We had a stimulating week of creativity around the themes of "call & response", humour and positive aging. We are excited to be working together on an art project to submit to the AGO's Portrait of Resilience open call. Our submission will be a collaborative piece themed around aging and resilience and this week we started brainstorming on the theme. Stay tuned as it starts to take shape! In the meantime, take a look at all of our ideas and creations from the week below.
In Robin G's Creative Cafe class we discussed the concept of "call & response". We shared what this means.
A call & response is:
a form of interaction, a statement quickly followed by an answering statement, most often associated with music
you can hear call and responses with bird call
hear it in everyday conversation: hello/hello, how are you/fine thank you.
body language response,
birds warning of danger afoot, of storms, new seasons, etc.
“a shitzu and shirley temple”
Robin shared that when music uses Call & Response it is called Antiphonal and has a rich history in work songs, gospel, choral music.
Here is an example of antiphonal music from Andreas Gabrieli (Italian renaissance composer) who used the echo/delay from the great Basilicas to extraordinary effect.
We sampled some call and response songs ourselves, including:
All Night, All Day
When I Rise
As we mentioned above, this month at the Bitove Method we are "calling and responding" in order to create an original piece of art around the concept of Resilience which will we be submitting to the AGO.
We took a look at some of the submissions and see how we are inspired, what thoughts or stories are stirred up...
We looked at an art piece from the AGO collection titled “Twiggy” which was a sculpture of a human body made up of metal hearts. Members described how it related to resilience: it looked like armour, resilience is a time of rest, love gives us resilience.
We began a member curated list of “songs of resilience” that included:
It's a long way to Tipperary
My Darling Clementine
Side By Side
I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone
I Gotta Pocket Full of Sunshine
In Steve's Piano Concert and Music History class, we centred our time around the topic of humour. So naturally, there was a lot of laughter today!
We shared why is humour important?
Humour allows us to turn something bad or negative into something positive
'Humour is Joy’
‘Smiling feels good’
“Laughing feels amazing’
The music itself can be humorous - we watched as Victor Borge performed a funny skit combining piano playing and physical and intellectual humour.
We shared the types of comedy we like and spoke about how that can differ from person to person:
Slapstick
Verbal humour, jokes but people’s sense of humour can be very diverse.
Stand-up comedians can rehearse so much and get things so precise that it looks like they are speaking off the cuff.
A good ol’ pie in the face!
We pondered rehearsed vs spontaneous humour and marvelled at how stand-up comedians can rehearse so much and get things so precise that it looks like they are speaking off the cuff.
Steve and Kathleen did some collaborative improvisation together; Kathleen put on her red nose and a variety of hats and Steve provided musical accompaniment for each short appearance.
In Jenn's Nia: Movement and Music class we talked about aging and how we feel about it.
We share these ideas:
As we age life continues to get better
We may have some control over aging - for example by continuing to learn.
We joked about reverse aging and decided there "was no pill to let us reverse age but there are diapers!"
We watched a short film about learning karate as a senior and then took a movement break!
We shared the lifestyle practices that have helped us come this far in life
Reading - which not only exercises your eyes, but also your mind!
Exercise - working out, walking.
Eating well
Enjoying friends - the more connection you get the better you are.
We also talked about looking forward to the following things when aging:
Painting better
Being in good health
"Not counting wrinkles on my face"
We sang Joni Mitchell's song "Both Sides Now", and then rewrote some of the lyrics to make our own poem about aging.
Everything makes sense From learning and
anticipation
and smiling wide
I’ve looked at life that way
A quietly growing brain
And enjoying friends from
over all
I’ve looked at life that way
From looking in
anticipation
and smiling wide
I’ve looked at life that way
From snakes and snails and frogs and tales
From action and sleeping
They live on ground some how
It’s connection and chance that I recall
I really don’t know life at all
I really don’t know life at all
I really don’t know life at all
We finished by offering advice on how to enjoy aging:
sleep, eat and drink well,
keep in shape
be optimistic - don't focus on the negatives
most of all keep your friends close and your enemies closer!
Next week we've got so much creativity in store for you! See the schedule below and book your class here.
