Here is a big thought:
“Look at the rate our technology is evolving. Look at how musical taste and expression constantly evolve throughout human history. Look at the prevalence increase of ASD. Let’s all do something new and cool!!”
Who’s got the new iPad2? We are working to get a few, here at Musical Autist Academy, and we want to know who else in the world wants to make music with us!
Two days ago, on April 5th, 2011, Ms.CJ went to Berklee School of Music for a very historical event. It was a day-long symposium called,
“The Future of Music Therapy: Developing Technologies.”
Over the past year, music technology students at Berklee worked with music therapists at the Kennedy Day School (on-site at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton, MA) to develop devices to help severely disabled students to communicate – through music making!!! 😀 The achievements made in this past year are astounding, for all parties involved in the collaboration.
Ms.CJ got to meet some extremely cool and well-educated folks on this very special day! She helped to make The Musical Autist some brilliant new friends: Aric Allen, Matt Centrella, John Clements, Matthew Hines, John Mitropoulos, Siegfried Mueller, Nick Suda, Takahiko Tsuchiya and Andreas Wittich. These guys were the Music Therapy Technology Developers. We look forward to developing these new friendships and musically collaborating in the years to come.
Here’s a pic of Ms.CJ and three of our new friends. 🙂
new musical friends
There was also an amazing crossing of paths with a very special, new music therapist named Christopher Perry.
Instead of explaining our philosophy anymore, we will share one of Ms.CJ’s favorite songs to make our point. A group called The Postal Service created their music by long distance friendship and collaboration. We think we can easily do a similar thing, with other musically autistic people around the globe, with the technologies that are becoming readily available to us.
Note: This video is super high-sensory both in audio and visual! Makes for good empathy practice for neuro-typicals who want to understand what sensory overload might feel like. It’s also fun to consider what awesome good music can be created in purely digital fashion.
“I’ll write you this song/and it won’t be hard to sing/it will be a natural anthem/familiar it will seem/it will rally all the workers/on strike for better pay/and its coolness will resound/and boost morale throughout the day/I’ll write you this song/and I hope that you won’t mind/because all the names and places I have taken from your life/so please don’t be upset/at this portrait that I paint/it may be a little biased/but at least I spelled your name right.”
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