Musical Performance and 'Kairos': Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

Author(s): Kathleen Coessens

Source: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music , DECEMBER 2009
, Vol. 40, No. 2 (DECEMBER 2009), pp. 269-281
Published by: Croatian Musicological Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20696542

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 . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
IRASM 40 (2009) 2: 269-281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

Kathleen Coessens
Center for Logic and Philoso
phy of Science,
Vrije Universiteit Br?ssel,
Pleinlaan 2, 1040 Brussels,
Orpheus Research Centre
Musical Performance in Music, K?rte Meer 12,
9000 Gent, Belgium
and 'Kairos': Exploring E-mail: kcoessen(a).vub.ac.be

the Time and Space of UDC: 78.01:78.091

Artistic Resonance
Original Scientific Paper
Izvorni znanstveni rad
Received: May 19, 2009
Primljeno: 19. svibnja 2009.
Accepted: August 25, 2009
Prihvaceno: 25. kolovoza 2009.

Abstract - R?sum?
1. Introduction: Of Humans, Rhetoricians and This article considers the
Musicians necessity of artistic inven
tion and intervention in the
act of performance, back
?Gods are right, nor courageous, nor liberal, nor tem grounded by the musician's
pered, because they do not live in a world where they world of highly skilled prac
tices, profound training,
have to sign contracts, counter dangers, distribute embodied schemata and
money or moderate desires. Gods do not live in a prepared interpretational
world of relation, of adventure and of need (...).? expression. By drawing an
analogy between the musi
[?Les dieux ne sont ni justes, ni courageux, ni lib?ra cian's and the rhetorician's
ux, ni temp?rants, car ils ne vivent pas dans un mon art as described in Aristo
de o? Ton ait ? signer des contrats, ? affronter des tle's Rhetoric, the notion of
the Greek 'kairos', the 'op
dangers, ? distribuer des sommes d'argent ou ? portune' moment to act and
mod?rer ses d?sirs. Les dieux ne vivent pas dans le intervene, will be examined
monde de la relation, de l'aventure et du besoin in the context of the per
(...).?] formance. It is argued that
Aristotle's rhetorical and
(Pierre Aubenque 1963, 65) ethical world view resonates
with the artist's manifesta
tion in the liminal space of
For the Greeks, different contexts, aims, trajec performance and with his/
tories and situations require time and again new her responsibility in the
broader world.
choices, decisions, and ad hoc reflection. Choices Keywords: performance
can never be settled, can never rest on facts and prin music ? art ? creativi
ty ? kairos ? ethics ?
ciples. However, these multiple choices, ephemeral responsibility ? Aristo
as they are, are fundamental to cope with the com tle

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 iPAQM An /onno\ - 9?o & I ? Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
imam 4U i?uusfj . ?oy-?m | Exp|oring tne Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

plexity of life and the world. As situated beings, situated in place and time, in
context and networks, humans have to make decisions in particular situations:
they have to act in a specific context. Every decision, every commitment is spe
cific and particular, context-linked. Life contains unpredictability. Thus, decisions
and choices, analyses and commitments have to be made at the right moment, at
the opportune time, the kairos. Once made, the choices are irreversible and will
lead to further, other kairos in which to act and intervene.
According to Sipiora and Baumlin (2002), the oldest notion of kairos appears
in Homer's Iliad and refers to the body and its physical vulnerability in struggle
with the enemy. It is linked with one's own mortality as well as with the opportu
nity for the enemy. Later on, in tragedies, there is a shift form the locus of mortal
risk to the moment of decision itself, thus to vital decision. In Hesiod's works it
becomes associated with measure and proportion in the practice of life. As such,
it anticipates the complex situational meanings of the classical Greek concept kai
ros, where human decision has to cope with constraints and risk of time, place
and the other.
Aristotle considers the kairos as the propitious decision, made in an indi
vidual and concrete dynamic situation. In his Rhetoric, he describes the difficult
task of the good rhetorician and the use of rhetoric art: ?Its function is not so much
to persuade as to find out in each case the existing means of persuasion.? (Book I,
chapter i, 14,1354 bl3). Hence, the function of rhetorical art is ?the faculty of dis
covering the possible means of persuasion in reference to any subject whatever. ?
(Book I, chapter ii, 1,1355b25-26). These citations clearly mark the necessary jump
for the rhetorician from a 'general' rhetorical science or expertise towards the ex
pression of the art, its implementation in a rhetorical performance. Aristotle
stresses the particularity of each situation and the individuality of the subject.
Each rhetorical act is situated: general rules need to be flexibly applied and
stretched towards the particular situation. Moreover, the decisions in these situa
tions are of an urgent mode ? ?to urgently decide (ede) present and definite is
sues? (Book I, chapter i, 1354b3-b8) ? and, once taken, are not only definitive but
also, as choices, set the course towards future decisions.
What we should understand in this context is the need for the rhetorician, e.
g. when intervening in court, to transcend written law by taking decisions and
making choices in the present moment and towards the particular subject. No
scientific general theory or rule can be 'copied' and 'pasted' from book or school
to the particular situation, but the rhetorician needs to react and improvise ad
hoc. Law and rules are to be applied to particular situations; rhetorical devices,
words and utterances have to be finely chosen, adjusted and readjusted, led by
virtue, equity, fitness and occasion. No situation equals another situation, no sub
ject another subject, thus no copy can be made and each case necessitates a pos
sibly similar but never identical enactment. Aristotle uses the word kairos to de

