If you haven’t heard of Vox Lumiere, check them out. You may find them absolutely amazing, you may not get it. I fell a little more on the latter side of the measure as somebody who was simply confused and maybe even a bit turned off by the sensory overload of a silent movie mixed with steam punk costumes mixed with Broadway musical mixed with operetta vocals mixed with Paula Abdul dance choreography, mixed with rock and roll.

And then, intermission happened. I’m not sure if it was just that I needed to catch a breather and think about the performance, or whether it was the two glasses of wine I threw back in 10 minutes, but the artistry of the performance really grew on me in the second half.

In high school our art class spent a number of class sessions at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College studying with a studio art major. The museum is widely considered the best art museum of any liberal arts college in the nation, so the selection of works was pretty diverse. We did an exercise one day where we sat in front of a Renaissance painting of an old man wearing black in a dark room at night. At first glance, the painting was just a dim shadow of a man’s face in the upper left corner. But, our teacher instructed us to concentrate on the painting for 15 minutes straight, which initially seemed to be a long time to look at a boring painting. However, after the 15 minutes, we started to see physical objects, lines, and textures that only adjusted eyes would pick out. Some students even told the story of that old man and why he was sitting in the dark room. We got to know the art.

I can’t say Vox Lumiere’s performance is on my all-time top ten list of performances, but I can say that, as a spectator of art, once you let your mind go just a little bit and allow yourself to become immersed in an art form, it’s possible to begin to understand the art, the artist, and the performers. This understanding does not necessarily lead to enjoyment, but it does lead to appreciation of the form and a respect for the creators.

I’m really excited to be a part of the first class of participants in the Theoroi Project, an initiative developed by the Schubert Club where 26 individuals ages 21-35 attend local arts performances over the next year. The responsibility of the Theoroi Project participants is to not only engage with the artists, participants, and performances, but then to use social media to spread the word about the experience.

The project was created by former Schubert Club executive director Kathleen van Bergen and board member Matt Zumwalt, and aims to engage a diverse group of people who share a common interest in the arts. The Schubert Club coordinates the year-long program with a grant from the Knight Foundation.

I will be using this tumblog along with my Twitter and Facebook accounts to publish my thoughts on the performances.

This website’s content is written and published by me, Jeff Lin. I am the founder of Bust Out Solutions, Inc., a web and mobile product development company that I founded in 2004. If you want to read about technology, go visit the Bust Out blog. Here you will find things about my personal life, the arts, sports, friends, beer, my dog, and silly photos of people doing really fun things. Enjoy.