'The Women of Dolor' create a space of inclusivity and enlightenment
By Alexandra BonanoStaff Writer
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By Alexandra BonanoStaff Writer
By: Alexandra Bonano Staff Writer
By Alexandra Bonano Staff Writer After a semester of hard work and innovation, students show cased their skills in blending music and technology at the Music to the Max Demonstration, an informal concert on April 29 at 2 p.m. in Mayo Concert Hall. Four different groups took the stage to share their projects, discussing their goals and creative processes. The students are all music or interactive multimedia majors and are in the class “Interactive Music Programming.” “It’s a class where the students are challenged to write, in some cases, their first computer program to create interactive music systems,” said Associate Professor of Music Teresa Nakra. The first group created an interactive mat that is similar to the game “Dance, Dance, Revolution.” The device allows kids to play nursery rhymes and children’s songs by stepping on different symbols on a mat. The second group presented a loop-track, which allows users to play and record a series of notes that can be repeated throughout any song, which was followed by a presentation that shed light on the four common notes that are present in many pieces of music. This group sang fourteen popular songs, such as “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5 and “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri that contained these notes and used the technology to illustrate the common four notes. The fourth group developed technology that allows users to separate the notes of a song and play them individually. These students also created an interactive mat that played different notes from a song, which in this case was the Mii music theme song on the Wii gaming system. By separating these notes, one could play the notes however they wanted depending on what order they stepped on the squares. “In addition to the ‘Max’ software that they’ve all written, they’ve all built some sort of hardware interface that uses what’s called a ‘Makey Makey,’ which is a little circuit board,” Nakra said. Nakra emphasized the importance of using tools like the Makey Makey to help students foster their skills while they also take advantage of nuanced software. “We use it because it attaches to the laptop by USB and basically allows the students to be able to create sensor triggers, which allows them to perform notes in real time,” she said. At the end of the demonstration, audience members were invited to join the groups on stage to discuss the projects and try the technology out for themselves. “[The projects] fit each of the groups very well, and who they are as people, so I thought they were all very interesting,” said junior music major Maura McFadden.
By Alexandra Bonano Staff Writer The Traditions lounge, which was bustling with noise and conversation, was filled with an audience that was ready to enjoy a night of laughter at the Stand Up Comedy Society’s Open Mic Night on Friday, April 12 at 8 p.m. The stage was open to the public, and anyone from the audience was encouraged to take a shot at delivering a comedic performance for the crowd. Those who were brave enough to get up and perform admitted that they were making up jokes on the spot, which put their comedic abilities to the test. Acting as the emcee for the night was Jason Thorpe, a sophomore history and secondary education major, who is an active member of TCNJ SUCS. “The goal is, generally, for our members to come out or even just anybody to come out and get a chance to try their hand at stand up,” Thorpe said. As stated in the beginning of the show by Thorpe, the goal for most of the acts is to last up on stage for at least five minutes, or long enough to perform a full set. This is seen as a major accomplishment for those who are new at stand-up. Most participants told their jokes in the form of stories or small anecdotes. The stories told of antics like of how one perform- er’s friend ruptured their spleen after a fun night out, or how another told of their experience with paranoia when smoking weed and their knowledge of hard drugs. All the acts consisted of topics that could be considered raunchy or even too taboo to be joking about, such as sex, alcohol and partying, –– not to mention the many expletives thrown around throughout the bits. Despite these being such serious topics, the acts mixed their severity with a sense of fun and lightheartedness to elicit laughter. “I’ve always loved and been interested in comedy, especially comedy shows like this,” said Allison Glantzberg, a junior physics major. “I would like to think that at some point I would have the courage enough to go up there and perform.” The purpose of this open mic night was to allow audience members to practice their stand- up skills while expressing their individual comedic tastes — the lounge became a space where college comedians step outside of their comfort zones. “I admire how this event is a place for laughs and no judgement,” Glantzberg said of the event. “I think we need more things like this that promote that kind of environment.”
By Alexandra Bonano Correspondent As water has become a prominent, ongoing theme within the TCNJ Art Gallery and efforts to reach those beyond the campus community are in full swing. The gallery’s fourth event surrounding the exhibition,“Spring Eternal: Art, Water, Change,” was held on March 6 at 5 p.m. It, once again, included the Water Bar service along with a new poetry portion that was open to the public to participate in, but was mainly meant to encourage the Girl Scouts of America Troop #70641 in reading the poetry themselves. The exhibition was free and open for the public to enjoy. The poetry, interactive art and entire exhibition event was overseen by Margaret Pezalla-Granlund, the director of the TCNJ Art Gallery. She also assisted the College in its efforts to reach out to the Girl Scouts and make it possible for them to join the event. Elizabeth Mackie, a professor in the Department of Art and Art History, served as a “water tender” with the help of a student assistant, Cara Giddens, a senior fine arts major. Morgan Sivy (’18), who is now an English graduate student and art gallery assistant, was in charge of creating the packets of poetry in preparation for the event. This encouraged participants to participate in the reading session. “I used to be a Girl Scout and we never did anything that was extremely memorable to me that wasn’t something like a huge trip,” Sivy said. “They get to visit a college campus and they get to see a college gallery ... I think that’s important too just to see that real people make real art and that they can be exposed to it and that they themselves can make art too.” The poems collected all related to the theme of water. Sivy included works by more famous writers and poets, such as “Rain” by Shel Silverstein, “Going for Water” by Robert Frost and “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes. The popup event also featured an interactive arts and crafts station, where the Girl Scouts could get involved in the gallery by creating some of their own art. The poetry reading and art station stayed true to the theme of the Water Bar by allowing younger generations to explore their own creativity and speak on the importance and innovation behind water. “I think things like this that are small but memorable,” Sivy said. “Kids not only get to see art and see that they could do art or that there’s different mediums of art, but also to see what college is like.”
By Alexandra Bonano Correspondent
By Alexandra Bonano Correspondent