LET ME SING AND I’M HAPPY: THE NEW SCHOOL CHORUS KICK-OFF

Posted on March 7, 2013 in Employee Info, Faculty Info, Mannes College The New School for Music, Student Info, The New School

“The power of communal singing is a hot topic at the moment as evidenced in a recent Atlantic Monthly article,” said Maggie Koozer, associate director of the Mannes Extension Division.  “Singing used to be a part of American culture and this community gathering experience has slowly disappeared. We hope to bring this tradition back at The New School by creating a new and innovative outlet for making music together.”

To realize that goal, on Wednesday, March 13, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. the Mannes Extension Division will present a kick-off event to celebrate and engage the university community in communal singing, New School style. Part concert, part discussion, part chorus rehearsal, this event will leave you wanting to sing more in our community, and ready to explore music from around the globe.

“Someone asked me why we were creating The New School Chorus,” wrote Richard Kessler, Dean of Mannes College The New School for Music. “I can think of no better answer than what I recently read by Brian Eno the legendary British composer, artist, and activist: “Well, there are physiological benefits, obviously: You use your lungs in a way that you probably don’t for the rest of your day, breathing deeply and openly. And there are psychological benefits, too: Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness. And then there are what I would call “civilizational benefits.” When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capellasinging is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings — to stop being me for a little while and to become us.“”

Roomful of Teeth, a vocal octet dedicated to re-imagining singing in the 21st century, will perform, speak, and teach the group vocal music that will span styles ranging from brand-new classical compositions, yodeling, throat singing, and beyond, including music by Caroline Shaw, Judd Greenstein, Merrill Garbus (tUnEyArDs) and more.

“These performers constitute one of the most cutting-edge groups in music right now, said Kate Sheeran, assistant dean of Mannes Prep and Extension. “They’re the perfect group of people to help launch The New School Chorus.”

This free event is open to all New School students, faculty and staff and will be held at the Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance Space, 55 West 13th Street, 5th floor. Register at tnschoruskickoff.eventbrite.com. No formal singing experience is necessary to participate and The New School Chorus will formally launch in the fall of 2013.

Jon Stewart. Political Humor as Catharsis

By Jeremy Safran

If you find humor cathartic, click on the link below to see a clip of Jon Stewart talking about the 

first Obama-Romney debate

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/jon-stewart-romney-debate.php

Mac or PC?

By Alex Kriss

Neurological imaging has been a boon for neuropsychological research as well as psychiatric treatment in recent years, and is increasingly influencing how many aspects psychological research are conducted and validated. While scanning the brain will undoubtedly be a significant contributor to understanding the mind over the coming decades, it is important to remain critical of how new technologies are implemented and interpreted. A new study in PLoS One demonstrated that results of MRI scans varied significantly depending on the version of the scanning software used, whether the software was used on a computer running Mac OSX or Windows, and even which version of Mac OSX was running. Follow the link for the full article, which is available for free online.

Sondheim & Psychotherapy

By Matthew Steinfeld, PhD

Into the woods –

You have to grope,

But that’s the way

You learn to cope.

Into the woods

To find there’s hope

Of getting through the journey.

-All 

Recently, when a friend asked me how people change from psychotherapy, I found myself recommending that they see Stephen Sondheim’s 1989 musical ‘Into the Woods,’ which is being restaged this summer as part of the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park season. In it, Sondheim takes the characters from several well-known fairytales (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack of Beanstalk fame, et al.), dissolves the boundaries between them, throws them all into a forest, and creates conditions from which each character grows and changes despite circumstances that are quite challenging. 

There is a lot to learn from how these characters engage with the change their story undergoes. As one of the main characters, the witch, cautions, “Careful the tale you tell, that is the spell.” Psychotherapeutic communication is no different; stories are very powerful things. In the very recounting of experience (attempts to recollect and communicate what is felt into language), we inevitably shape the narrative of who we tell ourselves we are.

When one has an opportunity to listen to as many life stories as most psychotherapists do, it becomes readily apparent that particular ‘things’ and ‘events’ out in the world in and of themselves are devoid of intrinsic “meaning.” Rather it is the meaning individuals make of their experiences that constitute the emotional architecture within which they live.  And due to the fact that humans are ‘meaning making machines,’ essentially we are always telling stories - albeit ones of varying personal and collective significance.

However, with this tendency comes a rather heavy existential burden to carry. For if anything can mean anything, well, then there is no “right way” to walk through this life. There are merely choices. And this can, at times, make life feel confusing, uncertain, and overwhelming.

One of the many insights that Sondheim offers into how people grow and change, is that growth is the  product of a dialectic in which people allow themselves to become ‘lost in the woods’ (e.g. to live within a framework of fluid and changing meaning) and then ‘find themselves’ (e.g. by telling a story) – over and over and over. It is an iterative process; a journey which if lived honestly over time, creates the soil from which new things grow.  He reminds us that working with honoring what one is feeling, thinking, and doing (while one is feeling it, thinking it, and doing it), is a journey of great importance. And, the only way through the woods. 

