Latest news with #Lucier
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2SLGBTQ+ seniors in Windsor are making a point of staying connected
A chatty, witty group of 2SLGBTQ+ seniors in Windsor, Ont. gather around a table every other week to catch up on life, share pizza and snacks and build new friendships. For many of them, it's become a lifeline. Mel Lucier, 57, hosts the group at the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest offices. She's also part of the community herself. "A lot of seniors as they age suffer from isolation," she said. "Not only has this brought queer seniors together, but it's given them some life outside of here as well." Lucier said the group tried to plan activities when it first started, but it quickly became mostly conversation. "[They're] all just genuinely interested in one another. A lot of people have formed relationships and meet for coffee outside of here too," she said. "It's very nerdy, but this gives me so much hope and joy in the human race to see so many people celebrate each other and celebrate being part of the community as well. It's probably my favourite thing I do." Regular attendees, Gilles, 77, and husband Mike DeGuire, 79, weren't entirely sure they would have an opportunity to continue making new friends at this stage in life. "I had hoped I would have friends in the last chapter of life. And now I do, and I don't take that for granted," Mike said. For him, reflecting on the new friends he has now is a stark contrast to the queer community he grew up with. "I grew up in the middle of the early gay rights [movement] in New York in '67 and '69," he said. "It was a time that was rich in the pain but also rich in the struggle. And we saw how the struggle was bringing truth." It was Mike who introduced Gilles to the group. The two married in 2010 and have been together for over 30 years. "It's so nice to be in a place where I can be authentic about myself at this age," Gilles said. "I feel very fortunate, I feel like I can continue to be feeling alive and having [engagement] from my community. I wake up with the sun and have a consistent life of love." Earlier this month, Caesars Windsor announced a donation of $10,000 to the group to keep it running. For Lucier, it's a game-changing show of support. "This allows us to exhale and continue programming that supports the community, to know we can bring joy, socialization and hope to people's lives," she said. Another member of the group, Michelle Caldwell, 66, has been a part of the group since its inception and is one of the few women in attendance at the gathering. "A lot of the gentlemen that come here are just not around people anymore [in everyday life], so it's just a great thing," she said, though she does hope more women come as well. "I don't just come for the pizza; I come because these guys are great, and they're funny. I love these guys, and a few women come [too], so women, get here!" Lucier and Caldwell say there have been up to 38 attendees in any given week, and it's a highlight for many of the seniors who don't have many other group options to help them connect with peers, especially in the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Windsor-Essex Pride Fest also hosts connection nights for younger people, with a group for 18-29-year-olds and another for those aged 12-18. When asked what message he had for younger people in the community, Gilles said, "Do not fear. Do not fear. Beautiful things are there for the future."
Chicago Tribune
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Piper Lucier gets ‘better and better.' One of the best, the Marquette recruit says the same about Barrington.
