3Towards Television a Visual And Education Culture
Our soma responds to rhythms by externalizing in forms and movements that reflect rhythms which are within. A conductor though only moving his hand or a baton does this in time to convey to trained people one of the forms in which one soma, his, is affected by one rhythm so that these people can find how to affect their individual somas in order to affect its functioning, this time for the purpose of playing an instrument. Likewise a group of children listening to music will have their soma affected by the rhythm and the children can exteriorize this by moving their heads, or their necks, or their feet, or their legs, etc., according to the rhythm or the beat. This is because of the economics of energy: energy from the instrument affects energy in the soma. A class of children shown on the screen listening to music need not be taught to respond to the music. The children will respond naturally because they have a soma that “creates� music through the awareness that they have the capacity to structure time. Children if asked to let rhythms move them, at once find expression for them in what their soma does: move, dance, clap, tap, etc. Therefore, no matter what rhythms or beats we imagine being offered on the television programs, we can expect that viewers listening will show they are affected in the same way as the class of children being shown on the screen. What the programs will do is give children the opportunity to structure time, to become aware of how many different ways exist for the soma to respond to rhythms, and to recognize
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