Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Friday, August 26, 2011
Beautiful reviewd by DeWitt Cheng of the Esat Bay Express
Beautiful
When: Through Sept. 9 Truth is no longer beauty; nowadays, honest art must be subversive, ironic, and detached -- or must it? John Neary's sculptures and Sally Ann Rodriguez's paintings may not be traditionally beautiful, but both artists aim at powerful emotion and push the figurative/anatomical envelope (though not always successfully). Both also look back to Romantic and Expressionist precursors: Rodriguez writes, "The artist never gets away from being a servant, an excavator, a janitor, a builder, a seeker," and she alternates between life studies, imaginary portraits, and abstracted landscapes. "Yellowstone," "In the Hills," and "Hand Like a Foot with a Fish in my Pocket" are her strongest works here. Neary sculpts Rodinesque or Wagnerian figures who struggle from their organic matrices ("Ashes," "Breathing Room," "Powder"); despite their modest size, "Return" and "Power" are monumental, their tragic heroes imbued with superhuman (or subhuman) intensity. Beautiful runs through Sept. 9 at Float Gallery (1091 Calcot Pl. #116, Oakland). 510-535-1702 or TheFloatCenter.com
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Next 2 amazing exhibits in the gallery for 2011
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Monday, May 16, 2011
Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level - Very Cool!
Sensory Deprivation Boosts Musicians’ Skill Level
Canadian researchers report floating in an isolation tank increased the technical skill level of young jazz players.
Forget practicing scales, how about trying altered states? A new Canadian experiment suggests floating in an isolation tank may increase the technical ability of musicians. (istockphoto.com)
Oshin Vartanian of Defence Research and Development Canada and Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia report floating in an Epsom salt solution one hour per week for four weeks boosted the technical ability of a group of college music students. This suggests such periods of minimal sensory stimulation can improve performers’ perceptual-motor coordination.
Don’t start filling up the bathtub, however: This experiment, described in the journal Music and Medicine, featured a level of sensory deprivation achievable only in a specially designed tank. The device was invented in the 1950s by neuroscientist John Lilly; in the years since, its use has been linked to improved sports performance and heightened levels of creativity.
But would it work for budding be-boppers? To answer that question, the researchers conducted an experiment using 13 students enrolled in an intermediate-level jazz improvisation course at Vancouver Community College.
Eight of the students — six men and two women — engaged in flotation sessions for four consecutive weeks. They spent an hour each week in a fiberglass shell, floating in a solution of Epsom salts and skin-temperature water. They were in the dark, and outside sounds were muffled.
All the participants — including the other five musicians who comprise the comparison group — made two five-minute-long recordings in which they freely improvised. The first took place one week before the flotation sessions began; the second, one week after the sessions concluded. Each session was rated by the instructor (who was unaware which students were undergoing the treatments) on five dimensions: improvisation, creativity, expressiveness, technical ability and overall quality.
The researchers found “a significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups on technical ability, but not on any other dimension,” the researchers write. Thanks to this enhanced skill level, those who had floated “had significantly higher grades in the jazz improvisation class than the comparison group.”
Vartanian and Suedfeld concede this was a small sample. But they note that, based on their initial recordings, the instructor rated the treatment and comparison groups essentially equal on all five dimensions. Since “The two groups can be considered equivalent in terms of motivation and baseline ability,” the difference in their ability was very likely the result of the flotation sessions.
So why didn’t the treatment group’s creativity scores also rise? The researchers suspect this reflects the one-week lag time between the final flotation session and the second recording.
That was purposeful on their part: They wanted to gauge long-lasting rather than immediate effects. (Previous research found increased creativity in university students after floating sessions measured their abilities immediately after they left the tank and dried off.)
Of course, for a musician, technical expertise can inspire increased creativity, as it gives one the confidence to take risks. So perhaps this boost in skill will lead to higher levels of originality in the long run.
In any event, the results suggest this technique holds considerable promise for musicians in general and jazz artists in particular. As Vartanian and Suedfeld note, flotation isolation “has been shown to induce a state of relaxed alertness, concentration and reduced stress.”
