my brother and I hard at work relaxing
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Saw this at the Bakken...
Saw this at the Bakken museum, and laughed because it was super relevant to my project. It's a game in which you win by relaxing the most... the headgear monitors your brain waves. There's a decrease in alpha waves (another kind of neural oscillation) as you relax. The headgear detects this change and that results in the ball moving towards your opponent. The game is called 'Mindball'
The Whole Shabang
It's done! The video, posted below, is finally done.
It was a haul, indeed, but I'm really proud of it and I'm super glad that I decided to go through with it.
As for process: once I was done with my research and visiting the Zen Center, I started work on the video. First, I synthesized the information that I learned while researching into a shorter script. I tried my best to include a combination of buddhist meditation basics and neuroscience concepts without becoming too complex or technical. Once I had finished writing the script, I sketched out an animation story board that would fit with it. I did some preliminary drawings in my notebooks to minimize work during animation (I drew the base drawings that were going to be added to later in the video). Then, I started animation. With the help of the tech/library staff, I did animation using a document camera and the program 'I can animate'. I took pictures at a rate of 15 frames per second for the animation. My general process for the drawing animation was to make a mark (generally half a letter per frame for the writing), take a picture, make another mark, take a picture, etc. Once I had finished this process (it took about 6 hours of straight animation), I started the voiceover. The library lent me a high quality mic and I recorded my script in 30 second segments. Once I finished the voiceover, I edited the animation in iMovie so that the images would line up with the voiceover (to give you an idea, the animation was about a half minute long by itself whereas the voiceover was about four minutes long). The whole process of editing took about 4 hours.
I'm really glad that I went through the process of doing the video! I think it's really important that science concepts are explained in a way that can be understood by the general public, and it was interesting to find the best way to do that in a short video without getting too technical. Even though it was a lot of work, I'd definitely recommend trying to do a claymation to anyone doing this project in the future. Finally, many thanks to the library staff for all the help with animation and editing. I would have literally been at a loss for what to do without them.
It was a haul, indeed, but I'm really proud of it and I'm super glad that I decided to go through with it.
As for process: once I was done with my research and visiting the Zen Center, I started work on the video. First, I synthesized the information that I learned while researching into a shorter script. I tried my best to include a combination of buddhist meditation basics and neuroscience concepts without becoming too complex or technical. Once I had finished writing the script, I sketched out an animation story board that would fit with it. I did some preliminary drawings in my notebooks to minimize work during animation (I drew the base drawings that were going to be added to later in the video). Then, I started animation. With the help of the tech/library staff, I did animation using a document camera and the program 'I can animate'. I took pictures at a rate of 15 frames per second for the animation. My general process for the drawing animation was to make a mark (generally half a letter per frame for the writing), take a picture, make another mark, take a picture, etc. Once I had finished this process (it took about 6 hours of straight animation), I started the voiceover. The library lent me a high quality mic and I recorded my script in 30 second segments. Once I finished the voiceover, I edited the animation in iMovie so that the images would line up with the voiceover (to give you an idea, the animation was about a half minute long by itself whereas the voiceover was about four minutes long). The whole process of editing took about 4 hours.
I'm really glad that I went through the process of doing the video! I think it's really important that science concepts are explained in a way that can be understood by the general public, and it was interesting to find the best way to do that in a short video without getting too technical. Even though it was a lot of work, I'd definitely recommend trying to do a claymation to anyone doing this project in the future. Finally, many thanks to the library staff for all the help with animation and editing. I would have literally been at a loss for what to do without them.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Zen Center Field Trip
This past tuesday, I went to the Minnesota Zen Center to experience meditation first hand.
I'm a meditation super novice, so I wasn't really sure of what to expect. Meditation, for me, is one of those things I've always thought about trying but never actually had the follow through to do (along with gardening, learning to knit, and healthy eating).
I entered the zen center (which is right in the middle of a residential area, by the way, so I dithered around outside for about ten minutes before someone politely albeit somewhat passive aggressively informed me that yes, this is the minnesota zen center, and that I should be pushing instead of pulling on the front door).
When I finally found the meditation center, I was surprised to find that there were a large variety of people already there, sitting quietly on cushions scattered around the room. Unsure of what to do, I claimed a cushion in the corner and observed the other meditators.
Next to me, there was a man and a very pregnant woman who appeared to be married. They both looked like they'd just stepped out of an organic farmer's market; the man had a scruffy beard, and they both wore flannel and touted eco-friendly bags. Next to them sat a slightly overweight middle-aged woman with hair dyed a shocking red, who wore a long, paisley dress and who I later discovered had an Australian accent. As I continued to look around the room, I found that the meditators were a truly eclectic conglamoration of people. There were some soccer mom types, clad in yoga pants and sweaters and constantly checking their cell phones, a pale, watery-eyed man in a suit who appeared to have just come off of work, and two young african american men with dreads and clad in sagging, ripped jeans who later revealed their names to be 'Miracle' and 'Mac'.
