{"id":664,"date":"2019-07-30T14:41:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lab.wrkshp.fi\/samihaapala\/?page_id=664"},"modified":"2019-08-07T09:22:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T06:22:49","slug":"impulse","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/impulse\/","title":{"rendered":"Impulse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Impulse is an extremely widely used concept beyond performing arts. It\u2019s used in everyday speech and also across a large variety of academic and other disciplines. I was taking a <em>shibari <\/em>(rope bondage) class 5.2.2017 at Eskus Performance Center in Helsinki where one of the facilitators of the course repeatedly stressed the importance of what kind of impulses you give as a top to your bottom (top being the one that ties and bottom being the one who\u2019s being tied in this example). They didn\u2019t explain what they meant by impulse nor anyone asked. Everyone seemed to implicitly know what it means. The facilitator of the class\u00a0doesn\u2019t have a professional performing arts background. They use the term because it\u2019s useful in the physical work dealing with communication in their particular practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is but one of the many instances where I\u2019ve encountered the use of the term beyond performing arts. A more extensive research would be needed to deal with its many uses, but that is beyond this research. I\u2019m starting with this example to show how it\u2019s continually used as a term in other contexts than the performing arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Webster\u2019s College Dictionary explains the word \u2019impulse\u2019 f.e. by being \u2018a single, usually sudden, flow of electric current in one direction\u2019 (1991) and Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines it f.e as \u2018A force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum.\u2019 (2002) In medicine impulse is defined as \u2019a brief electrical event transmitted along nerve or muscle fibers\u2019 (McComas 2011, xxii).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I\u2019m trying to find the smallest element in performing, why not just call it movement or change? With movement, impulse turns into dance and change turns it into something too general. Impulse connects directly with action. When you look at the various uses and definitions of impulse they give one a combination of everyday speech, very exact definitions from natural sciences and key concepts of acting like motivation (impulse, n.d.).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a concept impulse gives one possibility for great precision and at the same time freedom as to what is the exact form it takes. Compared to movement it also directly gives a sense of a combination of force, time and especially change. The impulse as a term is at the same time extremely physical and precise and boundless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s also possible to already by these examples say that it\u2019s an extremely used concept. It will not be possible for me to go through all the definitions and uses of impulse in the context of this research. In terms of this concept I\u2019m not inventing anything new. Why I\u2019m interested in impulse as a key term in performing is because it\u2019s so widely used in especially in performing techniques with very rare instances of specificity on the term. At the same time it\u2019s very closely tied with practice \u2013 I have myself heard it being used in the fine-tuning of the performer\u2019s work both in Meisner classes I\u2019ve took in Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and in my vocational dance education based on postmodern dance. I have also encountered it systematically in rehearsals especially related to theatre and dance performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impulse is an extremely widely used concept beyond performing arts. It\u2019s used in everyday speech and also across a large variety of academic and other disciplines. I was taking a shibari (rope bondage) class 5.2.2017 at Eskus Performance Center in Helsinki where one of the facilitators of the course repeatedly stressed the importance of what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-664","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/resonant-impulses\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}