The Department of Visual Arts of Union College is hosting an Invitational Photography Exhibit in the Burns Arts Atrium Gallery of the Arts Building, starting today, Thursday, Feb. 9, and running through Friday, March 17. The exhibit features more than 30 photos from two inspiring young artists: Cal Crary '00 and William Lamson, freelance photographers in New York City.
Each photographer will display 15 color prints. The photographs are digitally derived but made in the mode of “straight photography,” without computer alterations to the images other than those necessary to control the fine printing of the color images.
“Polson, Montana” William Lamson
“They have both had good experiences as starting professional photographers, so I think they can offer things to our students in ways different than a life-long photographer whose credentials seem more remote or unachievable by students,” said Martin Benjamin, professor of photography.
The Burns Arts Atrium Gallery, located in the Visual Arts Building, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (518) 388-6714 or visit http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/AVADEPT/crary_lamson.html.
Chuck D., founder of the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy, will give a talk, “Race, Rap, Reality and Technology,'' on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Union College's Nott Memorial.
Chuck D. of Public Enemy
The talk, sponsored by the Union College Speakers Forum, is free and open to the public.
A native of Long Island, Chuck. D. was born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour. While attending Adelphi University, he helped promote hip-hop concerts and co-hosted a radio show with two rappers who later joined him in forming Public Enemy, Bill Stephney and Hank Shocklee.
In 1988, the group released “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums ever. The record helped introduce rap to white, alternative rock audiences.
The group's next two albums were also successful, but by 1994, Public Enemy's influence began to wane. In 1996, Chuck D. released a solo album, “The Autobiography of Mistachuck,” followed by the book version.
Public Enemy continued to record over the years, most recently reuniting for the song, “Hell No We Ain't All Right,'' in response to the Katrina disaster.
Chuck D. has been a huge advocate of Internet music file sharing, even leaving the Def Jam label when they refused to allow him to distribute Public Enemy's music through free Internet downloads.
He also continues to be active politically, testifying before Congress on race relations and hosting a show on Air America Radio, “On the Real.”
“The Vagina Monologues,” produced by Amanda Rice ‘06 and directed by Mandee Moondi '06, will be performed at Union College's Old Chapel on Friday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m.***These shows are sold out – standing room only.
Eve Ensler, performing “The Vagina Monologues”
The entire performance is run and supported by students. Tickets will be $5 in advance and $7 at the door. Ninety percent of the proceeds will go to the Schenectady YWCA (in particular the domestic violence shelter and program); 10 percent will go to V-Day´s spotlight campaign, “Comfort Women.”
The V-Day College Campaign invites members of college and university communities around the world to present benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues” on their campuses to raise money and awareness to stop violence against women and girls.
Obie Award-winning Playwright Eve Ensler's “The Vagina Monologues” has been translated into more than 35 languages, and it has been performed in theaters worldwide, including sold-out runs in New York and London. Her experience performing the show inspired her to create the global movement called V-Day.
In seven years, the V-Day movement has raised more than $25 million.
Other fund-raising efforts at Union will include a raffle at the performances and sales of T-shirts, flowers and lollipops in the Reamer Campus Center beginning Thursday, Feb. 9. The goal is to raise $6,000.
In addition, a clip from the documentary, V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, will be shown at a lunch on Thursday, Feb. 16, 12:40- 1:35 p.m., in Blue House. Tami Flanders and Kelly Connison of the Schenectady YWCA will be on hand to talk about their organization's services.
For more information about V-Day, go to www.vday.com.
Scott Ritter, former Chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, will give a talk at Union College's Reamer Campus Center Auditorium on Feb. 15, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public.
Ritter will be discussing “Iraq: How We Got There, and Where We're Going.” This event is sponsored by Union College Campus Action/Union Progressives.
Ritter served for eight years as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps, as an arms control inspector in the former Soviet Union and on General Norman Schwarzkopf's staff during the Gulf War before his appointment as a weapons inspector for UNSCOM. As the chief of the concealment investigations team, he oversaw efforts to uncover the weapons of mass destruction capability of Iraq.
His experiences were chronicled in Iraq in Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem — Once and For All, published in 1999 by Simon & Schuster. Fox News Network has called on him as a guest consultant on the military and security often since 9/11.
Ritter also produced the documentary “In Shifting Sands: The Truth About Unscom and the Disarming of Iraq.”