Barrington forward Piper Lucier was a beacon of positivity during her illustrious four-year career. As consistent as a metronome and as humble as pie, the Marquette recruit racked up eye-popping personal statistics while helping the Fillies remain one of the state's elite programs. 'Besides the whole soccer part, she's probably the kid I've been the hardest on over four years, and she's taken all of it and she's gotten better and better,' Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. 'I always tell her family that she's like my second daughter. That's what I think of her, and she handles herself way above what her age is. She's so mature. When you talk to her, that comes out.' Lucier plays like it too. She finished with 64 goals and 69 assists, making her one of the best ever to play for the Fillies, who compiled a 85-8-6 record and three state trophies with her in the lineup. Ever since her freshman year, when she had 18 goals and 12 assists and led Barrington to the first of back-to-back appearances in the Class 3A state championship game, Lucier has played with an infectious enthusiasm and joy. 'It's awesome playing with Piper,' Barrington senior midfielder Madeline Lewis said. 'She's a great leader on this team — obviously can execute in games. 'She's just gotten more confident, and it's been awesome to see as her teammate. She's a great person to play with, and I know she'll have a really bright future.' Lucier's senior season for Barrington (20-2-2) was her best yet. She tied her career high in goals with 18 and had a career-best 21 assists, including one on the game-tying goal in the Fillies' 2-1 victory over Lane in the Class 3A third-place game at North Central College in Naperville on June 7. Lucier, who had been playing on a badly sprained ankle for two weeks, was fouled 30 yards from Lane's net. She joined Lewis, sophomore defender Aybree Sanchez and junior forward Skye Lundy in preparing for the ensuing free kick. All four began moving in unison. Rather than shooting, the Northern Illinois-bound Lewis rolled a diagonal pass through a seam in the Lane defense into the box to Lucier, who quickly sent a sharp cross in front to Lundy, who scored on a 5-yard shot. 'All thanks to Stengren,' Lucier said. 'We only ran through it 400 times, so I hope we had it down. It was a really fun goal.' Lucier said she enjoys delivering assists even more than scoring goals. She has plenty of experience at both. 'You look good, and both are good, so it's great to have them just so everyone can be happy,' Lucier said. 'It's a really great feeling when you assist, especially this year. 'I feel like it wasn't just to one person every time. It was to a variety of people, and I love that everyone's involved in it no matter what role they play.' Lucier's role increased with each passing season. As a senior, she was expected to be more of a leader and boost her production despite being the center of attention from opposing defenses. That was easier said than done. Heavy graduation losses hit the Fillies after they went 19-2-2 in 2024, when they lost in a supersectional to Fremd. Lucier didn't have any other big attackers with her in front. Stengren used her as the lone forward in a 4-5-1 formation. 'We were always searching for wingers to play with her,' Stengren said. Lewis, who scored the game-winning goal against Lane in the second half of the third-place game, played three years with Lucier. 'I think it shows her leadership and how much dedication she puts toward the team,' Lewis said. 'It's great.' But true to her unselfish nature, Lucier was quick to share credit for her team's success. 'I think that every senior honestly had to take a step into a big role and hold it differently because coming into the season, it was one of my first seasons specifically being where Barrington was like the underdog,' Lucier said. 'Honestly, I think that lit our fire a little bit and kept us hungry, and then I think this was the strongest mental team I've been on. 'Everybody wanted it. We were the most technical team, but we tried our best every single game, and that's all you could ask for at the end of the day. We do team better than anybody.' That could be why the Fillies reached the state semifinals for the ninth time in the past 12 seasons. But they may not have gotten that far without the gritty determination of Lucier, who suffered the ankle injury in the Dundee-Crown Regional championship game against the host Chargers. Lucier scored the only goal in the Fillies' win over Lake Zurich in the Warren Sectional championship game and assisted the final goal of their 3-1 victory over Libertyville in the Barrington Supersectional. 'Her ankle's bad,' Stengren said. 'You didn't see the best version of her because she can't run at her top speed, but she gave whatever she had. She has a high motor, and she defends so well out of her position too.' Barrington is seemingly always in position to win. Lewis is happy the season ended with a victory. 'It's been absolutely incredible,' Lewis said. 'Obviously, we didn't get the state title, but ending on a win is all anybody can ask for.' Lucier said she thinks she received even more than that during her four seasons. 'I'm glad it's a team sport because everyone just keeps you so locked together,' Lucier said. 'I think it'd be really hard to do it alone. 'Every single year the team is so different, and every year it feels like a different family. So I feel like I have the best four families, my own family and all these people around you.' Lucier, who intends to major in nursing, heaped praised on other people like she was making an acceptance speech at the Oscars. 'I think that Barrington's so special because there's so many people around you,' she said. 'We have great coaches, we have the best trainer ever, we have the best AD and then assistant AD. 'You're just so supported that it's hard not to love what you do every day and want to do better and leave a good legacy for this program. So I just think that if anyone can move into the Barrington school district, they should play girls soccer because it's just the best experience you'll get in your lifetime. It's awesome.'
