Issue 01 | July 2021
Front and Back cover designed by Zeenat Javaid The cover page that I have created for this journal is inspired by the graphic golden age of art nouveau. It is a combination of intricate details, nonchalant lettering, and beautiful composition of illustration, my personal inspiration was a poster for cookies made around the 1910’s. The figure on the front is based off of a baroque painting of the muse calliope herself— I stylised it to fit within the theme of art nouveau and added my own personal touches. I really enjoyed creating such a piece particularly because the composition allowed me to present Calliope in a confident seated position, she is relaxed and aware of her power, perhaps a feminist depiction that refrains from sexualising her as many art nouveau pieces did to their subjects. She is calliope.
editors & designers Zainab Hussain, 12 GRO Zeenat Javaid, 12 CMO Chiara Federico, 12 LCL
note from Head of CA At Dubai College we are justly proud of the exceptional artistic and creative achievements of our students from across the subject group called ‘Creative Arts’. These disciplines induct young people into the limitless world of the imagination and possibility, developing the exceptional creativities of the ‘talented’ into tangible practices such as painting, designing, composing, acting, devising, performing and improvising. The outcome of immersion in these skills results in a diverse array of cultural and aesthetic production that is recognised and celebrated by the community. Sculptures, Portraits, Prototypes, Theatrical Productions, Recitals and Compositions are all examples of the fruits of their labour and serve to showcase the second pillar of our school. The narrative above, though, is only a half-story. The Arts develop in our students’ ways of seeing, the judgement of beauty, the ability to reflect deeply and find meaning in the incongruous. New and original modes of thinking, communicating and self-expressing are often the driving force of their journeys. They can see beyond the subject silos to make connections between the most unlikely of concepts, and often use their creative voices and forms as activists to make political and social commentary. Empathy, perceptivity, instinct, subtlety, reflexivity and critique pervade the practices of our most immersed artists. In Calliope, this founding edition of DC Creative Arts Journal, our writers collectively represent an expanded view of The Arts, their interdisciplinary nature and a reflective stance, often drawing upon philosophy and postmodern theories. Engaging with such domains as technologies, humanities and cultural studies, these articles are diverse, relevant and well-researched. They impressively present cogent, critical discussion of topics and themes well beyond the scope of GCSE and A Level syllabi. Often pitted against ‘the academic’, I hope that readers of this journal will gain an enhanced appreciation of the intellectual foundations of the creative practices and fields that helps to underpin practical pursuits. I congratulate all the contributors to the volume – this is a significant achievement! I thank the superb editorial team for their dedication and hard work in putting it together. I hope this venture continues for years to come and that many younger students at Dubai College are inspired through reading Calliope to begin their search for art(s) in unexpected places.
Alan Crawford Head of Creative Arts, Dubai College
prologue: calliope The DC creative Arts Journal is named after the muse of eloquence and epic poetry. In Greek Mythology, Calliope was the first inspiring, wisest muse, thus granting her the title as the ‘Queen of Muses’. She bestows the power of creativity to mortals, and is said to have inspired writers such as Homer, Ovid and Hesoid. With a scroll, writing table and trumpet at hand, she is a figure who embodies the art of communication. Similarly, the DC community is an embodiment of the arts, with artists, musicians, actors, writers, chefs (and more!) from all year groups contributing to our understanding of the human experience. Like Calliope, we hope this journal will serve as a source of inspiration for others to explore artistic disciplines and engage with the challenging, incongruous, and ultimately beautiful nature of artwork in all its forms.
contents 06| Orbit - Karina Valrani 12SCH 07| Compile - Taimur Shaikh 12SCH 09| Wabi-Sabi - Rhea Puri and Yeonju Woo 11MWD 11| The Arts and Humanities - Mira Kothari 11MWD 12| Infidelity, Power & Feminism - Chiara Federico 12LCL 16| Seven Days in the Art World - Zainab Hussain 12GRO 17| Art Beats on the Streets - Lucas Nixon 8AJA 19| Art in your dreams - Ishana Khiara 8ACL 20| Butterflies in my stomach - Zainab Belgaumi 7STU 21| Symphony no. 5, Shostakovich - Chiara Federico 12LCL 24| Art in Unexpected Places - Mayher Tyagi 8JCO 25| Eurocentrism in Art - Zeenat Javaid 12CMO
27| Through the Windows of 'Parasite' - Nikola Pandurovic 12CHO 30| Music and the Mind - Cara Mitchell 12CHO
ORBIT Karina Valrani, 12SCH Computer science and creativity are generally two words that are not commonly seen paired together. I strongly advocate against this. Technology adds a whole new element to art. It always the art to become dynamic, interactive and can even accessed by a wider range of people. I've always been interested in how I can code up art. Of course, with the right resources I imagined this artwork to be scaled and be displayed as an installation where everyone can come and watch the stats orbit the screen . Art is something that should bring enjoyment to everyone yet still is considered to be quite daunting by many. Regardless of age, I imagine everyone would be captivated by the visuals and the bright colours and become almost addicted to watching the stars move across the screen. At its heart, “constellations” was created to do exactly this. To show that art can captivate and to be enjoyed by anyone regardless of background.. The work itself can be viewed using the link: https://karina8459.dubaicollegedev.me/caj/st ars/index.html
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COMPILE How I made a computer composer music - Taimur Shaikh 12SCH The subject of computers mimicking human creativity is one that has been investigated time and time again, alwaysproducing stunningnewresults and observations. Take, for instance, OpenAI’s GPT-3, which can write convincing newspaper articles and texts in the style of Shakespeare, or ‘Vincent’ by Cambridge Consultants, which can complete a painting given a human-drawn sketch. Indeed, these are astounding breakthroughs thatinvite all sorts of new creative possibilites.
order to actually evolve these so-called organisms, we must select parents and breed them (I promise it’s not as weird as it sounds). To select parents, we randomly select two organisms, only that the selection is weighted by fitness –organisms with higher fitnesses are more likely to be picked as parents (again, mimicking what happens in the real world). These parents are then ‘crossed over’, forming children organisms. This process can repeat over and over again until we are presented with the completed next ‘generation’ of organisms,which we can then apply the same algorithm two: assign fitnesses to each organism, select parents, crossover, and repeat this however many times we like. We can even add more complex behaviour, such as a mutation rate that, based on a small percentage, will randomly change the contents of an organism in order to introduce natural genetic variation.
