Imagine this: You’re on vacation and are about to take a swim in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of southern Florida. You check your phone right before you head to the water, only to find some pretty upsetting news:
You just received an email from your supervisor indicating that you’ve been passed over for the promotion to Director. Worse, one of your not-so-favorite colleagues, Ted, who has stabbed you in the back every chance he’s gotten for years, apparently got the position. 
You shake your head and put your phone down. What a blow to your self-esteem. Uggh. You cannot believe it!
Well, you’ve paid all this money to come to Florida so you might as well make the most of it. With your tail slightly between your legs, you walk to the water and dive into a nice-sized wave. The water is warm and you’re in. That email, of course, still smarts …
Suddenly, to your surprise, you find yourself smashed by a huge wave. You are actually fully submerged and scared. You can’t seem to touch the ocean bottom and you are having a hard time breathing and, for a moment, you can’t figure out which way is up. This is downright frightening!
After about 20 seconds (which seems like an hour), you find your footing, get your head above the water, and you realize you’re going to be OK. Thank goodness.
But for that 20-second bit of time, you were petrified. And for that whole while, the disappointing news of your having been passed over for the promotion had completely escaped your mind. 
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In 1943, iconic psychologist Abraham Maslow presented a theory of human motivation that was so elegant that it has, for decades, been met with strong acceptance and praise. The basic idea of Maslow’s model is well-conceptualized if you think of a pyramid with five levels.
The levels represent five categories of needs, with “higher” needs being dependent on the satisfaction of “lower” needs. Thus, based on this model, if your “lower” needs are not met, then you’re not in a position to work on fulfilling your “higher” needs.
​
These needs, starting with “the highest” on the pyramid, are as follows:
Self-Actualization: The need to become the best version of yourself that you can be.
Esteem: The need to genuinely appreciate and respect oneself.
Love and Belonging: The need to feel fully and unconditionally supported by someone else, and the need to provide such support and love to another.
Safety: The need to feel physically and emotionally safe from harm and genuine threats.
Physiological: Needs that are biologically basic, such as the need for water, food, or air.
In the fictitious example provided above, you went from being someone who was worried about esteem needs (based on that unfortunate email about your not getting the Director position) to suddenly being flooded, literally, with a physiological need: the ability to breathe. As predicted by Maslow’s model, if your primary needs are lower on the pyramid, then you find yourself less focused on needs that are higher on the pyramid. In short: If you’re drowning, you’re not worrying too much about being passed over for a promotion ...
Corona and Maslow’s Hierarchy
If you’re like most readers of Psychology Today, then you likely have most of your physiological needs met. After all, if you’ve got no food or water, what business do you have reading a blog post?
In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy, most normal adults can be thought of as working, generally, on the upper parts of the pyramid. Trying to figure out love needs (such as trying to re-ignite a long-term romantic relationship), taking steps to advance your esteem needs (by, perhaps, applying for leadership positions within your organization), and/or trying to achieve that elusive state of self-actualization (perhaps by meditating, doing yoga, or going on retreats in the mountains, for instance).
But the coronavirus situation, a worldwide pandemic, has knocked many of us, regardless of where we may have been “on the pyramid” just a few weeks ago, to the bottom of the pyramid.
As Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, said in a statement that was released earlier this week:
I understand that this is a burden to businesses. ... There is going to be an impact on the economy, not just here in New York but all across the country, and we're going to have to deal with that crisis, but let's deal with one crisis at a time. Let's deal with the crisis at hand and the crisis at hand is a public health crisis.
Put in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy: While the fiscal fallout of the corona pandemic will be nothing short of enormous, that must take a back seat to the more imminent health crisis that we are facing as a broader community.
We can’t worry about higher-level needs when we’ve got physiological and safety needs that need to be addressed. 

​Parmveer Singh
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Published on: 08 April 2020
Last updated on: 06 May 2020

'The Grey Area' Music box. Part of 'Encrypted Sounds of Wellbeing' project

Created by all participants online and in Leicester Organised, film, edit, sound by Leila Houston

www.leilahouston.com
to be part of the next part of the project and projects that follow, follow www.leilahouston.com/blog

If the governments job is to protect and provide, which of these headings need their urgent attention?

People were asked to pick up to three (or more) headings. Those that took part, were openly invited on social media & at Interact Digital Arts exhibition, LCB Depot, Leicester, U.K

​1. Welfare 2. Education 3. Racism 4. Food banks 5. Green polices 6. Mental health & Sleep 7. Time to think8. NHS Future 9. Housing 10. Community 11.Employment 12. Tax Haven All selections were transferred on to a music sheet. (see end of video for the lay out)
Category
Film and Animation

so- im thinking about this installation and considering the shape of the maslows diagram......and what i want to stick with and leave out - what is relevant and what is not 
why a hierarchy? it isnt a symbol of unity but it is of individualism....or is it ? 

From the dictionary - a system in which members of an organization or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.
"the initiative was with those lower down in the hierarchy"
Similar: pecking order, ranking grading, ladder, social order, social stratum, social scale, class system

• the clergy of the Catholic Church or of an episcopal Church.
  noun: the hierarchy
  "the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Romania"
• the upper echelons of a hierarchical system.
  noun: the hierarchy
  "the magazine was read quite widely even by some of the hierarchy"

Photographs by Leila Houston

Loved this visit to the museum- i highly recommend people visit.

''The Musical Museum tells the changing story of how people have captured and listened to music over the last four centuries. From tiny music boxes to the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ in our concert hall, the collection includes an impressive array of instruments and inventions, including reproducing pianos, orchestrions, self-playing violins, pipe organs, gramophones & synthesizers. Find out how music was recorded and reproduced, see and hear them in action.'' (website) 

i went there for music boxes and i got more from the visit than i ever thought imaginable. Loved the talk and demos. Loved seeing the detail and the makings of these machines in person. Especially loved the performance with the Wurlitzer by Chris Barber. Seeing this and hearing the talk/s i couldnt help thinking how my interactive (digital), immersive works relate to the magical, immersive experiences these instruments create.    
Lots more to think about and write about at a later stage.
Im looking at building a physical music box inspired by old and new creations and designs as well as conversations. 

The project is called 'Encrypted sounds of wellbeing'' kindly supported by Arts council England.    

Website here 
Follow here ​

This research will be fed in to workshops with groupd across Leicester and the completion of a walk through music box.

 Diane Simpson: Sculpture, Drawing, Prints 1976–2014
​Nottingham contemporary 

 Light the night. Nottingham, 2020 

​I saw this work at Venice Biannual 2019.