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  • Quotes

    A collection of quotes I enjoy //

    On Art:

    “We are inside a culture where everything is failing us. The media is failing. The journalists, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know how they live with themselves. News is no longer news. But the one place I feel like I can go where things are reflected back at me in a way that I understand is in the arts. It’s in the poetry, in the fiction, the visual arts, the dance, the music. And so, you know, I’m beginning to understand now why the dictators killed the artists.”

    Claudia Rankine

    “During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.”

    – Dan Savage

    “Art is how you decorate space, music is how you decorate time.”

    – Jean-Michel Basquait

    “Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.”

    – Frank Zappa

    “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

    – Arthur C. Clarke

    “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature.”

    Karl Schroeder

    On Intentionality:

    “Life expands in proportion to the courage you bring to it.”

    – Anais Nin

    “The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure.”

    – Baruch Spinoza

    “Wanting positive experience is a negative experience, accepting negative experience is a positive experience.”

    – Lao Tzu

    “Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”

    – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “If I can stop one heart from breaking,
    I shall not live in vain;
    If I can ease one life the aching,
    Or cool one pain,
    Or help one fainting robin
    Unto his nest again,
    I shall not live in vain.”

    – Emily Dickinson

    “When the intention of the archer is transformed into the flight of the arrow, her hand opens at the right moment, the sound of the string makes the birds sing, and the gesture of shooting something over a distance provokes a return to and an encounter with oneself.”

    – Paulo Coelho

    “We must all suffer one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”

    – Jim Rohn

    “The only constant in life is change.”

    – Heraclitus

    On Love and Suffering:

    “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

    – Jimi Hendrix

    “War is when your government tells you who the enemy is. Revolution is when you figure it out for yourself.”

    – Napoleon Bonaparte

    “Making someone feel like they are being seen, that they are being heard and that they are being understood is the loudest form of love.”

    Brené Brown

    “Wisdom and Love must balance mutually. Wisdom without Love it’s a destructive element. Love without Wisdom can lead us to error: love is law, but conscious love”

    – Samael Aun Weor

    “Honesty without compassion is cruelty, kindness without honesty is manipulation.”

    – Bruce Kasanoff

    “Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

    – Gautama Buddha

    “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.”

    Tim Keller

    “To truly see someone – anyone – is an act that acknowledges and forgives our common and imperfect humanity. Love says softly – I see you.”

    – Nick Cave

  • Confluence

    Confluence: Where Waters Meet – 2025 Green Lake Global Water Dances

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    Performances:

    Global Water Dances is an organization with a mission to connect and support a global community of choreographers and dancers, to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance.

    Over 140 locations around the world host Global Water Dances events each year. On the same day, participants and audiences perform the same water-related movements around the world. Participating communities work to address local environmental issues through dance.

    Global Water Dances

    With your contribution, I can bring these events to our community for accessible and free prices, while paying artists and raising donations for local arts and environmental organizations. Donations are currently being matched up to $500!

    Contact me at art.lily.selthofner@gmail.com to contribute and with any questions.

    Further, if you’d be interested in supporting a specific group involved in Confluence Events, such as sponsoring tickets for one or more shows, or donating directly to education initiatives, or supporting artists, please reach out!

    LINK TO GO FUND ME – CLICK TO DONATE HERE!

    Whooping Crane Sponsors receive a tote bag with a local landscape painting design, art prints, 4 free seats to the June 12th evening show, and:

    Whooping Crane business sponsors are offered a free film commercial advertisement, for their use and that we will show at our events, alongside print brochure advertisements and thank-you recognition in speeches at all of Confluence’s events.

    Advertisements are an opportunity to share your organization and offerings, alongside being a great chance to support important causes while gaining exposure and celebrating the vibrant local community that makes the Green Lake area so special.

    Monarch Butterfly Sponsors will receive VIP Merchandise, including a tote bag with a local landscape painting design, art prints, and 2 free seats to the June 12th evening show!

    There will be several fundraising opportunities to support several local community, arts, and environmental organizations throughout the Confluence event series:

    Green Lake Association (GLA) / Princeton Art Collective (PARC) / Freeland / Playground Park Fundraiser

    sponsors we need your help! (1)

    More Information

    Global Water Dances is an organization with a mission to connect and support a global community of choreographers and dancers, to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance.