This is Ritter's second appearance at Union College. He served as a panelist at a public forum in October of 2001. Entitled “September 11, 2001: The Repercussions One Month Later,” it was designed to shed light on the factors — religious, economic, and political – that may have triggered the attacks, and to analyze the United States' offensive on terrorism.
Oliver Majer '06 had a free period in his schedule, usually crammed with mechanical engineering courses, so he signed up for Fernando Orellana's new digital arts course. On Friday afternoon, Majer found himself displaying the fruits of his artistic labor – an image of the Eiffel Tower created from structural engineering equations.
John E.Kelly III '76 and Professor Fernando Orellana.
“I've been making structural equations for four years, and I always look at them from a mathematical perspective,” Majer said. “Now I can look from an artist's point of view.”
Majer's work was one of many examples on view in the F.W. Olin Center Room 102 during the official christening of the John E. Kelly III '76 Digital Arts Lab.
Kelly, a Union Trustee and IBM senior vice president of Technology, earmarked part of his contribution to the College's $200 million “You are Union” campaign for support of the digital arts program, an interdisciplinary endeavor between the visual arts and computer science departments.
“When I was here in the mid-70s, I had to scratch together my own converging technologies, with classes in physics, math, political science and psychology,” said Kelly, addressing a crowd of about 60 at the dedication ceremony.
“My Union experience meant so much to me; it was such a tipping point in my life.”
James Underwood and John E. Kelly III, '76 at the dedication of the John E. Kelly III ’76 Digital Arts Lab – Olin 102.
Following remarks by Steve Ciesinski '70, chairman of the board of trustees, and Valerie Barr, professor and chair of computer science, Kelly was joined by Interim President Jim Underwood in the ribbon-cutting in the Olin rotunda.
The group, which also included Trustees, faculty members, staff and students, then toured the lab, with its high performance computing work stations, high-resolution displays and state-of-the-art software.
With digital art a hot “new media” field – encompassing everything from Web design to 3D modeling and animation – and converging technologies a pillar of a Union education, there couldn't be a better time to explore this latest cross-disciplinary approach, said Kelly. He holds a B.S. in physics from Union and an M.S. in physics and Ph.D. in materials engineering from RPI.
“I hope this program becomes a poster child for converging technologies at the College,” he said.
Barr noted that few of Union's peer institutions offer a digital art program; those that do generally offer it through their arts department.
“The College's earlier CT phases have seen a lot of success between science and engineering,” Barr said. “It's a bigger step to bridge over to humanities from computer science. There's always been a lot of interest, but it also takes money and resources.
“Fortunately, we've had tremendous support.”
In addition to thanking Kelly for his contributions, Barr lauded the efforts of Chris Duncan, associate professor of visual arts; Martin Benjamin, professor of visual arts; David Ogawa, professor visual arts; Louisa Matthew, chair of visual arts; David Hemmindinger, professor of computer science; Dave Cossey, chief information officer; Mary Partlett-Sweeney, associate director of academic computing; and Lance Spallholz, lab manager and instructor, in making digital arts a reality at Union.
The John E. Kelly III ’76 Digital Arts Lab dedication ceremony.
But it was not until Professor Orellana came to campus last summer did the program truly ignite.
Recalled Kelly: “I said to Valerie, ‘You've got the idea, I've got the money; now we need someone who's got the spark.' That someone is Fernando Orellana.”
Orellana joined the Union faculty as a three-year visiting professor after a national search. He was selected as “someone who will be able to make connections across arts and the hard sciences,” Barr said.
He holds a BFA in art and technology (1998) from the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Ohio State University Art & Technology program, where he continued his research into machine/sculpture automata, robotics, artificial life and painting.
He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including in Sotheby's/Artlink galleries in Tel Aviv, London and New York, and he has received numerous scholarships and fellowships.
His introductory digital arts course focuses on the fundamentals of creating two-dimensional art using the computer – “essentially a painting class with pixels.”
Topics include essentials of digital graphics/imaging and Internet art. Class lectures and hands-on studio work incorporate a range of demonstrations, discussions, technical exploration and historical information relevant to computer multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications.
After the first successful fall course, he now finds himself teaching two sections, both full with students from all fields. He encourages them to experiment with new ways to connect digital technology to their own way of making art and their own experiences.
That was certainly the case for mechanical engineering major Oliver Majer, who took a photo of the Eiffel Tower while studying abroad and used it as the inspiration for his course work last fall.
“I never considered myself an artist before taking this course,” Majer said. “Now I look at these engineering equations and I see the beauty in them.”
