Past Lectures
Established with the generous support of alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities. Additional support is provided by our media sponsor, Michigan Radio.
Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place on Thursdays at 5:10 pm at the historic Michigan Theater, located at 603 E. Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor, and are free of charge and open to the public.
January 25, 2007
Janie Paul
Creating Place, Creating Resistance
Janie Paul is a painter who maintains a relationship between her studio practice and her work with inner city school children and incarcerated men, women and teenagers. In these difficult places, filled with the pressures of poverty and social injustice, Paul and her students work to co-create spaces of imagination and growth. Her background as a painter has informed this work, and in turn, the courage, resilience and inventiveness of the people in these sites of resistance have influenced her studio practice. Paul is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design.
Video
January 18, 2007
Anne Wilson
Liminal Networks
Anne Wilson's sculpture, drawings, videos, and installations evolve in that conceptual space where social and political ideas encounter the processes of handwork and industry. Her work has been shown at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Upcoming 2007 exhibitions include the Museum of Arts & Design in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Wilson has received numerous awards including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a professor and chair of the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Co-sponsored by Ann Arbor Art Center and River Gallery.
Video
November 30, 2006
Chris Impey
The Art of Science
What are the limits of knowledge when it comes to something as grand as the universe? Chris Impey will explore the way we learn about the universe we live in, make parallels to art and music, and show that discovery is as much an art as a science. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Impey is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona, Academic Head of the nation's largest undergraduate majors program in astronomy, and Vice President of the American Astronomical Society. He is one of six people nationwide named Distinguished Teaching Scholar by the National Science Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the Astronomy Department.
Video
November 16, 2006
Susie Brandt
Watertowers, Erratics and Stump Rugs
Susie Brandt discusses textiles and the wonder of cloth through her ongoing investigations into the relationship between textiles and the landscape - including material gathering, the cultivation of pattern, and camouflage as a phenomenon. Brandt's work has been included in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally and published in Sculpture Magazine, the Washington Post and the New Art Examiner.
Co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor Art Center.
Video
November 9, 2006
Father Boyle
Tattoos on the Heart: Lessons From the Barrio
Father Boyle, Jesuit priest and founder of Jobs for a Future/Homeboy Industries, will share some of the strategies utilized to develop his employment referral center for at-risk youth and his economic development program. Father Boyle's career has been dedicated to working with gang-involved youth. He will share stories about his work, the young people he works with, and community as a response to youth violence.
Co-sponsored by the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, the School of Social Work, and the Department of Sociology.
Video
November 2, 2006
Royal Shakespeare Company
Designing Shakespeare
Designing for the theatrical stage is a serious art form, as confirmed by the Royal Shakespeare Company of England's recent critically-acclaimed production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest". This presentation features Rupert Goold (Director), Giles Cadle (Stage Design), Paul Anderson (Lighting), Adam Cork (Composition and Sound), and Mary Johnson (Education) in a discussion of the creative design process, stage aesthetic, artistic collaboration, and contemporary theatrical design.
Presented in collaboration with the University Musical Society.
October 26, 2006
Ellen Harvey
Context is Everything
Born in the United Kingdom, Ellen Harvey now lives and works in New York. Utilizing video, installation and painting, she examines the theoretical and social implications of art. Solo exhibitions include those at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the Mullerdechiara Gallery in Berlin, and the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, New York. Harvey recently completed a MTA Arts for Transit commission for a 2,000 sq. ft. mosaic "Look Up, Not Down" for the Queens Plaza subway station. Her book, The New York Beautification Project, was published in 2005.
Co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor Art Center.
Video
October 19, 2006
Alicyn Warren
Sights, Sounds and Secrets
Alicyn Warren is a composer of electronic music whose pieces often include video images and text to focus on topics such as blindness, betrayal, and aging. Her works are performed and broadcast around the world. Warren is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, with a joint appointment in the School of Music (Performing Arts Technology) and the School of Art & Design.