A while later, the priest entered. He was a mousy, round-faced man with bright eyes and greying, curled hair that appeared to be precariously balanced on his skull. He was dressed in a strange combination of western business attire and oversized buddhist robes, and looked as though he wasn't entirely sure where he was or how he had ended up here.
It seemed as though these people had been gathered here at random- as though someone had stood on the sidewalk of lake Calhoun, calling on every third person: "Okay, I need you, you, and you to come meditate this evening." But it wasn't so. As we went around and introduced ourselves, I soon discovered that everyone present, even if they hadn't been to the zen center before, had a well established home ritual of meditation.
Even though there was such a diversity of people present, I soon felt more and more out of place.
The priest, whose voice had a serene, musical quality, began the guided meditation. He told us to 'get comfortable' in the lotus position. I, being the least flexible person on the planet, couldn't twist my legs far enough to even do that. I settled for awkwardly folding my right leg under myself and letting my left extend out in front of me.
We then engaged in the 'concentrative' form of meditation. The priest asked us to focus on our breathing, focus on being satisfied with the moment we were experiencing, right now.
I tried to get into the meditation. I really did. I tried to focus on my breathing, but that backfired because I was severely congested and could only breathe through my mouth. I didn't know whether to keep my eyes open or closed, and as a result kept compulsively opening and closing them, trying to decide which was better. I nervously looked around at the people around me. I tried focusing on a leaf across the hall.
I quickly discovered what my problem was: I wanted to be good at meditating. I'm aware of the health benefits, and my research on the neurological benefits makes true meditation something I'd really like to experience first hand. After all, one cannot truly know what meditation is without experiencing it; as Mattheiu Ricard said, "when someone sees red or someone feels love, [science] could describe right down to the most single neuron what's going on if you have the power of investigation. But you have no clue what it means to see red, feel love as an experience."
But, because I wanted to succeed at meditation so badly, I ended up focusing too hard, trying too hard, and was too aware of my behavior as a result. The priest said, at one point, "If you have a thought, acknowledge that you had a thought... then let it go. Let it go just like you let each moment go." That was my problem. My brain is like the streets of Tokyo, a jumbled maze of thoughts and observations. As soon as I quash one down, another thought pops up. I try to stop thinking, and therefore I think about trying to stop thinking, and then I wonder what it really means to 'stop thinking anyway', if that's really possible from a neurological standpoint, and then I think about how thinking about stopping thinking is a really bizarre form of metacognition, and how did we become so self-aware anyway, and I wonder if dogs realize that they're thinking, if that's the difference between humans and other animals, and my originally well intentioned efforts at not thinking just spiral downhill from there, and soon I've forgotten all about my breathing and I've gone from not thinking to the evolution of metacognition to the character of Buck in Call of the Wild to what a terrible movie that would make to how bad The Last Airbender was. And then I would realize that I was thinking again and the cycle would start over.
That's my problem, with meditation, I think. I like thinking. I do it a lot. It keeps me from being bored. If you're supposed to live each moment in the moment, and concentrate on one particular thing and then nothing at all, when do you get a chance to introspect or contemplate or all of these other important things? What's the point of Nirvana if it means you can't think about the implications of quantum physics on philosophy, or about how there's no word for 'excited' in french, or about that trashy rom-com that's coming out next week? Besides, isn't letting go of thought and accepting things as they are what every dystopian novel ever has been trying to warn us against? You know, Billy Pilgrim and 'so it goes' and all that?
I think I may just be missing the point.
Anyhow, after the meditation ended the priest gave very nice talk in which he told us about his garden and then it was over.
Pictures!
I'm a meditation super novice, so I wasn't really sure of what to expect. Meditation, for me, is one of those things I've always thought about trying but never actually had the follow through to do (along with gardening, learning to knit, and healthy eating).
I entered the zen center (which is right in the middle of a residential area, by the way, so I dithered around outside for about ten minutes before someone politely albeit somewhat passive aggressively informed me that yes, this is the minnesota zen center, and that I should be pushing instead of pulling on the front door).
When I finally found the meditation center, I was surprised to find that there were a large variety of people already there, sitting quietly on cushions scattered around the room. Unsure of what to do, I claimed a cushion in the corner and observed the other meditators.
Next to me, there was a man and a very pregnant woman who appeared to be married. They both looked like they'd just stepped out of an organic farmer's market; the man had a scruffy beard, and they both wore flannel and touted eco-friendly bags. Next to them sat a slightly overweight middle-aged woman with hair dyed a shocking red, who wore a long, paisley dress and who I later discovered had an Australian accent. As I continued to look around the room, I found that the meditators were a truly eclectic conglamoration of people. There were some soccer mom types, clad in yoga pants and sweaters and constantly checking their cell phones, a pale, watery-eyed man in a suit who appeared to have just come off of work, and two young african american men with dreads and clad in sagging, ripped jeans who later revealed their names to be 'Miracle' and 'Mac'.
