Limbic Limbo

Limbic Limbo

by Leah Mann with editing assistance from Diana Coogle

Eric Wesselow once said, "Whole civilizations perish merely because of a society having become rotten, spoiled, bored or simply exhausted." We at Lelavision think these conditions come about when creativity is stifled.

Creativity is not a talent bestowed on some people and denied to others. As Erich Fromme tells us, it is a neurological impulse built in the system of the brain – a twofold impulse that can either make or destroy. When we don't spend time fostering a higher level of creativity, we create for ourselves the drama of destruction.

The art form that Ela and I (Lelavision) have made our life's work is physical music on kinetic musical-sculptures. It demands constant connection to the creative impulse. Ela learned to exercise this part of the brain well as a child, as he was inspired to make solutions toward self-sufficiency through a hands-on learning style encouraged by his mother and father, who educated him. In our life together, Ela teaches me, continually, that resources are available, that I need only look around – or look inward! It is this concept of creativity that he and I want to demonstrate in our art and to teach to children with whom we have the opportunity to connect.

Recently, Ela and I were exploring the concept of "source" with a group of inner-city 5th graders. Groping for connection, I finally stopped pointing to our chart with its lists of resources and asked, "Where did your shoes come from?" expecting a reply about resources cued by our charts and discussion. But what I got was a resounding chorus: "The mall!" Further discussion revealed that the students weren't quite sure where cotton, plastic, rubber, and suede come from.

A similar revelation about children's disconnect between product and resource came during a class we were teaching to 2nd through 4th graders at a dot-com-funded private school. We wanted to expand their idea of "technology" by sharing how we as artists and inventors apply science to making art – the physics of sound, the science of the body, and the use of recycled materials. Ela, who works primarily with recycled metal, asked the students to name some metal varieties. They spouted names like a recitation: gold, silver, copper, nickel. But when we asked, "Where does metal come from?" they said, "Money! That's what money is made of!" We asked them to think about the question more. Finally one student said, quietly, with an upward inflecting tone, hazarding a good guess, "The ground?" We asked the students where their clothes came from, and they said, "The mall." We asked where their food came from, and they said, "The grocery store," even though at this point the students knew the context of our conversation.

Instrument pictured: boat shaped harmonium made with aluminum frame, hose head "keys", toilet plungers and punching balloon (for compressed air) photo by Tony Kaplan

Ela and I see this mentality as a reflection of two trends in society: the disconnection of consumerism and technology from "source" and the desire for immediate gratification. We think these trends are limiting the development of the limbic systems of the world! But we think these trends can be shifted by helping people understand the creative impulse, our best resource. When students ask Ela, "Where did you buy that instrument?" he replies, "I made it. It is the only one on the planet. This one is not for sale because I am still practicing playing it. You can make your own instrument or whatever else you are inspired to make." Three concepts of creativity are implicit in this statement – the act of making – the idea of "source" – and the concept of time.

Whenever Ela and I undertake a new project, we have to remind ourselves that to invent something new takes a lot of time – up to six months for Ela to design and fabricate a new kinetic musical sculpture, two years for us to learn to play it well. Sometimes the sculptures move to the storage area, indefinitely – instruments waiting to become! Our work is a great example of the importance of the interplay of kronos and kairos and delayed gratification! As everything moves faster and faster on the planet, it is important to share with youth this example of use of time.

Sometimes Ela and I like to share with our students that we do not own a television. Once in amazement a girl asked, "Then, what do you do?" The answer was in the demonstration of our art and our subsequent hands-on work with the students making instruments from ordinary recycled objects. Just imagine how much extra time would be available for creative endeavors without televisions, which over-stimulate the brain and cause it to go into lower alpha wave activity. Just imagine.

Imagining something is the first step in manifesting ideas. We like to remind kids that when NASA made the mission statement, "Send a man to the moon," everyone thought it was a crazy notion – a typical response to many inventions. But Einstein said, "If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it." Think about the air conditioner a man recently built with a garbage can, garden hose, and water one very hot day when his commercial air conditioner broke. Or consider the world's smallest computer just invented by a team of "digi savvies," including a friend of ours who showed us the computer in operation, in his palm, powered by solar energy with a wireless internet hookup in the middle of the woods! Who-da thunk it?!

