Art
"Table Matter 2" is a collaborative project developed by furniture designer and artist Susan Working and UCSC associate professor of art E.G. Crichton.
Crichton awarded residency at Anderson Ranch Arts Center
E.G. Crichton, associate professor of art, was awarded a residency in the digital media lab at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado for her fall quarter sabbatical. This followed an invitation last March to come as a visiting artist. At that time, she spent 10 days developing a collaborative project with furniture designer and artist Susan Working. This residency provided an opportunity to finish that project as well as to work on two projects of her own.
In the collaborative project, with the working titles "Table Matter 1" and "Table Matter 2," Working and Crichton collaborated to create two time-based tables. In each, an unlikely marriage of wood and video forms a table that isn't quite a table. One tilts and leans and moves, its perspective skewed like a mystery spot structure. The other is animated by a surface projection. In "Table Matter 1," the video that forms two narrow windows embedded in the tilted top shows images of moving tree trunks that appear to roll down the table top, straight and regular, constant, yet never escaping the boundaries of wood or screen. In "Table Matter 2," video is projected onto the pristine surface, showing clusters of people eating a meal. The camera view is from below, a kind of subterranean voyeurism beneath the surface of these social vignettes.
Hitchcock spends December at Costa Rican artist colony
Art lecturer Miriam Hitchcock, who was recently nominated for the Eduardo Carrillo Prize in Painting, is participating in a month-long residency at the Julia and David White Artist's Colony in Costa Rica. There she is continuing work on a series of works on paper, while drawing on-site in the varied ecosystems of Costa Rica.
In addition, Hitchcock’s work was on view at Mohr Gallery, Finn Center, Community School of Music and Art in Mountain View from October 2 to November 27. Titled "Unstable Landscape, Recent Paintings by Miriam Hitchcock," the exhibit featured 11 oil paintings on wood panels and 16 mixed media works on paper. Last spring, an exhibition featured 28 of Hitchcock’s mixed media works on paper. Titled “The Displaced Past,” the show was on view at Canada College Main Theatre Gallery in Redwood City.
Osborn featured in two Bay Area exhibits
The work of Ed Osborn, assistant professor, was featured in two Bay Area exhibits in the early fall. His solo show, “Transients” at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco featured three projects. The work included two video pieces, "Transit," which is based around a ship lift in eastern Germany, and "Wandering Eye Studies," a set of surveillance videos developed as part of a larger project based on the visual languages of surveillance. Also on view was "Cline Series #2," a six-channel sound work featuring a 68-minute composition made to be played through a specially designed set of loudspeakers.
Osborn also participated in the group show, "NextNew," at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. "Wandering Eye," his live surveillance piece, was projected on the front windows during the evening and nighttime hours.
Digital Arts and New Media
Morse named DANM chair
Margaret Morse, Film and Digital Media professor, has been named chair of the Digital Arts and New Media Department. Morse, who specializes in electronic and digital art and culture, says she hopes to encourage DANM students in critical thinking and writing on digital/new media and culture. “These skills are just as essential for artists as they are for writers and teachers,” she says.
Morse’s publications include work on fundamental concepts such as interactivity, immersion and telematics, many essays on specific work by artists as well as critiques on contemporary culinary, body and other cultures. She also has written two books—Virtualities: Television, Media Art and Cyberculture (Indiana UP 1998) and Software, Hardware, Artware (ZKM and Cantz Verlag 1997).
Massaro named “Tech Laureate”
Psychology professor Dominic Massaro was named a 2006 Tech Laureate by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. Massaro, former DANM chair and current DANM professor, received a Microsoft Education Award for his work with Animated Speech Corp.
Massaro was honored for his work developing facial animation software that is being used with hearing-impaired and autistic children.
Massaro was one of 25 innovators recognized for their use of technology to benefit humanity. Recipients in more than 105 countries received awards for their work “solving the world’s most pressing challenges.” The awards were presented November 15 at a gala ceremony at the Tech Museum. The day after the ceremony, Massaro and other recipients participated in a one-day summit addressing how information and communication technologies (ICT) can be harnessed for global development.
Film and Digital Media
Book explores teaching diversity through film
A book coedited by film and digital media lecturer Carole Gerster suggests how and why to teach about diversity though the use of film. Teaching Ethnic Diversity with Film (McFarland, 2006) offers detailed methods for incorporating films by and about ethnic groups into the high school and undergraduate college curriculum, focusing on history, social studies, literature, and film studies courses. The book also includes essays on the film history of African Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, and Latino Americans, and provides four specific curriculum units, plus a list of resources to help teachers design their own classroom programs.