Music has also been experimented with as a facet of this overarching branch of computing; there have many separate initiatives that have aimed to translate the creativity and humanity of music making into humble ones and zeroes in a machine’s memory. There arethe likes of Magenta by Google, which houses a browser based lofi generator. There’s also Jukebox, again by OpenAI, and AIVA, which generates personalised, continually changing tunes to fit whatever moodyou desire.
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Inspired, I set my sights on my own AI music implementation, but I opted for a different technique: genetic algorithms. The name may sound scary, but these algorithms are relatively simple compared to other AI techniques. Essentially, they simulate the Darwinian processes of natural selection and evolution in a computer program. Everything in genetic algorithms can be described following this real-world analogy. We give the algorithm a list of data, and it treats each individual item in the list as an organism of sorts. The organisms can then be assigned an individual ‘fitness’ score, which denotes how suited an organism is to their ‘environment’. In
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So it’s clear that genetic algorithms have a lot of details to unpack, but how does this all relate to generating music with them? Simply put, the
organisms of a genetic algorithm can be whatever we like. In the case of music, we can create a list of number sequences, where each number corresponds to a particular musical note. We then adapt the algorithm as explained above for this specific context. The most notable adaptation for any genetic implementation is the fitness. We must create a sequence of steps that can calculate fitnessof music. What does that even mean? How can we determine how ‘fit’ music is? This was the hardest part about developing this, but I settled on designing an algorithm that takes into account aspects of melody, rhythm and harmony to holistically score a specific note sequence. We can then undergo the parent selection, child generation, and mutation processes as normal, to eventually generate a set of musical sequences entirely composed by a computer. Cool, right? What is even more fascinating, in my opinion,is the potential for actually putting these generated melodies to use. Armed with 1000s of custom generated note sequences, I
began arranging tracks by layering sequences on top of each other, adding effects like delay and reverb, and syncing them to drumloops. The results were dreamy, aloof tunes akin to the popular lo-fi genre of hip-hop. I took 10 of my favourite tracks and created the album “COMPILE” –an entirely computer-composed album, with the help of yours truly, a human arranger. You can check out the album using this link: https://soundcloud.com/taimurshaikhmusic/sets /compile
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WABI-SABI Rhea Puri and Yeonju Woo 11MWD To find art in the unexpected is to find art in life as it is, seeing how it is the epitome of uncertainty and unpredictability, for everyone. What we see today, we perceive differently tomorrow and what we perceived then, we see differently now. Although art embodies a different purpose altogether in each of our independent lives, the act of discovering art in
appreciative perception rather than to instantly belittle or dismiss, enabling us to perhaps even delve deeper into the streams of our thoughts. Amongst a myriad of endless examples, Kintsugi is an ancestral technique, developed in Japan during the fifteenth century, which consists of repairing a broken object by accentuating its cracks with gold—instead of fixing the broken
the unprecedented and uncalled for is a much more universal experience than we realise. Of course, in a more pragmatic sense, art itself cannot solely embody a philosophical or poetic purpose; however, with the phenomenon of ‘Wabi-sabi’, it moulds itself into a form of art, unique to each onlooker or individual. Wabi-sabi refers to an intuitive appreciation for a transient beauty that embraces the flow of life at its truest and rawest. It thrives in the most natural, modest and imperfect forms; underlining a beauty in the impermanence of all things. By exploring wabi-sabi, you swim against the tide of standardized and artificial modern ideals. Wabi-sabi invites contemplation and detachment, rather than perfection. It accepts the impermanence of the many things we encounter in life. It emphasizes the irreversibility of time and the ephemeral nature of all. It reminds us to appreciate the humble beauty of simple things, patinated by time and the trials of life. Hence, to learn more about Wabi-sabi is to learn to see life with an
ceramic with an artificial adhesive, concealing and camouflaging its imperfections. This technique employs the use of tree sap dusted with powdered gold or silver. After its completion, as seams of gold appear through the conspicuous cracks of pottery, it celebrates the repair of the broken ceramic. Kintsugi also fits into the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, inviting you to embrace the beauty of simple, imperfect, and atypical things. It is inviting you to discern art in what would otherwise be subject to barely a prosaic glance or two. As legend has it, a famous tea master of the Japanese emperor, Sen no Rikyu was once invited to dinner. To honour Rikyu, his host offered him a very old and precious Chinese vase.
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The tea master wouldn’t even look at the gift, but instead commented on the beauty of the countryside and admired a tree branch that was gently moving in the wind. After his guest had left, the host shattered the vase in anger and frustration. His friends, a bit wiser than the tea master, collected all the pieces of the broken vase and repaired it using the art of kintsugi. During his next visit, Sen no Rikyu saw the vase with its brilliant golden lines and cried out, “Now it is magnificent!”
Rikyu saw the vase with its brilliant golden lines and cried out, “Now it is magnificent!” Wabi-sabi is intimately intertwined with this fundamental relationship with nature. It relates to the acceptance of the transience of all things, and the experiencing of life with all the senses. The principles of wabi-sabi show that is that acceptance is a decision, as it teaches you to accept the imperfect. In a similar concept, it is suggesting that you should also learn to accept what may go wrong and go haywire in your life. It may inspire you to find your own gentle rhythm and discover happiness right where you are, perhaps finding a new beginning (by realizing where you are, you can move forward from there, with this as your new starting point). Stay open. Make room for small miracles. And take your time. There really is no desperate hurry. If you constantly pursue perfection, our life speeds up. We’ll end up rushing and making hasty judgements. Wabi-sabi offers an opportunity to pause, reflect, check in with yourself and your surroundings. You’ll likely feel more relieved, and make better choices.
