Black Swan Theory (inspired by Piper's mystery of the object)

A link to an essay on "Black Swan Theory"

When discussing Piper's view of performance art as unique, we mentioned that no two performers are the same regardless of how similar their technique is. The film "Black Swan" is about a dancer who must play two conflicting roles on stage. The roles begin to affect her waking life and the conflict eventually results in psychosis. The excerpt from Psychology Today suggests that humans naturally attribute order and predictability to every day events... "Because it is always comforting (and often useful, in fact) to believe that the world is a safe, predictable place. It feels good to be overly optimistic and to feel in control of one's destiny, and that everyone else is in control of his or her destiny. That if I do a,b, and c then x,y, and z will result. But if we take this comforting and illusory form of thinking overboard by under-representing uncertainty in our efforts to predict the future, we leave ourselves vulnerable to the jarring peck of the black swan." Perhaps this is what Piper means by the 'mystery of the object'. Objects are predictable. They have qualities that we expect to experience. Attributing magical powers and the ability to move us to objects, according to Piper, is naive. People, on the other hand, are far beyond predictable. Despite our more or less 'concrete' (or at least impeccably slowly changing) personalities, we are complex and ever-changing. Our actions often seem impulsive and illogical. Our personal creations--our ART--are symbolic and unique. Perhaps, as Piper suggests, the uniqueness of mankind is what makes performance art not only unique, but irreplaceable as well.