Some information about
White on White, which I found and thought you might be interested to know about:
The death of Jewish-Hungarian composer György Ligeti on the 12th of June 2006 became the catalyst for writing an extended composition. I chose theatre to realise my vision, as it allowed me to explore many different areas of the medium, specifically the use of dialogue and visual and theatrical elements. The title,
White on White (György Ligeti in memoriam), is based on Ligeti’s fifteenth Étude for piano, titled “White on White”. It also alludes to areas of the visual arts, namely non-objective art and minimalism, and notably the artist Kazmir Malevich.
Initially with
White on White in sections I, II, III and IV, I was attempting to write a play that used elements of performance art and appropriated aesthetics from minimalism. This was influenced by my investigation into the visual arts, predominately performance art, video art, installation art and postmodernism. Prominent and influential artists included Maria Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Bob Flanagan and Isaac Julien. In terms of Julien's influence, Julien states that his video installation
Baltimore from 2004 appropriated the aesthetics of the blaxploitation genre, similar to Quentin Tarantino’s filmography. I was also intentionally creating a work that would be undefinable by genre and context, whilst considering various movements of art and periods of music, literature and philosophy.
These initial sections were supported by supported by precisionist/miniaturist/neo-sensual dialogue which would maintain intense thematic concerns. This was influenced, above all, by Raymond Carver, Amy Hempel and Gordon Lish, and the industrial-rock band Nine Inch Nails’ EP
Broken, from 1992. The dialogue at this point was also constructed based on mathematics, such as the Fibonacci sequence and the exponential function.
As the work evolved, I began to look at different ways in which I would be able to use the medium (theatre) to explore a range of concepts and ideas. Sections V, VI and VII explored a central concept within
White on White, which is the use of dialogue in different and unconventional ways. This stemmed from an investigation into music that utilised complex rhythmic structures, including sub-Saharan African music, Ligeti’s
études, and the composer Conlon Nancarrow’s
Studies for Player Piano. This also led to exploring Jungian theories on synchronicity, simultaneity and Noam Chomsky’s writing on linguistics. These sections explored the relationship between individual parts of dialogue which are combined with other parts in temporal, cyclic and/or aleatoric ways. Nancarrow’s Studies were influential in the way to instruct how to produce the required effects with the parts of dialogue. For example, an instruction for one of his Studies reads:
This piece is for two non-synchronized pianos (A & B). The piece is so designed that the two parts can be played at any temporal relationship. Best results are obtained if one part is played at a tempo that takes about one minute to complete one cycle and the other at a tempo slightly faster or slower, so that both can go through about ten cycles, with each cycle producing a slightly different relation between the two parts.
In terms of the structure of
White on White section VIII is the middle of the play and it is here where the title is mentioned. However, instead of appearing in English, it is in Japanese with no surtitles. This is based on universal grammar as defined by Noam Chomsky. His examination of the theory outlines that the human brain contains a specific and limited set of rules which organise language. This leads to the conclusion that all languages, therefore, must share a common structural basis, based on these set of rules, known as “universal grammar”. This theory, Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness and the writing of Carver and Hempel are deeply rooted in ideas and issues regarding human nature and the human condition, which, at this point, were central thematic concerns within
White on White.
The process from hereon to section XIV radically changed. Rather than having one section “opened” to be completed, completing it and moving to the next section, I had written them all simultaneously. Ultimately, this lead to section XIV exploring the concept of a “polystructure” by having the previous sections X, XI, XII and XIII interrelate amongst each other and, simultaneously, in relation to section XIV itself. Individually, these sections further explored the use of dialogue, for example in section XI whereby dialogue is assigned to the movement of the performers, and in other sections linguistics, aesthetics, the relationship between the audience and the performers, and psychosexuality are important concerns. The last line of dialogue of
White on White, “Come into the void” returns to the precise and intense dialogue evident within the initial “sections” of the play and it is synonymous to
Enter the Void and "Into the Void" both of which are texts by people who have influenced the work (Gaspar Noé in the former and Nine Inch Nails in the latter).
Whilst I explored the technical possibilities of theatre my intention evolved. Although I explored language and dialogue, I had intended for the play to bypass language and “verbalised pigeonholing” and be a “non-verbal experience”(Agel, Jerome,
The Making of Kubrick’s 2001 [1970]: “Playboy Interview: Stanley Kubrick” from Playboy Magazine [1968]) for the audience. By verbalising the meaning of
White on White, the audience would be “shackled to a reality other than their own” and an artificial barrier would be erected between conception and appreciation (Agel).
Thus, by not verbally pigeonholing
White on White it maintains interest in its highly subjective nature, because, as David Lynch says, “[w]hen you talk about it, a big thing becomes smaller.” (Melbourne Cinémathèque article on Lost Highway from September, 2006 by Paul Martin).
This became the final intention for my
White on White, and came after completing it, and reflecting on it, and also after listening to other people’s responses to, and interpretations of it.
As aforementioned, I have considered various movements of art, periods of music, literature and philosophy whilst writing
White on White. Due to the fact that I have used elements from these fields, my intended audience has become quite broad and pertains to audiences of each of these fields and the theatre audience. By using elements from these fields I have been able to challenge the medium, genre, and I have blurred the distinction between theatre and other mediums. Furthermore, I have challenged the audiences’ consciousness and perception of genre and the boundaries of a particular medium, and this is especially the case when
White on White is consciously removed from any genre.
It is important to understand, however, that due to the intention of
White on White, I am intending to penetrate the subconsciousness of the audience, and
White on White is a non verbal experience. Due to this fact, the audience is not required to have a fundamental knowledge of the mediums I have used elements of in order to understand the “message” of the work, although it may help to understand technical elements.
The study of genre was an area from which
White on White evolved. By studying Stoppard’s
The Real Inspector Hound I began to learn that the theatrical medium can be used to subvert conventions. This led to looking at other texts; I re-explored Kubrick’s
The Killing and David Lynch’s
Lost Highway which are texts which have challenged the genre, as well as coming across Jean-Luc Godard’s
Détective.
Lost Highway has had a large impact on
White on White, in that it subverts the mystery convention of crime fiction. As Lynch says, “a mystery is like a magnet. Whenever there is something that’s unknown, it has a pull to it… when you only see a part, it’s even stronger than seeing the whole” and “[i]f things get too specific, the dream stops.” (Paul Martin). Similarly, the highly subjective nature of
White on White is based on subverting the mystery convention of crime fiction as
Lost Highway does.
White on White is also a reaction to genre theorists, specifically Derrida, and his statement that “there is no genreless text.” (Derrida, Jacques. 1980, “The Law of Genre”, Glyph: Textual Studies no. 7, 1980). Throughout the process of
White on White I was conscious of making no reference to any genre, including race, gender and class and so on, which is evident in that the performers are named only by roman numerals and the use of pronouns such as “they” and “their”. Ligeti has also expressed that his études are difficult to categorise, and thus, his influence on
White on White has extended to this level.
In reflection, the sections that have constituted
White on White and the process of investigation can be represented by a statement by Ligeti in regards to his études: “[t]hey proceed from a very simple core idea, and lead from simplicity to great complexity; they behave like growing organisms.” (Ligeti, György, “Études”, [translated by David Feurzeig & Annelies McVoy]. Appears in the liner notes in the recording György Ligeti Edition 3 on Sony Classical [1996]).
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