People usually think of hearing exclusively done through the ears. Now, scientists are finding we also hear with our skin. I wonder if this helps explain why live concerts are so much fun.

Scientists have known for years that we also hear with our eyes. In a landmark study published in 1976, researchers found that people integrated both auditory cues and visual ones, like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.

That study, and many that followed, raised this fundamental question about speech perception: If humans can integrate different sensory cues, do they do so through experience (through seeing countless speaking faces over time), or has evolution hard-wired them to do it?

A new study that looks at a different set of sensory cues adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests such integration is innate. In a paper in Nature, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick of the University of British Columbia report that people can hear with their skin.

The researchers had subjects listen to spoken syllables while hooked up to a device that would simultaneously blow a tiny puff of air onto the skin of their hand or neck. The syllables included “pa” and “ta,” which produce a brief puff from the mouth when spoken, and “da” and “ba,” which do not produce puffs. They found that when listeners heard “da” or “ba” while a puff of air was blown onto their skin, they perceived the sound as “ta” or “pa.”

Dr. Gick said the findings were similar to those from the 1976 study, in which visual cues trumped auditory ones — subjects listened to one syllable but perceived another because they were watching video of mouth movements corresponding to the second syllable. In his study, he said, cues from sensory receptors on the skin trumped the ears as well. “Our skin is doing the hearing for us,” he said.

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This holiday season is full of sensory stimulation.  There are smells of foods and pine trees, tastes of fabulous treats, and many sights & sounds.  The December Music Sparks theme for Sterling House of Hays and Great Bend is “The Sights & Sounds of the Season”.  There are so many carols that name a sight or a sound. Share your favorite carol for a sight & a sound using the comments below.  I look forward to seeing what carols top the list!

Something

Hi all, the new working week, it’s so boring after all, huh? For me everything is wonderful, this day was easy and carefree, no problems, only good, only good and positive emotions. It seems to be nothing to rejoice, but you have to enjoy every day of our lives, is not it? No difference what is the name day, whether it is Friday, Tuesday or something else. This is not so! This is the day of our life is the happiest day, the most informative, very rich and very positive, but at the same time, the saddest, most unfortunate, the most terrible day in our lives. Why? I do not know, but I’m glad. I take every day with open arms, because this is my life and I want to live and enjoy every moment, savor each emotion, each situation. Good and bad, I accept and love, it’s all part of my life, part me, part of history. Perhaps it sounds snobbish, loudly. But is not it? After all, human life is so little good, so why do we not understand that even bad – it is good, and good – bad, we create our own day, and together – life.  All just depends on us, how will our mood, the mood of our loved ones, friends, and just a stranger who comes to you on the street for a meeting. Smile to him and he smile to you in response… People, let’s be friendly to each other. We are children of our own actions…

Last year around this time and on another blog i made a very long list of wishes for my birthday… I don’t remember the whole hilarious list but i remember for an example wishing to sing on Qasr Elnile bridge, to dance a mia michaels routine and to reward myself for pulling through a very hard time with a trip to Europe.

I didn’t get to fulfill any wish of those…as for one point life stopped to be about me and what i could do and achieve to myself…I got attached to another soul and i was so busy dancing tango with him… sometimes even head banging was included

This year I will wish for more realistic doable stuff…I will still aim to travel though…that is realistic  and really is doable…I never had a honey moon…maybe that will be it.

This year i’m wishing for peace and soothing love within my family, i’ll wish for a better health and success in a new field i never considered before.

This year i don’t want “things” to list…I only want a maintained Satr men rabena.

I Would really love to see Mecca…Just feel what i’ve been hearing about all my life.

I really wish my kids are happy…are healthy…body and soul.

I wish to witness a happy, calm and passionate marriage.

I wish i’m closer to Allah…I wish to experience a fear free phase…I would do anything to experience that.

I realize i may not have had much fun for a long time…I realize i lived a struggle…i fought and i suffered…but i gained so much…I felt comfort and love…the type of fulfillment people try to describe and words fail them…against all odds and by the strangest means.