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 . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': I irasm 40 (2009) 2a 269-281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance | l J

scribe the core of the situated practice of the art of rhetoric, meaning that the
general rules of rhetoric are void as general forms, but need flexible application,
again and again in different particular situations, which can not be foreseen by the
rhetoricians.
Can the world of a performing artist be described similarly?
Artistic performance is, in contrast to other kinds of artistic activity, definitely
linked to a situation in which the artistic manifestation is an 'action', is 'enacted'
by somebody, in occurrence the artist. A performance is the result of the patient
integration and preparation of a particular 'program', out of and sustained by an
extended artistic background of exploration. This background zone of explora
tion necessarily contains the acquisition of artistic skills and knowledges, and
later on the preparation towards a specific performance. But once everything is
prepared and rehearsed, is there then a space left for creativity, for something
unexpected? Yes, there is, since the act of performance contains unpredictable ele
ments, occasions, or constraints, urging the artist to cope. As a rhetorician, the
artist will have to juggle the moment of performance, his or her focus of attention
and the expectations of the audience with his or her artistic background, prepara
tion and acquired expertise.
It is important to note that the notion of kairos, before being implemented
into rhetorical art, originated in two practice-based arts in which preparation and
know-how had to cope with precision, reflection, performance and process: in
archery and in the art of weaving. As Eric Charles White wrote in 1987 about kai
ros:

?In archery, it refers to an opening, or ?opportunity? or, more precisely, a long tunnel
like aperture through which the archer's arrow has to pass. Successful passage of a
kairos requires, therefore, that the archer's arrow be fired not only accurately but with
enough power for it to penetrate. The second meaning of kairos traces to the art of
weaving. There it is ?the critical time? when the weaver must draw the yarn trough a
gap that momentarily opens in the warp of the cloth being woven. Putting the two
meanings together, one might understand kairos to refer to a passing instant when an
opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achie
ved.? (WHITE 1987,13).

The rhetorician and the artist both are humans and as such already subject to
the unexpected conditions of life. But by entering the public world, by choosing
to perform in particular and never equal situations, to affront and persuade an
ever changing audience, they augment this condition, and with it their responsi
bility and vulnerability. Both have to enter the situational context, to interfere,
play with it and react to present circumstances in an appropriate manner. Both
have to seize upon the moment, like the archer and the weaver, to achieve their
goal.
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 id AQU /9AAQ\ o. oftQ 004 K- Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
IKASM 4U [Mm) z. | Exp,oring the Time and Space 0f Artistic Resonance

