word for the day :: ma [blue notebook]

Ma

[Japanese] space

space inbetween

in the kanji (picto-grams), we see a gate (space) with the sun (time) coming through*

thus not only space between spaces but also space between times

("we do not hear music, rather intervals")

relational space

Although it rules two things, is not created by compositional elements: it is what takes place in the mind of the person experiencing these elements



"... the simultaneous awareness of form and nonform that derives from an intensification of vision ... "

—notes derived from
a catalog on Darren Waterston

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*also noted by Michael Lazarin, Professor of English at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan:

The kanji character "ma" represents an ingrained principle in Japan's collective cultural history that time is an integral part of the experience of space. In fact, the character "means" both an interval of time and an interval of space.

In such Japanese arts as Kabuki, Noh, dance, storytelling, music, calligraphy, painting and architecture, "ma" can refer to rhythm and beat, a dramatic pause in spoken lines, or the use of empty space to enhance the sense of time and place.