Haiku Patterns: reframing the scope of the "martial arts" in response to strategic threats, 2006).

It is of course the case that fencing has long been used as a descriptive metaphor of 2-person dialogue -- verbal fencing. Given the highly articulated nature of the discipline, this could be adapted to poetic discourse, as discussed separately (Metaphorical patterns through which to engage with memetic challenges, 2010). It would be interesting to explore how those skills relate metaphorically to the bertso duel

The Bertso duel is a special cultural event where poets, artists and singers improvise poetry (bertso) in Basque language on a particular theme. The bertsularis take the stage and must create a poem about a theme (not disclosed in advance), all within the constraints of a predetermined melody and beat. Bertsolari duels are organized within festivals or more formally at championships, bringing together the best of all the Basque Country. The exchanges take the form of singing jousts, during which improvisers keep the audience spellbound with their alertness and ability to spontaneously create poems, manipulating words and melody. The phenomenon holds a special place in the Basque society and bertsolaritza is becoming increasingly popular among the younger generations who perpetuate this tradition. (Language Games, Discover the Basque Country)

A similar point can be made in terms of jousting (Strategic Jousting through Poetic Wrestling: aesthetic reframing of the clash of civilizations, 2009).

Board games and video games: Although somewhat rare, some multiperson games offer both competitive modes and those in which players collaborate towards a common goal (Ernest Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design, 2013).

Pattern learning from games and artificial intelligence: Games offer a poorly recognized means of eliciting new knowledge, as might be desirable with respect to multivocal improvisation and its implications governance (Karen Schrier, Knowledge Games: how playing games can solve problems, create insight, and make change, 2016). A review of the latter notes their potential relevance to the solution of the so-called wicked problems of governance (Douglas Heaven, Can video games really create new knowledge? New Scientist, 25 May 2016).

Following its success with respect to chess, much has recently been made of the success of artificial intelligence with respect to the game of go (Artificial intelligence: Google's AlphaGo beats Go master Lee Se-dol, BBC News, 12 March 2016). Less attention has been accorded to the rapid development with respect to poetry (Samuel Gibbs, Google AI project writes poetry which could make a Vogon proud, The Guardian, 17 May 2016; Jane Wakefield Intelligent Machines: AI art is taking on the experts, BBC News, 18 September 2015; Samuel R. Bowman and Luke Vilnis, Generating Sentences from a Continuous Space, arxiv, 12 May 2016).

These examples suggest that artificial intelligence and neural learning, benefitting from the records of online gaming strategies of millions, may enable discovery of unsuspected patterns of considerable significance in terms of their memorability -- despite their complexity (Michael A. Nielsen, Neural Networks and Deep Learning, Determination Press, 2015).