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THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES Why they deserve more respect in the 21st century - Mira Kothari 11MWD In today’s fast paced, technological world, where heavy emphasis is placed on innovation and economic value, less importance is being placed on subjects that have, traditionally, been an essential part of any form of higher education. I am, of course, referring to the arts and humanities (which, for the sake of conciseness during this writing, I will be classifying under the broader term ‘liberal arts’. Although these include a wider range of subjects, liberal arts here will only encompass the arts and humanities.). For citizens of ancient Greece and Rome, instruction in the liberal arts was seen as fundamental – liberal comes from the Latin ‘liberalis’ meaning ‘appropriate for free men’. They would study grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and this expanded in the medieval times to include disciplines like music, arithmetic, and astronomy. Why did they think these subjects more important, than say, developing medicine? The lives of these men revolved around how they could be good citizens and participate in civic life – these subjects were essential for events like public speaking, military service and serving in court and on juries. They knew that the liberal arts creates not just good citizens, but empathetic leaders. What happened? How did the liberal arts go from the foundation of learning to an underfunded joke? In early 1900s America, there was an ongoing debate between those who saw higher education as a broadening and deepening of one’s character (called ‘generalists’), and those who viewed it as a way to learn valuable career skills (‘careerists’). Up until World War I, traditional liberal arts programs were being replaced by general education and major curriculums that are still recognisable today. This was an attempt at lowering dropout rates and making the first two years of the college experience easier on students. However, this meant that some of the core aspects
of the curriculum was lost – the requirements for classical languages were soon dropped, for instance. When World War I occurred, the liberal arts swung back into favour – it was claimed that they were necessary as preparation for leadership roles. The defenders of these subjects stressed that this kind of education was needed for the future defence of Euro-American values. This continued throughout the 1930s, when a new idea of the liberal arts had emerged – more interested in using this knowledge to better society rather than debate old philosophies. President of the University of Minnesota at the time summed this up:
“A liberal education is not a matter of studying certain subjects…The most important by-product of every subject of study should be a liberal mind”.
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As World War II rolled around, the argument for a broader, general curriculum continued. Politicians started to advocate for shorter degrees that were based around utilitarian STEM subjects required to win the war. During and after the Cold War, as America’s armies became demobilized, a flood of people were directed into higher education. These veterans were not interested in the ‘impractical’ side of liberal arts, instead focusing on making themselves employable, a trend that has continued to this day. As the public’s general perception about the liberal arts began to sour, politicians and public figures spurred on this decay. This was notable with Roland Reagan, who defined liberal education as an academic luxury the nation could do without, and as
president, he wanted to remove federal support for ‘intellectual curiosity’. The other reason most people have a problem with the liberal arts is that they have long been tied to elitism and class divides. Today there is an everheightened awareness of these problems, and some feel that the liberal arts perpetuate these divides, rather than tearing them down. But the truth is, in places like America where the liberal arts departments at universities are becoming defunded and increasingly irrelevant, innovative careers in STEM are becoming more and more attractive. Whilst I am in complete agreement that these kinds of skills are important (they make up almost all our modern comforts, after all), why does that mean that the liberal arts get thrown to the wayside? Is there even a reason to root for these subjects or would we be better off without such outdated ideas? Obviously, I’m not in favour of this last option. But when people belittle and talk down to enthusiasts of the arts, it stings, because they assume that we take history or English because it is easier, or because we’re not smart enough to take science or math. However, there are many arguments for taking these subjects. For example, building yourself a political opinion, enough so that you can vote and debate with enough knowledge, does not happen unless you read and think intellectually about today’s landscape. Another reason that liberal arts are viewed disfavourably is because it is almost impossible to quantify the impact and value of these subjects. It is much easier to know how many people bought .
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an appliance you made, versus how many people will be impacted by this writing. Because the influence of STEM on society has found a way to be measured out, and the fact that society has not done the same for the humanities does not mean that they do not impact people. Universities tell you that individuals with ‘hard skills’ (the kind learnt doing STEM and business) are so much more valuable to employers then the ‘soft’ ones a liberal arts degree acquires. However, as computers increasingly take over the technical tasks, companies have started to look for people who can translate this information into a human context. The highly transferable skills that come with a liberal arts education – communication, critical thinking, and creativity – are becoming more sought after. Even STEM students can learn from these skills, as they can help with emotional intelligence, or even just communicating their findings more clearly. One cannot live in a sterilised, white lab forever, and the arts help them apply their skills to real world issues. All kinds of abilities are required to make the world we live in a good place. However, that does not mean that one skill or aptitude is more important or relevant than the other, especially as the world is a constantly changing, shifting place. As Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and CEO of Apple, once said: “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
INFIDELITY, POWER & FEMINISIM Beyoncé's revolutionary 'Lemonade' album - Chiara Federico 12LCL Beyonce’s sixth studio album 'Lemonade' is a generational masterpiece. Its heavy, complex listening experience pushes music into unexpected places. She takes a multifaceted approach to detailing her reaction to her husband’s infidelity, using a myriad of music genres (from hard rock to country to blues) whilst also exploring her own identity as a black woman in the music industry. Instead of the sensual, glamorous ‘Sasha Fierce’, we see a vulnerable, yet bold Beyoncé who overtly embraces her blackness, challenges our cultural narrative, and celebrates generations of coloured woman.
In Pray you catch me whispering, we see Beyoncé in a black hoodie, meandering through an open field. This afflictive ballade is where Beyoncé seeks clarity on her husband’s disloyalty: “You can taste the dishonesty/It’s all over your breath as you pass it on so cavalier”. She eavesdrops on his conversations and wants to be caught, wants to be acknowledged. “Pray you catch me whispering” has religious overtones which become a central theme for the entire album: To what extent is this betrayal, this sin forgivable? The song ends with an outro, as Beyoncé asks ‘what are you doing my love’. This establishes the first part of her journey through navigating her marital discord – intuition. Hold up comes from a place of rage. After realising her husband’s betrayal, Beyoncé emerges reborn onto the streets of New Orleans as she assumes her own power and identity. The iconic ruffled yellow dress she bears pays direct homage to Oshun, Yoruba Goddess of female sensuality and love. She is considered to be the most powerful of all orishas yet is also capable of human emotions such as jealousy and spite. In this way, Beyoncé explores the spiritual power of women and how a man’s betrayal does not disempower her. The sweet reggae ambience (with synthesised interjections) is ironic as she condemns her husband: “what a wicked way to treat the girl who loves you”. She asserts herself as the “baddest women in the game” and suggests that if her husband “never made a name for (himself)”, women would not be “down to ride” with him.
Throughout the album, Beyoncé cycles between varying mental states as she learns that her husband has cheated on her: intuition, anger, forgiveness, and reformation. With accompanying visuals for each song, she offers a cinematic experience that makes careful use of cast, setting, and fashion.
