Creating Something Out Of Nothing

This is science: The law of conservation of mass states that, in a closed system, mass will remain constant regardless of the processes happening inside said system.

Ah, I love science. This law basically says that in Chemistry, the amount of what you put in must equal the amount of what you get out. It doesn't matter if all that stuff has changed a million times, just that it's the same amount.

As we all know, this law doesn't quite work for much else. If you only put in five minutes worth of work, you won't get much in return. In this business it feels as if you are required to put in days of work before a show. That show is then only two hours at most, after which you spend hours taking everything down, packing it up, and putting it back on the truck.

That's all well and good, but that's not what i'm here to talk to you about.

I'm here to tell you about the fact that there is no law of conservation of art.

A few months ago i was approached by these friends of mine to work on a world premiere show. Flattered that they thought of me, I accepted the challenge of helping them create art out of nothing. We started with an empty stage (our closed system) to which we added a floor covering, piles of instruments, a table, some chairs, a couple buckets full of sand, some metal scrap items, and finally our six players. Our chemicals in place, we gave them sheet music as a catalyst, starting the reaction that created the show.

I think we all got something different out of that art reaction when it first happened back in March. I know that I got a sense of accomplishment, a little bit of frustration, a bunch of paperwork, calls from the tour with questions, my name in front of the playbill, and cash in the bank. One reason that there is no law of conservation of art is due to the fact that every other person got something different from that show. We all started with the same reactants, added the same catalyst, and created individual outcomes for everyone.

That's the other reason there is no law of conservation of art - we can create art out of nothing. Let's see science do that!