March 25, 2023

Quote of the Week

"Imagine an eye un-ruled by human-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception..." -- Stan Brakhage

Natural Machines: TriadSculpture

"As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time. See the video here. 

A skilled musician and coder, the French American pianist Dan Tepfer builds computer programmes that interact with his improvised compositions in manners both musical and visual. In this performance of ‘TriadSculpture’ from his multimedia project Natural Machines (2018), which explores ‘the intersection, in music, between natural and mechanical processes’, Tepfer improvises on piano as visual representations of the chords he plays with his left hand are generated on screen. The result is both a stunning audiovisual experience and a small, curious glimpse into the often hidden patterns and ratios that make music possible."

We were inspired to discover this video at Aeon magazine where the above description first appeared. 

Reading Corner

Name: They All Saw a Cat
Author: Brendan Wenzel
Ages: 4-9

Gather with your kids and loved ones to savor this perspective-shifting book.

"As a cat walks through the world, many others see it, such as a young child, a mouse, and a bird. Each animal, and the child, has a different image of the cat depending on their point of view. Eventually, the cat even sees its own reflection..."

We invite parents, care-takers and kids to make an early exploration into questions such as: who is seeing the cat accurately? How do our perceptions differ from those of others given we all interpret the world around us differently? How do we become better at catching the errors of our perceptions? how do we position ourselves to get the optimal view of the environments and entities that surround us?

In the footsteps of the title of the newsletter, we hope this book takes you and kids around you onto an adventure of perception. 

Be the Change

Let the magic leak through

Invite your children for a small activity. Print out this poem, titled 'One' by Shawna Kellie, on paper. (Feel free to pick another poem if they so like) Now gather paper shears, glue, colored pens and a sheet of paper. Cut the printed poem -- you could cut out some of its words, sentences or stanzas. Rearrange the cut outs on another paper. Just play around - be random! Do you see new connections between the text on your paper? Is a new poem emerging? New ideas?

What inspired us to create this activity? It comes from the 'Cut-Up' technique that many artists and literary figures of the 20th century have employed behind-the-scene in their creative process; to let the magic leak through. William Burroughs, Alan Moore, Bob Dylan, inter alia. Get a peek into its unique history here if you so please.