Don’t Hurt Yourself is a heavily synthesised, rock infused frenzy that further amplifies
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Beyoncé’s animosity towards her husband. The song is charged with fury, with the use of explicit language and dark visuals. Predominantly set in an underground garage, Beyoncé is wallowing in deeply supressed emotions that are physically, and musically, exhausting to acknowledge and express. Amid her rage, the song abruptly stops as we hear part of Malcom X’s Who taught you to hate yourself speech: “the most disrespected person is the black woman”. Here, Beyoncé is now highlighting the systemic struggles black women endure in America, and how it is time to reclaim their power. They are strong and robust as autonomous individuals. In this way, Beyoncé is no longer blaming herself for her husband’s infidelity, and ends this chapter by throwing her wedding ring at the camera: ‘If you try this … again, you gon’ lose your wife”.
models. This leads into the penultimate mental state - forgiveness. Sandcastles is an unlikely ballade in an unlikely scenario. She sings of a metaphorical house built my her and her husband, and how through
6 Inch is an ode to hardworking women. “6 inch heels” is a metaphor for power and wealth as Beyoncé now redirects her energy away from her marital affairs, and into her work. She asserts herself as a boss, a powerhouse whose fame and music is a product of her own hard work: “she’s stacking money, money everywhere she goes/ you know, pesos out of Mexico/ …She don’t gotta give it up, she professional.” However, towards the end of the track, Beyoncé once again reveals her vulnerability – she recognises the commitment she made to her husband as she emerges from a burning house in a white lace dress (reminiscent of her own wedding gown). In a cracked voice, accompanied by a single bass drum, Beyoncé whispers “come back”. This signals a major turning point in the album as she shifts from feelings of anger to that of loss and emptiness. Though before she can address her husband’s cheating, she uses the country track Daddy’s Lessons to explore her own father’s infidelity towards her mother. Although Beyoncé is grateful for the strength instilled in her by her father, she condemns his betrayal, and ironically twists his own words against him: “cause when troubles come to town and men like me come around/ oh, my daddy said shoot”. Beyoncé grapples with her complex relationships, calls out the men in her family, and essentially calls for better male role
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turbulent waters and rough storms, the castle “washed away”. She recognises the pain both have suffered in their relationship and how she is willing to forgive: “What is it about you that I can’t erase? / Show me your scars and I won’t walk away”. As oppose to divorcing her husband
(where Beyoncé’s mother divorced her father), she is choosing to stay, to love again. Formation is a bold, unapologetic conclusion to her album, challenging sexist and racial prejudices whilst also celebrating her heritage and life’s work. The music is unique with haunting rhythms and
synthesised instrumentals that promote a rebellious vibe. The carefully crafted lyrics draws attention to Beyoncé’s heritage as she recalls her “daddy (is from) Alabama, (and her) Momma Louisiana”, a state notorious for its chattel slavery. However, she then continues to revel in her black identity, singing how she “like(s) (her) baby heir with baby hair and afros” and “her… nose with Jackson Five nostrils”. She is proud of her blackness and her heritage from the South, whilst simultaneously
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drawing attention to the volatility of the area regarding equality. She then concludes by singing about how she “slays” and has worked from the ground up to forge her own powerful empire. 'Lemonade' is a powerful music project which channels Beyoncé’s most intimate, raw emotions and seamlessly weaves in the hardship of coloured woman and America’s black community. It’s wit, warmth, anger and passion makes for a rich and layered visual and musical experience that has set the course for music production and consumption for years to come. The title of the album is inspired by her husband’s grandmother, Hattie, who endorsed the old epigram that since life gave her lemons, she made lemonade. As Beyoncé makes lemonade from the recipe passed down from generations of black women, she is reminded of their endurance and pragmatism. Conversely, she uses this as a metaphor for her marital relationship. Despite the heartache and devastation caused by her husband’s affairs, Beyoncé is coming out stronger, empowered: “My torturer became my remedy. So we’re gonna heal. We’re gonna start again.” The Queen Bey is showing us how reformation is possible, and how it can be beautiful.
SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD A Book review - Zainab Hussain 12GRO Hollywood, it has been said, is like high school with money: catty and status-obsessed, awash in insecurity and plagued by conflicting desires to stand out and to fit in. The same can be said about the contemporary art world, especially during the juicy and judicious boom years chronicled by Sarah Thornton in her book, “Seven Days in the Art World.” Thornton, once described as ‘Britain’s hippiest academic’ by the Daily Telegraph, provides an account of seven disparate days spent in the excessive and increasingly loopy world of contemporary art, revealing the inner workings of ‘squabbling subcultures’, as the author describes it. The book is structured as an iconic journey through the seven subcultures, through 6 countries and 5 cities, clearly defining the key players in the art market: the artist, the auctioneer, the critic, the collector, and the curator. Thornton first gives us insular access at an adrenaline-fuel Christie’s auction, where bidding for a 1963 Warhol began at 8 million dollars. We are then whisked to CalArts in Los Angeles for an intense seminar with artist Michael Asher, conducting a “crit”: a collective critique of students’ proposals and projects. Then to Switzerland for an elite contemporary art fair, Art Basel, the prime place for closely guarded deals and competitiveness. The author takes us into the jury room for the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery and inside the editorial offices at Artforum. “The Studio Visit” follows prolific Japanese artist Takashi Murakami through his three unorthodox studios. The Venice Biennale gives the author a chance to catch up on her lap swimming in the Hotel Cipriani’s 100-foot saltwater pool. Thornton spent five years meandering her way through art fairs, auction houses and artists’ 16 studio as a ‘fly on the wall’, or as she more
accurate puts it: a ‘cat on the prowl’, interviewing over two hundred and fifty people, including the likes of Charles Saatchi and Larry Gagosian. Naturally, many of these people are wary about what they say to Thornton, however she attentively listens. This approach and persistence clearly gained her extraordinary access to a shadowy world, not known for its transparency or openness. The author remains patient and curious until someone says something gratifyingly revealing. ‘Ethnography’, she writes, ‘is a genre of writing with roots in anthropology that aims to generate holistic descriptions of social and cultural worlds. Its main research method, “participant observation”, is a cluster of qualitative tools, which include first-hand experience of the environment, visual observation, attentive listening, casual interviewing and analysis of key documents.’ The writer uses her background in sociology to manage the ethnographic style and can depict everyday life in the art world so vividly. She describes everything: every lunch, every fashion statement, every object, for no other reason than to prove her presence there and immerse the reader. It is in this way, Thornton shows. that the work does not determine the way in which it moves through the art world, and that the latter proves to be the most significant aspect of its success.
