Flow. It represents both a cornerstone of our art as well as one of its most controversial topics. Though many of us in the Flow Arts hold it as a core value, we frequently disagree on what exactly it means and how relevant it is to what we do. We’re going to talk a little bit about the concept of flow and what it means to us as prop spinning artists.

Definition of Flow

Flow is a topic that is both wonderfully adaptable as well as maddeningly vague. When I first started spinning, I actually didn’t hear it used very often. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that the the term “Flow Arts” caught on, but that hasn’t come without controversy.

While there are as many definitions for flow as there are flow artists, I think one thing that nearly all of them can agree on is that flow constitutes a state of effortlessness in one’s art. It can be a display of virtuosity, aesthetic beauty, internal meditation, or all of the above! Flow can be transformational, relaxing, and fun.

Origins of Flow

This connotation for the word flow can more or less be traced back to the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-born psychologist who sought to explore the state that artists enter into when they get completely engrossed in their work. More simply, we would call this state being “in the zone,” and Mihaly was curious what caused it and why the results it produced were so often transcendental.

He began interviewing artists on this state in the 1970s and soon discovered the concept also applied to people in other pursuits, including athletes, business people, students, basically you can flow with any and all skills. During these interviews, the word “flow” emerged time and time again as many of the people described this state as being somewhat like letting water carry them along. Csikszentmihalyi thus dubbed it a “flow state” and popularized the use of the term.

Csikszentmihalyi identified six factors as being diagnostics of a flow state. These include:

1. A focus on the present moment rather than past or future
2. The merging of action and awareness, creating instantaneous feedback and reactions
3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness, experiencing oneself as the action rather than oneself performing the action
4. A sense of personal control over the activity one is engaged in
5. A distortion of the perception of time, or a sense of timelessness
6. And experiencing the activity itself as being intrinsically rewarding

Many people report that flow states are accompanied with feelings of great satisfaction or a feeling of connectedness with the wider world. Csikszentmihalyi himself advocates exploring flow states as a way to achieve an overall joy.

Flow and the Flow Arts

So what does this have to do with spinning props? Well, many people who spin do so to experience a state of flow when they improvise with their tools. They can do this by spinning to music, practicing on their own, or even just drilling a move. For many flow artists, the purpose of spinning a prop is to achieve a flow state through this kind of improvised movement--it seems to have a unique capacity for guiding people into flow by exercising both the body and the mind.

The word flow has been used in the community for much longer than the concept of a flow state has been a goal. In many cases, it’s used to describe transitions between tricks that seem effortless, overall aesthetically pleasing, or simply the act of finding a moment of relaxation with the prop.

It should be said, there are also a lot of reasons why people don’t like the word flow associated with the prop spinning community. For one, since one can attain a flow state with just about any skill, what is it specifically about prop spinning that gives us the right to own the term? That is, why do we get to call ourselves Flow Artists rather than the artists Csikszentmihalyi was originally interviewing? For what it’s worth, I believe we apply the term Flow Arts to prop spinning because in many cases, achieving a flow state is the goal of spinning rather than a means for attaining other goals.

In addition, many people see the use of this term as trivializing for the hard work that goes into learning or mastering a prop. They see flow arts as something that more casual or undedicated spinners do and wish to dissociate themselves from it.

Attaining a Flow State

If you do want to achieve a flow state, Csikszentmihalyi recommends three prerequisites:

• You have to be involved in a task that has clear goals and progress
• The task must involve immediate and clear feedback
• The task has to strike a balance between perceived challenges and one’s own perceived skill--that is, you have to believe you have a chance of accomplishing the task

Flow Arts without Flow?

If, on the other hand, you want to spin simply for the sake of it that’s okay too. There are quite a lot of us out there and it doesn’t take anything away from the art for us to be a part of it, too. So with all that said, it’s time for a confession: I’ve never experienced a flow state while spinning. That’s okay, though, because it’s still something I enjoy. You can be a flow artist without trying to attain the specific state Csikszentmihalyi was describing.

Do you experience flow states when you spin? What are they like? I’m genuinely curious. Let me know down in the comments.

In preparing for this piece, I picked up Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience It was a huge help in understanding his framing of the concept of and what it has to do with us as prop spinners. You should go check it out if you’re intrigued by this idea.