Psychogaming: Morality and Potential Space

By: Alex Kriss, M.A.

Ubisoft's "I Am Alive" (2012).

Videogames are often portrayed in mainstream Western culture as low-brow, gratuitiously violent, and corrosive to our youth. As a discipline, psychology has been particularly interested in establishing a link between violent behavior and gaming (e.g., Bartholow, Bushman, & Sestir, 2007; Carnagey, Anderson, & Bushman, 2007; Sheese & Graziano, 2005) -- with some notable exceptions (e.g., Kutner & Olson, 2008) -- despite the fact that the link is consistently hard to find (Ferguson, 2008). This general attitude of condescension and distaste toward videogames is beginning to shift; as casual entries like "Angry Birds" (2009) become ubiquitous, the divide between gamers and non-gamers grows murkier. Nevertheless, the idea of games-as-art is rarely part of the cultural dialogue. (In fact, Roger Ebert [2010a] famously declared that videogames could "never be art," a statement he later retracted [2010b] owing to the fact that he had never once played a videogame.)

Many games are indeed low-brow and gratuitously violent (though still fun to play and often worthy of discussion on an artistic level; see recent examples such as "Bayonetta" [2010], "Bulletstorm" [2011], and "Gears of War 3" [2011]), but many others offer powerful and even transformative experiences. The interactive aspect of gaming, that the artwork is something one "plays," provides opportunity not only for rich and thought-provoking content, but more importantly allows psychological mechanisms and conflicts to be activated and explored in vivo during the play session.

Take, for example, the complex moral decision-making demanded in the new Ubisoft game "I Am Alive" (2012). This game -- which in many ways aspires to be an interactive version of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalytic novel "The Road" (2006) -- puts you in the shoes of a man who has returned to his hometown in the wake of a cataclysmic event that has decimated the population and left the world crumbling and covered in dust.

A New Meaning to Apple’s Slogan: There’s an app for that.

By:  Catherine Boutwell, MA

Last week the New York Times published an article titled “Feeling Anxious? Soon there will be an app for that” that described recent research attempts to demonstrate the effectiveness of “smartphone therapy apps” on anxiety and depression. Yes, smartphone therapy apps. Just like Angry Birds, one day you may be able to download a therapy app, in the App Store no less.

Now, this idea didn't strike me as particularly innovative because I, along with some friends, also had discussed this concept in jest. But, as I read the article, I attempted to suspend my immediate cynicism and give the idea a whirl, as an intellectual exercise. The author reports that “the upside is that well-designed apps could reach millions of people who lack the means or interest to engage in traditional therapy and need more than the pop mysticism, soothing thoughts or confidence boosters now in use.” If I repress my understanding of therapy as a relational endeavor that not only hopes to lessen symptoms but also to initiate more meaningful structural change, then yes, I can see the utility in a therapy app. I can imagine myself looking to my phone for some psychological relief when agitated on a crowded bus or anxiously scrambling to and fro classes. But then I thought, don’t I do this any way? I already thwart certain feelings by way of distraction. My phone is the mecca of distraction. Why would I use a therapy app in those situations? I’d rather play Angry Birds.

Book Review: Lincoln's Melancholy

By:  Jeremy Safran, PhD

       Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States experienced at least two clear-cut episodes of major depression, and struggled with chronic depression throughout his life. In his remarkable biography, Lincoln’s Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk carefully documents Lincoln’s struggle with ongoing depression and the role it played in helping him to develop internal resources that he was able to harness to become one of the greatest American presidents. Shenk’s book is at once a fascinating biography of a great man, a critique of the medicalization of psychology, an astute analysis of the interplay between culture and psychology, and a meditation on the meaning of human suffering.

Take Shelter

By Christopher Christian, PhD

Last night, I saw Take Shelter, a new film by Mike Nichols that depicts the terrifying realization in the adult son of a schizophrenic mother that he may be afflicted by the disorder as well.  The film, beautifully shot to capture the dark, frightening mood of an approaching colossal storm, speaks to some profound realities of how schizophrenia not only affects perception but also the relationships that the schizophrenic holds most dear. It also shows how it is precisely those relationships that can help the person confront the nightmare into which his life has evolved.

Battle Star Galactica and the Death Drive.

By:  Christopher Christian, PhD

Catherine Boutwell’s most interesting post on movies depicting an apocalypse, our fascination with the end of all life as we know it, and a tad of perverse disillusionment when nothing happens on the day predicted to be the end of times, brought to mind other films and television series depicting Armageddon.  Battlestar Galactica is one such series in which the survivors of the human race defy extinction in the midst of endless space. In it we anticipate the ultimate cataclysm as the crew of Galactica careens toward an Armageddon-like end.

The End is Nigh.

By:  Catherine Boutwell, MA

Perhaps you haven’t seen the disaster film, 2012, staring John Cusack or Kirsten Dunst’s compelling performance in Melancholia , even so, it isn’t a surprise  that death is on our minds in the most sweeping and dramatic ways as we head further into the 21st century.