TED2002
Michael Moschen: Juggling as art ... and science
Filmed:
Readability: 3.1
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Michael Moschen puts on a quietly mesmerizing show of juggling. Don't think juggling is an art? You might just change your mind after watching Moschen in motion.
Michael Moschen - Juggler
Quite simply, Michael Moschen has revolutionized juggling, refining it into an art and a bit of a science. With a few flying balls and well-chosen props he will completely re-wire your notions of the physically possible. Full bio
Quite simply, Michael Moschen has revolutionized juggling, refining it into an art and a bit of a science. With a few flying balls and well-chosen props he will completely re-wire your notions of the physically possible. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:19
I started juggling a long time ago,
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but long before that, I was a golfer, and that's what I was, a golfer.
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And as a golfer and as a kid,
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one of the things that really sort of seeped into my pores,
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that I sort of lived my whole life, is process.
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And it's the process of learning things.
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One of the great things was that my father was an avid golfer, but he was lefty.
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And he had a real passion for golf,
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and he also created this whole mythology
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about Ben Hogan and various things.
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Well, I learned a lot about interesting things
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that I knew nothing about at the time, but grew to know stuff about.
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And that was the mythology of skill.
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So, one of the things that I love to do is to explore skill.
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01:02
And since Richard put me on this whole thing with music --
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I'm supposed to actually be doing a project with Tod Machover
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with the MIT Media Lab -- it relates a lot to music.
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But Tod couldn't come and the project is sort of somewhere,
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I'm not sure whether it's happening the way we thought, or not.
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01:17
But I'm going to explore skill, and juggling,
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01:21
and basically visual music, I guess.
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01:28
OK, you can start the music, thanks.
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01:30
(Music)
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04:28
(Applause)
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04:31
Thanks. Thank you. Now, juggling can be a lot of fun;
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play with skill and play with space, play with rhythm.
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04:44
And you can turn the mike on now. I'm going to do a couple of pieces.
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I do a big piece in a triangle
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and these are three sections from it.
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Part of the challenge was to try to understand rhythm and space
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using not just my hands -- because a lot of juggling is hand-oriented --
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but using the rhythm of my body and feet,
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and controlling the balls with my feet.
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06:22
(Applause)
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06:27
Thanks. Now, this next section was an attempt to explore space.
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You see, I think Richard said something about people that are against something.
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06:39
Well, a lot of people think jugglers defy gravity or do stuff.
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Well, I kind of, from my childhood and golf and all that,
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it's a process of joining with forces.
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And so what I'd like to do is try to figure out
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how to join with the space through the technique.
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06:55
So juggling gravity -- up, down.
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If you figure out what up and down really are,
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it's a complex physical set of skills
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to be able to throw a ball down and up and everything,
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but then you add in sideways.
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07:37
(Applause)
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Now, I look at it somewhat as a way -- when you learn juggling
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what you learn is how to feel with your eyes, and see with your hands
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because you're not looking at your hands,
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you're looking at where the balls are or you're looking at the audience.
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So this next part is really a way of understanding space and rhythm,
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with the obvious reference to the feet,
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but it's also time -- where the feet were, where the balls were.
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09:25
(Applause)
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09:35
Thanks. So, visual music: rhythm and complexity.
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I'm going to build towards complexity now.
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Juggling three balls is simple and normal.
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09:46
(Laughter)
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Excuse me.
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(Laughter)
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We're jugglers, OK. And remember, you're transposing,
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you're getting into a subculture here.
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(Laughter)
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And juggling -- the balls cross and all that.
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OK, if you keep them in their assigned paths you get parallel lines
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of different heights, but then hopefully even rhythm.
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And you can change the rhythm -- good, Michael.
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You can change the rhythm, if you get out of the lights.
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OK? Change the rhythm, so it's even.
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Or you can go back and change the height. Now, skill.
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But you're boxed in, if you can only do it up and down that way.
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So, you've got to go after the space down there.
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OK, then you've got to combine them,
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because then you have the whole spatial palette in front of you.
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And then you get crazy.
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(Applause)
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11:03
Now, I'm actually going to ask you to try something,
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so you've got to pay attention. Complexity:
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if you spend enough time doing something, time slows down
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or your skill increases, so your perceptions change.
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It's learning skills -- like being in a high-speed car crash.
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Things slow down as you learn, as you learn, as you learn.
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You may not be able to affect it, it almost drifts on you. It goes.
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But that's the closest approximation I can have to it.
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11:31
So, complexity. Now, how many here are jugglers?
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OK, so most of you are going to have a similar reaction to this.
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OK? And whoever laughed there --
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you understood it completely, right?
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(Laughter)
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No, it looks like a mess. It looks like a mess with a guy there,
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who's got his hands around that mess, OK.
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12:00
Well, that's what juggling is about, right?
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It's being able to do something that other people can't do or can't understand.
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12:06
All right. So, that's one way of doing it, which is five balls down.
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OK? Another way is the outside.
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And you could play with the rhythm.
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Same pattern.
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12:21
Make it faster and smaller.
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Make it wider.
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Make it narrower.
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Bring it back up.