2. The Background: Elaboration of the Web of Artistic Practice

Before looking at the act of performance, we have to consider the background

of artistic practice. The outer world is not really aware of or has difficulty to under
stand the hidden private artistic activity, endeavor and training behind the mo
ments of public display. Artistic performances definitely do not occur suddenly
but are backed by interwoven parameters, patterns, skill and knowledge ? in
short by artistic practice. It is thus necessary to consider the situation of artistic
performance as one part of the broader artistic realm of the performer. Each unique
artistic performance is an instance, a moment of concentrated artistic endeavor. It
is but the visible manifestation of a long process of patient integration of multiple
tacit dimensions, of the weaving of a web of artistic practice (article forthcoming).
These dimensions can be looked upon as broad spaces at the disposal of the artist,
generated out of the complex interactions and exchanges between the musician
and his or her environment: embodied know-how, personal knowledge, the envi
ronmental, the cultural-semiotic, and the receptive dimension.
The artist's embodied know-how refers to the specific relation to his or her
body. This embodied know-how emerges from the inherently synesthetic as well
as multi-modal nature of the human being, by patiently integrating sensorimotor,
intellectual and embodied capacities towards expert artistic skill in a specific do
main. The artist condenses a multitude of perceptual, kinesthetic and aesthetic
experience into embodied patterns and gesture, from which aesthetic and inter
pretative output emerge. This embodied know-how can also include the embod
ied relation towards an instrument. A sustained incorporation, embodiment of
the prior outer tool leads to a seamless integration in which the duality of human
being and instrument is substituted by the unique experience of one extended
subject. This tacit, embodied relation to the artistic domain is modeled and mas
tered through education and socialization by explicit instruction, endeavor and
harsh training, or by implicit mimesis, incentives and gentle reminder. The artist
thus acquires a kind of artistic habitus.
The second dimension of the zone of exploration concerns the personal
knowledge of the artist: this contains genuine 'professionally acquired know
ledge', e.g. acquired by personal expertise, embeddedness in a culture and a com
munity of artists, as well as more general and personal aspects, e.g. one's own life
experience, cultural stock, the influence of one's own character and temperament.
This personal knowledge is acquired, carried and augmented all through life, of
ten in a tacit way (POLANYI 1958). By borrowing Polanyi's notion of personal
knowledge, I refer to the artist's set of tacit and explicit knowledge acquired by
personal experiences and commitment, backed by the surrounding human so
ciety. This personal knowledge offers a background for further investigation and
experiences and opens the horizon of possibilities.

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 . Consens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': I IRASM 40 (2009) 2.269.281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance |

The third dimension concerns the semiotic and symbolic horizon, present to
the artist, by way of culture and education. Each culture, each period contains its
own semiosphere, a realm or context in which interconnected systems of signs,
symbols, codes and significations permit its members to communicate with oth
ers, to express themselves. It offers the medium ? tools, languages, codes ?
which permit the artist to translate his or her creative thinking and acting into
something durable. The spontaneous emergence of the artful feeling and thinking
has to be translated into a symbolized and materialized artistic manifestation. It is
only through the existing semiotic means that these artistic attempts to creation
can be embodied, materially translated and interpreted. The artist has to jump
from a first pre-verbal and pre-determined creative feeling towards an embodied
and semiotised creation, by way of the available media, sign-systems and tools.
The artist engages in a process in which he or she, by means of an existing semi
otic-symbolic system, will create an idiosyncratic 'montage', interpretation, com
position or arrangement. The artist re-appropriates the semiotic system and mod
els it in an original and idiosyncratic way. What results is an art manifestation that
will be unique by the decisions, distance and signature of the artist.
A fourth dimension concerns the ecological environment, the surrounding
space of the human being. All artistic practice is situated: it occurs in an ecological
and material setting creating specific conditions which will have an impact on the
artist and his or her activity. These ecological settings do not only interfere with
the artist's practices, but the artist will try to capture as well as possible the avail
able affordances as they can permit or constrain further possibilities. The artist
will thus develop strategies and tactics to cope with these ecological settings. Im
peding elements of the surrounding ecological space can be certain dimensions,
colors, the incidence of light, the temperature and degree of humidity or the fur
niture which possibly can have some influence or impact on the artist's practice.
At one hand they can constrain the practice, at the other, the artist can eventually
take advantage of the environmental cues. The artist will interact, re-create,
change the existing space, and at the same time, create his or her art.
The fifth and last dimension is the interactive dimension: it concerns the hu
man relations of the artist. The artist's act always encounters the other, be it the
other artist or community of artists, the listener or audience, the larger public,
society, critics, or, in the private realm, friends and relatives.
But the artist will also encounter him or herself, become aware of his or her
position in and impact on the world, as an actor or a spectator, by way of per
sonal and creative activity. The artist's experience is nourished by doubts and
dreams, by outer critique or self-reflective questioning leading to a self-narrative
in which the artist develops the capacity to observe, judge, monitor and decide
about the self and its actions.
Together the dimensions or 'spaces' of this zone of exploration form a 'web' of
artistic practice, again and again woven by the artist over multiple periods of edu

