This is Not Tech Poi - A History of Artistic Movements in the Advanced Poi World

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DrexFactor Poi

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 42

@Spyro_2076 11 ай бұрын

This video was extremely well put together. It felt like a mini documentary. Great job! 👍

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! That means so much to me!

@me0101001000 11 ай бұрын

I'm heavily invested in tech poi, particularly as a scientist. It has become a core ambition of mine to closely break down the mathematical and physical principles behind poi and glowstringing. I think this will not only serve as a vehicle to accurately and precisely quantize details about a flow arts style, but provide a vehicle to teach classical mechanics, trigonometry, and calculus in a manner that is a lot less dry than we currently do.

@Spyro_2076 11 ай бұрын

That sounds awesome :)

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

Very cool! You've seen my paper outlining poi patterns via trig and linear algebra, yeah? docs.google.com/document/d/11DVxKtISpmnmcHcKp9wDW_ysLeKluF2iESnhm7EqF2E/edit?usp=drive_link

@zzasserzz 11 ай бұрын

Please do it sir, would love it ❤

@me0101001000 11 ай бұрын

@@Spyro_2076 I hope it will be!

@me0101001000 11 ай бұрын

@@DrexFactor I have not! I'll give it a thorough read, and I will be citing this!

@KikiDupris 10 ай бұрын

keep playing poi. Keep flowing. It's all about the self manipulation of the prop. Everyone is unique.

@tracerammo 10 ай бұрын

Tech Poi isn't dead. An involved, online tech poi community may be dead. A way of filming and displaying moves online may have gone out of style. It's remarkable, how you arbitrarily redefine things and make them meaningless. "Tech Poi," being dead and extinct, must be different than manipulation poi, therefore tech poi can only be the style Drex was spinning back when it was "alive." How about, when talking about a stylistic era, we call it by the era, just like music. There are genre and subgenre in music, so why not in poi? If you're incorporating technical moves, it's tech. Patterns or manipulation? Subgenre of tech. If you're dancing and "flowing" or whatever, footwork or ballet? This ridiculous attempt to hijack the term tech poi and redefine it as the proper name of a stylistic era is mind-bogglingly arrogant. (Par for the course, it seems.) Are you just trying to double down on your erroneous claim that tech is dead?

@DrexFactor 10 ай бұрын

"How about, when talking about a stylistic era, we call it by the era, just like music. There are genre and subgenre in music, so why not in poi?" That's...literally the argument I'm laying out. I point out stylistic differences between the 2005-2013 and 2013-present era and use both music and artistic genres as an analogy to do the very thing you're describing here. So at this point I have to ask: if that's not the message you received from this video, what was the message you received and what was the text in the video that led you to that conclusion?

@forestschrodt3212 11 ай бұрын

Beautiful video and well shared. I agree with your theory about the transition into manipulation. But I feel that you nearly completely skipped over other poi styles and the earlier poi styles that predated Tech, which i was part of and would describe it as performance oriented, branching into story telling and ritual dance theatre. There were not very many fire dancers then and the ones who were really dedicated, were largely performers. Many of the early poi people were performer artist's who combined the creation of an avatar way of expressing themselves with costumes, stage personalities and choreography that was not necessarily dependent on explosive pyrotechnics. We had to rely on our facial expressions, awesome costumes, and ability to connect with the audience. Poi was more oriented around performance art at this time. This gradually grew more and more ,largely because of Burningman Fire Conclave requirements for a well put together performances to get your reduced cost ticket into Burningman. I feel that this was the single biggest thing that helped popularize fire dancing and POi. When tech came in, it co-insided with a major shift in how fire performances were popular and oriented more around pyrotech and choreographed formations. Additionally, amongst international community outside of Burningman Conclave, fire performing became less of the focus. It became so common and among many people, it more became a healthy hobby and for some, a passion. I think the future has many branches. One of the main things I see happening is dance and all the myriad of styles, contemporary, hip-hop, liquid dance, capoeira, break dancing, indigenous and cultural dance styles, etc... Combining manipulation, tech and flow with dance styles will naturally develop more focus on artistic expressionism. Additional combinations of art forms that are already getting explored are, Acro Yoga, acrobatics, miming and clowning, Aerial poi, (Tammy Firefly just did a fantastic Aerial fire performance on America's Got Talent. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqeod2WkqsRlf6Msi=EBrTR-yfJVOSi4lf ) I also see a lot of room for mixing poi with other props. Poi with staff, poi with clubs, poi with dragon, poi with contact ball, poi with hat. Most of these mixing of props has been done already, but there is still so much to explore. I hope i was able to contribute a bit to this interesting topic. Thank you for all your doing Drex. With Love and gratitude, Forest Schrodt with Bali Flow Temple center for arts.

