Snivilization

Last week I spent my time at the Sydney Choral Intervarsity (IV) Festival. The full event extends over two weeks but I only attended one of those (still that was more than the few days I made to the last one). In some ways I am missing SNIV strongly. However I also wonder how well I would cope with a full IV.

The setting of the first week was a residential college at the University of Newcastle (hence some of us inserting 'N' into SIV to produce SNIV). One of my few regrets of the week was that I never saw much of the township itself. I did see the uni and some of the suburbs but never the old town itself. Still, IV was way too intensive for that. Staying at a halls-of-residence was luxury by IV standards apparently. We each had our own room and I found that very useful just for grabbing moments of solitude with my iPod. From there everything was conveniently within a short walk. So showers and kitchenette were seconds away. A swimming pool was possibly two minutes away and I got to swim before breakfast many-a-morning. Then there was the common area in which meals were served and rehearsals were held - also two minutes away.

The regime of rehearsals was punishing. On many days they took the bulk of the day. Fortunately the conductor excelled at promoting both good cheer and useful musical instruction. Still it started to get to me by the end of the week. In particular dress rehearsals bugged me as the task of walking onto and off stage in formation was practiced. Singing is one thing but choreography too! Another thing that arose from the various frustrations of the assemblage was that by the end of the week orders were barked both by those in a position to do so and by some of those who simply had an opinion. Suddenly the following words started playing in my overtired mind...

Been beat up and battered round
Been sent up and I've been shot down

And from the same song...

Been stuck in airports, terrorized
Sent to meetings, hypnotised

That was from Handle Me With Care by the Traveling Wilburys. But back to me. I had a few melodramatic moments during the week. I think everyone thrown into the pressure cooker of humanity that is an IV will be like that. In some ways the human contact and sleep deprivation made for a more sensitive me but I enjoyed it. These conditions combined with one of the pieces we were performing - the beautiful Dusk - to make me cry while singing it.

The concert itself went well by all accounts. It felt like we got on top of a rather challenging program of original Australian works and impressed the audience (and in some cases the composers) so all that rehearsing did the trick. Rehearsal and performance is only one aspect of the IV experience, however, so I now must move onto the greatest challenge of all.

How does one choose between rest and recreation? The flesh wants to sleep but the spirit wishes to engage with friends and friends-to-be in a host of activities. The spirit inevitably wins. And what a lot of stuff to do! There was a revue to both perform in and be entertained by... secret-swapping games... the sculling of beer (which for me was reminiscent of inter-school sports)... assorted partying and dancing... singing along to skilled pianists or guitarists... and the most important thing of all – getting to know others.

My personal perspective is that we are all ultimately alone – nobody but me can ever reside within my skull and it is important that I can live with that truth. But it is also important for me to challenge that truth and so the greatest activity I can ever undertake is to try to understand and be understood by others. That is why I love talking and I did a lot of that. And the best kind of talking is the face-to-face kind complete with its attendant waving of arms and pulling of faces.



Getting to know someone is a process that never ends – I spent time at IV with MonUCS friends because of the comforting familiarity of them and yet in that process feel that bit closer now. And it is never too late to start. There were some interstaters who I was becoming familiar with only on the last day I was there. Someone who may have seemed a blank mask to me one day would become a unique and fascinating person the next.

All that contact within the context of a big but closed group will have its consequences. My confidence in my own ability to interpret nuances in communication was regularly tested. I think I did well but still spent some of the time wondering what the heck was happening around me. If stumped for what to do I would just smile and let others respond in whatever way was best for them.

Exposure to others also mutated my mannerisms. Ever since the United Nations Tertiary Youth Conference I attended as a fresher I have experienced this phenomenon. At IV I acted like an exuberant and verbose chorister two thirds my age and of another gender!

I also started to lose my ability to make decisions and process information independently. On returning to Sydney following camp I found basic things like interpreting shopping centre maps more difficult than had I travelled there alone. It was as if a week of consulting leaders or following the crowd had dampened personal autonomy. I wonder if this is just me or if it has implications for the political nature of closed and functionally homogenous communities.

There were tensions and confusions and mixed messages and all that is to be expected of IV. I would go further and say that all those things are to be expected of life but that the IV setting will tend to concentrate them just as it concentrates the fun and fulfilment of human interactions. It is something I will do in future but possibly I will be better at pacing things and choosing between rest and recreation.

Update: I have indexed my seven IVs as of 2013 in this post.