    Over 140 locations around the world host Global Water Dances events each year. On the same day, participants and audiences perform the same water-related movements around the world. Participating communities work to address local environmental issues through dance.

    Confluence: where waters meet. A merging and flowing together, especially of rivers or streams: the point of juncture, the combined stream formed by this juncture. It can also refer to a gathering, meeting, or blending of people or things.

    Confluence in nature: biomimicry, ecotones, root systems interweaving underground, blood vessels meeting at capillaries, highways, neural pathways branching, river deltas into estuaries, lineage, migration routes crossing and merging, branches the sum of tree trunks, evolution

    -Provide an opportunity for community members to increase feelings of embodied connection with art, ecosystems, and community

    -Attract, serve, and involve a diverse array of participants of surrounding community residents of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, and artistic/environmental interest levels through accessible, confluent programming. We work with retirement homes, schools, dance studios, museums, and more. We seek to excite youth toward further education and the pursuit of the arts through validating and engaging experiences.

    -Unite and empower the community through constructive artistic dialogue to foster connection, empowerment, and responsibility

    -Capture the essence of the community in the snapshot of the present time with film, audio, and performance elements, for future generations to cherish, and to share with the world.

    -Create local art opportunities in dance performances, music, and visual arts, with multilevel frameworks to match individual participation desires and generate growth for many local artists

     -Stimulate local performance arts appreciation and economy

    -Create compelling, elevated, professional-quality dance & music performances that capture the unique beauty of Green Lake, the Fox River, and more

    -Raise awareness: Educate about environmental and community responsibility, endangered species, habitat restoration, and water ecosystems. Foster interconnection between community, creativity, and ecosystem

    -Educational events and programming: hands-on events that organically generate a reciprocal relationship with the natural world

    -Designing innovative curricula with community experts that emphasize connections between systemic destructive practices, and habitat loss and displacement experienced by both humans and animals around the globe. For example, exploring links between natural disasters, industrial war complexes, pollution, settler colonialism, fossil fuels, and global displacement — alongside centering accessible action steps to be a responsible place-maker toward healing the Earth and our communities.

    -Raise funds, charity initiatives to various local arts, environmental, and community organizations

    Films (in progress):

    Made by Lily Selthofner and Jessie Simmers

    This documentary captures the Princeton Historical Society as they prepare for their Grand Opening in July 2025. Featuring interviews with the PHS Founders, highlights of artifacts throughout the Museum, and insider stories, this documentary will be available on the Princeton Historical Society’s webpage. Highlights of water memories and water-related artifacts will inform and inspire aspects of the performance arts pieces. There will be showings of relevant highlights from the documentary with performances. Further, there will be a research paper (15-40 pages) diving into BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ histories in the area.

    Made by Lily Selthofner and Charles Caestecker 

    In “Water Spirit,” a mystical Water Spirit rises from Green Lake’s (Daychola’s) depths to confront the environmental challenges endangering this home.  The Spirit’s journeys highlight beloved local landmarks as she becomes popular, but then faces comedic misunderstandings, arrest, and a solitary reckoning in Judson Tower. Along the journey, the Water Spirit and the community learn responsibility—and hope—toward restoring environmental harmony.

    The film will be 3-7 minutes long and will be screened alongside performances, and will be later viewable online.

    Musical scoring for the film will be co-created alongside interested local student musicians and choir students.

    For Artistic Participants and Collaborators

    Hello! I am seeking two to four singers who are locally based, primarily for the piece “Vestige” but also for the full events programming. I am also seeking two local instrumentalists.

    If you are interested in participating, as a singer, musician, actor, or spoken word artist, are please reach out as well art.lily.selthofner@gmail.com. I would love to involve everyone interested!

    I am seeking local youth singers and musicians, college or high school students, who would like to work collaboratively to contribute to a film score and/or live performance.

    Hello! If your assisted living facility is in the wider area of Green Lake County, I would love to bring arts programming to your residents for this series. These are our offerings, and we adapt to individual and organizational interests and can visit once or multiple times.