Which is exactly where you want to be when the bandleader gives his cue.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Floatation Tank Helps Improve Grades
If you’re really keen to tap into the limitless potential of your unconscious mind, you’re going to want to have session in a floatation tank. In this day and age of constant interruptions, time slicing and multi-tasking, research reflects it’s having an effect on our ability for deep thinking.
The changing nature of work, study and leisure is rewiring the human brain in such a way that deep reading the concentrated pursuit of linear stories and thought – is being trained out of us.
A University Of California (San Diego) study found that the amount of information the average American processed in 2008 was triple what it was in 1960. This has turned many into pancake people – spread wide and thin.
A series of psychological studies over the past 20 years have shown that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and improved cognition (learning). Their brains become calmer and sharper.
Now it may not be quick and easy to head out to the country, but a 1-hour session in a floatation tank can do you and your grades – real wonders.
It’s inexpensive and easy to do. The feelings of weightlessness have to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
You should test various approaches to using a floatation tank as a study aid:
All you need to do is trust the process and “release yourself from the expectation of the outcome” as Dr Deepak Chopra extols. This is not something you can force. You need to ‘let it happen’ and then marvel in its quasi-magical powers as you become the genius you always knew you could be!
Here is the webiste We found this on: http://www.get-better-grades.com/blog/floatation-tank-helps-improve-grades/
The changing nature of work, study and leisure is rewiring the human brain in such a way that deep reading the concentrated pursuit of linear stories and thought – is being trained out of us.
A University Of California (San Diego) study found that the amount of information the average American processed in 2008 was triple what it was in 1960. This has turned many into pancake people – spread wide and thin.
A series of psychological studies over the past 20 years have shown that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and improved cognition (learning). Their brains become calmer and sharper.
Floatation Tank Improves Your Grades
It’s inexpensive and easy to do. The feelings of weightlessness have to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
You should test various approaches to using a floatation tank as a study aid:
- Try to study before, using the floatation tank to resolve problems, or just do a mental review of what you just studied.
- Try to start studying before, float and then attack your hardest assignments or problems, reverse the process and see which combination works best for you.
All you need to do is trust the process and “release yourself from the expectation of the outcome” as Dr Deepak Chopra extols. This is not something you can force. You need to ‘let it happen’ and then marvel in its quasi-magical powers as you become the genius you always knew you could be!
Here is the webiste We found this on: http://www.get-better-grades.com/blog/floatation-tank-helps-improve-grades/
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Another fine article about floatation therapy
Float Your Way to Good Health
Alternative healing methods to restore your mind, body and soul
Christy Leung
More and more individuals are moving away from or supplementing Western medicine and traditional treatments with alternative healing methods. You probably recognize holistic healing methods such as homeopathy, massage therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatments . . . but what about "floating?"
Here's a rundown on several alternative treatments you ought to know about and try:
Floatation Therapy
Here at DH headquarters in Portland, Ore., we're just miles away from FloatOn, which claims to be the largest float tank center on the west coast. Developed by a neuroscientist in the mid 1950s, floatation tanks were originally named "sensory deprivation tanks." In more recent years as the therapy has grown in popularity, the name has changed to "float tanks" and a therapeutic session in one of these tanks reportedly gets rid of all sensory input and enables to the brain to calm down. About 40 minutes into your float, "your brain stops producing its normal Alpha waves and starts churning out Theta waves. These are responsible for that 'between-waking-and-sleeping' state."People who have undergone floatation therapy have raved that the relaxed state from being in the tank have alleviated a range of conditions including anxiety, day-to-day stress, chronic pain, insomnia, jet lag and it has even helped fight addiction. Besides physical benefits, floating is also valuable for spiritual practice and improving concentration and focus. Floatation therapy has become more recognized in recent years and has even been featured on shows such as The Simpsons, Fringe and CSI. Have you tried this unique therapeutic remedy?
Monday, November 22, 2010
Lubbock Texas rocks the 4th state of matter!
Tony Greer has been creating plasma art for over 30 years,
check it out!
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