ART BEATS ON THE STREETS Lucas Nixon 8AJA We live by the culture of peace, love, unity and positivity. These are the pillars of the hip hop scene, which BBoying is under. We share the love. We have a motto, " Each one, teach one", so when you learn a skill, you can share that skill with others, so you can inspire the next generation. Dancing in it's entirety, in its truest form, gives you happy hormones. When you dance to good music, you actually are happy.
Dubai College Calliope interviews CLFrostyle, a BBoy and hip-hop choreographer, and asks what is his experience with art in unexpected places. CL has performed accross the region, with Red Bull BC One, BBoy Battles, at the Rugby 7s and Formula One, in Sole DXB and is proud to be an Adidas Ambassador. Performing with Tyga, Solento and Mufassa, he is an inspiration to many performers and artists in the UAE. Is there unexpected art in Dubai? What I like about Dubai is that we have the freedom to spread our art forms and I love the venue 'Union Fountain Park'. Here, there are skaters, all types of dancers, volleyballers, footballers, yogis, LED and Poy . artists. There are a lot of communities in Dubai that do unexpected art forms. A few of my avourite are Sole DXB, Slam Fam Festival and @bhype_dxb Dance Battles. I love dance battles because it's the beauty of this art form, you get to display one art form against another to test their capabilities and skills. For example popping verses locking or house versus breaking. How does BBoying spread positivity in the art community?
When you are happy, it gives people joy, entertainment and knowledge. How do you make your art unique? I'm always looking for ways to improve my skill and for inspirations from other BBoys and crews. I am really inspired by Super Crew, Spider Salah and the Vagabones Crew. and for inspirations from other BBoys and crews. I am really inspired by Super Crew, Spider Salah and the Vagabones Crew. My style as a BBoy is about character, musicality, and flavour so that makes me unique. Also, the next generation of youth, hip hop culture and teaching the hip hop culture in my studio inspires me to be artistic. I want to share my passion with my students.
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What three words describe you? Passionate, visionary and legacy. Passionate, because I'm very devoted to the hip hop culture and its lifestyle to me. This is how I live my life; as a breakdancer, BBoy, choreographer, teaching in schools, and in the @bhype_dxb Studio and Desert Ninjas. Visionary, looking to the next generation and thinking about whats going to happen in the dance scene in the UAE and the Middle East in the future. Legacy, because I want to make an impact in Dubai and spread a positivity of art. What advice would you give teenagers to be artistic and to be themselves? Be unique. Focus on what you really want to learn when it comes to art, whether it's a musical instrument, singing, DJ-ing, graffiti, or any type of dancing, such as shuffling, breaking, or ballet. To be artistic, you just have to be yourself and look out to the future. CLFrostyle is truly and inspiration to everyone, in the art community and beyond. He is living his passion, dream and life to its limits and he really shows how important it is to be yourself. I'm sure you can agree with Calliope that CL certainly is art in an unexpected place.
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ART IN YOUR DREAMS Ishana Khiara 8ACL
Art can be found in various places, even when you least expect it, for instance, your dreams. Allowing our dreams to inspire us can enable us to conjure up seemingly random and often bizarre images from deep inside our subconscious. By the end of our lives, it is estimated that most of us will have spent 50,000 hours dreaming. That is six years spent amongst the night-time phantasms which disturb, delight and perplex us. Formed in our minds and yet alien to them, the dream's enduring mysteries have long captivated artists and writers. The boundless capacity of our dreams summon art that could be unimaginable to some. As French philosopher Michel Foucault expressed it, 'Every act of imagination points implicitly to the dream… the dream is the first condition of its possibility.' No artists, perhaps, without dreamers.
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BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH Zainab Belgaumi 7STU
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SYMPHONY No.5, SHOSTAKOVICH A critical analysis of how Shostakovich portray's conflict in the first movement of Symphony No.5 - Chiara Federico 12LCL Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was critically acclaimed following its first premier in 1934 – the plot was exciting and different, and the music challenged the audience. However, when Stalin watched the opera two years later, he wrote a scathing criticism, claiming the performance was ‘muddle instead of music’ – raucous, ugly, a “pandemonium of creaking, shrieking and crashes” (Vulliamy, 2015). Overnight, Shostakovich’s patriotism was publicly condemned. This is one of many examples where Stalin’s regime was intent on extirpating opposition to his totalitarian rule, subjecting all art and culture to central control. Music was expected to be distinct and isolated from Western influence, and instead feature traditional Russian and Soviet melodies. Following Stalin’s review, Shostakovich sought to write a politically acceptable piece, allegedly as an apology – Symphony No.5.
Despite seemingly conforming to Stalin’s criteria, it is recognised as one of Shostakovich’s most prominent ideological masterpieces. Its repressed tone, dissonance and exuberant orchestral style offers a dimension of emotion for those oppressed by the regime. The 5th symphony evokes memories and makes musical associations that the audience can recognise but would not dare speak. Inspired by Beethoven (one of the ‘unforbidden’ composers), Shostakovich wrote the 5th symphony in Sonata form. During the three
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sections, Shostakovich effectively uses both melody and melodic motifs as a cohesive tool to communicate emotion and conflict. The first 5 bars of the exposition contain three main melodic elements: the angular/chromatic/dotted rhythm idea, the 3 note conjunct cell from bar 3 onwards, and three repeated notes in bar 4. These ideas become increasingly important through the movement, making brief (though prominent) appearances. The first subject is introduced by the violins, playing a descending scale in the Phrygian mode. The following melody uses all 12 semitones in the scale, hinting at serialist influences. This is offset by the throbbing accompaniment (open 5ths) played by the lower strings. The rising and falling contour of the melody seems aimless, meandering between different tonalities, yet never settling. The phrases seem chromatically juxtaposed, and enhances a sense of insecurity, a lack of trust. The second subject is derived from a folk song recognisable by the Soviet audience, though with a few note changes. Whilst seemingly celebrating Slavic culture, the minor shift and alteration of notes suggests emotional turmoil behind the simple admiration (Thomas, 2009). The extreme tessitura of the violins starkly contrasts with the throbbing, homophonic accompaniment – a dark, thick wall of sound pierced by notes in the 7th position. Shostakovich then introduces solo lines for flute and oboe over a thin texture, adding a layer of innocence and fragility to the tone of the music. During the development passage, Shostakovich further heightens the intensity and drama of his writing. The section starts with a forte dynamic and an unrelenting ostinato line which creates a persistent motor rhythm. The seemingly innocent
three notes from bar 3 have adopted a darker, destructive tone, perhaps alluding to the feigned appreciation and love of the Soviet regime. At Figure 19, we hear the woodwinds playing a decorated version of the second subject. The violins have an antiphonal interaction with the woodwind, also playing the developed first subject. The elaborate melodic development propels the listener to Figure 22/23 where we observe a change in tempo, giving the music more urgency and direction. Chaos erupts as we listen to a contrasting two-part texture with leaping minor 6ths in the horns and lower strings.