    -Accessible dance follow-along workshops for residents

    – Collecting audio and transcribed interviews on favorite life memories in the local area (will be used in dance pieces and film soundscores, with the goal of memorializing messages to family and future humanity)

  • Dancing with Water: Environmental Healing through Somatic Political Ecology

    Read Full Article Here

    Full work published with SCOPE, the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed social sciences journal publication of the Urban Equity Institute

    Abstract 

    This research explores water’s relational intelligence through both somatic and scientific frameworks, drawing on anthropological inquiry and contemporary dance practice to illuminate how water’s movement patterns reflect forms of agency deeply entangled with human experience. By examining water’s explained and unexplained properties alongside embodied ecological knowledge, this work proposes new ways of understanding environmental consciousness and interconnection. Ultimately, it suggests that reciprocal, movement-based relationships with water offer powerful tools for addressing climate change, fostering ecological healing, and reimagining environmental justice through somatic and interdisciplinary approaches.

    (25,000 words, 92 min read, 170 sources)

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    Environmentalism and Accessibility in Education

    Environmentalism, Accessibility in Education by Lily Selthofner

    Green Lake, Wisconsin, is beloved by full-time and seasonal residents alike. The deepest lake in Wisconsin fosters an ecosystem filled with diverse wildlife, with community members of all ages enjoying such a bountiful place. Conservation efforts are an integral part of our community. As a recent graduate of Green Lake School District (GLSD), I have realized that educational opportunities abound in a place like Green Lake could be innovated and set a great example for other communities. Our school’s distinct International Baccalaureate (IB) program promotes a well-rounded education: where students gain skills to carry into the real world. 

    Many of the root causes of recent global warming increase the risk of pandemics and natural disasters. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of environmentalism is more clear than ever. In a community with phenomenal conservation resources, we are already setting a great example for surrounding areas. However, the three most effective ways to change the world are to buy, to vote, and to educate. I would argue that the next step towards a sustainable and united community is emphasizing environmental education for students of all ages.

    Our institutions uphold our community, as exemplified by the Green Lake Conservancy, Green Lake Sanitary District, Wisconsin DNR, and more. Schools are institutions, with the responsibility of bringing education to our future leaders. Though many teachers in my time at GLSD have provided opportunities for students in conservation efforts, these practices must be integrated by policy into the school system and wider community. Collaboration with existing departments in our community, as well as creating independent environmental projects, is an important practice for all. Environmental education is an essential part of a student’s journey into a world affected by global warming. 

    Americans generate more waste than any other nation in the world, and the Green Lake Community is no exception. Our institutions must lead by example: having compost areas for food and other waste, as well as comprehensive and robust recycling programs. We must adopt waste reduction policies regarding food and stationery waste. 

    Furthermore, curriculums must include progressive and comprehensive education about climate change for students of all ages. Global warming is an urgent scientific issue, not a political one, and should be treated as such. The scientific evidence of recent global warming must become common knowledge, and misconceptions about climate change must be addressed. Around the world, global warming threatens lives. 

    While it is easy for our rural community to feel immune to recent global warming, its effects are evident here and now. The Wisconsin State Climatology Office has found a significant decrease in ice-on/ice-off data, which has and will result in increased flood frequency. Increased runoff from the watershed into the lake brings long-term delivery of phosphorus and sediment. According to The Lake Management Plan For Green Lake, while individual pollution sources can be addressed, non-point sources remain a serious threat to our ecosystem. Teaching our communities about the evident local effects of global warming and effective strategies in our community connects students to the global impact of the climate crisis in empowering ways. 

    To get more people involved in community environmental efforts, threats to our ecosystem should be taught and combated. We can not take our ecosystem for granted: we rely on Green Lake for fishery, recreation, its beauty, and more. The lake has become less resilient, bringing us to an ecological tipping point. Depleted oxygen levels threaten trout fishery.  Invasive species, such as zebra mussels, water milfoil, and buckthorn ravage our ecosystems. Collaboration with current management efforts should be an integral part of education and community life. 

    With lots of farm-owning families in our area, many folks are already familiar with agricultural practices. Students and farmers should be educated in sustainable agriculture science, to encourage community and worldwide shift toward necessary farming practices. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, building and maintaining healthy soil, water management, minimizing pollution, and promoting biodiversity are crucial aspects of sustainable agriculture. Adopting agro-ecological principles aids the environment, without sacrificing profitability or productivity. All possible resources and efforts available to enact sustainable agriculture should be prioritized which can bring these practices to our families. 