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 id a cm An /onno\ o?q.?sm I . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
IKASM -tu (zuu9) z. zoy-zoi | Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

cation, exploration and performance, offering a solid but agile support and aug
menting artistic expertise. The artist patiently creates his or her own broad zone of
exploration in which to roam and to dwell, to mine and to borrow from. At the
same time, this zone's constituent parts orient and influence the artist, being him
self or herself a fundamental part of it. In this zone, the artist will experience differ
ent phases of action and reflection, on different levels: discovery, heuristics, train
ing, rehearsal, research, mimesis, instruction, interpretation, ... Though often
originally socially steered, the artist will develop a personal commitment towards
the possibilities and constraints, extensions and limits of his or her own idiosyn
cratic zone of exploration. This zone of exploration indeed implies most of the time
a private, retired or semi-private social position. The artist is working, exploring,
investigating, reflecting how to enact art. Part of this process is a personal inquiry
taking place in a self-protected hidden social position, part of this process is social,
embedded in dialogue, education, transmission and exchange.
This web of artistic practice provides background knowledge for the artistic
act, it offers familiar, acquired knowledges and skills which can be mobilized in
the preparation and performance of an art manifestation. At the same time, as
artistic practice demands creative and original reenactment as well as new proj
ects, this background will have to be adaptable, flexible and dynamic. Moreover,
the artist will have to make choices between the different possibilities and aspects
of all these dimensions, picking some of them carefully out, trying them out in a
flexible way and with slight modifications, and reintegrating them into a new
combination. The musician will have to fuse together different aspects of this web:
sensorimotor experiences, perceptual and kinesthetic linkages, auditory expecta
tions, semiotic notations and dynamic processes, emotions and formal rules, cul
tural and personal knowledges and schemata... Practice and training in the prep
aration of a specific artwork is directed towards the integration and compression
of chosen aspects of the spaces of the artist's web in the aesthetic musical object.
The musician searches his/her own interpretation and expression of an artwork
by making choices concerning different dispositions and resources of his/her tacit
dimensions, blending these in new original ways. This happens differently and
idiosyncratically by way of the multiple and multi-modal (mental and embodied)
connections, try-outs, heuristics in a long process of integration and preparation,
which continues till the musician approaches a 'coherent, original and personal'
way of expressing the specific artwork, nourishing again his/her web of artistic
practice. Then the artist can enter the scene, possessing the know-how.

3. The Kairos of the Performance

A performance-act is situated in an open, public social space, though most of

the time protected by the surrounding rituals and rules concerning both the con

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 . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': irasm 40 (2009) 2a 269-281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance '

stituents of the performance and the participators in the situation. Two aspects
can be distinguished.
A first aspect is the time-space frame of the performance, which is often de
cided on a social basis: when, where and how will the performance take place.
The ritualization of the preparation, as well as the social codes which enclose/sur
round the performance act in itself, are for both performers and audience well
fixed in advance: how to behave, greet, applaud, even how to dress. They can be
considered as the contours, the frontier before entering the liminal space of per
formance: for the audience a bridge between the ordinary world and the expected
aesthetic experience; for the performer a readiness towards the artistic act. In that
sense we can consider the act of performance as temporally and spatially situated.
It is inserted in the chronos, the quantitative measure of time and happens in a
specific topos, a place ? room, theatre.
The second aspect of the situation of performance is the instance of the perfor
mance itself in which the performer creates the artwork, absorbed in the enact
ment, from a position of self-reflective embodiment. The rules of cultural society
and the specific chronos and topos of the event require the performer indeed to be
'ready', to have acquired and elaborated the necessary cognitive and embodied
patterns and trajectories capable of sustaining and expressing that specific artistic
act of performance out of his or her broader web of artistic practice. But, once the
performance starts, it is enclosed in its own artistic time and place and is enacted
in moments of now, reaching out towards the whole act. In time-notions, an act of
artistic performance is one whole, and cannot be expressed separately in different
phases: no revision, no reprise, no hesitations. It is one holistic process unfolding
in time and space. The movements themselves are part of a process of embodied
and reflective expectation and anticipation. Once the act is launched, each gesture
is the result of the previous and the origin for the next, each gesture adding, chang
ing, influencing the meaning of what was before and what comes. Performance
time is fleeting and constraining: movements unfold, succeed and even a silence or
immobility is but a tension or preparation of the embodied bound towards the
next movement or sound; no movement is ever in isolation. Inner, experienced
time, and spatialized, objective, analyzable time merge into an embodied time, the
time of the unfolding movements and acts which create the art manifestation. This
embodied time is experienced and realized through the body and the gesture,
withdrawn from ordinary or social time ?chronos ? into a suspended time in
which the embodied and gestural flexibility in the artwork decides of temporal
suspension or elasticity. An embodied narrative of meaning takes place.
Moreover, the dynamic process of the performance act happens not only in
time but also in space. Both are deeply entrenched. The movements of the body
incorporate the surrounding space, linking interiority and exteriority. The space
of the performance being the space of the performer, it becomes part of the body,

