MDPE.8:1 - The Recurring Difficulty

Ordinary domain words often join unlike objects and activities:

• a performance occurrence and the material or recording left by it;
• a performing capability and the Work in which that capability is exercised;
• a Method for composing, moving, partnering, teaching, judging, or organizing and a description of that Method;
• a performing whole made from performer, body or effector, instrument, partner, software, venue equipment, sensing, timing, and correction relations;
• a practice or style line that is produced, taught, recognized, selected, transmitted, and retained through many Work occurrences and several populations; and
• a medium, support System, or supporting capability: a venue, school, festival series, archive, platform, instrument-making capability, or software service, for example.

Several of these can be active at once. During one dance, a dancer or pair performs Dance Work in which bodily regulation, movement, partner coordination, phrase shaping, and participation all occur. That Work can enact several Methods at the relevant holonic or functional positions, including a style-specific Method. During one music performance, a musician or robot performs Music Work in which effector control, attacks and continuous sound, phrase shaping, and ensemble coordination occur; that Work can likewise enact several Methods. This simultaneous organization is not a first–then Method unfolding. Rehearsal before performance or building an instrument before playing it is a different relation.

When the project does not distinguish these subjects, evidence migrates between claims. One performance becomes “proof” of cultural continuation; one video becomes “proof” of transmission; one course description becomes “proof” of capability; or one autonomous robot performance becomes “proof” that the robot chose how the practice should develop.