I learned that clear vision is not about intelligence…it’s about honesty…many smart people who know their way around words seem to have ideals and seem to have principles but they have a void inside that leave them sad, troubled and lonely…it takes honesty with oneself and an honest eye to monitor the world…identify the truth about things without being coached and without sugar -self serving- coats.

I may lack lots of things now…things that i won’t give up…things i realize that they have to take their course of time to be learnt…and for that i am ok…i’m ok to realize that what i aim to learn is a life long process.

That past year was the weirdest year i ever experienced…but it may have been the most truthful  i lived.

I turn 36 tomorrow…

I look good and i feel true and i have so much love in my life.

Al7amdulelah.

i smell more like a person tonight than i have in a long, long time.

Frederick Kiesler "Art of This Century" Exhibition 1942

In 1942 when Fredrick Kiesler designed Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery “Art of this Century” he incorporated armatures into his design that literally presented the artwork to the viewer by removing the art from the wall and placing it into free space. This ‘active’ exhibition design broke the inherent two-dimensionality aspect of the artwork and placed in within a three dimensional space. As a result, the audience and the art were comfortably within the same environment. As a result of this design, Kiesler’s exhibition was critically acclaimed and in the last few years there has been a Kiesler-revival. I am interested in the fact that today Kiesler’s work  not only remains provocative but is also increasingly relevant. Kiesler recognized not only the role of the surrealist art in his design but he recognized another important ingredient in his design – the viewer. His training as a set designer had prepared him for this role – he created sets but more importantly he created spaces for the actors within his sets. In our discussion in class we speak so often of the curatorial narrative, of the display of information, of the experience of the exhibition, of the expectations of the audience, but in reviewing Kiesler’s exhibition, it seems that we don’t actually think about the physicality of the exhibition and the viewer. We do indeed talk about how the viewer fits into the exhibition – culturally, academically, etc – but physically fits? Sometime the most important move is the simplest move – welcoming the viewer so they can exist in the same of the exhibition… the display, path, experience, etc then become relevant.

HC Smith

Living life as normal until a tragedy occurs is generally the making of a challenged road. Jared Hara, the young boy pictured above, was diagnosed with a rare genetic eye disorder that slowly caused him to lose his eyesight at a very young age.

“I saw him wave at me and I waved back. I asked him why he waved and he stated ‘I wanted to wave because this might be the last time I get to see you’ ” -Mr. Hara

Jared was an inspiring young boy that motivated me and is younger than me!! The fact that he never let his loss of vision keep him from accomplishing his goals, made me realize how important it is to reach for the stars. He became and still is a guitar player in a band of his own. He continues to pursue this passion. His condition, as seen in the Documentary “Blindsided,” lead to family troubles that almost lead to a permanent parental separation. But his strength and the love of his family kept everyone together and closer than ever.

This story seriously made me reconsider how much I value my sight and all my other senses that millions of individuals do not have or were not born with. Knowing this, it has made me cherish every moment I have that allows me to utilize these senses. It is so easy to go day to day without even acknowledging how lucky we are sometimes to have our sight, ability to hear, etc. All of these are treasures that need to be cherished and after watching this documentary my eyes are wide open; accepting and loving every minute of there use!

Hoorah for Jared! Keep strong kid and may God Bless You for your Strength!

http://blindsidedthemovie.com/

On Wednesday morning I took an early train to Stockholm to meet up with Stephen Houston who had been invited to Stockholm University. He held an interesting lecture on the visible and the invisible (but sensed) in Classic Maya art and architecture. On Thursday he was the discussant on a workshop that the PAG-group had put together (on the “archaeology of the senses”). After the workshop we went to restaurant Gondolen. On Friday five of us went on an excursion in the area around Enköping and Uppsala and saw two causeways, some rock carvings, and mounds. I returned to Göteborg just before midnight.

Once again, fine details are pronounced.

As discussed in Art and Detail, your compositions may be unusual for your age (or indeed any age).

Pieces like the one above may languish hidden in your home for decades.

Yet there’s power and satisfaction to be derived from rescuing your art, framing it nicely and displaying it with pride.

Chances are you’re going to be ‘odd’ for the rest of your life.