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 aqu At% / \ . oaa I ? Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
IKA3M 4U izuwf) a. ?t>9-?<n | Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

or the body part of the space. The artist enacts with a high perceptual and kines
thetic sensitivity of the space, the objects, the bodies, the atmosphere, of every
thing that is 'in touch' with his or her body, extending the body and its unfolding
gestures with the material surroundings and objects.
The theatre space changes completely when a performance starts. The empty
space becomes an artistic space, an integral part of the artistic act, changing the
space into a lived artistic embodied realm. The floor is no longer 'a floor of a the
atre building', the walls are no longer ordinary walls, they become part of or even
'disappear' in the creation of the artistic embodied act. Position thus entails, be
comes disposition: where the artist is and what he does or will do, his or her spa
tial position, the material givenness and relatedness of body and space, merge
completely in the unfolding of the performance. The artist's act of creation in
volves the creation of a new time-space, or an 'in-between' time-space: a liminal
space of artistic performance which challenges all ordinary quantitative time
space experiences or chronos-topos. This liminal space, as an assemblage of the
spaces of artistic practice, of preparation and of performance in one 'here and
now', in one act, in one place, englobes at the same time artistic background and
focus of attention. In this liminal space of performance can possible creativity in
the form of 'kairos' emerge.
What then can kairos mean for the performer?
From the point of view of the artist, the seemingly continuous unfolding of
gestures in the act of performance is backed up by a heightened awareness and an
embodied and cognitive track of this continuity, always ready to re-assess back
ground and focus. This attention implies a fast tracking of possibilities and con
straints and a fast attuning between proprioception and exteroception ? between
the attitudes and processes which steer up of the inner body and mind, and their
reception of and interaction with the resonance of the outer world. The artist will
have to cope with unexpected conditions which suddenly can hinder the attuning
of body and space. He or she will prevent this as much as possible, by already
'sensing' the space before, by preparing his or her body and its 'touch' with that
space. The kairos of the artist concerns the faculty and reaction to cope with the
unexpected, with the particular constraints of a situation and of her own act. As
in rhetoric, the artist has a self-conscious relation with his or her tedine ? artistic
expertise ? and its contours, the web of artistic practice. But this know-how of
the artist, considered as the broader web of artistic practice, and refined into a
specific preparation, must be met by a 'know-when', an acute attention and alert
intervention. Every artistic decision in the performance, every commitment is
specific and particular, context-linked. Each performance becomes a reinvention
of a previous meticulously rehearsed and prepared content in a new and different
situation. Thus, decisions and choices, analyses and commitments have to be
made at the right moment, at the opportune time, the kairos.