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12:35
OK. It's done. Thanks.
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12:38
(Applause)
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12:41
Now, what I wanted to get to is that you're all very bright, very tactile.
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I have no idea how computer-oriented or three-dimensionally-oriented you are,
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but let's try something.
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12:55
OK, so since you all don't understand what the five-ball pattern is,
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I'm going to give you a little clue.
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Enough of a clue? So, you get the pattern, right? OK.
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(Laughter)
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13:21
You're not getting off that easy. All right?
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13:26
Now, do me a favor: follow the ball that I ask you to follow.
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Green.
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Yellow.
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Pink.
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White.
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13:40
OK, you can do that? Yeah? OK.
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13:43
Now, let's actually learn something.
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13:46
Actually, let me put you in that area of learning, which is very insecure.
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You want to do it? Yeah? OK.
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Hands out in front of you. Palms up, together.
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14:00
What you're going to learn is this.
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14:03
(Laughter)
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OK? So what I want you to do is just listen to me and do it.
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Index finger, middle finger, ring, little.
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Little, ring, middle, index. And then open.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger.
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A little bit faster.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger.
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14:28
(Laughter)
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All right. A lot of different learning processes going on in here.
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(Laughter)
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One learning process that I see is this --
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(Laughter)
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OK. Another learning process that I see is this --
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(Laughter)
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OK. So, everybody take a deep breath in, breath out. OK.
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Now, one more time, and --
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finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger. Open.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger. OK.
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Shake your hands out.
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Now, I assume a lot of you spend a lot of time at a computer.
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OK? So, what you're doing is, you're going la, la, la,
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and you're getting this. OK?
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So that's exactly what I'm going to ask you to do,
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but in a slightly different way. You're going to combine it.
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So what I want you to do is -- fingers.
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I'll tell you what to do with your fingers, same thing.
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But I want you to do is also, with your eyes,
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is follow the colored ball that I ask you to follow.
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(Laughter)
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OK? Here we go.
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So, we're going to start off looking at the white ball --
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and I'm going to tell you which color,
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and I'm also going to tell you to go with your fingers. OK?
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So white ball and --
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finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger. Pink.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger. Green.
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Finger, finger, finger, finger. Yellow.
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Finger, finger, finger, pink or finger.
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Pink, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger, finger.
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All right.
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(Applause)
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How did you do? Well? OK. The reason I wanted you to do this is
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because that's actually what most people face throughout their lives,
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a moment of learning, a moment of challenge.
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It's a moment that you can't make sense of.
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Why the hell should I learn this? OK?
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Does it really have anything to do with anything in my life?
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You know, I can't decipher -- is it fun? Is it challenging? Am I supposed to cheat?
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(Laughter)
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You know, what are you supposed to do?
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You've got somebody up here who is the operative principle
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of doing that for his whole life. OK?
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Trying to figure that stuff out. But is it going to get you anywhere?
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It's just a moment. That's all it is, a moment. OK?
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I'm going to change the script for one second. Just let me do this.
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I don't need music for it. Talking about time in a moment.
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There's a piece that I recently developed which was all about that,
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a moment. And what I do as a creative artist
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is I develop vocabularies or languages of moving objects.
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What I've done for you here, I developed a lot of those tricks
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and I put the choreography together,
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but they're not original techniques.
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Now, I'm going to start showing you some original techniques
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that come from the work that I've developed. OK?
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So, a moment, how would you define a moment?
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Well, as a juggler, what I wanted to do was create something
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that was representational of a moment.
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Ahhh.
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All right, I'm going to get on my knees and do it.
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So, a moment.
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(Rattling)
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OK? And then, what I did as a juggler was say,
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OK, what can I do to make that something
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that is dependent on something else, another dynamic.
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(Rattling)
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So, a moment.
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(Rattling)
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Another moment.
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(Rattling)
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Excuse me, still getting there. A moment that travels.
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(Rattling)
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A moment -- no, we'll try that again. It separates, and comes back together.
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Time. How can you look at time?
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And what do you dedicate it to, in exploring a particular thing?
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Well, obviously, there's something in here,
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and you can all have a guess as to what it is.
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There's a mystery. There's a mystery in the moment.
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And it has to settle. And then it's dependent on something else.
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And then it comes to rest. Just a little thing about time.
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Now, this has expanded into a much bigger piece,
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because I use ramps of different parabolas that I roll the balls on
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while I'm keeping time with this.
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But I just thought I'd talk about a moment.
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19:17
(Applause)
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All right. OK. Can we show the video of the triangle?
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Are we ready to do that? Yes?
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This is the piece that I told you about.
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It's a much bigger piece that I do exploring the space of a geometric triangle.
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(Applause)
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Thanks. The only thing I'll say about the last session is,
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you ever try juggling and driving the car with your knees
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at 120 miles an hour?
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(Laughter)
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The only other thing is, it was a real shock.
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I always drove motorcycles. And when I bought my first car, it shocked me
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that it cost three times more than my parents' house. Interesting.
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Anyway, balance:
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constant movement to find an approach to stillness.
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Cheating.