with hints of a Phrygian mode. In Figure 7 particularly, we hear a Neapolitan relationship. The Neapolitan tonality has a distinctly painful effect on the listener and is often known as the chord of death: this chord becomes increasingly dissonant with a progressively strong urge to resolve. The theory of musical equilibration shows that “a Neapolitan sixth figuratively transforms that onceupright person into someone in utter despair who has lost every sense of support” (Willime k& Willimek , 2011).
The initial motif from bar 1 is then furiously reintroduced in the strings and woodwind, played at fortissimo. Meanwhile, the second subject, played in canon, is distorted and warped by the brass. Perhaps the most poignant section of the 1st movement is the recapitulation, where the whole orchestra plays the first motif in unison. At this point, the melody is so heavily emphasised and powerful that it almost acts as a lament – a communal cry of frustration and melancholy, with all the musicians (and by extension, the people of the Soviet Union) summoning their energy in this attempt to shake the political climate. However, the futility of this protest is slowly understood as the orchestra resigns to a piano dynamic, with deeply personal, yet empty solo lines bringing the movement to a close. Shostakovich’s use of harmony effectively captures a feeling of hopelessness and loss. The majority of the movement is tonally ambiguous, lacking a tonal centre to ground the music. Although there is a sense of D minor from Figure’s 1-9 (first subject), the chromaticism darkens the tone of the music,
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Thus, by extension, although a Neapolitan chord is not pronounced, Shostakovich subtly hints at its presence, suggesting the prevailing presence of death and destruction.
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The second subject uses the remote key of E as opposed to the dominant key or relative major, giving the music an almost isolated, sorrowful tone. Throughout the second subject, Shostakovich unusually employs jazz style harmonies with the use of extended chords over the 2nd subject melody (derived from a Russian folk tune). Rather than illustrating conflict in the form of war, perhaps Shostakovich is illustrating the conflicting relationship between Western and Slavic music – Stalin was opposed to modern Western music, believing it to be subversive. However, one could argue that Shostakovich is subtly protesting Stalin’s censorship towards the arts by having the two ideas and styles of music coexist. In the recapitulation, Shostakovich writes the second subject in D major, giving the piece peaceful and ethereal qualities with the melody beautifully
poised at the top of the texture. However, the ‘peace’ soon subsides, and minor modes carry the piece through the coda to its conclusion. The piece ends with eerie chromatic scales on the celesta and empty, distant solos from the piccolo and the violin. The major harmonies were false (the Potemkin village of the symphony), and the dry ending reminds the listeners of their dire and inescapable reality. It is also important to note Shostakovich’s use of rhythm in portraying the struggles of a common Russian. Perhaps the most important rhythmic feature is the crotchet, quaver, quaver ostinato (or vice versa). It permeates throughout the whole 1st movement and serves not only as a rhythmic motif/ostinato, but a ‘dead end’. We first hear this idea in bar 4, as the violins utter three A’s before resigning to the dotted ostinato in the lower strings. The bar 4 motif is heard again in Figure 9, where it becomes the ostinato for the second subject, providing pulsating simple homophony. The constant, unrelenting rhythm serves to ilustrate the endless struggle felt by the Russian working class. We also hear this ostinato in the development section with an imitative texture between the double bass, cellos, and piano – the notes are attacked with pizzicato and with the una corda on the piano, stripping away the emotion. The empty tone and lack of vibrato makes the music feel like a monotonous march. This becomes particularly evident in Figure 27, with the timpani playing a diminished version of the ostinato. The militaristic entry of the percussion marks a strong change of mood, depicting a march or parade of the regime: a grotesque parody of Stalin’s reign. The ostinato is
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then finally revisited in the recapitulation and coda, with the piece ending fatefully on three repeated notes. Shostakovich’s 5th symphony is truly a masterpiece: it thoughtfully details the conflict, fear and sorrow people felt during Stalin’s oppressive regime. The melodies are deeply intimate, the harmony appropriately evasive, and the rhythms assured and unfailingly constant, all of which strikingly encapsulate the common attitudes felt towards the Soviet Union. This piece, although his ‘apology’, can be interpreted as Shostakovich’s silent cry against a remorseless, brutal dictator. Bibliography Vulliamy, E., 2015. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the muddle surrounding Shostakovich's opera. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep /25/lady-macbeth-of-mtsensk-dmitrishostakovich-opera-english-national [Accessed 7 April 2021]. Willimek, D. & Willimek, B., 2011. [Online] Available at: https://www.willimekmusic.de/music-andemotions.pdf [Accessed 9 April 2021]. Thomas, M., 2009. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. [Online] Available at: https://www.pbs.org/keepingscore/shostakovic h-symphony-5.html [Accessed 9 April 2021].
ART IN UNEXPECTED PLACES Mayher Tyagi 8JCO Art, that word means a lot of different things to different people. When the word art is said there are usually three connotations it falls under: a way of doing something, an abstract piece created with controlled stains and emotions or the representation or replication of something in real life. To me however, art is also the courage to be vulnerable, express your emotions but sometimes also to mask them.