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 . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': irasM 40 (2009) 2: 269-281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance '

4. Responsibility and Vulnerability in the Act of Performance

?Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. ?But which is the stone that supports
the bridge?? Kublai Khan asks. ?The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,?
Marco answers, ?but by the line of the arch that they form.? Kublai Khan remains si
lent, reflecting. Then he adds: ?Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the
arch that matters to me.? Polo answers: ?Without stones there is no arch.?
(Italo CALVINO 1974, 66)

Art participates in the space of the world and in the construction of a world
view: artistic manifestations are part of culture as the stones are part of the bridge
in Calvino's Invisible Cities: they contribute to the line of the arch. What the artist
will do, decide, propose, how he or she will be engaged in the art manifestation
and in the audience, definitely will have some impact, some resonance into the
broader world. Kairos should not be considered as some sort of 'opportunistic'
decision, in the sense of egocentric, inequitable, profitable action. At the contrary,
in considering the concept of kairos not only as an integral part of the rhetorician's
particular act, but also broader, as part of the position of the rhetorician towards
art, audience and world, Aristotle linked it to the notions of virtue, equity, fitness
and occasion (Rhetoric) KINNEAVY & ESKIN 2000). Indeed, the Greeks were
citizens, and as such responsible for the polis ? the city-state ? and its values.
Their choices and decisions had a moral impact on the broader world.
These notions can be transposed to the world of art. The situation of the per
formance offers the artist a full spectrum of constraints and possibilities. Each
artistic response must be shaped in immediate response to the present situation;
instruction in kairos seems virtually impossible. How indeed could we take into
account all possible occasions, acknowledge all different ecological settings and
calculate the entire range of actions, interventions, decisions, modifications that
could be undertaken? At the same time, the artist reveals his or her art to the
world, where it is received, evaluated and on which it has an impact. In that sense,
the art manifestation is a result of a commitment of the artist in the world: like the
rhetorician's elocutionary act, the artist's performance will leave traces, raise ques
tions and open possible pathways.
The notion of virtue is a complex notion in Greek ethics. For Aristotle, virtue
is the primordial awareness and sense of having a positive attitude in and impact
on the world. At one hand it is an intrinsic value of the character of the rhetorician
on stage: the rhetorical act as a virtue-bearing presence (Rhetoric, Book 1,1365a5
15). At the other hand, connected to Greek politics, virtue is part of belonging to
the broader realm of citizens, of participating in the creation of the human world
and being responsible for it (Po/zfics,III.4). We could say that both are linked: the
act on stage is a public act, before an audience, and this already refers to the
broader world.

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 AQU At% fonno\ ofiQ 9 I ? Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
iitMom ?tu (Mini) . ?-^ Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance

This offers us a translation of Aristotle's 'virtue' into artistic virtue. Through

the performance, the artist establishes artistic virtue, acting with a sense of proud
ness as well as humility, knowing that, being as much as possible prepared, the
artist has to be prepared for the unexpected. The artist has to be alert, to react, to
contest, to interfere, whenever his or her responsibility can make that little differ
ence needed. In a broader sense, virtue refers to the sincere participation and in
teraction in and the cultural contribution to the art world. Virtue is constituted by
phronesis, a practical wisdom or good sense of how to act in situations, and arete,
good and moral character, which implies the possibility of confidence of the audi
ence towards the rhetorician/artist.
A second notion connected to kairos is equity (epieikeia), in rhetoric another
ethical notion. Equity refers to justice that goes beyond the written law; or, put
differently, it refers to the intention, the moral purpose, the insight which defies
fixed laws. For the rhetorician, it concerns the equitable application and interpre
tation of general law towards a particular individual in a particular situation and
at a particular time (Rhetoric, Book 1,1374a-b). It can be reconsidered in this con
text as the idea of artistic balance, of sensing what is appropriate and how it can
be expressed in the particular situation of the performance. Equity is to be found
in the intention, not in the action itself, but in the underlying purpose. Equity
aims at readjusting an unbalanced situation through intelligence, character and
good will. The equity principle aims at a kind of respect towards and a fundamen
tal belief in art, the own artistic act, the other artists and the audience, even in very
difficult situations.
Fitness then, in the moment of kairos, concerns the vigilance, the possibility
of reaction fitting the particular occasion and its participants. Kinneavy and Eskin
refer to Aristotle's 'pathetic argument' (2000, 438): the rhetorician not only has to
be aware of the disposition of mind of the persons involved in the instance and
subject of rhetorical practice, but also of the environmental situation and back
ground. Different environmental settings, different audiences will require adap
tation and continuous revision of interaction with other performing artists. The
artist will need to cope and interact with the audience's sensibilities ? the emo
tional dispositions of the audience ?, and with the situational and ecological con
text: the artist not only has to draw the audience's attention, but to adjust his or
her performance to the circumstances ? acoustics, instruments, atmosphere. Fit
ness aims at communication between the performer and the audience, which is
clearly being involved in the process, as well as fitting the artistic discourse to
broader social, cultural and moral sensibilities, the audience being part of the sur
rounding cultural world. Indeed, in a broader perspective, as was already indi
cated by the principles of equity and virtue, the act of performance also has to be
in some sense directed towards the social, moral and cultural dictates. It urges the
artist to draw out, bring to the fore, display energizing forces and imagination,
building on the web of artistic practice, in due measure and proportion.