Why not revel in your special gifts and enjoy your time on earth?

Every sense is stimulated

My sight takes in the vibrant colors as they dance past my eyes

The reds, blues, and greens.  The look of things

My nose takes in the most delicate of scents

A sweet fragrance of roses and rain or the masculine scent of a man

My lips and tongue taste the most delicious of foods as they explode across my palate

The flavors overwhelm me. Sweet and sour coupling to entice me

I sit silent and allow my ears to hear the sounds of the world as they float around me

The patter of rain, the twitting of birds, the subtle intake of breath.

And to touch, my fingers experience pure ecstasy as they race across textures and sensation

Dancing over skin, enjoying soft fabrics, soothing edges

Enjoying life

Whenever I feel the hole on the belt loop of my Express flared jeans, I’m always reminded of my stock girl job at Buckle because I ripped those jeans on my very first day. Embarrassing. Whenever I see my copy of Pride and Prejudice, I think about my last weekend in Oxford because my girlfriends and I decided to take a train and trekking through Sheep excrement to Derbyshire, UK to visit Mr. Darcy’s fictitious house (the Keira Knightley version). The taste of sweet tea takes me back to my childhood days of splashing around the pool at Ma’s after a Sunday lunch of sandwiches, fruit and sweet tea. The smell of CO Bigelow Red instantaneously reminds me of my first boyfriend. I both loathe and love that smell. And finally, whenever I hear “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins I think about Georgia game days full of friends, tailgating, bulldogs, red and black. I think about the anticipation of whether we’ll win or lose that day, and what downtown will be like that night. I think about how excited every student was during the Georgia vs. Auburn game in 2008 and the roar of the crowd when the team “blacked” out the stadium in their new uniforms. The rush, the thrill, the excitement. College football has a sense of purity you cannot find in the NFL. And although I don’t catch as many games as most southerners, I’m glad to come from a school who’s essence is just as much about academics as it is sportsmanship.

The point I am desperately trying to make is that every day is an adventure. Every day creates a new memory, and every day, I’m reminded of an old one. Whether it is something I touch, taste, smell, see or hear, I’m bound to be reminded of the past and take note of the future.

Polly

Quite confused, what do I do next? I am suffering for the second month of the matter. I want to return the old days, and wants to return to Pauline. But, damn it, how to do this? And even if it is true that if I was going to stall again? I hate myself for what I done. This is only my fault, and I do not stop myself to blame. I want now to call or write to her and say everything, all my feelings and thoughts. But I am afraid that she will not even listen to me, I did caused a lot of pain to her. And my principles… do not want to humiliate himself, because she also did much evil to me…I do not want to pull free free little soul again, I’m afraid that is no longer endure such events. Well, enough about sad, I want to tell as held today. First I did not sleep well again today … I can not sleep properly for a week. This fucking movie “Master and Margarita”, cool, can not tear myself away *_* But glad that now the last series! So I do not get enough sleep, and again wandered into their educational institution, and all classes had overslept. And how could it be otherwise? Fortunately only 4 hours, I was released as early as thirteen hours, wanted to take the position I reward for an excellent study, an no – no money and will only be in December. T_T I’m upset because I needed the money. Well, God be with them. Evening, went to play tennis. Game failed. And again I’m sad! Devil’s day. Nothing is normal. But I still do not get depressed … in the end everything will be fine, if not good – it is not the end. And therefore I will live and enjoy this beautiful and vile life.

My dear friends, I wish you good and good night. And good luck to me tomorrow.

Goodbye. Your D.

When I am very sick, lying on my bed, I feel like I am leaving my body. I do not feel my legs and my arms. I feel my chest and my head, however. They seem to be the anchors that keep me from levitating, flying, vanishing out of this body. Sometimes I close my eyes and I feel like I see things underneath, in between and beyond the darkness.

When this happens, I appear to travel at very fast speeds in worlds I cannot comprehend or describe. Everything changes its own shape extremely quickly. At some point, aggressive, repeating images keep coming back and I have to open my eyes and rid my mind of this madness.