Hiding behind a masquerade is not something we very often do, yet it is an essential part of the human collective experience. Sometimes our biggest enemy can be ourselves and a major reason for this is overexposing ourselves. Far too often, we overshare parts of our personal lives and these things we overshare often end up being major decisions that we far to often regret. Blind faith in people can be one of the biggest assets we have, however it can be a major hinderance inmq order to protect ourselves and our privacy. People aren’t always what they seem and understanding when to not tell certain things to certain people, in my opinion, can be considered a certain kind of an obscure art form. Crying a river of tears or shouting at someone with a volcano of rage erupting inside of you. That is often what comes to mind when we think of expressing our emotions however this is not an accurate representation of the emotions, we feel on a day-to-day basis and these examples are not a healthy and a way we can often use to express them. According to Alen Cowen, a doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, “We don’t get finite clusters of emotions in the map
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because everything is interconnected.” Psychology once assumed that most humans’ emotions fall within a few categories, however experiments done by researchers at UC Berkeley now show that emotions fall into 27 distinct dimensions and often the most intense ones we feel are a combination of quite a few of them. Now, to the expressing part. Putting yourself on a pedestal and overemphasizing YOUR needs and wants is definitely not the way to go about it, however ignoring your basic needs and discrediting your own self worth is also not the right method to use. Each person needs to find their own healthy balance between the two and express it to someone who you can trust or to your own personal journal. Vulnerability is expressed as the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of emotional attack however when we’re talking about being vulnerable in essence, it’s just being raw without fear of judgement. This is even more crucial in friendships and in relationships to make sure that what you have is real. Although at times emotional vulnerability can feel like anxiety about being rejected, shamed, or judged as inadequate when we are vulnerable and are still appreciated it makes us feel fuzzy inside. This is what I think art is in an unexpected place. Dealing with emotions, balancing them on the edge of a knife and using emotions to cultivate meaning is, in my opinion, the ultimate form of expression. .
EUROCENTRISM IN ART Zeenat Javaid 12CMO When you think of classical art, the art that we go to museums for, the art that we learn about in school and what we’re told to admire, notice that much of it is of European origin. I’m going to preface this article by clarifying that by no means do I aim to undermine the importance of traditional and contemporary Western art, I simply want people to question the reason why they think it is so respectable (in comparison to historical art of other cultures, of course). There seems to be an open appreciation in many people for the life-like sculptures of greek and roman renaissance greats, the ‘David’ and the ‘Birth of Venus’, seen as absolute masterpieces and the pinnacle of technical art, whereas ancient Japanese printmaking or the gorgeous calligraphy of the Islamic world are often overlooked as topics of interest when it comes to art. I personally am guilty of this bias in various ways, growing up I would always yearn for my art to be as great as the Mona Lisa, or ‘the last supper’ but never cared much for Tinga Tinga paintings made by the artists in Uganda around me, I frankly didn’t think it was ‘real art’. I think that this is because I was almost fed a narrative that respectable art lives in Museums, and the art of the real people wouldn’t be there, as well as the fact that I likely also just respected realism in art as an inexperienced artist. However, I was never taught that African Tribal masks or Indonesian Batik was equally as important to the art world as stone sculpture was; oil painting consumed my early life as an artist and to this day, a small part of me still holds on to this idea that my ‘traditional’ Europe - centred skills, are of more importance than my other skills, I have had to personally pull myself out of this narrow focus to widen my own horizons. We must consider what we assign to the meaning of ‘skilled’ or
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‘technical’ art in the first place, and why do we value it more than we value the work of carpet weavers from Iran;
Why is it that in academic art, we are taught the methods that focus mostly on one place in the world, who gets to decide that classical painting is a ‘important’ art and that weaving is not? The issue is furthered by the fact that it is ingrained into schooling, even higher art education places a heavy focus on ‘technical’ or European historical, skills being a necessity in developing artists, with exploration of other styles coming as a sort of afterthought, or as many like to put it, ‘experimentation’. Whilst schools will never limit their pupils to studying only the works of European masters, there is a massive underlying emphasis on their principles, passed through years and years of schooling, unbeknownst to the institutions themselves. Now for the sake of argument, let’s say that the reason that schools teach the aforementioned principles is because European art was historically the most realistic and technical, and technical skills (as defined by European representational standards) are the foundation of great art; but what if I told you that the Ancient West african Yoruba Civilisation had been making astonishingly detailed and realistic works of art for centuries, their sculptures and busts dating back over 800 years. Or the extremely realistic portrait vessels of the Moche Culture of South America, which existed from
the first century, all the way up to the eighth century in the northern coasts of Peru, dated pieces from over 1,500 to 1,800 years ago. Heavy exposure to mainly European art can create a belief that realistic, ‘technical’ art only existed in Europe-- it somewhat limits people’s understanding of history itself, I personally had no clue that realism had existed in art history outside of Europe. This heavy exposure is likely a consequence of European colonialism and neocolonialism; such power structures had lasting influences on education and media around the world, covertly undermining the masses’ beliefs about the development of cultures outside of European origin. Art in particular has a key role in culture, so today, when European art is deemed ‘classy’ and ‘sophisticated’ (through the fact that it is taught in education) little to no room is left for other types of traditional, realistic or representational art from different cultures to be held in a similar high regard. This leaves an imprint on the consumers of art, and perhaps a negative bias toward non-western work. This bias doesn’t necessarily manifest as distaste or disrespect, but can also appear in a sort of wellmeaning condescension towards various ethnic groups and cultures. Their art is unsophisticated, and foreign, unfamiliar compared to the widely understood and comforting art of European origin; European work is the basis of art and everything else is foreign experimentation that follows.
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THROUGH THE WINDOWS OF 'PARASITE' Nikola Pandurovic 12CHO February 9th, 2020; The Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles California. The Oscars. An award ceremony that is not so much a commemoration of incredible art as it is a celebration of Hollywood prestige. Millions of people tune in every year to gaze at their favourite stars and starlets gliding across the red carpet, almost like characters from their own films. Even the show’s presentation itself tends to be more interested in the gallant tuxedos and graceful dresses rather than the awarded films themselves. Nonetheless, this façade of ‘movie magic’ has recently been waning. Viewership plummets every year, and the nominations themselves are becoming more and more repetitive. In 2020, we saw two retirement projects from veteran directors in The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and a studio comic-book movie in Joker. As impressive as these pictures may have been, many of them could be described as clever rebrands of familiar storylines, genres, and tropes. The Oscars were becoming stale, and audiences were craving something unalike the traditional cookie-cut movie that Hollywood had been mass-producing for years. That is why there could not have been a better surprise than the moment when Jane Fonda, a symbol of old Hollywood, announced the Best Picture. The first film not in the English language
to win the award, Parasite was triumphant. How unexpected. While many of the audience members at home sat in shock, those who paid attention to the ceremony would have noticed the roaring applause from the Academy members. Tom Hanks cheered on ecstatically. Joaquin Phoenix scanned the crowd almost paternally, scolding all his peers who did not clap with him. It was a wonderful, refreshing evening for both the Oscars and the team behind Parasite, who took home four golden statues. Yet, the real victor was none other than the film’s writer and director, the charming and bubbly Bong Joon Ho. Director Bong is not unknown in the world of cinema: his work often found its way onto Quentin Tarantino’s notorious lists. However, Bong truly broke into global stardom that night, and deservedly so, he earned it. From Memories of Murder (2003) to Snowpiercer (2013), Bong’s movies are the embodiment of the word ‘unexpected.’ His filmography consists of thrilling journeys that can only be described as balancing acts of comedy, tragedy, and horror. Parasite (2019), Bong’s latest project, is perhaps his ultimate work. A suspenseful tale threaded with black comedy and social satire; it is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Parasite tells the story of class warfare. We follow the Kim family, who jump from job to job struggling to make ends meet, as they infiltrate the Park’s, a family blinded by their wealth. Slowly, they conquer the house by eliminating already employed workers, and conveniently posing as highly qualified alternatives. Eventually, the Kim’s went from making Pizza boxes to working as tutors,
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housemaids, and drivers in the Park household. Through this plot, Bong reconsiders the question opened by the film’s title: who are the parasites? The Kim family is the first to come to mind. Their trickery and manipulation have allowed them to improve their standard of living, all the while completely undetected by the naïve Park’s. On the other hand, the Park family itself puts forward a strong case for being the ultimate leeches.