A while later, the priest entered. He was a mousy, round-faced man with bright eyes and greying, curled hair that appeared to be precariously balanced on his skull. He was dressed in a strange combination of western business attire and oversized buddhist robes, and looked as though he wasn't entirely sure where he was or how he had ended up here.
It seemed as though these people had been gathered here at random- as though someone had stood on the sidewalk of lake Calhoun, calling on every third person: "Okay, I need you, you, and you to come meditate this evening." But it wasn't so. As we went around and introduced ourselves, I soon discovered that everyone present, even if they hadn't been to the zen center before, had a well established home ritual of meditation.
Even though there was such a diversity of people present, I soon felt more and more out of place.
The priest, whose voice had a serene, musical quality, began the guided meditation. He told us to 'get comfortable' in the lotus position. I, being the least flexible person on the planet, couldn't twist my legs far enough to even do that. I settled for awkwardly folding my right leg under myself and letting my left extend out in front of me.
We then engaged in the 'concentrative' form of meditation. The priest asked us to focus on our breathing, focus on being satisfied with the moment we were experiencing, right now.
I tried to get into the meditation. I really did. I tried to focus on my breathing, but that backfired because I was severely congested and could only breathe through my mouth. I didn't know whether to keep my eyes open or closed, and as a result kept compulsively opening and closing them, trying to decide which was better. I nervously looked around at the people around me. I tried focusing on a leaf across the hall.
I quickly discovered what my problem was: I wanted to be good at meditating. I'm aware of the health benefits, and my research on the neurological benefits makes true meditation something I'd really like to experience first hand. After all, one cannot truly know what meditation is without experiencing it; as Mattheiu Ricard said, "when someone sees red or someone feels love, [science] could describe right down to the most single neuron what's going on if you have the power of investigation. But you have no clue what it means to see red, feel love as an experience."
But, because I wanted to succeed at meditation so badly, I ended up focusing too hard, trying too hard, and was too aware of my behavior as a result. The priest said, at one point, "If you have a thought, acknowledge that you had a thought... then let it go. Let it go just like you let each moment go." That was my problem. My brain is like the streets of Tokyo, a jumbled maze of thoughts and observations. As soon as I quash one down, another thought pops up. I try to stop thinking, and therefore I think about trying to stop thinking, and then I wonder what it really means to 'stop thinking anyway', if that's really possible from a neurological standpoint, and then I think about how thinking about stopping thinking is a really bizarre form of metacognition, and how did we become so self-aware anyway, and I wonder if dogs realize that they're thinking, if that's the difference between humans and other animals, and my originally well intentioned efforts at not thinking just spiral downhill from there, and soon I've forgotten all about my breathing and I've gone from not thinking to the evolution of metacognition to the character of Buck in Call of the Wild to what a terrible movie that would make to how bad The Last Airbender was. And then I would realize that I was thinking again and the cycle would start over.
That's my problem, with meditation, I think. I like thinking. I do it a lot. It keeps me from being bored. If you're supposed to live each moment in the moment, and concentrate on one particular thing and then nothing at all, when do you get a chance to introspect or contemplate or all of these other important things? What's the point of Nirvana if it means you can't think about the implications of quantum physics on philosophy, or about how there's no word for 'excited' in french, or about that trashy rom-com that's coming out next week? Besides, isn't letting go of thought and accepting things as they are what every dystopian novel ever has been trying to warn us against? You know, Billy Pilgrim and 'so it goes' and all that?
I think I may just be missing the point.
Anyhow, after the meditation ended the priest gave very nice talk in which he told us about his garden and then it was over.
Pictures!
The priest
the meditation room
the zen center
view of lake Calhoun afterwards!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Field Trip!
I've done some snooping on the U of M faculty page, looking around in the departments of Psychology and Neuroscience. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any labs or staff involved in the work that is being done with meditation. Because the bulk of the research done by Richard Davidson on meditation and the brain is actually done at the University of Wisconsin Madison, I had kind of hoped that there would have been a professor at the U of M who may have worked with him, seeing as how the two schools have a close relationship.
Because that plan didn't come to fruition, I looked around for some other options. As it turns out, the MN Zen center is a great place to start learning about mediation. Every tuesday from 7:45 to 8:30 they have free meditation sessions which include guided meditation, dharma talks, silent meditation, and questions and discussion. I'm planning on attending the tuesday session next week. I'm excited to see what I can learn by experiencing meditation first hand!
Zen Center: http://www.mnzencenter.org/
Because that plan didn't come to fruition, I looked around for some other options. As it turns out, the MN Zen center is a great place to start learning about mediation. Every tuesday from 7:45 to 8:30 they have free meditation sessions which include guided meditation, dharma talks, silent meditation, and questions and discussion. I'm planning on attending the tuesday session next week. I'm excited to see what I can learn by experiencing meditation first hand!
Zen Center: http://www.mnzencenter.org/
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