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The lab-grown brain of a late music composer creates music after his death
In recent years, the boundaries between life, technology, and creativity have been blurred due to advancements in Artificial Intelligence. What was limited to just doing predictable tasks, now writes poetry, composes music, and does human conversation with uncanny precision. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now As machines learn to 'think,' humanity finds itself grappling with some questions worth a deep thought, where does creativity truly originate? Can machines imagine like humans do or are they simply copying what they've been fed? AI has been used to revive voices from the past, by using the digital simulations of deceased artists, actors, and musicians, and these trials have raised ethical side effects about identity and the permanence of creative legacy, along with a major impact it can have on mental health. But what happens when it's not AI, but science that projects an artist beyond death? Can an artist's creative spirit continue to exist after death? This is a philosophical and scientific question at the heart of Revivification, a bold yet hauntingly beautiful project that fuses art, neuroscience, and bioengineering. Created by Australian artists Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson, and Matt Gingold, along with neuroscientist Stuart Hodgetts of the University of Western Australia (UWA), The project Revivification invites people to witness a mini-brain composing music in real time. What does this project involve? The project centers around an incubator housing a lab-grown 'in-vitro brain,' or cerebral organoid. This organoid was created using blood donated by legendary composer Alvin Lucier shortly before his death in 2021. According to the team, 'Revivification was created with his full knowledge and consent; his donation of biological material was a conscious choice to participate in this posthumous collaboration.' Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The signals from Lucier's mini-brain are transmitted through 20 curved brass plates surrounding the space, producing sound via transducers and actuators. The installation does not aim to replicate Lucier's past compositions but to explore the lingering potential of his biological creativity. 'What we've created isn't preservation or simulation,' the team told The Art Newspaper, 'but a form of 'postmortem play' where Lucier's biological material creates in unpredictable ways.' The project was made possible through the now-closed SymbioticA lab at UWA and Harvard Medical School, where Lucier's blood was reprogrammed into stem cells and developed into the brain-like organoid. The team said the work was developed in close partnership with Lucier himself. 'Despite his frailty at 89, his revolutionary spirit remained powerful. We established a relationship that went beyond the professional realm, exploring potential artistic projects together,' they explained. 'At a time when generative AI is calling into question human agency, this project explores the challenges of locating creativity and artistic originality,' the team said. 'Perhaps its value cannot be judged by scientific protocols, yet it remains something that we as humans should place great value in.' They continued, 'Revivification is an attempt to shine light on the sometimes dark possibilities of extending a person's presence beyond the seemed finality of death.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Musician's Brain Is Making Music 3 Years After His Death
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." In collaboration with American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who passed away in 2021, scientists and artists created an art installation using cerebral organoids developed from the composer's white blood cells. Hooked up to transducers and actuators, these organoids created music by using electrical impulses to strike brass metal plates arranged throughout the installation. The art installation, called Revivification, analyzes the nature of living beyond death, the essence of creativity, and the persistence of memory. American composer Alvin Lucier was well-known for his experimental works that tested the boundaries of music and art. A longtime professor at Wesleyan University (before retiring in 2011), Alvin passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. However, that wasn't the end of his lifelong musical odyssey. Earlier this month, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a new art installation titled Revivification used Lucier's 'brain matter'—hooked up to an electrode mesh connected to twenty large brass plates—to create electrical signals that triggered a mallet to strike the varying plates, creating a kind of post-mortem musical piece. Conceptualized in collaboration with Lucier himself before his death, the artists solicited the help of researchers from Harvard Medical School, who grew a mini-brain from Lucier's white blood cells. The team created stem cells from these white blood cells, and due to their pluripotency, the cells developed into cerebral organoids somewhat similar to developing human brains. 'At a time when generative AI is calling into question human agency, this project explores the challenges of locating creativity and artistic originality,' the team behind Revivification told The Art Newspaper. 