When I am very sick, lying on my bed, I often feel like I am very skinny or very fat. When I dream, I experience violent and disturbing events. They become so disturbing that they wake me up.

Sometimes, when I think of these moments, I feel like something is desperately trying to use this feeble state of mine in order to do something to me. I have the feeling that some sort of entity, a being, is attempting to do me harm. I cannot explain it even to my own self, but it seems obvious in some way or another. There is something evil that is fueled with envy and hatred towards us.

It appears that humans also hear with their eyes and skin…..

In a piece in the Observatory section of the New York Times, Henry Fountain writes that humans actually have the ability to use everything they have at their disposal to hear….and this maybe an innate sense….

……from the study done by  Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick of the University of British Columbia…..

…..the finding(s) also suggested there might be other sensory cues at work in speech perception — that, as he put it, “we are these fantastic perception machines that take in all the information available to us and integrate it seamlessly.”

Amazing!……

Quite frightening, close up.

A single blow-fly can trigger a surprising variety of strong emotions.

If you see it struggling in a pool of water, you may feel compassion and rescue it with a stick.

If it follows you inside, you may feel agitation that your home and concentration have been compromised.

If your concerted efforts to oust it without harming it fail, you may feel frustration.

If you spray it with poison, your brief flutter of satisfaction may turn to sorrow as it starts  die.

If it takes a long time to die, in paroxysms of agony, writhing and reaching for life with its every appendage grossly extended, you may feel remorse.

If you put it out of its misery by crushing it between two sheets of paper, you may be shocked and surprised by the colour and quantity of its blood, brains and entrails.

If it leaves behind a clutch of wriggling baby maggots, your final emotion may be revulsion.

Is this just an Aspie thing, or does everyone experience such a cavalcade of emotions when dealing with a damn fly?!

Sleek, smooth. Water ripples and is displaced as they glide through it, completely at home as humans are in air. Water is the color they live in, and bluebronze is not a color to beings who live water.

Air is breathed, but that is all. Lungs fill and exhale and water flies as air displaces faster than they do. Delicious and smooth and clean all at once, and they arch themselves downward into the deeps.

Small is not a word here. Small cannot be conceived here. The oceansea home is vast, and so are they, as they can go anywhere it is, and it is everywhere. Water flows and ripples, and they follow it. Follow the water. Breathe. Dive.

Waterhome.

Most people add lemon juice on their soups…most Egyptian people at least.

I’ve always disliked that…i think it covers the original flavour of the soup…it is too strong…too bitter although it is so good for our health.

Well…I’ve been known to decline beneficiary stuff if they were opposite to what i desired and liked.

I like flavours original and simple.

Last night i felt i was the squeezed lemon…I had little time and great emotion and i had to say too much in no time…i think i ruined the original nice soothing time with a friend by being in a hurry and saying too much.

I thought on my way back from a meeting that lasted a few minutes…that in order to maintain the original real flavour of things…we ought to give it time…time to live the relationship and get the real benefit behind it…time to calm…talk and listen…sometimes even shut up and just enjoy the company of the good friend who maintains my sanity with the soothing emotion we exchange.

Put aside the fun we share…we shared more profound moments and we share something rare…we share a type of trust that i rarely found in a friend…when i could talk my mind out without thinking and never get judged or misunderstood…when it feels like I’ve spoken to myself not another. I can claim i give the same.

I promised myself last night…i will never be the lemon on the soup…I’d rather be a tad of salt or a drop of cream.

Happy Thanksgiving (just about)!  It has been a busy month for me since my last update, but progress is occurring in almost every aspect of my life.  The last few weeks have been an exercise in trial and error and I have learned so much.  Now I have a chance to enjoy a break, savor some rest, and contemplate what I have learned.

This past weekend, I attended a Butoh Workshop at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina.  This all came about because by pure chance, while researching Butoh for my structural analysis paper, I happened to find a link to an Asheville-based website devoted to Butoh.  The three hour workshop fit my schedule and was a drivable distance, so I decided to go for it.

