Performance organized in conjunction with Passages, my one-person show at the Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati.
Suzanna Barnes (violin)
Regan Brown (winds & autoharp)
Zach Larabee (percussion)
David McDonnell (electronics & horns)
Loraine Wible (images)
Charles Woodman (images)
A meditation on the pleasures of observation. Image music and text weave in a multi-layer dance. Images built around a pre-recorded soundtrack.
Text: Jack Kerouac
Music: Michael Fiday
Image: Charles Woodman
Performers: Carla Kihlsteadt, Graeme Jennings (violins)
Narration: Matthias Bassi
Neonatal Brachial Plexus Injury (NBPI) is a common birth injury to the nerves innervating the upper limb. A poorly understood and currently incurable consequence of this injury is tightness of affected muscles, or muscle contractures. Paradoxically, contractures do not occur in a rare form of NBPI (preganglionic) in which afferent (sensory) innervation of the muscle is preserved, in contrast to the more common postganglionic NBPI which causes complete denervation, suggesting a possible role of afferent denervation in contracture formation. Afferent neurons interface with muscle at the spindle and golgi tendon organ (GTO). Previous studies have implicated muscle spindles in contracture formation, but the GTO has not been investigated. Unilateral pre and post-ganglionic NBPIs were created in neonatal mice. Bilateral biceps muscles were harvested four weeks later, cleared, and immunohistochemically stained in whole mounts to assess GTO morphology. The nerves innervating the biceps were sectioned and stained to quantify afferent denervation. Complete denervation by postganglionic NBPI led to loss of GTO in denervated muscles, whereas preservation of afferent innervation in preganglionic NBPI preserved normal GTO morphology. These findings suggest that afferent innervation is required for postnatal GTO maintenance, and that loss of the GTO may play a role in contracture formation.
Himerometra robustipinna, dark red crinoids, with H. magnipinna, banded whitish and dark colored arms and pinnules, Anneissia bennetti, Comaster audax at lower center, and other species. I called this dense aggregation "The Cathedral". At least 14 spp were counted here on one daytime dive.
One of many attempts on my part to capture the magic motion of Aspen leaves, a fascination deeply embedded in memories of my childhood in Colorado. This footage was shot near Caribou, Colorado. The tape includes three different “episodes” which use a series image treatments and tricks, which further complicate the already complex motion of the leaves. The slow rate of change is such that no causal viewer will ever grasp the true dimensions of the work, beyond the surface image. This is a video which truly needs to contemplated as if it were a painting, installed in a space where it can be subjected to repeated viewing over a long period of time.
Short loop produced at a Signal Culture artists residency in 2014. Made using the newly built, Nam Jun Paik designed, Wobulator. Produced by sending the output of the oscillator to the Paik Abe Wobulator, with the raster on that device collapsed. This image was then filmed off the screen. "Wiggle" was created in response to an invitation to show a short silent work at Peephole Cinema in San Francisco. In the end, they Peephole Cinema elected to show an excerpt from "Roman Spa."
The original material for this video was produced during a residency at Signal Culture in 2014 using three oscillators. The output of the first two was mixed by keying those images into portions of the output of a third. Subsequently, that footage was slowed down to about 10% of the original speed. During my stay at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2015, I was struck by similarities between this material and the sound work of Brian Chase, another Artist in Residence there. This video is the result of an experiment in juxtaposing my video with Chase's sound work.
The Pothomorphe clade of Piper contains ten species of shrubs and vines that are native to the New World tropics. One of these, Piper umbellatum, has been introduced outside its native range, and has become successfully established in most wet tropical areas around the World. The species is rather weedy in its native range, and also in parts of the Old World, where it occurs along roadsides, in cultivated fields, and other disturbed habitats. In other parts of the Old World, however, it behaves much like a native plant and can only be found on forested slopes along mountain streams. This is the exact opposite of the expected pattern, and makes one question whether P. umbellatum is indeed New World in origin. Research analyzing the Pothomorphe clade was undertaken to help understand the origin and distribution of P. umbellatum in both the Old and New World. DNA was extracted from various Piper specimens and sequenced to examine nuclear ITS and chloroplast petA–psbJ sequences. The complete analysis revealed poor resolution among species, but indicates the New World origin of P. umbellatum. Additional data are clearly needed to further study and understand the relationships among populations of Pothomorphe around the world.
A 67-year-old female presented with an abnormal complete blood count (CBC) when arriving for an angiogram. An abnormal white blood cell (WBC) differential showed 17% blasts which led her physician to have a bone marrow biopsy performed. The bone marrow aspirate smear showed an increased number of blasts and the bone marrow core biopsy revealed 90% cellularity where normal precursors were replaced by blasts. Flow cytometry and chromosome analysis results were consistent with Acute Myelomonocytic Leukemia (AMML). The patient was placed on FLAG chemotherapy until a goal of 0.9-1.0x10^9/L absolute neutrophil count is achieved, at which time a catheter will be placed to address her cardiac comorbidities. Cardiac disease and AML comorbidities are a commonly encountered issue in oncology patients. Due to this patient’s history of cardiac disease, treating her AML is more complicated in order to ensure that chemotherapy does not worsen her cardiac complications.