Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg

Along with Carrie Dashow, I’m very excited to announce the Society for a Subliminal State’s first annual members party, on no other day than March 4th. The party will include: a pot-luck, a trip to the Subliminal State, shape note singing, and performances by two Society member bands.

You must be a member of the Society for a Subliminal State to attend. Membership is $5 (annual dues). You will also get Subliminal Statements in the mail, and a patch bearing the Society’s insignia.

Join on the Society’s web site. You can also read more about March Fourth.

I’m excited to have the opportunity to work on an installation version of my MFA Thesis project Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps in an AIRtime Residency at free103point9’s Wave Farm. My week-long residency this September will explore the thematic connection between radio and prophecy.

I will also be creating a prototype for an outdoor, radio version of the Azariah story installed in a forest setting.

See the free103point9 newsroom for more information on my project and a list of this year’s other Residency recipients.

Society for a Subliminal State Newsletter aka Subliminal Statements — Due Monday September 4, 2006

The ground speaks and has its way. It is beyond and below us yet we take claim for what we do atop of it. Does it not have a mind of its own — its own agency?

The Society for a Subliminal State is looking for your true stories:

• Stories of land, sea, and air speaking,
• Time when presence, past and future combine,
• What is an alternative time of now,
• Do you know that Islands move,
• Dead little animals create our homes,
• Lighthouses fall in love and transmit informative maps,
• History is a feeling not just a fact.

If you know anything about this please write us.

Send us your articles and poetry for the first issue of Subliminal Statements, the Society for a Subliminal State Newsletter. Visit the Society web site before September 4 for details.

The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has awarded Carrie Dashow and me a project grant in Film & Media/New Tech Production for the integration of video into the subliminal history tour. The award recognizes our collaborative project, the Subliminal History of New York State, an ongoing series of singing and video workshops and participatory performances that seeks to present a broader reality of the history and present state of New York.

The grant comes in the wake of our second event, a singing school and performance/assembly in the Widow Jane Mine, Rosendale, NY.

More information about the Subliminal History project and the Rosendale event is on our web site.

What: Shape note singing school of Subliminal History
Where: Widow Jane Mine, Century House Historical Society, Rosendale, NY, 668 Route 213.
When: July 30, 2-5 PM (Workshop), 6 PM (Performance/Assembly).

This July 30, come attend our Singing School Workshop inside the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY. Learn how to sing shape note music and discover for yourself the Rosendale edition of the Subliminal History of New York State, a narrative about living land and history being developed by Carrie Dashow and Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg.

From 2-5 PM, the singing workshop will mix instruction on how to sing shape note music, an early American singing style still in practice today, with stories communicated from the living land about Rosendale’s cement industry and the vast inland sea that covered much of the region in Cretaceous times. At 6 PM the class will perform with Carrie and Jesse.

Both events are open to the public. Registration required for the workshop. $10 donation. No musical experience necessary. Please bring a snack to eat between 5 and 6, and invite your family and friends to come to the assembly. To register call 845-658-9900 or email mail@centuryhouse.org.

Brought to you by the Society for a Subliminal State and the Century House Historical Society.

For more information, visit Subliminal State and you can email Carrie and Jesse.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be filling in for Jo-Anne, Michelle, and Helen, blogging about networked performance, ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, net art, and more for Turbulence.org’s networked_performance blog.

My MFA Thesis Show, Azariah: Whom Jehovah Helps is this Saturday.

The show will be a participatory shape note singing, and begins at 2 PM on March fourth (please be on time) at the Old Songs Community Art Center at 37 South Main Street in Voorheesville, NY (directions).

The singing follows the story of a young man from the Burnt-over district in nineteenth century Western New York who begins to experience visions of singing prophets in the wake of the Great Disappointment.

After the singing, there will be a pot-luck supper (please bring dishes that can be served cold), and from 7:30-10:00 PM is the monthly, Albany-area Sacred Harp singing.

Visit my blog for more information on Azariah.

Thanks to grants from two organizations, I’ve been able to travel twice to Alabama this summer to deepen my understanding of Sacred Harp and shape note music, the community singing style that has played into recent projects of mine, such as Lawrence and Shade and Rapture/Rupture, and that continues to inform my practice as an artist.

The Joe Beasley Memorial Foundation, named for a deceased Sacred Harp singer from a long-time singing family, awarded me a grant “for the preservation and promotion of Sacred Harp and shape note music” that enabled me to attend Camp Fasola, a five-day-long camp in Anniston, Alabama featuring lots of singing, and lessons on Sacred Harp history and technique.

I also received a travel grant from The Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Community, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting community-based singing from The Sacred Harp, that enabled me to travel to Alabama to attend the Camp, as well as All Day Singings in Muscadine, Henagar, Ider, and Dutton, Alabama.

I am thankful for the support of these organizations, as well as the Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association, which organizes and runs Camp Fasola.

I’m happy to report that two close friends of mine, who are also applying to masters programs in new music fields, have been accepted into their first choice programs. Anne Rhodes has been accepted with guaranteed funding for two years as a vocal performance student at Wesleyan. Dan St. Clair, a friend of mine from Wesleyan, and an advisee of Ron Kuivila has been accepted at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with the Sound Department’s only fellowship.

Congratulations to Dan and Anne.

After talking with Kathy High, my advisor at Wesleyan, Ron Kuivila, and my friends and family, I’ve decided to accept Rensselaer’s offer of admission. I’ll be working toward an MFA in Electronic Arts in the iEAR program, and will begin my studies this fall, arriving before August 15, when training for my Teaching Assistantship begins.

Over the weekend Kathy High from Rensselaer called to tell me that I’ve been accepted into their MFA program in Electronic Arts with a guaranteed two-year funding package. The faculty are enthusiastic about working with me, and I was accepted from the largest and most competitive applicant pool in the history of the program. The funding package will cover the full cost of tuition and provide me with a $12,000 stipend each year. I would be a Teaching Assistant my first year as a graduate student and would have ‘Professional Development’ responsibilites during my second year.

I also received word from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago that I’ve been accepted into their MFA in Studio Art program through the Sound Department.

I’m currently discussing my options with friends, family, and former teachers. I am excited to have so many wonderful programs from which to choose, and am pleased that I will be able to work in a stimulating artistic environment this fall as I had hoped.

I heard from CalArts today that I’ve been accepted into their School of Music as a first-year MFA student in Composition/New Media.

I’m also eagerly awaiting word from the three other schools to which I’ve applied. RPI, in particular, was already making decisions when I visited earlier this month. Mills College, however, sent me a note indicating that they would notify me in early April.

I just finished the fourth and final application for graduate school on which I’ve been working. I’ve now applied to CalArts, Rensselaer, Art Institute of Chicago, and Mills College. I’ve been talking over the phone with faculty from these four schools about their MFA programs, and I’m hoping to visit Chicago and RPI in the near future.