Julie Becton Gillum, a dancer with more than 40 years of experience behind her and who had studied in Japan with the living masters of Butoh this past summer, led about thirty of us students through the workshop.  We warmed up together and “danced.” It was a wonderfully freeing experience, because instead of being locked into the vocabulary of modern dance movement, we were free to create our own vocabulary.  No movement was restricted, and thus the only barrier on our ability to physically express ourselves was our own inhibitions.

This removal of a set vocabulary or system of movement, and this embracing of physical freedom, kept bringing me back to the training I had received this summer in Suzuki and Viewpoints with the SITI Company.  In particular, Barney O’Hanlon’s words kept echoing through my head: “Dance is simply conscious movement.” But the remarkable thing about Butoh is (and I couldn’t have grasped this from merely reading about it, I had to experience it) there comes a point during your dance where your movement is barely conscious.  At times during the workshop, I was becoming so in-tune with listening to my body, listening to the impulses that moved me from within on a visceral and even animalistic level (instead of an intellectual one), that I began to move in ways that surprised or even shocked my own senses.  I had a new Viewpoint.

Perhaps that seems a bit of a contrived tie-in to my research, but I will try to argue my point: Anne Bogart’s system of Viewpoints are a way of breaking down and experiencing time and space, theatrically, within the context of the ensemble.  To achieve the level of precision and specificity, on an individual and group basis, that Viewpoints requires, you have to get out of your own way.  You have to listen, you have to embrace all possibilities, and only then can you make a choice.  The conscious movement that Barney talked about at SITI was the product of all that precision, specificity, and listening – it was a conscious choice in reaction to infinite possibilities.  And through the Butoh, I found that my choices became easier and easier to make and (based on the reactions of the Julie and others in the workshop) more and more compelling.  I achieved a state of such careful listening that my body was one step ahead of my mind, and consequently, I was free to create with an unimpeded physical imagination.

This is a powerful and useful tool at the disposal of the performing artist – the ability to lead with the body, to kinesthetically respond instead of intellectually.  If the body leads, the mind will follow.  Because of this, my experience with Butoh has been phenomenally helpful in not only improving my acting and my appreciation for dance and movement, but also in my understanding of the efficacy of Viewpoints in building a dynamic and compelling ensemble of actors!

The serried, shadowed rivets on this DC3 wing are very pleasing.

There’s great pleasure to be found in little things. Especially when the light hits them just so.

Travelling in a DC3 is a rich experience for all the senses.

Classic beauty makes it hard to stop looking.

Charlotte Klonk's "Spaces of Experience"

The latest word in display theory was just released by Yale University Press. As in two weeks ago. Charlotte Klonk’s Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000 locates the development of art gallery interiors in the broader history of experience and perception. It looks like an interesting read, and may be helpful in guessing what comes next!

Jenny F.

But first, a message from our sponsors! My dragons produced an offspring, but I decided to give it up for adoption (so to speak). The problem is that the person who got it then gave it up again, and now I’m afraid it’s gonna die unless we all click on it!!!

Okay, so back to my title. I had really weird dreams last night. First of all, I dreamed that I was in England.  I’ve never been to England, although I’m sure some of my ancestors have . . . since some of them were born there.  La dee dah.

Then I dreamed that my mother had gone off with another friend and left me at a ski resort to ski.

*blinks*

In England, mind you.  So then I realized that the only money I had on me was American, but then the shop owner ended up giving me change back in British currency.

*blinks again*

And then who should walk into the dream for a cameo appearance?  My percussion instructor from undergrad, accompanied by his wife and small child (a daughter I think).  I still think it terrifying that the man reproduced.  Meh.

“Hi Tink!”  I said in an overly chipper voice.

He and his wife looked at each other questioningly before the light seemed to come on in their eyes.

Tink is his nickname.  Fo’ real.  No joke.  Of course, that nickname isn’t nearly as bad as his last name:  Tinkel.  As in, I gotta go number 1.

Then, later in dream, I was buying something from a bakery or something (I remember it being kind of like on a sweet hot dog bun with cherry and raspberry filling–very sticky, but very tasty).  So I’m digging through my wallet and actually managed to find some of the right currency this time.  But I also found American and Canadian.  So I make a joke to the woman behind the counter about how I don’t want to accidentally give her Canadian money to pay for my snack.