@DurbsBT 11 ай бұрын

My personal take, which is similar to yours, is when poi shifted from being a skill toy (albeit favoured by the soon to be called "flow arts") and started to become a valid circus prop. As you mention, poi started to regularly be seen and shared at EJCs / BJCs, UberPoi, Play Festival - and suddenly you had these relatively new meetings of people from the circus performance scene, bringing the concept of actually doing a PERFORMANCE and applying this to poi, which previously was a "let's have a burn on the beach and do some cool tricks". And it was VERY two-way; poi spinners seeing "proper" juggling acts and applying these performance skills to their own spinning, and jugglers starting to pick up poi and apply their showmanship to the prop. Dervishly Yers was notable not just because it was the "birth of flowers", but his awareness of planes and *presenting* the flowers to the viewer made it a performance. Broadly, you could show a "Tech Poi" video to a non-spinner and they'd be bored by someone standing with their feet rooted the spot doing something complicated, whereas you could show a Nick/Yuta/Cyrille video to a lay audience and they'd be entranced. The pivotal moment was when people started *performing* the tech stuff - it's why Ronan was always so pivotal, or Kyle Maclean from the staff world, they did really complicated tricks, but *performed* them, rather than just doing them (Man, I wish YT had italics!) Traditional circus "flow" props never had this issue - hoops, contact juggling etc, have always been a performance art involving a skill toy. Poi, as soon as it left New Zealand, was a skill toy, and had to develop to be a performance art. I remember the literal scorn poi spinning used to receive at some EJCs from the jugglers - a real mountain to climb before it got accepted as a valid performance tool. [Durbs]

@RolandTumble23 3 ай бұрын

YT does have _italics._ Just start/end the word (or phrase) with an underscore.

@zzasserzz 11 ай бұрын

Well stated, I think this can be a poi / flow arts history and culture - we have our own in Singapore but I always think it’s important to preserve it, even if it was only for a time

@deadmanskate 11 ай бұрын

I don’t think it’s fair to say tech poi is dead, maybe that the tech blog format is dead, I like to think of it as how a DJ mixes many genres together to make a mix and we just do the same thing, with tech, flow/flowers, manip etc. as our genres

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

Well, the tech blog format is certainly dead but I'm not sure I follow the comparison of poi as being like remixes. Even if we use DJing as a comparison here, DJs always publicize the genre they intend to play in order for the audience to set expectations and many genres fall in and out of favor over time. There are certainly artists that combine elements of Tech and Manipulation, but I think it's safe to say at this point that if an artist doesn't incorporate some element of Manipulation into their style, then they're seen a somewhat passe. There's a similar thing going on right now with the Pop Punk revival--despite the genre being rooted in simple instrumentation and very raw aesthetics, the sound of the revival is highly polished and features an enormous amount of synth and audio processing. You simply have to do that in order to get on the radio anymore. Likewise, you have to do some contact and throws to have your poi work be seen and respected these days.

@coordi 11 ай бұрын

@@DrexFactor "You have to do some contact and throws to have your poi respected". Wat mate? Its not that serious, nor is poi popular enough or widespread enough to be that closed minded about it.

@deadmanskate 11 ай бұрын

@@DrexFactor djs don’t always publicise the genre they intend to play, they play to a theme, a vibe if you like, and combine many different similar genres to create an experience. I’d argue we do the same thing, just as I know what kind vibe of music a dj is going to play, if I’m going to watch a video of your spinning I know what I’m in for, your have your own style made up of many different genres of poi that you have taken bits from and developed to your own style, each trick and framework still belongs to their respective origin but that doesn’t mean that the framework is dead. I feel your view on poi has become very elitist and compartmentalised and you’re getting too caught up in a small scale hobby of just spinning balls on strings

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

@@deadmanskate I'm getting the impression from this that the practice of identifying genres is something you find upsetting. Is there any chance you'd be willing to share with my why that is? Are there negative externalities of this that you're hoping to avoid, is it a type of discussion you find a bit opaque, or something else?

