This digitally enhanced drawing of a dancer taking a step was done as preliminary work for a large painting.
My internet's been cutting out today. And not just for a minute here and there. Twice while I was in the middle of important work, it cut out for 30 minutes. We pay for top-tier fiber, but the new router our ISP gave us is behaving like it has misconfigured security settings.
This internet thing is frustrating, but lately I've been thinking more about other kinds of connections. Dr Connor Wood just released a fascinating new lecture about music in human evolution. Apparently, participating in a group producing synchronous rhythm changes group members at the biological level. These biological changes support social bonding in general but impede certain tasks like labor division. The lecture suggested that music has long played a key role in keeping groups together through periods of transition.
Historically, across cultures, rigid rituals and ceremonies officially marked moments when social roles changed. Births, initiations, marriages and deaths were ritually observed. This sometimes brought unfamiliar people into contact with each other. Music evolved to make these occasions more amicable. There's a reason people dance at weddings.
Music overlaps language in poetry. I recently ran across a video of me reading three short poems about technology. The production values aren't great, but it's kind of fun.