And she replies that it’s okay if I do, if I want.

My response:  “So I can include Canadian coins as long as I don’t include any American currency?”

Yup.

It got weirder from there, but I don’t think I can successfully put the images into words from here on out.

This was one of my first ever spoken word pieces….enjoy

I vibe off a thought try to write a little poetry
Wont put my name on it but still you know it’s me
Subject, flow, timing, vocabulary
Hints of emotion, lo and behold you know it’s me

The plain and simple
The unspectacular
Till I fight into your senses
With adjectives to back me up
Against a wall of truth
I survive on the unseen eternal fruits

You see I have an underground vineyard
Everything I produce connoisseurs wanna sample the
Laboured for fruits of my youth
In a quake off the Richter scale my roots wouldn’t move
And I have nothing to prove for I’m that deep

Reluctantly fashionable I only work for big companies yet its not big company I keep
And I hold real not prototyped hyped new age beliefs

I am the topside of a chocolate digestive
Provoking gluttonous lusts yet the most resisted
So I take calculated risks if victory exists
And at the site of beauty I just lick my lips
For its just its…
The don king of moments
The little bit of crazy that everyone goes with

The versatile black that flows with any outfit
Make gold look good
Softly spoken realist
Spiritual apprentice
I was bought by love
Will never be rented
I AM

Indian philosophy recognizes mind as an organ like other organs, but ranked Superior.Sri Krishna declares in the Bhagavad Gita-”I am Mind among organs”
Activity of the brain is mind;activity of the mind is intellect and Chitta is on a higher plane.
By controlling and channelizing Chitta any thing is possible(incidentally, nothing is Super natural according to Indian Philosophy,everything is Natural).
Yoga is built around this concept.We are what we think;we think because of what we eat.
Story:
“Phantom” pain is like a ghost in the body — but it’s anything but imaginary. People who have had an arm or leg amputated can often still feel sensations of the missing limb, even though it’s no longer there. These sensations can be painful, and scientists are always looking for new ways to help relieve this phantom pain for amputees. Treatment often involves using mirrors to visually trick the person’s brain. The thinking is that, if a person can “see” his own body in a new way, his brain may stop sending pain messages.

In a new study, a team of neuroscientists have made another surprising discovery about amputees: They can be taught to mentally move their missing limbs in ways that are impossible in the real, physical world. It’s impossible for a person to bend his wrist down and then twist his hand around in a full circle.

Seven people who had had their arms amputated above the elbow participated in the experiment. After extensive mental training, four of the seven were able to feel the sensation of this impossible act, and describe it in detail.

“It is very surprising that anybody — amputees or not — can learn impossible movements just by thinking about it,” Henrik Ehrsson of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, told Science News. Ehrsson is a neuroscientist, which is a scientist who studies the brain and nervous system.

Although the study itself is interesting, it may be able to help people with other kinds of mental disorders. A person with anorexia nervosa, for example, loses her appetite and/or stops eating, sometimes with fatal results. People with anorexia are usually believed to have a distorted self-image and often see themselves in an extremely negative way. But people suffering from this condition may benefit from this new research, Lorimer Moseley of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Randwick, Australia, told to Science News. Just as amputees imagined their phantom limbs could move in impossible ways, a person with anorexia may be able to change self-image by concentrating on a change to the body.

V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist and the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. In his research, Ramachandran has shown that phantom pain can be reduced with the help of a mirror. The mirror is placed so that when the amputee looks in the mirror, it looks like he has both hands. As he looks at the reflection, he clenches and unclenches his one hand while—and it appears as though both hands and are clenching and unclenching. At the same time, he mentally clenches and unclenches his phantom hand. When he sees both hands unclenching, he feels pain lessen.

Ramachandran says his mirror therapy, as well as the new research, show that much is left to learn about how the brain perceives the body. “Body image turns out to be extraordinarily plastic,” Ramachandran told Science News. “We think of ourselves as stable people with a stable body image — but we can inhabit a body that cannot exist in the physical world.”

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49687/title/FOR_KIDS_New_twists_for_phantom_limbs