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(Laughter)
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Balance: making up the rules so you can't cheat,
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so you learn to approach stillness with different parts of your body.
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To have a conversation with it. To speak. To listen.
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(Laughter)
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Hup. Now, it's dependent on rhythm,
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and keeping a center of balance. When it falls, going underneath.
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So, there's a rhythm to it.
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The rhythm can get much smaller.
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As your skill increases, you learn to find those tinier spaces,
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those tinier movements. Thanks.
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(Applause)
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Now, I'm going to show you the beginnings of a piece
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that is about balance in some ways, and also --
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oh, actually, if you're bored, not here, here's one use for it.
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(Laughter)
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You can go with the "Sticks One" music.
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(Music)
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(Applause)
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Thanks. That has a certain kind of balance to it, which is all about plumb.
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I apprenticed with a carpenter and learned about plumb, square and level.
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And they influenced that, and this next piece, which I'll do a little segment of.
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"Two Sticks," you can go with it. Thanks.
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Which is again exploring space, or the lines in space.
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(Music)
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(Applause)
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Working with space and the lines in space in a different way.
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Oh, let's see here.
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(Applause)
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So, I'll come back to that in a second. But working with one ball,
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now, what if you attach something to it, or change it.
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This is a little thing that I made
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because I really like the idea of curves and balls together.
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And then creating space and the rhythm of space,
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using the surface of the balls, the surface of the arms.
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Just a little toy. Which leads me to the next thing,
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which is --
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what have I got here? OK. All right.
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I'm actually leading up to something,
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the newest thing that I'm working on. This is not it.
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This is exploring geometry and the rhythm of shape.
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(Applause)
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Now, what I just did was I worked with the mathematics --
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the diameter and the circumference.
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Sometimes these pieces are mathematical, in that way
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that I look at a shape and say, what about if I use this and this and this.
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Sometimes what happens in life affects my choice
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of objects that I try to work with.
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The next piece that I'm going to do -- which is the cylinders piece,
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if you want to get that up --
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it has to do with cylinder seals from about 5,000 years ago,
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which were stones with designs that were used to roll over wet clay
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with all sorts of great designs. I love ceramics and all of that.
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It's a combination of that, the beauty of that, the shape,
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and the stories that were involved in it,
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as well as the fact that they protected the contents.
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The second influence on this piece came from recycling
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and looking into a tin can recycling bin
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and seeing all that beautiful emptiness.
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So, if you want to go with the music for cylinders.
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(Music)
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(Applause)
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Talking about geometry and everything,
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if you take the circle and you split it in half --
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can you run "S-Curve music?"
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I'm going to do just a short version of it.
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Circles split in half and rotated, and mythology.
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(Music)
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(Applause)
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Anyway, that piece also has a kinetic sculpture in the middle of it,
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and I dance around a small stage so --
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two minutes, just to end? The latest piece that I'm working on --
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what I love is that I never know what I'm working on, why I'm working on it.
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They're not ideas, they're instincts.
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And the latest thing that I'm working on --
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(Clattering) --
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is something really -- I don't know what it is yet.
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And that's good. I like not to know for as long as possible.
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Well, because then it tells me the truth,
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instead of me imposing the truth.
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And what it is, is working with both positive and negative space
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but also with these curves.
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And what it involves,
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and I don't know if my hands are too beaten up to do it or not,
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but I'll do a little bit of it.
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It initially started off with me stacking these things,
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bunches of them, and then playing with the sense of space,
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of filling in the space. And then it started changing,
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and become folding on themselves.
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And then changing levels.
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Because my attempt is to make visual instruments,
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not to just make -- I'll try one other thing.
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For work in three dimensions, with your perceptions of space and time.
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Now, I don't know exactly where it's going,
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but I've got a bit of effort involved in this thing.
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And it's going to change as I go through it.
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But I really like it, it feels right.
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This may not be the right shape, and -- look at this shape,
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and then I'll show you the first design I ever put to it,
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just to see, just to play,
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because I love all different kinds of things to play with.
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Let's see here.
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To work with the positive and negative in a different way.
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And to change, and to change.
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So, I'm off in my new direction with this to explore rhythm and space.
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We'll see what I come up with. Thanks for having me.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Moschen - JugglerQuite simply, Michael Moschen has revolutionized juggling, refining it into an art and a bit of a science. With a few flying balls and well-chosen props he will completely re-wire your notions of the physically possible.
Why you should listen
A high school dropout turned MacArthur "genius grant" recipient, Michael Moschen is an art juggler, spawning scores of imitators and an entire methodology of crystal-ball juggling he likes to call Dynamic Manipulation. (The previously mentioned imitators call it "Contact Juggling," a term that Moschen himself despises.)
With a penchant for discipline, choreography, and catching flying balls -- and using props that include flaming torches, hoops, rods, and a ten-foot plastic triangle enclosure within which he stands, bouncing balls against the sides to achieve incredible patterns and velocities -- he creates illusions of speed and light that push the envelope of what is possible within this age-old circus art. Many of his techniques and routines are showcased in In Motion with Michael Moschen, a program produced in 1991 for National Public Television's Great Performances series.
Michael Moschen | Speaker | TED.com