Zen artist Miyoko Shida
 

Her performance in this video is mesmerizing. If you watch it, do persist to the end, when everything hangs on a feather.

Amazing. If anyone had coughed. . .

"Catching a feather on a fan..." ?

"Zen" artist? Oh well.

I love it at the end when the audience launches into loud, rhythmic clapping as the artist beams in their approval. Somehow it seemed counter to the "zen" spell that had just been cast. But her performance is indeed remarkable.

Yes, the setting—before that audience, on that stage—is so utterly bizarre: sort of Zen meets the Las Vegas Gospel Revival Tent. Not to diminish the performance itself, which is remarkable, but what a web of contradictory emotions the whole spectacle evoked in my poor battered soul!

Nemo

You’re absolutely right, the video production is quite weird. And about as “Zen” as Donald Trump. I did try to find a better recording of her. One of the things that’s remarkable about her performance is that none of the silliness distracts her from it.

The first time I went to Disneyland, at age 8, someone in the back of our boat on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride had a flashlight. He or she was using it to reveal the wires and other darkness-hidden mechanisms for making the illusions work. At first my sisters and I called out, quite primly, "Please put the flashlight away, you're spoiling the magic." The flashlight-wielder ignored us. And we discovered that having the magic spoiled was fascinating in its own way. Pretty soon we were eagerly calling out, "Shine it over there! How are they doing that?"

If you don't want the magic spoiled, don't look at this or this, or read the text accompanying these videos.

Hey Julie. I watched both videos and zero magic was lost. Primates, music, gravity, breath. All miraculous and all without explanation.

I don't get what you're saying, Julie. I never thought it was magic, I thought it was very real attention to balance. What's the flashlight? The fact that it's a learn-able technique practiced by others as well? It's certainly nothing I'll ever master!

Yes, it is amazing that her attention can flourish in such a setting, Andrew. Herculean, her Zen.

Nemo

I love that phrase: Herculean Zen! A perfect pairing -- true and funny at the same time. How many degrees of separation can that be from Christlike vulture capitalism, I wonder?

The showmanship is, indeed, impressive and beautiful. I enjoy all three performances (although I could do without the microphone to catch the golden-diapered performer's dramatic breathing). But I'm deeply cynical about how much concentration is actually required.

Note that the three performances are not just the same sort of act. They use the very same set of palm ribs. (The performers in the two videos to which I linked are father and daughter.) Only the feather is different.

I know from my teaching experience that it takes a long time for kids to achieve the ruler and hammer illusion for the very first time. But if they then mark exactly the right spot to place everything, the feat is easily reproducible, and no less miraculous to the audience.

If the kids were to go so far as to put a subtle groove into the ruler and the hammer handle, so that the string and everything else could hang together perfectly, without slipping from the balance point unless actually jolted--the equivalent of the notches and pegs I see on the palm ribs in this act--it would be even more of a no-brainer.

The slow, tentative, carefully calibrated movements needed the first time would now no longer be needed to manipulate the items themselves; they would mainly be manipulating the audience's appreciation for the near-impossibility of what the performer seems to be doing.

I think the real miracle is that these performers are able to hold the audience's delighted attention for so long. Even mine, when I'm so skeptical of what's going on. Again, a testament to truly masterful showmanship.

Ah....

Nemo

I think "impressive," "beautiful" and "masterful" are quite sufficient, Julie, which leaves me somewhat at a loss to understand your point. Yes, it is a learnable skill using equipment that is well designed to achieve the balance she demonstrates. I would not have thought otherwise. But for me, the idea here wasn't for her to impress us with her unique gifts, but for her to perform something beautiful for us. It's more like a musical performance which is no less impressive simply because the musician is not the only one who is capable of performing the piece.

Actually, that was exactly my point, Roger.

The ability to create wonder is--and should be--more enviable than the ability to destroy it. And the experience of any work of art, including performance art like this, is much more than the sum of its technical aspects.

Likewise, two sonnets may be executed with equal precision from a technical standpoint, but one might stab you to the heart while the other leaves you unmoved, depending on how the artist of each has crafted your experience of each.

I think studying the technical aspects can still be rewarding and wonder-filled, and may even give us a deeper appreciation of the creativity and grace that went into bringing this concept into the material world.