Singing in the Mines!

Contact: Carrie Dashow or Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg subhist@subliminalstate.org

Subliminal History of New York State: Rosendale Edition
July 30, 2006
Widow Jane Mine
668 Route 213

2-5 PM Workshop
6 PM Performance/Assembly
$10 Donation

The Society for a Subliminal State is proud to present a new chapter in the Subliminal History of New York State about Rosendale, New York. Subliminal socioarcheologists Carrie Dashow and Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg have worked with the Century House Historical Society’s Dietrich Werner and other locals gathering information to write original songs and stories about Rosendale’s past, present and future. On July 30 from 2-5 PM, Carrie and Jesse will conduct a shape note singing workshop, teaching participants this traditional singing style along with their findings about Rosendale in relation to their ongoing story. Held in the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, the workshop will conclude with a performance/assembly at 6 PM when workshop participants will sing the songs, interspersed with texts about Rosendale and its role in the developing Subliminal History of New York State.

Both events are open to the public with a suggested donation of $10. Pre-registration is required for the workshop. Please bring something to eat for a break between 5 and 6 if you would like. Participants will leave with their own copy of a limited edition songbook created by Carrie and Jesse especially for the event. To reserve your space, contact the Century House Historical Society at mail@centuryhouse.org or 845-658-9900. The workshop and performance are presented in partnership with the Century House Historical Society at the Widow Jane Mines at 668 Route 213 in Rosendale, New York. Directions along with more information about the Society for a Subliminal State and shape note singing follows.

Directions

Less than two hours from New York City, Rosendale is midway between New Paltz and Kingston, Exits 18 and 19 of the NYS Thruway (I-87).

From Exit 18 take NY 32 north to Rosendale.

From Exit 19 take NY 209 south to Stone Ridge, then NY 213 east to Rosendale.

The Snyder Estate is on the north side of Route 213, a mile west of the village.

Route 213 is a winding road as it follows the Rondout Creek. Please use caution when entering and exiting the site.

About the Society

The Society for a Subliminal State is germinal organization started by subliminal socioarcheologists, Carrie Dashow and Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg. Carrie and Jesse met in Troy, New York, a crucial turning point in the Empire State’s route of progress. Their meeting, at the joining of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers and the Erie Canal home of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world) spawned an organization that seeks to uncover the hidden realities undocumented by traditional history.

The Society for a Subliminal State agitates against the exclusive use of empirical evidence in the search for truth. It is an organization that believes there many different types of digging that may be productively undertaken. Still in its infancy, the Society for a Subliminal State mirrors the form of a traditional historical society, contributing to the public discourse through a monthly newsletter and a website. Governed by a growing board of directors including artists, historians, and folklorists, the Society accepts articles on topics avoided by publications that advocate fact checking. The Society believes that if you see it three times then it too may be the path to truth.

Based in New York, the Society’s most pressing engagement is a story called The Subliminal History of New York State. Here the institution is dedicated to digging through New York’s social, architectural, and geological history, placing a reverence for happenstance and the subjective on par with fact. In the subliminal history, Carrie and Jesse uncover geographical features and built environments as powerful agents capable of manipulating New York’s human inhabitants. Weaving their diverse sources together, they form a story of New York that is truer than true: “a better history than what I have,” says Judy Berdy, President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society.

Carrie and Jesse present their findings through a series of participatory performances that mix storytelling, book arts, theater, and shape note singing. At the core of these events is an intuitive and research based narrative of a more subliminal nature. The chronicle is written in verse, and set as a series of shape note songs. Equipped with this participatory performance, Carrie and Jesse will embark on a tour during the summer of 2007.

With a regional approach, their tour will follow the Empire State’s route of progress from the Hudson northwards to Troy, then west to the Erie Canal and on through Buffalo to Niagara Falls; not unlike the trails of the itinerant singing masters and evangelists of New York’s past. Spending from a few days up to a week at every stop they will excavate the subliminal history of each site conversing with local historians and townspeople. They will use their findings to write songs and create a new chapter of the narrative. They will then hold singing workshops, culminating in participatory performances that highlight each place’s role in the ongoing saga: The Subliminal History of New York State.

Past Projects

The Society’s interest in subliminal history began with Under Island, developed by Carrie. Through working with Roosevelt Island historian Judy Berdy, she discovered the Island as a living land. Upon the development of the Island’s southern tip by the managing corporation, RIOC, the Island desires to escape New York City’s East River and follow upstate New York’s route of progress. Under Island was staged on the island as a slide show presentation and at PS.1/MOMA alongside an installation (with Matt Bua and Jesse Bercowetz) as part of Grizedale Arts, Romantic Detachment show in 2004. After rewriting Under Island into a set of shape note songs, Carrie and Jesse presented the story anew as a participatory performance at the Contemporary Artists Center (CAC) in North Adams, MA in the Fall of 2005. Carrie and Jesse began work on an Under Island hand-printed tunebook during a residency of Carrie’s at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY: incidentally where the Island’s story seems to go.

Present Projects

This summer, the Society for a Subliminal State is working out of a studio in Lower Manhattan’s venerable AT&T Building, site of the transatlantic cable. Given the studio as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program, the Society is examining the AT&T building; discovering a new chapter in the history of communication.

On July 30th, Carrie and Jesse will hold a shape note singing school of Subliminal History at the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY in partnership with the Century House Historical Society. On September 16-17, they will commandeer the means of transportation during the opening weekend of the Peekskill Project, sponsored by the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, conducting singing school performances in Peekskill, NY. Other Autumn plans include subliminal excavations and singings in Kingston in partnership with the Deep Listening Institute, a return to the CAC at North Adams and furthering their ventures in Troy, NY.

The Subliminal History of New York State will be on a tour all along New York’s route of progress during the summer of 2007.

About Shape Note Singing

Shape note music is a loud and often boisterous group harmony singing style that was popular in Upstate New York in the early 1800s and is presently experiencing a revival in the region. The style is called shape note music because the musical notes have different shapes designed to make reading music easier. Shape note songs were written by itinerant singing masters who wrote new music as they toured the countryside, selling tunebooks and teaching singing schools from town to town. Their songs, often named for the places where they were written, form a subliminal record of the paths these singing masters followed across the State. At a shape note singing, singers sit facing each other in a hollow square formation, with each of the four harmony parts taking up one side of the square. In doing so, the singers follow traditions developed over the last two centuries by the communities in Alabama, Georgia, and elsewhere in the Southeastern United States who preserved and promoted this unique style of community singing. We embrace this inherited practice in our own Subliminal History, conducting performances modeled after shape note singing schools, harnessing the song form to express our narrative.