Day 10 Pulpit Rock- What is the "score"?

I have a friend who once pointed out that one of the signs of being involved in a cult is that there is a language that only other members of the cult understand. My “cult” is the Tamalpa Institute in Marin County, California.

“Tamalpa Institute, founded in 1978, offers training programs and workshops in the Life/Art Process, a movement-based expressive arts approach that integrates movement/dance, visual arts, performance techniques and therapeutic practices. This approach supports personal, interpersonal and social transformation, teaching new models for health, psychology, art and communication.”

Devising, enacting and evaluating scores is an important part of the Life/Art Process. It is something I have been doing my whole life but until attending Tamalpa I didn’t have either the languaging to express it, or a full appreciation for what an amazing generative and therapeutic tool it is. In the simplest terms here is the definition:

Score- an ACTIVITY over TIME through SPACE with PEOPLE.

I think of a score to be like a party invitation. Tells you where to be, for what, what time, what to bring etc. Like this:

What? Magdelene’s Birthday Party.
Where? At the Park by the Lake.
When? Saturday night.
What? Bring a potluck item and a blanket.
Why? To celebrate the day she was born.

In basic terms the original score for this experiment was:
What? A year long experiment in 12 days chunks
Where? Wherever Magdelene goes.
When? 30 (possibly 31) concurrent 12 day periods.
What? Follow and new undertaking for 12 days. During that 12 days come up with a new undertaking fro the following 12 days. Continue this for 12 months. Commit to learning about myself during this experiment, being aware of what questions and learnings come up.
Why? To commit to a project fro the sake commitment. To see what things can be learned from this process.
Or in real life terms read the first ever blog entry.

Since then the score has evolved to look more like this:
What? A year long experiment in 12 days chunks
Where? Wherever Magdelene goes, on the 12 days blog, and wherever a 12 days journal shows up.
When? 30 (possibly 31) concurrent 12 day periods.
What? Follow and new undertaking for 12 days. During that 12 days come up with a new undertaking for the following 12 days. Continue this for 12 months. Commit to learning about myself during this experiment, being aware of what questions and learnings come up. Writing these questions in journals and leaving them in places the experiment takes me for others to answer. Collecting the journals, sharing them on the blog.
Why? To commit to a project for the sake of commitment. To see what things can be learned from this process. To see how my experiment can effect others and to encourage them to participate on a number of levels (be it making their own score, writing in a journal, or reading the blog etc). And to see how far the ripples of this experiment can spread.

If after reading this, you read the first 9 entries of this blog, you will be able to see the natural progression from the original score to the following one. The score for the experiment will likely have changed somewhat by the time you read this. It is ever evolving.