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 . Consens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': |RASM ^ (2009) 2. 269.281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance 1

The specific acts and decisions behind this 'passing on', behind the creation
of something which 'fills the air', behind the possibly subliminal experience of the
performance and its resonance, happen on a tacit, non conscious level. The pos
sible resonance of the art manifestation implies a continuous detailed and fine
grained equilibration and re-equilibration of details in the performance act which
remain most of the time hidden, in the background; it is the indirect result of the
many aspects of the performance trajectory of the artist, sustained by his or her
broad web of artistic practice, the specific preparation and the appropriate inter
vention or kairos.
This brings us already to the notion of occasion which implies the feeling for
the right moment of creative interventions, the awareness of open possibilities
and of creatively coping with unexpected opportunities. The situation can con
strain the radius of action of the artist, it can offer unexpected possibilities or
problems. The artist will have to remain vigilant, watching out for the moments,
the breaches in the performance conveying kairotic possibilities of invention and
intervention, so that kairos will not overwhelm the artist, but the artist will ride
on the waves of kairos.

5. Conclusion

In her book Rhetoric reclaimed, Janet Atwill explains how Aristotle considered
rhetoric as a techne, a productive knowledge or expertise and skill, which has to
compete situational demands. Because of the singularity of each of its expres
sions, rhetoric remains epistemologically and ethically indeterminate and is never
a private possession (ATWILL 1998; LAUER 2004, 51). As with art performances,
it originates in the artist, allows for critique, and is directed toward the receiver in
an active and reciprocal way.
The performing and situated musician, in the liminal space created by the
confrontation of dispositions, preparations and the inescapable moment of per
formance, has to be alert, to react, to interfere, to decide each instance as it arises,
because no rules exist for the unprecedented. Performance necessitates a dynamic
relationship between the artistic expertise and the situated action and creation as
well as between the artistic situation, the audience and the world. Kairos implies
the convergence of 'knowing how' and 'knowing when', the faculty of observing
and realizing in any given case the available means of artistry (ATWILL 1998,59).
The multiple choices and decisions, ephemeral as they are, are fundamental and
creative ways of traveling between background and focus, between deep artistic
endeavor and immediate praxis, between movement and aesthetics, between self
and expression.

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 iDAcu An /onno? o- oaa -mm I ? Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos':
ikasm ? (Zuu9) z. zw- ? | Exploring the Tjme and Space 0f Artistic Resonance

REFERENCES

ARISTOTLE (trans., 1925). The ?Art? of Rhetoric (J. H. Freese, Trans.). The Loeb Classical
Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Also accessible online (19th of
May 2009): Rhetoric, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:
1999.01.0060

ARISTOTLE (ed. 2000). Politics (Benjamin Jowett, Trans.). Dover: Courier Dover Publica
tions.

ATWILL, Janet (1998). Rhetoric Reclaimed: Aristotle and the Liberal Arts Tradition, New York:
Cornell University Press.

AUBENQUE, Pierre (1963). La Prudence chez Aristote, Paris: PUF.

CALVINO, Italo (1974). Invisible Cities (William Weaver, Trans.), New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.

KINNEAVY, James & LESKIN, Catherine R. (2000). 'Kairos in Aristotle's Rhetoric', in Writ
ten Communication, 17, pp. 432-444.

LAUER, Janice M. (2004). Invention in Rhetoric and Composition, West Lafayette, Indiana:
Parlor Press and the WAC Clearinghouse.

POLANYI, Michael (1958). Personal Knowledge, London: Routledge & Kegan.

SIPIORA, Philip & BAUMLIN, James S. (2002). Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory,
and Praxis, Albany: State University of New York Press.

