I saw this post on Instagram which sent me into some research on Alexandra Streliski, a 39 year old French Canadian pianist and composer. One of her concerts on YouTube begins with the title “INSCAPE” and this definition.
In an interview with Tom Power, she speaks about the act of creating as a trance state with this flow like a river which exists and comes through you. She says that Philip Glass speaks of this metaphorical river and that “artists feed on a higher ground”.
In trying to more deeply understand the term and implications, my thoughts spun around words with roots: escape, landscape, outscape (I’m not sure if that is a word, but as the corollary term, the “outscape” could be the outer nature of a person as shown in a work of art). And, in listening to her music, the term and its implications takes shape internally.
But, I still wonder, how can one either quantify or qualify that “unique inner nature” and then see or hear it in the art? Because don’t we all ultimately read a bit of our own selves and our own experiences into someone else’s art? Or are we all just connecting at the “higher ground”?
is_reflecting 
Wow. I will really have to think about this. How does our experiences shape how we experience others, and, in this post’s case, their art? That has me really thinking about intent of author/artist, and the reader’s intent for reading/observing. How many gazes do we hold, and how much do we suspend ourselves to see something new, or hold onto ourselves to see ourselves affirmed?
Thank you for this rich post, Melanie.
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Yes, that dance between reader and text or author and text – it’s a triangular relationship where the medium is open for interpretation. And how we “see” is vital! This reminds me of John Berger’s book, Ways of Seeing – he says, “we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.”
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Ok. I am hooked.
Now checking out-
etymonline.com/word/escape
Will be back in a bit.
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Looking forward to seeing what you capture.
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O think of art as text, as literature, so I think what this artist is talking about is reader response and/or mirroring, as in Jacque Lacan’s ideas about seeing our own selves reflected in various aspects of the world. Maybe this artist isn’t familiar w/ Lacan.
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Such intriguing contemplations, Melanie, as we do come to art and music as we are…I understand the concept of creating as a river flow in a trancelike state. Like a conduit, in a way, with the shaping or directing of the flow, the “inscape,” showing the artist’s unique inner nature…but as for quantifying or qualifying that? I do not know! You ahve opened many channels of thought here!
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