    In a community where conservation and agriculture are integral to who we are, we must lead by example. We must implement sustainable practices and environmental education with policy, accessible community education, and efforts. Students’ classes, school-wide seminars, collaboration with existing resources, and community engagement are all great places to start. Surrounding districts will be encouraged to do the same, sparking needed change. We must cultivate a better future for the next generation, beginning with environmental responsibility and empowerment.

    Word Count: 770

    The original version was written and published in local newspapers in March 2021.

    The version here is revised 2024.

  • A Feminist Approach to Education

    A Feminist Approach to Education by Lily Selthofner

    Education is a primary foundation of identity. Our community’s curricula may be relatively progressive and innovative, yet the underlying ‘hidden curriculum’ (of socializing students within the school system), has severe consequences that are often unnoticed and even tolerated. The biases of both our textbook and underlying, at times unconscious teachings to youth have profound effects on the futures of our students. These mindsets enable or disable students for a lifetime, as many adults may feel within themselves. To create a safe and empowering environment for all students, we must become aware of the array of inequalities reinforced in our local education system, and be active participants in their deconstruction with commitments to truth, justice, compassion, awareness, and innovation.

    Many studies have focused on childhood development, and data reveals an extensive array of both overt and unnamed inequality. Starting in preschool, the education system defines children by their gender. Girls wear immobilizing dresses and tights — and their playtime is more structured. Further, girls are given more limiting negative reinforcement. Boys are allowed more retaliation and are disciplined with more physical touch than girls — teaching them that aggression is a means of control. 

    Biases in early childhood socialization have lifelong effects on body language and self-esteem. Conditioned movements and gestures create a bodily difference between genders. Social inequalities are presented as natural differences to kids from very young ages, which then falsely manifests as uninformed justifications for sexism, rather than understood as cultural conditioning, where misogynistic systems run deep and must be uprooted.

    ‘Boys against girls’ tropes spark competition. Women are left with increased quietness, docility, and appearance-related insecurities. Boys are asked to carry more heavy things and given extra academic positive reinforcement. Girls are more likely to function in small groups, whereas boys are allowed to take up more physical space in the classroom (and the playground) and are more likely to function in large, hierarchical groups.  

    At the top of this hierarchy lies hegemonic (the most ‘powerful’) masculinity. Maintained through competitiveness, emotional detachment, sexual objectification of women, and the ability to publicly display those qualities — hegemonic masculinity structures the adolescent male social life. Teachers, under-resourced, are often complacent in its cultivation, leading to bullying, physical injury, sexual harassment, and homophobia in schools. Alarmingly, sexual objectification of women — and homophobia — are seen as a masculine status symbol before boys even reach puberty. 

    Community and society play a substantial role in the maintenance of gender inequality in these forms. It is the responsibility of teachers to enforce equality by facilitating safe communities and setting examples of empathy and authenticity for students, to build a better future. Teachers should be provided with the proper means and resources to do so. Families must do better too.

    Gym-class boys are given unequal entitlement to aggression — one in three women will quit competitive sports by the late teen years, whereas only one in ten boys will. Women live longer and have more endurance, agility, flexibility, and lower body strength than men on average. Yet, misogynistic measurements of strength are ingrained in our systems: such as basketball hoop heights and football widths, not to mention dramatic underfunding, double standards in uniforms, harsher standards causing injury, eating disorders, and systemic sexual abuse, all areas where justice goes even more under-addressed in women’s sports.

    Further, classes that teach male-dominated fields like tech-ed often tolerate toxic hegemonic masculinity. Unfortunately, that means women (and gay men) often have to choose between suffering harassment, or giving up learning typically ‘masculine’ skills and going into subsequent fields, that usually have high pay and fewer education requirements. Nobody should have to tolerate inequality and harassment to have fair access to academic or professional opportunities.

    In our predominantly white and Christian community, racism and homophobia are in education spaces. Marginalized groups are ostracized by peers. Classrooms lack thoughtful rhetoric because curricula are often built with propaganda, censorship, and misinformation. Hurtful rhetoric should be met with accountability and change. With divisive and hateful views normalized by our political representatives on our screens: Glen Growthman says women should stay in the kitchen, for example, families and schools have an even greater burden to combat that behavior.