"My book examines how film, in its numerous forms and manifestations, is the literature, history, and social science of our era, inviting us to see ourselves and our past in compelling ways, and defining for us our most important social issues," said Gerster.
Teaching Ethnic Diversity with Film is based on the premise that the United States is a visual culture with a rapidly expanding ethnic-minority population. It explores how from the beginning of the 20th century, films created by Euro-Americans have both recorded and shaped beliefs and attitudes toward ethnic groups.
"Today, in large numbers, ethnic-minority filmmakers are re-presenting their literatures, histories, cultures, and social issues from the perspectives of their own experiences," said Gerster. "I look at how films can mirror prevailing attitudes as well as provide new images and promote social change."
Gerster taught for 12 years at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where she helped start and then directed the film studies minor. She has also designed and directed three National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes for high school teachers from across the country on the topic "Picturing America: Cinematic Representations of Ethnic Diversity."
Gerster joined the UCSC faculty in 2001 and currently teaches courses on ethnic diversity for the Film and Digital Media Department.
Kim participates in Outfest 2006 panel
L.S. Kim, assistant professor of Film and Digital Media, participated in a panel discussion titled "Queer People of Color on Television" at Outfest 2006 in Los Angeles. The panel, which was moderated by Jasmyne Cannick, producer of Jumping the Broom and Noah’s Arc, also featured Deondray Gossett, co-director of The DL Chronicles; Maurice Jamal, director/writer of Dirty Laundry and The Ski Trip; Alex Kondracke, writer of The L Word; Quincy LeNear, co-director of The DL Chronicles; Pam Post, director of development at LOGO; and Mia Riverton, actress/producer of Red Doors. Kim was invited to join the panel by UCSC alum Rex Rude (Film and Digital Media, 2004), a programmer for the film festival.
The panel is featured in Episode 49 of the Pink Mafia Radio podcast, which is produced in Los Angeles by Steven Blank. The podcast, which is available at http://pinkmafiaradio.com/, also includes an interview with Kim about teaching about race and queer media at UCSC.
History of Art and Visual Culture
Soussloff writes new book, lectures at major conferences
Catherine Soussloff, who was appointed the first UC Presidential Chair in the Arts Division, has written The Subject in Art: Portraiture and the Birth of the Modern, which was recently published by Duke University Press. The book received a Millard Meiss publication grant from the College Art Association of America.
Soussloff also lectured at two major conferences in September. At the Third Mediterranean Conference on Aesthetics, she chaired a bilingual French-English panel on Aesthetics and Performance and presented a paper. She also spoke at the conference on Performance and Performativity in the Baroque, which was hosted by the Swedish Institute in Rome, Italy.
Soussloff continues to direct the Visual and Performance Studies Faculty Research Group, an Arts Division and ARI-funded interdisciplinary group of graduate students and faculty from three divisions. She also has been elected to chair the editorial board of the
Art Journal, one of the three major journals published by the College Art Association of America. Soussloff, who was the first holder of the Rowland and Patricia Rebele Chair in Art History, also has started her term as Chair of the Fellowship of Cowell College.
Music
Miller delivers Lou Harrison talk
Music professor Leta Miller presented “Lou Harrison: Musical Trailblazer” at McHenry Library's Special Collections. At the late October talk, Miller shared her research and writings on Harrison—one of Santa Cruz County's most famous musical personalities—and his groundbreaking contributions to 20th-century music.
Lou Harrison |
Beyond studying with leading composers of the avant garde, Harrison achieved fame for his distinctive blending of cultures—from Chinese opera, Indonesian gamelan, and the music of Native Americans, to modernist dissonant counterpoint. He is now lauded as an imaginative pioneer for his integration of Asian and Western musics, as well as for his work in the development of the percussion ensemble, his use of found and invented instruments, and his explorations of alternative tuning systems.
Miller is a musicologist and flutist whose most recent scholarship has focused on 20th-century American music. She has coauthored two books on Harrison—the first was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press and the second--a retrospective study of his life and works—was just issued by the University of Illinois Press in 2006.
