Posted on May 10, 2002

Artist Mary Ann Strandell on “Painterly Transitions from New Mexico Landscapes to Pop Baroque” in the inaugural Katharine Van Meter Sadock Lecture sponsored by the Women's Studies.

Her talk is the inaugural Katharine Van Meter Sadock Lecture sponsored by the College's Women's Studies program.

After teaching painting and graduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis since 1999, Mary Ann Strandell has set up a studio in New York City to continue full-time art making. She is exhibiting in San Francisco at the Minna Gallery.

The Sadock Lecture Series has been initiated by the Women's Studies Program through a grant of $50,000 from Theodore Sadock M.D. `33 of Albuquerque, N.M., in honor of his wife, Kitty. The Women's Studies Lounge, Room 302 of Union's Reamer Campus Center, has been renamed in honor of Sadock.

Posted on May 10, 2002

Poet Kevin Young reads from his works.

His first book, Most Way Home, was selected for the National Poetry Series in 1995. His second, To Repel Ghosts, is a “double-album set” devoted to the life and works of painter Jean Michael Basquiat.

Young studied at Harvard and held a Wallace Stenger Fellowship at Stanford. Since then, he has taught at the University of Georgia and Indiana University. He is a fellow in the DuBois Institute at Harvard.

Posted on May 10, 2002

Astronomer Alex Filippenko will speak on “Einstein's Biggest Blunder?” on Wednesday, May 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

A professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, Filippenko researches exploding stars, active galaxies, and black holes.

He is renowned for presenting complex, exciting astrophysics to nonscientists.

His research team recently found evidence that expansion of the universe is speeding up, a discovery that resurrects the idea of the “antigravity” effect first proposed by Einstein and later renounced as his “biggest blunder.”

Posted on May 10, 2002

The Charles Proteus Steinmetz Symposium on students' creative, scholarly and research achievement will feature a musical revue based on discussions in freshman preceptorial, a demonstration of “musical shoes” created by electrical engineering students, a presentation on Russian Peasant Multiplication (who knew?) and a session comparing Old Norse battle cries to contemporary rap.

The 12th annual program is Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11. It will include concurrent sessions for oral presentations, posters, performances, and art exhibits. Oral presentations will be Friday from 9:20 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Humanities, Social Sciences, Arts Building, Steinmetz, Science & Engineering, and the Olin Center. Dance performances will take place during Session III on Friday at 12:20 p.m. in the Dance Studio. Art will be exhibited throughout the weekend in the Arts Atrium. Poster sessions will be Saturday, 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Hale House. Copies of the schedule, as it appears on the Web (http://steinmetz2002.union.edu), are available in the Dean's Office, S-100.

The choir and orchestra will perform Friday evening from 8:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. The Jazz Ensemble will perform on Saturday from 10:30 to noon in Dutch Hollow.

Prize Day will be Saturday, at 11 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.

All presenters, faculty sponsors, and moderators are invited to a banquet Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Upperclass Dining. Students may invite parents or other guests to the banquet ($12 per guest).

Posted on May 10, 2002

It's a classic college story: boy meets girl and breaks up with high school sweetheart. Sweetheart confronts boy.

So what makes this college love triangle different? It was filmed on campus last weekend.

A dozen students spent an intensive five days in a non-credit “Guerilla Filmmaking Boot Camp” to make the short film, Mid Term. It was directed by Stephan Jonas, a California-based award-winning filmmaker, and Joann Yarrow, visiting assistant professor of theater, with support from Charlotte Borst, dean of arts and sciences.

Mid Term, filmed entirely on campus,is to be screened during Steinmetz Symposium, Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. in Arts 215.

The students worked from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. both days last weekend, plus other hours on pre- and post-production. Jonas was editing a “rough cut” early this week.

Guerilla filmmaking, according to Jonas, is “a process of cinematographic expression, unrestrained by conventional approaches and techniques, with the sole intent being the completion of the work without artistic compromise.”

In other words, having a great idea and getting it done.

The low- and no-budget films have become popular in recent years with amateurs who start with nothing more than a cheap Sony camera, a weekend and an idea. But the 12 students in the non-credit course learned that they don't have to sacrifice artistic quality.

“They will have the foundation of the time-tested principles that filmmakers have used,” says Jonas. “To do original work, you have to break the rules, but first you have understand what those rules are.”

The actors are Chris Fiengo, Christia Tiangha Flores and Aneesah Dambreville. The other nine students rotated responsibilities from lights to sound to audio to learn how the disciplines combine to create the whole, Jonas said. Each student directed two scenes.

Unlike a program that teaches the process of making a film, the emphasis of Guerilla Filmmaking Bootcamp was always on the final product. Says Yarrow, “We wanted to give them something they can hold in their hand and say, “I did this.”