Press Room
Applause
DAI double play in New York Times
The Design and Industry Department made The New York Times twice recently, but you wouldn't know it just by reading the paper. Faculty member Hsiao-Yun Chu was featured in a June 15 article about design visionary R. Buckminster Fuller, and student Benjamin Pender was included in a June 16 blog about design -- but neither piece mentioned their SF State affiliations.
In the Times article, Chu discussed how Fuller wrote and saved an incredible number of letters. "It was almost like (the letters) proved he existed, that he mattered," said Chu, editor of the forthcoming book "Reassessing R. Buckminster Fuller" (Stanford University Press). "The files were almost like the proof he needed."
In the By Design blog posted June 16, writer Allison Arieff praised Pender's design of sustainable water fountains for San Francisco. "Yes, it's a wild idea. ... but he had the ability to think of this system as less of a brand strategy than a solution," Arieff wrote. Pender developed the design as his thesis project.
Photo of Chu: L. Gino de Grandis
Image of fountain design: courtesy of Benjamin Pender
Messiahs of 1933 with Joel Schechter
Messiahs of 1933 with Joel Schechter
Joel Schechter has rediscovered the funny and often politically-charged plays of the American Yiddish theatre of the 1930s. In his book, Messiahs of 1933, he celebrates their satire, their radical imagination, and their commitment to social change. Inspired by Moishe Nadir's 1928 Yiddish Play, "Messiah in America," Schechter explores traditions in Yiddish Theatre such as promoting social change, shunning celebrity culture, or using puppets to satirize working-class life.
Schechter’s passion for these long-forgotten works of Yiddish radicalism is contagious. Readers will be inspired to find out more about the rich tradition of Yiddish leftist theater, a heritage that reached heights of avant-garde experimentation in Moscow, Warsaw, New York and Buenos Aires. Schechter does not believe that his story should be limited to the realm of history; he repeatedly urges a revival of Yiddish radicalism, both onstage and off. Although he readily admits that a restoration of Yiddish leftist theater is unlikely, Schechter insists that the plays he discusses remain relevant today. Their plea “not to let ‘the crooks come in without a protest’ in the United States,” he cautions, “still needs to be heard.”
Professor of Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University, Joel Schechter has written a number of books about satirists and circus clowns, and created a series of comic strips with the illustrator Spain. In Theatre Arts, Schechter teaches Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theatre History.
He previously taught at the New School for Social Research, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the Yale School of Drama, where he was a Professor of Dramatic Literature and Dramaturgy. His books include Durov's Pig: Clowns, Politics and Theatre (1985), Satiric Impersonations: From Aristophanes to the Guerrilla Girls (1994), and The Congress of Clowns (1998). He also served as Editor in Chief of Theater Magazine at Yale.
While at SFSU, he has planned and overseen "The Congress of Clowns: A Conference on Comedy," coordinated the Circus Arts and Russian theatre workshops for CSU's Summer Arts program, and SFSU's collaboration with the San Francisco Mime Troupe's Youth Project.
For more information on this talk, go to jcceastbay.org
Location: JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA
Tuesday July 15, 7:30pm. FREE
Getty Center video loop highlights Faculty film
In the installation "Hotbed," designed to complement a current exhibition, "California Video," Los Angeles' famed Getty Center will be projecting Art Department faculty member Paula Levine’s 1987 video “Mirror, Mirror” on its exterior walls as part of a loop of short films.
These artist's videos from 1984 to 2007 explore the theme of the body as nature within a body of culture. Viewers can stroll through the grounds of the Getty Center to see videos spectacularly displayed between the architecture and gardens in this engaging two-evening installation.
The images from the Hotbed installation include a mouth split in half, speaking two different languages, hand-drawn digital video that portrays restless sleep, among cycles of sweet dreams, images of war and telescopic rushes of collective symbols from the media.
Levine's "Mirror, Mirror" is shot in Venice, California at Muscle Beach. It is a short vignette about the instability of the gaze and voyeurism: viewing and being viewed. In the three-minute video, a male figure posing with a naked torso, is caught in slow motion returning our expectant gaze as if to challenge our preconceptions.
Levine is a media artist and Associate Professor of Art in Conceptual/Information Arts. Her current research and art practice is in GPS, remote and locative media. Her prize 2006 exhibit, "Signature," a GPS triggered sound installation, was part of Sonoma County Museum’s centennial commemoration of the1906 California earthquake. Her works have shown in video festivals, galleries, and museums worldwide.
"Hotbed" will be displayed on May 9 and 10 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles from 7:00 pm-9:00 pm.
Applause Archives
- Special Lecture by John Swanbeck, Director of the Big Kahuna
- Creative Arts E-Lert, April 2008
- Pre-Exam Happy Concert: riots of cheer for 20 years
- M-line transit shelter project brings neighbors together
- BECA 580 and the San Francisco Conservation Corps
- Cinema alum named executive producer at CNN
- Music alumna has 'it' in opera
- Cinema alum takes on 'The Conqueror'
- Professor shoots official Olympics documentary
- Professor's 'fluid' sets design 'Caroline, or Change'
- BECA alum named top anchor at KTVU-Channel 2
- DAI alum to head marketing in Texas town
- BECA 1000 makes the paper
- 'Soccer mom': a derogatory term?
- Professor lights the stage
