A Muse's GuideFood, technology, yoga and music. . . is there anything else?

I have been working on a website for a research project I am involved in on Youth Participation in Music - rymeyouth.com : Research for Youth Music and Education.  It is an amazing opportunity to research and work with youth and learn more about youth involvement/engagement in musical activities.  Upon beginning to construct the website, pages and content, I was over enthused by all the different ideas I had and how to organize them, yet a very basic and seemingly minor detail got in the way of my productivity. The website design posed a problem, in amidst the thousands of templates for wordpress themes there are numerous that cater to technology, blogs, children’s content and even interests in art deco, yet not one Free theme catered to my needs.

It may be that in the giant jumble of “colour” categories and the number of “columns” I would require or even the option for “seasonal” filtering, there was no efficient way to search for a template that would combine a professional academic template with something that was a neutral colour scheme.  Since this project looks at creating opportunities for youth and adults to work in partnership to share and develop ideas and activities for positive youth engagement in music, the website could not simply cater to youth between the ages of 10-18 years old, nor focus on a sole audience of academic oriented adults – it needed somethings classy and professional, yet with a bit of underlying quirky artfulness.

A popular Wordpress theme (free) is called Pixel – yet this gave my site too dark and gloomy of a theme.  I tried looking for a theme that wasn’t so dark, yet only ended up with bland themes that were reminiscent of an office supply closet.  I know a majority of my colleagues that want “the perfect” academic looking theme just purchase a Premium Wordpress theme such as Spectrum by WooThemes.com, yet even with the vast customizations available from that theme, I still found it lacking. Not to mention that since this project is graciously funded by a SSHRC grant, we attempt to use our funds to the best of their capabilities, and I feel that a Free Wordpress theme should do the job!

For the meantime, I used a rather bland theme called Titan, as it didn’t muddy up the content of the site with its elaborate designs and it had the customizations that somewhat accommodated by needs.  The unfortunate part of free themes is that most of the decent designs are so overused on blogs across the Internet, that a non-blog focused site begins to look rather banal.

In this perpetual search for a Wordpress theme that can accommodate an academic feel while not exiling the site to a corner of rejection due to its “blog”-iness or over cluttering, I hope to finally find a theme that can hold up to my expectations.

P.S. You may wonder why I am so set on using a Wordpress theme – here is the explanation:

In the world of academic and research, there is a continual turn around of people working on research, and the perpetual fear of running out of funding, and alas, in the case that I would not have the time to work on updating the website, I would need to pass this task onto another webmaster – yet, it is highly likely they would not be as astute on the finicky details of website upkeep – therefore Wordpress has become my way of ensuring that website can easily and efficiently be updated, even by someone who isn’t familiar with running a website.

~Deanna

A continuation of my reading on Plato’s Republic (a few more thoughts):

Within Plato’s “just” city, he is set in believing this utopia can be achieved through specific educational curriculum and societal laws.  I am skeptical this could be accomplished, yet when considering many research studies within modern psychology, I feel that his belief of an ideal city could potentially be warranted.

Plato’s ideal city will have educated its’ citizens from childhood, to conform and believe in their harmonious society.  A majority of the citizens will be kept in the dark about the actual truth of the world (the allegory of the cave), as according to Plato’s educational regimen, only the best of the best will be able to go forward into learning the truth.    At times, it seems reminiscent of many isolationist cults or even the systematic censorship within the former USSR.  One of the issues the Soviet Union suffered from was not taking into account the concept of self-serving human nature and the abuse of power.  The guardians may be taught and bred to believe that dying for the greater good would be noble, yet human psychology dictates that self-preservation is an innate factor.

I propose an interesting question: if Plato designed this complex and almost life long educational curriculum, to shape and mold the guardians of this ideal society, how can Plato consider himself competent enough to develop this curriculum and how would he deal with the unpredictability of the human condition?

Cheers,

Deanna

I have been reading Plato’s The Republic, and have had a few different thoughts bouncing around in my head.  In the world of education, Platonic thinking seems to arise when you least expect it, and the more I read, the more I feel like I do not know enough.  Five million questions came to mind when reading Plato, like whether or not he truly believed a perfect City could be achieved, or whether it was simply an idealistic fantasy. Either way, I know I have only started to brush off the surface of understanding what Plato was trying to say.

Nonetheless, here are the three main thoughts that arose from my reading Plato’s The Republic – Books 1 – 4:

Learning:

Persuasion is only possible when the other person is listening, as noted in the statement “But can you persuade, if we refuse to listen?” in book One.  In the context of education and the shaping of impressionable minds, I find this statement to be noteworthy.  If a student is not open to the concept of listening, and the possibility of growing their knowledge base, their opposition hinders the learning process.

The Ideal City and Music:

The education of the members of the ideal city focuses on following the rules, and a strictly censored learning and content.  I found Plato’s stance on music education to be fascinating, as his belief that certain harmonies evoke certain emotions, virtue and a “good” soul, while “bad” harmonies or music can corrupt and “latch onto” the soul.  Now in today’s society, and as a musician/composer myself, I find it difficult to wrap my mind around having my Art censored.  Upon consideration within the “Ideal Just City”, I can completely understand why there would be specific restrictions on the types of music that will be a part of education, as creativity and thinking “outside-the-box” could be catastrophic to the organized structure of the just society.

An Interesting Side Note on “Bad Music”:

Throughout history, certain types of music have been banned for their potential to evoke emotions that were incongruent with the ideals of that time.  The augmented fourth interval, also known as a tritone, has been used consistently as an example of a “bad” interval, with a historical connotation of being dissonant and “evil” (even used today in horror films to evoke “evil”).

As there are different overtones that occur from different intervals, it could be quite possible that certain harmonic scales could be particularly disturbing to someone who associates the tritone with “evil”, due to their societal music education.  Overtones are the natural resonance of an instrument, as instruments emit harmonic frequencies in addition to their fundamental pitch.

There were so many themes and ideas that came out of my readings, yet I felt that these three topics were my favourites. Any thoughts?

Ciao

Deanna