enters their apartment, and their eye levels access the repulsive views of concrete floors, densely populated neighbourhoods, and even on occasion drunk men urinating on the streets. Vertical visual architecture is also a prominent weapon in Bong’s arsenal. The clear opposition between the levels of the two homes adds to the theme of the class divide: the Kim’s live underground, whilst the Park’s on highland, close to the sun. This inherent conflict was captured effectively by the film’s cinematographer, Hong KyungPyo, in particular through the use of stairs as a visual metaphor.
They cannot cook, drive, or clean for themselves; their lavish lifestyle is exclusively dependant on those who serve them. Thus, they in a sense are also parasites. Regardless of how you read this relationship, Bong is persistent in drawing the differences between the classes of both families, utilising various filmmaking techniques and visual motifs to do so. This is first apparent in the production design of the film. The two houses are not just important to the film’s narrative but are integral to the central themes. With its open spaces and boxy design, the Park house embodies the pinnacle of modernist architecture, suggesting total freedom and comfort. Contrary to this, the Kim home cannot even be described as a house in the first place. A semi-basement with claustrophobic spacing; a dull and depressing colours palette; as well as a cluttered mess of props: their home reflects their impoverished and trapped state in society. Adding to these conflicting atmospheres, Bong uses lighting to emphasise the class disparity. Both houses contain windows, however, they are both completely different in function and quality. The Park’s are washed with natural sunlight through their wide windowpanes, which provide a luscious view of their garden. This juxtaposes the windows of the Kim’s, which are barred and constricting, almost prison-like. Minimal light
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In an interview, Hong commented that ‘walking up some stairs, you become infinitely elegant, while walking down another, you fall endlessly or enter into an ominous mood.’ This usage of levels extends into one of the film’s many climaxes, the thunderstorm scene. The pouring of the rain is merely an inconvenience to the Park’s, as the high level of their home protects them. More so, they consider the downpour to be an exciting twist in their camping trip, and a sign of good weather the following day. Opposite to this, the Kim’s experience of the rain is detrimental. Their whole community is flooded, and the entire apartment is destroyed, drowning in the water. This scene was a clear indication from director Bong that their differences in class and wealth are not just aesthetic, but distinctions that determine life or death. Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite is one of the most impeccable films ever made. Each shot is constructed with great craft, and no shot is out of place. Even though the film is so meticulously engineered, its direction so focused, it never feels too calculated or cold. Parasite truly captures the curiosity of the audience, raising questions that are not just
relevant in the current socio-political climate, but one that will always be relevant. Though many can claim that Parasite’s success was helped by identity politics and liberal social movements, those individuals come from positions of ignorance and utter stupidity. Parasite deserved every applause it ever heard. We can hope that its triumphs lead the way for award ceremonies, like the Oscars, to open their doors to the wonderful potential of international cinema.
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MUSIC AND THE MIND Cara Michell 12CHO The fact that music has an impact on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours probably does not come as much of a surprise. Music can be used to relax the mind, energize the body, and even help people manage pain, but there is a deeper notion that it can have strong psychological effects.
Moreover, research has shown that, by listening to music, your overall mental and emotional state is improved. This is because it benefits the release of dopamine: a neurotransmitter, important in lifting your mood, and a big role in our unique human ability to think and plan. Research has shown
Improving Cognitive Performance Because of its rhythmic and repetitive aspects, music plays an important role in engaging the neocortex of the brain, which calms us and reduces impulsivity. This can improve your focus and concentration in particularly taxing or boring scenarios. We listen to music to match or alter our mood, which can help us in becoming more self-aware and having a better general mood in everyday scenarios. Personal enhancement background music (PEBM) is a passive counterpart to active forms of musical use, which highlights the ancient idea that music can be wholly efficacious in producing effects on people without the necessity of musical production. The “passive”, or “distracted” listener to PEBM does not pay attention to the music, merely letting it play in the background. While this may not elicit the same behaviours or reactions as “active” listening (where the music is listened to without distraction), it still has many benefits in clinical settings, such as in Alzheimer’s patients to improve their memory.
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that when an individual listens to music, the dopamine response is triggered, and you feel motivated and able to concentrate. This also acts as a method to reduce stress and anxiety, for example at the prospect of upcoming exams. This can be seen through medical practices, who often play soothing music to reduce stress. Music Therapy Music therapy is a clinical and evidence-based practice that uses music to help patients suffering from disorders such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia to reach their goals. Types of music therapies include singing, dancing, clapping, or playing instruments while actively listening to music. Music has been shown to alter brain structure and function, both after immediate
and repeated exposure. For example, musical training over time has been shown to increase the connectivity of certain brain regions, particularly the hippocampus. These changes in brain circuitry and connectivity suggest opportunities to activate these regions to promote healing in patients.
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Here rise to life again, dead poetry! Let it, O holy Muses, for I am yours, And here Calliope, strike a higher key, Accompanying my song with that sweet air which made the wretched Magpies feel a blow that turned all hope of pardon to despair Dante, "Purgatorio", Canto I, lines 7 to 12
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