Sattvikabhinaya and psychosomatics

The intent of my project was the creation of a Music Technology Program/Composition Lab to be used as a component of the music curriculum offered at Big Sky High School (BSHS)in Missoula, MT. A major teaching standard cited in the Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS)music curriculum is that of composition. In my ten years in the district, that component has barely been addressed. I am looking forward to offering new opportunities to my students and am excited about the prospect of student composition.

With all of the digital resources available to students and teachers alike, there are now easy and effective ways to create resources for my students which specifically address pinpointed musical needs in the choral classroom. Just because they exist, however, does not automatically mean that they will be utilized in a timely or efficient manner in the midst of an active school year. One of the most profound realizations I encountered during my journey through the Creative Pulse classes was that I have become a robot, a slave, a jukebox of sorts when it comes to helping my students succeed. Although I lead creative, effective, and engaging rehearsals during class time, my programs success is causing me to bog down in the minutia of those things which must be repeated almost the same way for hundreds of students, for hundreds of hours, year after year. I have just completed year thirteen of my teaching career, and it is time to use my wisdom and skills to create a more streamlined workflow for my program. In reviewing my school year activities, the bulk of extra time spent with my students is, by far, preparing them for auditions that happen each and every year. With this project, I am striving to hand over valuable rehearsal tools to the students themselves so that they can become empowered and I can more quickly work with them on the more advanced aspects of their music-making.

<p> Original Sculpture</p>

<p> <i>Sunset Iridescence</i> is a one of a kind sculptural bookwork which reflects the essence of the wings of the Madagascar Sunset Moth. My work is very much about the physical qualities of the materials I use. The papers, inks and gilding supplies used to recreate the colors and iridescence of the moth are described. A comparison of color created by pigment and color created by the refraction of light rays is discussed. Parallels are drawn between the structure of the codex and the behavioral patterns of the moths. The local name for the Madagascar Sunset Moth is <i>Lolonandriana &ndash; lolo</i> for 'spirit or soul', andriana for 'noble'. I was inspired by this concept of the soul to publish a letterpress printed chapbook. <i> Unlike Flying in an Airplane</i> is a short memoir of one of my experiences as a flight nurse. It recalls the first moments of lifting off in a helicopter as I prepared to stabilize and transport a critically ill child.</p>

Objects that are animate occupy a special place in the human conception of the world. We ourselves are objects that are animate. So are the non-human animals which have been food, predators, cohabitants, and later companions to us during our evolutionary history. The difference between what is animate and what is not and the question of what happens when an animate object begins or ceases to operate - in essence what gives us and the other animals life - have captivated human minds for perhaps that whole time. The same goes for the apparent differences between us and those other animals. These dark spaces in human understanding have always been filled by stories. These take the form of myths, fables, folklore, recipes for magic, and comic strips, to name a few, which act to create a gap between animal fiction and animal truth. That gap and what has splayed it, in the past and now, play a critical role in how we view ourselves and how we relate to nature in general. Stories were also the birthplace of animate objects of human artifice - automatons, golems, homunculi and their brethren. It seems there was a will to replicate the forces that brought us about long before we had the means to take more than a couple of steps. However, the Industrial Revolution led to a world where non-biological animate objects abound, including the behavioral objects we call robots. The tools of robot-making are my tools. Therefore, in this thesis, I also discuss the history and implications of the “robot” concept and try to refine the category, one that has always frustrated definition, in a way that is germane to my work but also, I believe, accurate in encapsulating how people really conceive of robots. My work during the program has been frequently engaged with facets of the animal, robot, and robot/animal dialogues, at some times intentionally, at others not. If a progression can be drawn onto the scattered points of my projects, it would be away from a mindset mostly engrossed in the fictions with which we surround our relationship with animals towards an effort to use contemporary techniques for animating matter purposely to simultaneously engage with animals directly, explore notions of the concept of the robot, investigate the interplay of natural materials and artificial ones, reveal the un- animal-ness in most human perceptions of animals and, finally, uncover the animal-ness of our relationship with our own objects.

<p>Aftermarket, a Game Design Philosophy documents the community histories and material practices of players who, over the last decade, have transformed videogames from “entertainment systems” into instruments, equipment, tools, and toys for playing, thinking, and making in the aftermarket of the videogame industry. Through a close investigation of the hardware, software, and code enabling tool-assisted speedruns, real time attacks, and ROM hacks, Aftermarket explores how play can become a form of game design located between human experience and the speeds and scales of digital media. Beyond documenting how these different groups convert packaged products into open platforms for critical making, Aftermarket both argues for and enacts a model of game design as a critical practice in which playing, making, and thinking about videogames occurs within the same act—a true game design philosophy. Focusing on the material properties, technical capacities, and social play around a single game, Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros., this “close playing” and “platformer study” does not seek to reify Miyamoto, Tezuka, Kondo, and Nagako’s game, but appropriates, manipulates, duplicates, perforates, aggregates, and dissipates Super Mario Bros. into a different kind of “Mario Paint”—a medium for making art.</p> / Dissertation

<p> Calligraphy in the Arabic language is an ancient form of communication and a method of documenting history. The Arabic script started in a very simple form with characters similar to each other. However, through the years, many developments have occurred within this form of communication. These developments were created by several artists and calligraphers, which resulted in generating a variety of styles of scripts with unique treatments. Since the twentieth century, these traditional calligraphic styles have started to lose their importance, and the use of modern Arabic calligraphy is becoming more dominant, especially in the fields of modern design such as graphic design. However, traditional Arabic calligraphy still has a noticeable impact on modern Arabic designs. This thesis introduces a new way of understanding the influence of traditional Arabic calligraphy on modern Arabic calligraphic-based logo designs. The process is accomplished by explaining and substantiating these influences in a step-by-step study applied on six selected Arabic calligraphic-based logos. As a conclusion, the study confirms a strong influence of traditional Arabic calligraphy on modern Arabic calligraphic-based logo designs.</p>

<p> The Integrity of the Structure is an artists' book installation made of mono-printed and hand-worked masa paper framed in wood to create a series of screens (one with a video projection) that construct a space for the reader/audience to walk through. The text and video on the screens, as well as the reader/audience themselves moving through the space constitute the content of the book. This paper is a creative/critical hybrid reflection on the installation and its concepts.</p>

<p> My MFA thesis exhibition, <i>Selected Works from the Collection of Michael Cavendish</i> utilizes a curatorial process of selection and display to disrupt the authority associated with authorship. By utilizing curatorial actions such as selecting, organizing, displaying and writing, I am able to justify an object's presence. This critical approach, acknowledges the complex and dynamic space between object, creator, viewing context, and audience.</p>