Tacit Knowledge

In one of my earlier blogs about reflection IN and ON action I mentioned an 'awareness' that I believe performers develop and use whilst on stage. With the help of Adesola's reader (Akinleye, 2010) and the work of Michael Polanyi (Polanyi, 1966) I suggested that this might be a form of tacit knowledge because I found it difficult to communicate the idea with words alone. Adesola says,

"In terms of this reflective reader Polanyi's statement raises two important points. The importance of articulation of reflective practice and the importance to have a variety of ways to support reflection"

I therefore wanted to look further at this tacit knowledge to see if I could understand it more fully and use it more effectively. By definition it can't be communicated by words so I began to wonder how I could demonstrate what I meant by a performer's 'awareness'. The following two videos are acting exercises that I have used in many different situations over the years.

The first is where you get a group of performers to close there eyes and try and all clap at the same time. I asked my flat mates to help me. At first we don't clap in time at all but the more we concentrate and try and tune into each others rhythms, the better we get. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIJIm78tsLI

The second is where you get the group to again close their eyes and then try and count to twenty. If any two people say the same number at the same time you have to start at one again. We also initially found this difficult but after a while we focused and managed to get all the way to twenty. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cy2aoRoMuY

Both these exercises are used by performers to improve their ability to tune in to their fellow actors. I think they also demonstrate effectively the type of awareness I am talking about on stage. I think the fact that these exercises were invented (as well as many others that are similar) must mean that performers have always tried to comprehend and harness this 'awareness'. Initially I was dubious as to whether becoming consciously aware of a tacit knowledge would make it lose it innate usefulness. However, after considering these exercises and understanding the reason they were created I now think that having a more studied comprehension of your skills means you can utilise them more effectively.

In the chapter by David Boud from 'Promoting journal writing in adult education' (English and Gillen, 2001) he writes,

"In developing expertise of any kind, it is often helpful to become more deliberate and conscious of the process and more aware of the decisions being made by others and ourselves."