Video
October 5, 2006
Peter Chung
Visual Literacy and Experiencing Animation
Peter Chung has worked in the animation industry since 1981. He created MTV's animated series "Aeon Flux" and directed the pilot for the "Rugrats" cable series. Chung has also worked on "Alexander"; the Korean animated series "Little Hammer"; and was director of filmography for "Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury". Using examples from his animated films, he will discuss the need for visual literacy as a way to understand today's complex mass media landscape and non-traditional narrative forms.
Co-sponsored by Screen Arts & Cultures.
Video
September 28, 2006
Nikki S. Lee
Parts and Projects
Korean artist Nikki S. Lee is internationally known for photographic self-portraits investigating personal and social identity. She has posed among various subcultures, assuming the appearance of punk rockers, yuppies, exotic dancers, lesbians, and skateboarders. Her latest undertaking is a feature-length documentary film about the artist Nikki S. Lee that blurs the lines between the staged and the spontaneous.
Co-sponsored by the Korean Studies Program and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender.
Video
September 21, 2006
Amy Goodman
War, Elections, and Independent Media
The host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, independent news program, Amy Goodman is also an investigative journalist who has reported from Qatar, East Timor, Nigeria, Mexico, Haiti and Cuba. Goodman is the co-author, with her brother, journalist David Goodman, of the New York Times best seller, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them.
Co-sponsored by the Knight-Wallace Fellows Program and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender.
Video
September 14, 2006
Margo Gomez
Everything I know about Comedy, Theater and Cooking
Called by the New York Times "a jolt of theatrical electricity," award winning writer/performer, legendary Latina and notorious lesbian Marga Gomez will perform highlights from her stand-up repertoire and two of her solo plays, and discuss her creative process. Gomez has been nominated for both The Drama Desk Award and The Outer Critics Circle Award, received the GLAAD award, and appeared on HBO, Comedy Central, and Showtime.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Theatre & Drama and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender.
Video
April 6, 2006
Yes Men
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno "dress up in suits and impersonate some of the biggest corporate criminals around."
Co-sponsored by the Department of Theater and Drama.
Video
March 30, 2006
Orlan
French artist Orlan uses plastic surgery as her medium. Since 1990, she has undergone a series of choreographed surgical "performances". Her intention is not to become "beautiful" but rather to suggest that the "objective (beauty) is unattainable and the process horrifying."
In partnership with the Program in Comparative Literature and the Department of English Language & Literature.
Video
March 23, 2006
Frozen Angels
Frozen Angels is less a science documentary than a startling glimpse into the future of the American Dream, where "perfect children" can simply be added to the shopping list in a consumer-minded culture. Frozen Angels is the second collaboration between filmmakers Frauke Sandig and Eric Black, who will be in attendance to present the film.
In partnership with the Medical School's Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the LSA Evolution Film Series, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
March 16, 2006
Matt Coolidge
Matthew Coolidge is the Founder and Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Los Angeles, a non-profit art/research organization that employs a multimedia and multidisciplinary approach to increase and diffuse knowledge about how the nationÕs lands are apportioned, utilized and perceived.
In partnership with the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the LSA Program in the Environment.
Video
March 9, 2006
Jay Allison
Jay Allison is an independent broadcast journalist whose work airs on NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition, PRI's This American Life, ABC News' Nightline, and other national programs. He is now heard weekly on NPR as the curator and co-producer of This I Believe.
In partnership with the Knight Wallace Fellows Program.
Video
February 16, 2006
Anna Schuleit
Anna Schuleit is a visual artist based in NYC, whose installations revolve around sites of trauma and isolation, particularly the ruins of institutional architecture, examining the site-specific aspects of memory.
In partnership with the Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies and the Department of Psychiatry & the Depression Center.
Video
February 15, 2006
Holly Hughes
Holly Hughes is a performance artist and writer whose books, plays and performance pieces address questions of sexuality and identity with a trademark blend of humor, provocation and lyricism. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art & Design.
Video
February 9, 2006
Tyree Guyton
Through the Heidelberg Project and his other work, Guyton draws attention to the plight of Detroit's forgotten neighborhoods and spurs discussion and action.
Co-sponsored by the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the School of Social Work.
Video
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