WHITE, Eric Charles (1987). Kaironomia: On the Will-to-Invent, Ithaca: Cornell UP.

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 . Coessens: Musical Performance and 'Kairos': I ?pj^gu 40 (2009) 2m 269-281
Exploring the Time and Space of Artistic Resonance | '

Sazetak

Glazbena izvedba i kairos: istraiivanje vremena i prostora

umjetni?ke rezonancije
?lanak obra uje nuznost umjetni?ke invencije i intervencije nazocne u izvedbenom
cinu, kojemu u pozadini stoji glazbenikov svijet vrlo vje?tih praksa, temeljitog uvje?bavanja,
utjelovljenih shema i unaprijed pripremljene interpretacijske izraiajnosti. Azaista, jednom
kada je sve pripremljeno i isprobano, ima li jo? prostora za kreativnost, za ne?to neo ekivano?
Povla?eci analogiju izmedu glazbenikove i retoricareve umjetnosti, kao ?to je to opisano u
Aristotelovoj Retorici, specifi?nost glazbenikove prakse smjestit ce se u ?irok okvir koji
povezuje umjetni ku pozadinu i ishod njezine integracije i priprema u prostoru umjetni?ke
manifestacije u pojmu gr?koga kairosa.
U prvome dijelu ?lanka opisuje se umjetnost grckoga retori?ara i osobiti trenutak
odluke u praksi - kairos. Gr ka ideja kairosa odnosi se na pravi trenutak odluke koji ovisi o
neocekivanim uvjetima situacije i njezinim pojedina nim ograni?enjima. Poput retori ara,
umjetnik ne samo da mora pripremiti i pojacati svoju praksu prethodnim o?trim treningom i
znanjem, nego i uzajamno djelovati u okolnostima prisutnim u danoj prostorno-vremenskoj
izvedbi.
U drugome dijelu clanka razmatra se cin izvedbe kao doprinos umjetni koj pozadini,
sto se ovdje naziva 'mrezom umjetni?ke prakse'. Mreia umjetni?ke prakse odnosi se na
skrivenu privatnu umjetni ku djelatnost, napore i treniranje sto stoje iza trenutaka javnog
izlaganja. Ona se sastoji od pet dimenzija: utjelovljenog 'znanja kako' (know-how), osob
nog znanja, te okolinske, kulturno-semioti?ke i primala?ke dimenzije.
U tre em dijelu clanka gr?ki se kairos premje?ta u situaciju umjetnikova cina.
Umjetni?ka izvedba d?finira se s jedne strane kao specifi?ni, dru?tveno defmirani vremen
sko-prostorni okvir, no s druge je strane ovisna o idiosinkrazijskom umjetnickom tjelesnom
prikazivanju. Iz ovoga slijedi da svaki polozaj oko izvedbe i u njoj zahtijeva umjetnikovu
dispoziciju. Ova dispozicija, utjelovljena u umjetni?kom ?inu i poduprta umjetnikovom
mrezom prakse, transcendira vrijeme i prostor izvedbe putem umjetnikovih obveza i odgo
vornosti.
U posljednjem dijelu clanka raspravlja se o umjetnikovoj odgovornosti s gledista
gr?kog kairosa. Kairos ne zna?i da treba djelovati oportunisti?ki, nego da valja djelovati u
prikladnom trenutku, ujedinjujuci u svakoj odluci vrlinu i obvezu. Vrlina retori ara - kao i
umjetnika - sastoji se prije svega od prakti?ne mudrosti ili istancana smisla za to kako valja
moralno djelovati u raznim situacijama. Nadalje, retori ar/umjetnik mora pronaci pravu
ravnotezu, osjecajuci ?to je prikladno a ?to nije u odnosu na svoju publiku i siri svijet oko
njega. Osim toga, svaka izvedba zahtijeva oprez i svijest o situacijskom, dru?tvenom i
ekolo?kom kontekstu, koji ce se izraziti odgovaraju im o?itovanjem. I napokon, retori?ar/
umjetnik mora biti pripravan i otvoren za mogu?nosti i neo ekivane prigode. U svemu tome
Aristotelov siri retoricki i eti?ki svjetonazor korespondira s umjetnikovim o?itovanjem,
etikom i odgovornoscu.

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