MUSICAL HEALING

BY DAVID OSNOE

OMusic has always had a profound effect on humanity. From the ancient use of drums as a form of communication to today’s trance-like dubstep, music remains crucial for human development. Recently, the medical world has begun to accept the fact that melody has the potential to drastically affect the human brain, and implementations of music as a medical tool are underway. It was important first to discover the source of music’s power over the human central nervous system, which, as it turns out, is based on the what is called neuroplasticity. The brain’s ability to rebuild connections around damaged areas stems from the moldable condition of brain tissue (i.e. it’s neuroplasticity.) Oliver Sacks, professor of Neurology at Columbia University and author of the book Musicophilia, claims that “nothing activates the brain so extensively as music.”

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So, what can we do with the fact that music has a measurable influence on brain functioning? The answer to this question lies with Gabrielle Giffords.

Gabrielle Giffords has represented Arizona’s 8th Congressional District since 2007. A previous Republican, Giffords is now considered a Democrat because of her views on health-care reform and illegal immigration. On January 8th, 2011, Giffords was shot in the head at a supermarket in Tucson, immediately losing her ability to walk, speak, read and write. After the assassination attempt, Giffords suffered from aphasia, which is the inability to speak because of damaged pathways in the brain’s left hemisphere. However, her husband Mark Kelly (former astronaut and space shuttle commander) and the congresswoman herself, never entertained the idea of giving up on fully recovering her abilities. Ten months later, Giffords is not only speaking again, but singing. How did this happen?

“Music is the other road to get back to language,” says Meghan Morrow, Giffords’ certified brain injury specialist at TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston. ABC News reported on how music therapy played a major role in the congresswoman’s recovery In the article, “Gabby Giffords: Finding Words Through Song,” which explains that, “Whereas language is largely held in the left side of the brain, music activates visual, motor and coordination areas on both sides, as well as areas deep in the brain involved in memory and emotion.” It seems that music may have an array of miraculous healing properties, but many remain skeptical about the benefits of music therapy, and few insurance companies cover it. To comprehend the effectiveness of this treatment,however, one need only look at a before and after picture of Giffords, or hear her speak again after months of agonized silence.

So how does Music Therapy work?

According to the American Music Therapy Association, “Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of musical interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship, by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.”

Using Gabrielle Giffords as an example of how the music therapy program operates, the process begins with music therapists assessing patients well-being (in terms of physic health, social functioning, communication abilities, and cogni- tive skills). The therapist then designs music sessions for individuals based on clients’ specific needs. For Giffords, music therapy started with her simply humming the tune to her favorite song, “American Pie,” and from there, her brain began to reconnect pathways using melody. The end result is Giffords being able to sing the lyrics, “Bye, bye miss American pie, drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry,” followed by exponential growth in her physical, emotional and social abilities.

In the end, the power of musical healing called Giffords to make a miraculous recovery. The immortalized scene of Giffords returning to congress and receiving a standing ovation is a positive affirmation of humanity’s miraculous ability to recover from tremendous injury,and creates a strong case for the necessity for music therapy in today’s medical practice.

BY Zoe Kinney

An all-encompassing term, “performance art” is any creative happening that uses people and revolves around the element of time. The involvement of people is key here, for without people, it would be an installation- installation pieces can also be happenings that take place over a period of time, just without the artist being directly involved as they occur. Performance art can be sound or music-based, silent, kinetic, or still. Sometimes the work is a formal “piece,” highly thought through or extensively planned. At other times, it is extemporaneous.

Many musicians use elements of performance art in their work, just as performance artists often use music. Richmond’s own Gwar easily could be labeled a group of performance artists, just as drag queens and magicians could be. Most punk bands involve performance art solely by virtue of the interactions between the lead singers and the audience. It factors heavily in the noise music scene. And of course, it is a big presence in the fine arts field, as well. In many ways, performance art makes art more about what the audience feels and experiences than show-casing what the artist can do or has done.

Some performance artists worth checking out:

MIwa Matreyek- Animator, Video Artist, and Performer. Uses her own body and the shadows it creates for the resulting, sometimes abstract, shapes that can be derived from both to produce mosaics of moving images. Often mixes use of her body with animation and live-action video.

GG allIn- Now-deceased underground punk singer originally named “Jesus Christ Allin.” His shows often involved human excrement, nudity, destruction of the venue, wildly offensive lyrics, arrests for assault, and serious injury of audience members (by Allin) as well as Allin himself (by the violently provoked audience).

Matthew Barney- Husband of the singer Bjork. Barney took over the Guggenheim Museum in The Cremaster Cycle, a piece inspired by the sexual development of a human embryo. He created special prosthetic feet and shoes for model/actress Aimee Mullins, who appeared in one of the five films composing the overall piece, and filled the museum with scenery consisting of his non-video work.

yoko ono- Worked extensively with her own body and audience involvement. In “Cut Piece,” she allowed audience members to approach her and cut a piece of fabric off of her clothing, the size of which was up to their discretion, until there was no more to cut.

Matthew Burtner- Former U.V.A. professor now based in New York, who creates computer software specific to each music project. The software produces or manipulates sounds made by natural processes, traditional instruments, or even random objects like squeaky toys. Performed a piece in which internet users from around the world could add their own notes as the work was being “played” by logging in to a particular website, and another that drew notes from air currents created by wind.

Dylan Mulshine Interview

To gain further understanding, I interviewed Dylan Mulshine, a musician/artist friend of mine who has performed as part of THE RAWMONES and as Teen Dreams.

what does it take to be a performance artist?

I am an art performer because art comes first.

I originally wanted to answer all of these questions with pictures only, it takes that kind of a judgment for me to be active in creating a concept before “Just Doing It.” This question is also weird because I don’t identify as a performance artist. I don’t know if that’s what I want to be, I feel as if “Being a Performance Artist” perverts the very idea of it.

what are some funny reactions you’ve gotten to your work?

Getting banned from premises…getting paid…getting interviewed.

how do you go about your pieces? Is there more of a vague outline or an improvisational quality to your work?

I don’t tend to call them pieces, there is barely an outline, it’s mostly just living and trying to shake up the world. Trying to expose the audience. Looking for comedy. Going into the situation completely unprepared, wanting the consequences. For most of my musical career, I have found my way into the culture of things…a made-up place where people don’t seem to realize we created the playground and we can do whatever we want in it. Life is an improvisation.