But part of the concept of time as it relates to creativity is the understanding that such inventions are investments and they have natural gestation periods. Currently Ela and I are reading and discussing Art and Physics by Leonard Shlain, Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto, and The Power of Limits by Gyorgy Doczi as we pull together information and ideas for a new performance piece inspired by wave forms and the super string theory in science. The new kinetic sculpture Ela plans to make for this piece will be his largest yet. During the year it will take for us to bring the piece to the stage for its in-progress showing, we will constantly be reminding ourselves that our work IS play. We try to never take ourselves too seriously as we face the daunting tasks of inventing a new instrument, fabricating it, and then figuring out how to dance with it and play it in our multitasking style. We always remind ourselves not to let fear of being bad ever stop us from trying. The idea that we are "just playing" often leads to beautiful breakthroughs in our work.

Kids (and adults) are often limited by what they think others will think of them, so Ela and I sometimes begin classes with this saying: "I am enough. I have enough. I do enough. And what everyone else thinks of me is none of my business!" We remind ourselves of this each time we step on stage. We feel this "permission" to risk trying something even if we're not "good" at it (yet) is an essential tool for fostering a lifelong love of learning!

Sometimes, during question and answer sessions after our shows, people will ask in astonishment, "How can you be so creative?" or "Where in the world do you get such ideas?" Reading Smart Moves by Carla Hannaford recently, I found some beautiful simple answers. She outlines ways to develop the limbic system, the imagination, in children, but I think she gives us a guide to develop high functioning imagination throughout life, ways to cultivate simple excellent living, general satisfaction, and overall well-being, cradle to grave. Here is her outline (Adjust it to suit if you are an adult, limbic development need not stop after childhood!):

Encourage imaginative play.

Let kids make their own toys.

Steer clear of non-creative, fully constructed commercial toys.

Read to and participate in full-attention communication with the child. Encourage creative imaginative story making.

Encourage and allow full emotional expression, moving to rational dialogue by the age of four.

Encourage lots of movement and interaction with other children to develop playground rules, sharing, and the beginnings of altruistic behavior.

Honor care of other people, pets and objects.

Encourage a sense of time and delayed gratification.

Discourage TV or video games.

Provide a low stress environment and model rich emotional expression and stability.

Model joy! [1]

In addition to our physical music and instrument making from ordinary object workshops, I have found Brain Dance (http://www.creativedance.org) and InterPlay (http://www.interplay.org) excellent vehicles for bringing some of these guidelines into the classroom as well as into lifestyles, for greater authenticity, playfulness and expression. I will have the honor of utilizing these tools with Alzheimer patients this autumn. All of these forms are easily applicable to curriculum with beautiful lessons in the common denominators of our human experience on the planet!

The ultimate hope Ela and I have is for the greater development of imagination. We hope the youth of today will grow in a creative, artistic understanding of the repercussions of actions as a people and are part of bringing the world to a greater consciousness – much bigger than their current mall awareness. Maybe they won't worship the music and movie stars' big bling-blings when they learn about the conditions for the workers that mined the gold and silver. Maybe they'll come up with better solutions than plastic containers when they learn about the toxins polluting China that are emitted in the production and recycling of plastics. Maybe they will not choose to go to war because they can think of a better solution! Maybe, through conscious application, they will use the creative impulse of the brain and the subsequent development of altruistic behavior for making rather than destroying.

Marshall McLuhan said, "The artist is the person in any field, scientific or humanistic, who grasps the implications of his or her actions and the new knowledge in his or her own time. He [or she] is the person of integral awareness." May we rise up to foster, first, our own inner artist and then encourage that within the children so that we may see a surge in "advanced limbic technology" that makes this world a better place to live for all peoples. That is our hope.

1. Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford, Ph.D., Great Ocean Publisher 1995, p. 69.

About the author

Leah Mann is Director Emeritus and Co-founder of the award-winning company, Moving in the Spirit, a dance and urban outreach program in Atlanta, and co-founder of Lelavision, a performance group melding dance with kinetic musical sculpture in Seattle. A former competitive gymnast with a passion for aerial dance (bungee cords and trapezes), Leah has been awarded numerous grants and commissions from entities such as the NEA Alternate Visions Grant, the Criminal Defense and Justice Project and the American College Dance Festival (Choreographer's Award) Email her at lela@lelavision.com .

View a video about Ela Lamblin, the other Co-founder of Lelavision here: http://www2.ci.seattle.wa.us/Media/ram_sc.asp?ID=3090 You will need RealPlayer (free download available at the above link) to view the video.

©September 2005 New Horizons for Learning
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