Paiement conducts BluePrint concert
Nicole Paiement, director of large ensembles at UCSC, conducted a November Blue Print concert titled “Volupté.” The evening featured two world premieres of BluePrint-commissioned works by Bruce Mather and Jacques Desjardins. Canadian composer Bruce Mather’s Music for San Francisco featured cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau alongside Ensemble Parallèle. Meanwhile, San Francisco Conservatory faculty member Jacques Desjardins’ Volupté was performed by NME.
Led by artistic director Paiement, the San Francisco Conservatory’s BluePrint New Music Project combines new music with theater and dance. The series was launched in 2002. For more information on the current season, visit http://www.nicolepaiement.com/ and click on BluePrint.
Klevan named CMEA Jazz Educator of the year
Music lecturer Rob Klevan has been named the 2006-2007 Jazz Educator of the Year by the The California Association for Music Education. Klevan, who directs the large jazz and wind ensembles at UCSC, also serves at the Jazz Education Director at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Theater Arts
Jannarone receives Gerald Kahan Scholar’s Prize
Kimberly Jannarone, assistant professor of theater arts, was recently awarded the Gerald Kahan Scholar's Prize for her essay, "The Theater Before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theater." The prize, awarded by the American Society for Theatre Research, is for the best essay in theater studies published by a junior scholar. Jannarone's essay, which was published in Theatre Survey in November 2006, performed an archival analysis of the directing work of Antonin Artaud, a figure of the French interwar avant-garde known primarily for his theoretical writings. The prize was presented at the American Society for Theatre Research Conference in Chicago in November.
Beal honored by San Fran Performing Arts Library
Dance lecturer Tandy Beal and three other dancers were honored by the San Francisco Performing Arts Library at an October discussion, screening and reception for “Four Dance Icons of the West,” a video project funded by the NEA. The video also features Anna Halprin, Michael Smuin and Chitresh Das. Beal’s sequence was filmed by award-winning video artist Eric Theirmann.
In other news, Beal directed and performed Song Circus with circus artists from around the world at the Monterey Golden State Theatre. In conjunction with a James T. Irvine grant she received, Beal was invited by Dance USA to participate in the Western Arts Alliance conference in Long Beach. Beal has also taught at two workshops – “The Legacy Workshop” in Salt Lake City and “Circus 101” at the Esalen Institute. At "The Legacy Workshop," given in honor of Alwin Nikolais' work, Beal taught alongside her former teachers Murray Louis, Gladys Bailin and Phylis Lamhut. The “Circus 101” workshop culminated with a performance at the Esalen Arts Festival.
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Alma Martinez (left) performs in the workshop production of "Sweet 15: Quinceñera" by Rick Najera, at San Diego Repertory Theater. The production will premiere in the theater's 2007 season. |
Martinez presents findings from recent Peru visit
Alma Martinez, associate professor of theater arts, presented her findings from her recent research visit to Peru, which was funded by a Fulbright Grant. During her four-month stay, Martinez studied the role of indigenous representations in work of theater company Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. Her public lecture, "Movimientos y Corrientes de Teatro en los EEUU y Latinoamerica," was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, UNESCO-International Theater Institute, Peruvian-North American Cultural Institute and the Fulbright Commission in Peru.
In November, Martinez performed in the workshop production of Sweet 15: Quincenera by Rick Najera at the San Diego Repertory Theater. The play, which is slated to return to the San Diego Repertory for its 2007 season, ran for 12 sold-out preview performances. During the play’s recent run, Martinez took her Acting Studio III students to a day of rehearsal followed by a performance. Students met with artistic director Sam Woodhouse, playwright Rick Najera and had one-on-one meetings with professional actors in the company. The visit was made possible by a grant from the office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.
Martinez has also been invited to join the Honorary Advisory Board of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). The organization is a consortium of leading Chicano/Latino theaters, cultural centers and artists in the United States.
She also lectured at the University of Houston, Texas, and Pella College in Iowa. Her lecture, "Spitfires, Bandidos and Maids: The Evolution of the Latina/o Stereotype in Film," traces the history of Latina/o stereotypes in film and how these continue to influence contemporary cinema. This summer she will be presenting at the Fifth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities in Paris. The title of her paper is "Quetzalcoatl & Marx:" The Political Dialectic for a United Chicano and Latin American Popular/Political Theater Front, Mexico City, 1974."
Stanley receives playwriting award
Audrey Stanley, professor emerita of theater arts and founding artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, won an award in the 2005 New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest. Her play, titled Call Me Vincent, explores the life of painter Vincent Van Gogh and was given a winning finalist status.