    The overt curricula must be more progressive as well, as personal safety and family wellness are built upon these foundations. Up-to-date women’s health, including menstruation and birth control, should be taught in health classes. Accurate anatomy, queer sexual education, respect, relational skills, emotional awareness, and trauma-coping tools are also necessary. Stricter discipline of students is not the solution. Staff complacency (or aid) in in-school inequality must not be tolerated. Students must have their individual needs met. Paying teachers adequately will motivate professionalism and progressive, conscientious action.

    From a young age, bias in styles of positive and negative reinforcement limits the female mind and body — contributing to the misconception of inequality between genders that social systems ingrain and normalize. Moving further into elementary school, masculinity is allotted toxicity. With decades of failed efforts to end bullying, one must ponder who is encouraged to bully. Even further, school is not a safe space for many students, and with gun violence, parents often do not feel safe sending kids to school. 

    Faculties must do better to prevent inequality in learning places. Adequate pay for teachers and respect between teachers, administration, and is a must — alongside revised curriculum, both overt and covert (better community conduct). Reparations for unprevented damage also include quality and accessible mental health resources in schools, and more accessible forms of education at all levels, daycare through phD.

    Education is not a place for inequality or ostracization of any kind. It is rather the place where adults should be held most accountable for enforcing equality, with open-minded and inclusive rhetoric, and a commitment to truth and justice, as we influence the malleable minds of youth. It is unacceptable to give some a lifetime of imposter syndrome limiting beliefs, and/or entitlement to racism, sexism, homophobia, and nationalism. It is our responsibility to deconstruct inequality. As education systems move into the post-COVID world, we must take advantage of this opportunity to take thoughtful action to address the inequalities and biases within our schools. 

    Written and published in local newspapers in June 2021.

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    NYC Photography

    NYC Photographs – Unedited – Photo Journal

    Photos by Lily Selthofner (2024)

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    NYC Golden Hour Skyscrapers, NYC Urban Photography, NYC Photos, NYC Street Photos, Street Photography, Skyscrapers, Tall Buildings, Downtown NYC, NYC Summertime, New York, New York City, Manhattan Photos, Central Park Photos, Times Square Photos, Brooklyn Bridge Photos, Pier 1 Photos, New York City Photos

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    Afterlives Album and Video Series – Complete Credits

    Afterlives: An Album of Interviews, Poetry, Music, Dance, and Nature

    For more information about Afterlives

    View the album on YouTube

    CREDITS:

    Director/Producer/Interviewer: Lily Selthofner

    Cinematography by Charlie Caestecker, Noah Hanson, Julia Haynes, and Lily Selthofner

    Editing by Lily Selthofner and Ray Baker

    Music by Rory Bricca, Noah Hanson, Daniel Weitz, Austin Krentz, Maria Shaughnessy, and Soul Online

    Poetry by Jessa Faye Moverman and Lily Selthofner

    Poetic Narration by Ray Londowski, Desi Kreminlieva, Eric Butler, Lauren Calvin, and Lily Selthofner

    Dancing by Lily Selthofner, Kai Nakayama, and John Trunfio

    Painting by Ray Atlas

    Interviewees: The People of Washington Square Park, Al and Lisa Baker, Leslie Polk, Eric Butler, Lauren Calvin, Josh Selthofner, Elizabeth Lee, Dylan Blue, Katherine Francis, Jessa Faye Moverman, Julia Haynes, Noah Hanson, More Sounds by Tomentum+

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    Still from To Remember in Afterlives
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    Still from Jiibay Miikana: Path of Souls in Afterlives

  • Sounds

    St. Mark’s Basilica

    Tuesday Birds

    Sunday Birds

    Car Alarm (April Fool’s Day)

    Voicemail Message

    Meowversation

    Chamber: Progressive Opening of NYC Window (12 Floors Up)

    Chamber: Flip Flops in Long Industrial Hallway (Basement)

    Undefined Sound Object

    NYC Soundscape

    Scuffle

  • Dance Photos

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    From 8th House – Senior Creative Thesis 2024
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    From 8th House – Senior Creative Thesis 2024
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    Photograph by Shannon Binns
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    Photograph by Shannon Binns
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    Photograph by Shannon Binns
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    Photograph by Shannon Binns
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    Open Dance Ensemble’s Appalachian Summer – Images from the Show

    PPA (Professional Photographers of America) Magazine: Photograph Featured, 2020
    SYNC Image Competition: Highest Scoring Senior Portrait Entry, 2020
    Hot 100 Photography Contest: Community Choice Award, 2020
  • Photos

