Copenhagen: Dynamics
Dynamics are the equivalent of force. They describe the ways in which participants can get involved with the experience: by performing, by witnessing, and so on.
You can be propelled by multiple Dynamics at once, or flow between them. They are a blend between observations of the ways people might commonly want to get involved, and guidelines for how we acknowledge and facilitate those things.
The seven Dynamics are:
Architecture
Architecture is the shaping and maintenance of the meta structure of the experience. This work happens both pre-experience, and responsively / continuously during the experience. It is the shaping of the things that are unchanging, such as the major Story/World skeleton. There is likely to be one Architect overseeing the structural integrity of each Aspect of the whole: the Story/World (writer), the Space (health & safety), the collective Community (human resources), the process of Involvement (director), all the required Resources (logistics), the flow of Finance (finance), and the Archive (archivists).Providing
Providing is the flow of logistics within the space, including access, health and safety and so on. This can be substantial, eg: the provision of food and drink, of merchandise, of any paraphernalia associated with Aspects, such as archival materials. It can also be the provision of a service, eg: directional assistance through the space in the form of either people or signage. Provisions may be themed to sit within the Story/World, or not. It may be within our remit, or that of the space.Making
The actual inflation of the narrative, and the Story/World. This includes the obvious acting, singing, dancing, playing an instrument etc. It also encompasses the internal creation of new work through writing, composing, devising, improvising, directing, choreographing and so on. (Anything that is made during the experience within the pre-defined structure remains in the copyright of the makers and might grow into other work emanating from the original whole.)Being involved
Any job you can think of that is involved in live performance is also a way that anyone can be involved in this process. You don't necessarily have to make any kind of performative or other substantive contribution to the work. You can quietly bear witness, which is as active a way to be involved as any other. There is no set commitment or time: you can be involved for the entire life of a work (which might be your entire life) or for thirty seconds when you read something about it at a distance, and anything in between, whenever you choose. Every moment that the work connects with anyone, or connects people to each other, or connects someone with themselves, is the work. There is no division between any kind of preparation versus performance time, either: it is all Making. It is an ongoing, living thing from the moment of the first idea of it, forever. You got involved just by reading this... and the work understands that it is richer for that.Accompanying
Accompanying is literally about accompanying someone, one-on-one, on their personal journey through the whole. At the very least, it is about bearing Witness to their journey and actively listening to them. It can be as complex or simple a process as desired. It can be captured in some way, or not. It can be dedicated or momentary, one-way or two-way. Even when Accompanying is not actively taking place, we are all in some way Accompanying each other through the whole. Accompanying has its own article here.Responding
Responding is any work made in response to the whole, which is not part of the Story/World, but is part of the Archive. Creative Response might take the form of art, writing, photography and so on. Commentative Response is The Copenhagen Interpretation of the critic: people writing about their own unique and personal experience of the process. This includes Journaling. Here is an example from The Broad Cloth. Analytical Response could be criticism, academic, process research, scientific response, etc.Archival
The creation and/or gathering of materials from, and/or with reference to the experience, including...- Capture (things we have photographed, filmed, written down, made record of in some way)
- Journaling (things that individuals have recorded in personal journals that we can provide them with if they want that, which can also contain any biographic and contextual info typically found in a theatre programme – or not, if they don’t care about that; the outcome being your own ‘programme’ in which you capture everything of importance on which you might want to later reflect back, the process of which deepens your experience, and which you might choose to share with others in some way, at some point)
- Responses (things that creatives, commentators or analysts have created themselves, in response to the whole)
- Emanations (things that flow out from / forward from the original, things that are inspired by it, grow from it)