@deadmanskate 11 ай бұрын

@@DrexFactor I don’t know what’s even being argued anymore, I just wanted to make a point that I disagreed with you about tech poi being dead, at the end of the day this is a small community and pedantics need not be pondered, we all spin balls on strings, we can only be as cool as each other 🤣

@luismarianomdedeu 8 күн бұрын

great video! Thank you so much for your hard work

@MilipTichaelPhomas 5 ай бұрын

I'm waiting for the 500Hr Poi Instructor Certification course: $1,499us (Klarna Only 4 installments of $375)

@alonsomacias2602 11 ай бұрын

Hi Drex man, i have to be honest, i dont like props, but i love the people as community, some of them have superskills, but i like so much that you take this point to get clear what is what. I really apprecciate poi practice as a serious thing of gloria. One life is not enough to dominate everything with only 2 pois. It has much to teach us, and yes, theres a theory behind, model of learning, matematic patrons, variations, and i think we totally should keep the center of the body as the axis and start from here the FLOW with movement and the props. Short and clips videos on social media get over us, and next generations should know that if someone wants to learn the practice there will be a master/teacher/class and a safe space where you can begin the real discipline and go to a next level, and the real next level, an the next, etc.. I think this is a calling and greatful to the artist that share knowledge and their work with beginner/interm poi spinners with inner intention of develop, long life to you all!

@gaberialla 11 ай бұрын

This is such a cool video. I have been really interested in learning tech poi. I love expressing my creativity with flow arts.

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

Thank you! It was challenging to make, but I'm pretty happy with the results!

@firikios86 11 ай бұрын

Indeed, great exposition and story telling

@DrexFactor 11 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I'm really proud of this one!

@tempMentive 10 ай бұрын

I agree that contact, juggling, and beyond are manipulations. Okay. We are beyond that... Now, "tech" poi has never meant "computer" based. Being a programmer, and working on systems to define some 3d stuff, i can tell you i could develop systems for other theories. If i did, does that make it tech POI? If the definition of "tech" is NOT "technology" but rather "technical," we have to ask ourselves, what did "tech" mean? Did it have opportunity to expand? I dont have an exact definition, but i dont feel manipulations become excluded from the term "tech"

@DrexFactor 10 ай бұрын

Well first up, I definitely did not mean to imply that the “tech” in Tech Poi was short for technology. That’s never said in the video, but if that impression came across then I do apologize. That said, it does sound like we’re in agreement that there are significant cultural and stylistic differences between the most popular advanced poi style of the late 2000s and that which is more popular today. That being the case and assuming we’re going to hold onto Tech Poi as an umbrella term that includes moder Manipulation, what then would we call the older style? Sure, if we want to we can just generically say that the term “Tech” applies as a synonym for Advanced Poi for whatever stylistic flourishes for that are en vogue at any particular moment, but it kind of seems to me that rather than being short for either “Technology” or “Technical”, that “Tech” at that point becomes functionally meaningless as a term. There’s plenty of technical poi work that isn’t Manipulation right now and I’m not sure that I see “tech” becoming meaningless as a better outcome than giving it the label of a prolific but extinct artistic movement. Your mileage may vary.

@tempMentive 10 ай бұрын

@DrexFactor I don't have an answer for it, I just don't see "tech" only meaning the past. Like, I get where you're going with it, I just disagree on that definition. I also see a lot of come back to the "old" stuff lately, but it's slow. But you also said that you see that as well :D

@tempMentive 10 ай бұрын

@DrexFactor so, the way I've seen it, although it's not a definition... Flow vs Tech. Regardless of difficulty, if one is moving around fluidly, moving their feet / body / dancing, then I see it as Flow. If one is standing there drilling advanced stuff, that's Tech. Until you can put it to a performance and move freely (which I personally don't do lol) it's Tech. Are your feet planted? Or only move then once every 10 seconds? Yea, that's tech. It's a description, not something that divides the old and the new.

@cynthiakountz8555 10 ай бұрын

First I want to tell you how much I appreciate your videos. You were the first tutorial I saw, thank you for that. It is unlikely i will get really good at it, lol. But in regards to this video, this was beautifully done. Great work. And I think tech poi and Performance poi, personally. Manipulation has become a word that carries judgement.