    Performance Photos

    8th House – Senior Creative Thesis – Images from the Show

    Ultimate Catharsis 1 – Images from the Show

    Acqua Alta – Images from the Show

    Open Dance Ensemble’s Appalachian Summer – Images from the Show

    Dance Photos

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    Portraits

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    NYC Photography

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    Cats and Nature Photos

  • Caution Wet Floor

    Caution Wet Floor

    Caution Wet Floor (2/23): Co-directed with Eva Thomas, Caution Wet Floor is a movement and visual arts study of revolutionary pathways, and cautionary signs. This filmic journey explores agency, boundary, and the murky depth of the industrial subconscious, wandering through underground tunnels. Within the uncanny industrial world of liminal spaces are basements and laundromats. The slip of paint on the human body, footprints, when dance creates its material artifact intentionally. The painting is a language and has been interpreted as a choreographic notation. It is an archaeology in time, with singing and soundscapes from the same basement, and grey timeless echoes, chasing. The story perpetually unfolds as the pathway revolutionizes itself — a chamber. Fear holds us back from inevitable transformations, all lines eventually reveal themselves as circles. Through movement, song, and painting, the piece questions our attachment to imagined security in pathways and beckons a surrender to the creative truths in winding sunless tunnels

    Questions from Deborah Hay’s choreographic inquiries in Using the Sky: A Dance

    https://lilyselthofner.com/climbing-lost/
    Climbing, Lost by Lily Selthofner — poetry used in sound

    On the sonic exploration of chambers in this hallway:

    I am walking through a long and windy hallway in the basement of my building, using my flip-flops as an attempt at echolocation (and time-keeping). The metronome of my steps reflects the tension in my toes, and the slope of this perpetually down-hill hallway. I can hear my memories from earlier in the day resonating in the too-hot fan, the smell of the trash shoot’s opening being pushed around. The tensions are apparent in my movement and in my perceptions of the sound itself. Likewise, exiting the liminal space, alone in the dark, implies entering the real-world, and I don’t know which I prefer. Unfortunately, the sounds I make in this hallway can probably be heard by people in the laundry room nearby (even though that space is also quite loud). My consciousness is external as I listen to myself from afar, trying to blend in with the resonances of the hallway.

    The sonic effect is irreducible to either objectivity or subjectivity – in that the sound effect describes “the sound milieu of a socio-cultural community, and the “internal soundscape” of every individual” (9). From here, I wonder exactly how conscious perceptions can also distort the physical signal, as the physical signal can distort perception  – especially in the technological infinity of modernity (8). It is difficult for me to conceptualize, as I already felt that the relationship between internal and external was likewise irreducible to either objectivity or subjectivity– for example, what is the true difference between saying a mantra aloud or just in one’s head? Do others’ perceptions of my saying something, through the external space, change the physical nature of the sound, by altering its meaning perhaps? Further, in a telepathic context, how do other conscious beings (animate, moving – everything from other humans to the objects in my room) affect the nature of sound that “I” emanate? Perhaps a cluttered mind and a cluttered room are issues of sound rather than/alongside sight… 

    I wonder how defining sound attributes with language, or even just the conscious awareness expressed through language, changes the nature of sound. Is sound self-defining, having autonomy and agency, or is sound only an aspect of such animacy? Is language the best way to share articulations about sound, and come to the same page? Would urban noise pollution be less physically and psychologically damaging if it was talked about differently? Or thought about differently? How has the nature of sound changed with the advent of technology – doing this work without ‘conscious input?’ At this moment I am seeing the importance of teaching how to listen. I am also wondering about how my relationship to movement can change how I listen. I just read a quote from Trisha Brown (postmodern dancer/choreographer who didn’t use music with her work until much later in her career) saying that because music inspired feeling and movement within her, she felt it was ‘cheating,’ or at least distracting, to her goal of exploring movement in a ‘pure’ way. While I agree, I also think that every inevitable movement is also an inevitable sound, and alters the way we perceive sound. This ties back to the pace of my flip flops reinforcing the state of listening that was co-created by my movement, the perception of sound, and the sound ‘itself.’ Perhaps the solution here is a focus on internal rhythms, and the infinite chamber of perception.

    Visual Art Component of Caution Wet Floor