CATLab博客 Sustaining Innovation by Staying Connected to Emotion

Members of our CATLab team have a wide range of passions outside of their work with technology. In keeping with Westmont’s liberal arts tradition, CATLab prioritizes encouraging students to be well-rounded and providing space for reflection and art. Read on to hear from a CATLab student and staff member about how making music affects their lives.

弥迦书霍华德

I start playing some calm and slow chords in the upper register of the piano. Slowly I progress outwards using that initial idea, playing more and more energetic and lively chords until I find something I love. 我产生了这个想法, 也许是调到小调, perhaps modulating to another key altogether. 在发展的最后, I try to distill that idea to its essence: what's emotionally resonated with me. It ends with the purest and simplest form of that idea that I could find; I've let that emotion out through music. That's what a typical break at CATLab has looked like for me this summer.

Music has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started playing the violin when I was six, and ever since I've been playing in orchestras. 自从我来到韦斯特蒙特, I've taken up singing and have been privileged to be part of the Choir and Chamber Singers. 另外, I've had the opportunity to play in the Jazz Ensemble, sing in a barbershop quartet in front of hundreds, and record a single for the Phoenix Magazine in a professional recording studio.

Music serves to ground me and 焦点 my emotion. The mere tactical sensation of playing an instrument and getting my hands to exactly what you want them to has always been a wonderful game to me, taking me away from the larger worries of life into a flow state where my only worry is whether or not I'm playing in time. Oftentimes during the busier and more stressful parts of the semester, I'll find myself in a practice room in the music building, letting all that emotion and anxious energy pass through me into the ivory keys. 不像大多数其他媒介, 音乐是一种公共艺术形式, inviting all those nearby to partake in a shared experience. I try to use this communality when I play piano at CATLab to bring calmness, 焦点, 让工作空间充满活力.

The ultimate goal of a liberal arts education is to develop well-rounded adults, and I can see a bit of Westmont's success in each of my coworkers. 最终, everyone at CATLab has more to them than what you see, and it's a good thing that's the case. A narrow 焦点 on a single vein of work can lead to burnout, and fails to develop the rest of the mind, 而学习文科, 我们都是这样, brings more holistic fulfillment and gives us the perspective to find creative solutions to the problems we encounter. That's why we all have our individual hobbies and talents outside of the work we do that allow us to thrive in the work that we do. That's why engaging in art and music allows me to work at CATLab in a lively, 可持续发展的, 和富有成效的态度.

尼尔·迪马吉奥

音乐提供了一个美好的时刻, 一个理由, or (if needed) permission to slow down the work of the day. It helps us tap into our feelings and memories, and calls us out of the “react!我们的设备所需要的心态. 对我来说, the act of practicing and performing is participation in both the created and the act of creating. Its evanescence is part of the beauty, for it demands that all who participate pay attention, 否则这一刻就失去了时间. At the same time, a moment spent savoring beauty can be remembered, shining for a lifetime.

音乐指引我们走向上帝. There is music in the natural world, music in movement and sounds all around us. When we can tune in, we may just hear God’s voice saying, “This is good”. 对于一些文学解释, read the “Creation accounts” in the Silmarillion or The Magician’s Nephew which depict the power of music in the natural world.

Many days, a well-chosen song can carry me over the rough patches. The promise of sitting uninterrupted at my piano to work out mundane things like fingerings, 和弦进行, voicing or phrasing sustains me through long days.

I think most people have an appreciation for music, 它可以改变一个人的情绪, 甚至对一种情况的看法. 对我来说, this is what it means to be sustained – to be given the power to continue to make the right choice in this moment. 音乐使我们适应那些时刻, and the holy footsteps of Wenceslas somehow appear in the fresh snow before us. When I think of the times I have been truly moved, most of them were in response to music. Being emotionally moved is participating in our humanness, and this too, sustains us.

It is my joy to share some of the techniques and passion of making music with the Westmont community. 作为我们的钢琴师之一, I love walking alongside students on their musical journeys at Westmont. Hearing College Choir members speak commendations to each other at the end of a big performance such as our recent one at Tokyo College of Music, I marvel at the way music enables sustaining community and unforgettable personal experiences.