This project as an outgrowth of A Constant Questioning

The following story inspired the project A Constant Questioning as well as this poem. The story takes place in Brooklyn:

Fifty men of oral culture
enter a room of books
and sit at a narrow table,
nose-to-nose, questioning
for nine hours weekly
or was it daily Talmud?
Unknown, the original
storyteller is gone.
Hands and words touching,
after four hours they pause.
The smell of knishes waft
in the air until music
makes arms outstretched,
long beards sway and fingers
snap. A man grabs
another man’s hand,
singing and spinning
tradition in old style hats
for an hour. Bodies
reminded
that not everything
is in the mind,
they return to the table,
arguing in bliss
another four hours.

Learning Talmud through passionate discussion is a regular practice for many Hassidic men although the inclusion of dance found in this story is unique. The Talmud, which in Hebrew means instruction/teach and learning/study, is the book of Jewish law. Originally passed down orally, it was converted into text beginning in 200 CE. It is often referred to as oral law and as a book within a book within a book since it contains an archive of Jewish law and commentary covering a wide range of topics including law, ethics, philosophy and history.

To someone unfamiliar with this culture of questioning, the discussions may appear to be an unpleasant, adversarial space. But this traditional, religious practice is a blissful and intimate, endless experience that welcomes disagreement and isn’t concerned with closure or victory. Additionally, this tradition helped create a generalized culture of questioning found even among non-practicing Jews.

In our diverse world, connection and conflict with ethnic practices is part of the human narrative. People, with remnants of past cultures somewhere in the mind, have constantly been remaking stories and traditions in different surroundings, creating and wandering through the present. While this oral culture of rigorous questioning and dialog is captivating, it exists in a space of exclusion based on gender and religious or atheist convictions and a boundary around what can and cannot be questioned.

As an experiment in knowledge, intimacy and efficacy in a pluralistic world, a table and benches were designed where people sit face-to-face, in close proximity, with their knees barely touching. The dimensions and design of this table reflect the intense intimacy in the story and a primary quality or potential of tables for gathering. The one in the story was most likely ~22 inches wide. The widths of this table and benches are 11¼ inches and they are 12 feet long, seating 16-18 people.

A Constant Questioning is a transdisciplinary project about knowledge, intimacy and efficacy. It takes place around a custom designed table and benches. The methodology for this project is related to the notion of experiment as an attempt to accelerate chance or as a thoughtful action with an unknown outcome.

A reference for this approach is found in the writings of Francis Bacon, the 16th century philosopher. His idea of experiment, which was about accelerating chance, is fundamentally different than the scientific method, which grew out of Francis Bacon’s theory into a practice framed around the objective testing of a specific hypothesis or question and a narrowing down of chance. Perhaps it is also related in spirit to the idea of Verwindung, the German word meaning twist or overturn. Opposed to the absolutism of overcoming, it means to recall, to err again, and yet abandon the notion that this erring will ever fully reveal itself and not require yet another overturning.

Before the wheel
Humans lifted the ground
And gathered round

A Constant Questioning began within the context of a one-week show and long-term experiments were not possible. As a result, people were invited to Open Table Experiments where they could gather at the table as well as propose an experiment in response to the story or the table as a primary object of human experience. Proposals were viewed opportunities for questioning and dialogue rather than control. There were several experiments, which involved 4-18 people engaged in a variety of table activities such as dialog, dance, eating, reading and games: Artable (Alice Tuan), Come Empty (Kwan Fai Lam), Feeding (Ramak Fazel), Single File World Domination (Keith Knittel), and Tiny Press Practices Poetry Reading and Game (CalArts MFA Poetics class).

The next phase of the project involves recurring interaction and long-term participation. These experiments will explore and utilize the table in relation to the context from which it sprang: a regular practice of face-to-face, rigorously-endless-yet-pleasurable discussion and a good measure of dance or movement. The intention is to experiment with the possibility of an informal, socio-intellectual space of oral culture and relationship building in a pluralistic world.