What’s New?
Virtual Performance
The COVID pandemic has altered the way artists and performers reach their audience. Large gatherings like concerts, art shows, and stage performances were not only discouraged, but more often than not, illegal! Although we can expect some return to normalcy as the infection rate drops, we are most likely faced with a “new normal” in the arts. Many opera companies, for example, especially those that maintained expensive brick-and-mortar offices and stage, went under. Venues have been forced to close their doors, many permanently. Virtual performance, such as virtual opera, may be the answer!
However, when one door closes, as is often the case, another door opens. The pandemic has given rise to the “virtual performance”. In a strange way, this new direction may help some art forms, as in the long run, such as with opera, interest and support has been on the decline for decades. Attending an opera was often expensive, and required traveling to/from a central location, typically in a city center. I remember in Los Angeles, going to the Disney Center in downtown LA for a concert or play seemed almost life threatening not to mention nerve racking traveling back and forth and crowded and stop-and-go freeways.
With virtual performance, this frustration, and high cost, disappear. Performances are no longer centrally located, and virtually accessible to almost anyone anywhere with an internet connection. The virtual performance methodology is new, and will inevitably go through a number of experimental iterations to determine what works and what doesn’t, but the journey has definitely started.
Below you will find one such “experiment”, a virtual opera composed by One Mind Media co-founder JR Wilson. This virtual opera celebrates 700 years of Dante’s epic poem, “Divine Comedy”. See what you think. Does it work? What can be improved? Please send any comments you may have to jimdubyah@gmail.com. Meanwhile, grab some popcorn, we hope you enjoy the show!
“The Purge” – a virtual opera by JR Wilson, composer & visualist
Virtual Opera – “Dante the Opera”, in Progress! – to Premiere in September 2021
For more information, FOLLOW THIS LINK!
(Interested in Dante and his “Divine Comedy”? Visit the visually stunning and culturally unique Institute for Italian Studies, New York website HERE. Be sure to visit “The Dante Room”!)
The Key is “Balance”
Many of us are feeling the world crumble around us. Political and social unrest are everywhere, and we watch as our cultural and spiritual values are assaulted from every direction. Large forces are at work to undermine and divide us from our spiritual wellbeing. We are constantly challenged to maintain our balance and maintain our grasp on what we know to be true.
This site offers a resource to truth seekers, activists, and spiritually questing individuals that do not accept “the world as it is” and know that a better world can exist.
The “disorders” (see menu) are problems we’ve all encountered one time or another, and share in our common humanity. Our “treatment” page provides an Rx for the many dilemma’s and
existential crises that we will encounter along the way. Our goal is to remind us that we are not alone during our brief journey here on earth.
Stay tuned to this site as we continually update new methods and techniques to help us maintain our sense of self and keep our roots firmly planted in a highly unbalanced world. Many relevant articles and other forms of media will constantly be added here as they are referenced or discovered.