'Revivification is an attempt to shine light on the sometimes dark possibilities of extending a person's presence beyond the seemed finality of death.' The question is a prescient one. With the development of ever-advancing large language models, or LLMs, companies have already created digital recreations of people that 'live on' after death. Scientists have explored the idea of a hybrid consciousness that creates a shared reality between biological beings and artificial intelligence, or other ways to upload our consciousness to computers (if consciousness turns out to be purely computational, which… the jury is still out on, to say the least). As for Revivification, the deeper question isn't about our technological future, but about the ineffable quality of memory and what it means to be human. 'The central question we want people to ask is: could there be a filament of memory that persists through this biological transformation? Can Lucier's creative essence persist beyond his death?' the team told The Art Newspaper. Although this 'mini brain' obviously lacks the complex consciousness of a 90-year-old artist, neuroscientists and biologists have pondered what the lived experience of brain organoids might be like—even wondering if these simple biological creations possess a kind of consciousness. Going even further, some biologists believe that our very cells contain some form of consciousness, if not exactly an experience we'd typically understand as consciousness. While we can't know what this organoid's music-making experience is like, one thing is certain: the question of living a life after death is no longer an exclusively spiritual one. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Musician's Brain Matter Is Still Making Music—Three Years After Their Death
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." In collaboration with American experimental composer Alvin Lucier, who passed away in 2021, scientists and artists created an art installation using cerebral organoids developed from the composer's white blood cells. Hooked up to transducers and actuators, these organoids created music by using electrical impulses to strike brass metal plates arranged throughout the installation. The art installation, called Revivification, analyzes the nature of living beyond death, the essence of creativity, and the persistence of memory. American composer Alvin Lucier was well-known for his experimental works that tested the boundaries of music and art. A longtime professor at Wesleyan University (before retiring in 2011), Alvin passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. However, that wasn't the end of his lifelong musical odyssey. Earlier this month, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a new art installation titled Revivification used Lucier's 'brain matter'—hooked up to an electrode mesh connected to twenty large brass plates—to create electrical signals that triggered a mallet to strike the varying plates, creating a kind of post-mortem musical piece. Conceptualized in collaboration with Lucier himself before his death, the artists solicited the help of researchers from Harvard Medical School, who grew a mini-brain from Lucier's white blood cells. The team created stem cells from these white blood cells, and due to their pluripotency, the cells developed into cerebral organoids somewhat similar to developing human brains. 'At a time when generative AI is calling into question human agency, this project explores the challenges of locating creativity and artistic originality,' the team behind Revivification told The Art Newspaper. 'Revivification is an attempt to shine light on the sometimes dark possibilities of extending a person's presence beyond the seemed finality of death.' The question is a prescient one. With the development of ever-advancing large language models, or LLMs, companies have already created digital recreations of people that 'live on' after death. Scientists have explored the idea of a hybrid consciousness that creates a shared reality between biological beings and artificial intelligence, or other ways to upload our consciousness to computers (if consciousness turns out to be purely computational, which… the jury is still out on, to say the least). As for Revivification, the deeper question isn't about our technological future, but about the ineffable quality of memory and what it means to be human. 'The central question we want people to ask is: could there be a filament of memory that persists through this biological transformation? Can Lucier's creative essence persist beyond his death?' the team told The Art Newspaper. Although this 'mini brain' obviously lacks the complex consciousness of a 90-year-old artist, neuroscientists and biologists have pondered what the lived experience of brain organoids might be like—even wondering if these simple biological creations possess a kind of consciousness. Going even further, some biologists believe that our very cells contain some form of consciousness, if not exactly an experience we'd typically understand as consciousness. While we can't know what this organoid's music-making experience is like, one thing is certain: the question of living a life after death is no longer an exclusively spiritual one. You Might Also Like Jennifer Garner Swears By This Retinol Eye Cream These New Kicks Will Help You Smash Your Cross-Training Goals
