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.
February 9, 2012
Ayse Birsel
Shifting Perspectives : Designing a Life
The human condition, and how design can improve it, is Ayse Birsel’s passion. A co-founder of Birsel + Seck, a humanistic product design studio in New York, her Deconstruction:Reconstruction process and tools help break existing preconceptions and shift perspectives. Birsel’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and her awards include the IDEA Gold and ID Magazine Excellence Awards, the 2001 Brooklyn Museum Young Designer Award and the 2008 Rhode Island School of Design’s Athena Award in Furniture Design.
With support from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
February 2, 2012
Robert Hammond
High Line: New York City’s Park in the Sky
The High Line, a new public park atop an abandoned, elevated rail line on Manhattan’s West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. Robert Hammond, Co-Founder of Friends of the High Line, will share the story of its creation. A remarkable community collaboration: neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture came together to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, and ecologically sound public space.
With support from ArtsEngine, Living Arts and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
January 26, 2012
Maira Kalman & Daniel Handler
Why We Broke Up
Maira Kalman is an illustrator, author, and designer known for her unique commentaries on politics and contemporary life. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, and columnist for the New York Times, Kalman has also designed clocks, umbrellas, and other accessories for the Museum of Modern Art, fabric for Isaac Mizrahi, accessories for Kate Spade, and sets for the Mark Morris Dance Company.
Under the pen name Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler is the author of the popular series-turned-Hollywood-blockbuster, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Under his given name, he is the author of three novels: The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, and Adverbs. Handler has written for The New York Times, Newsday, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, Chickfactor, and various anthologies.
Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler discuss their latest collaboration, the illustrated novel, Why We Broke Up, about a star crossed teenage love affair.
With support from ArtsEngine and Living Arts.
January 19, 2012
Tony Fry
Futuring, the City & Sustainment: the Remaking of Design
Tony Fry is Professor of Design Futures at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane Australia. He is also an award-winning designer, a theorist, a farmer, and director of a project developing an academy of indigenous-based creative practices in East Timor. The author of nine books, Tony is regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers on design in the world today. On his acclaimed book, Design as Politics, a reviewer commented: “To say it’s ‘timely’ is an understatement. Fry offers us one of the most prescient theses for the design of a different possible future.”
With support from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
January 15, 2012
Philip Glass & Robert Wilson
The Power of 2
Widely credited as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, the rarely performed avant-garde opera Einstein on the Beach revolutionized theater, dance and performance. Its legendary, pioneering creators, director Robert Wilson and composer Philip Glass, discuss the initial imagining of this groundbreaking collaboration, the creative process and its trajectory. The conversation will be led by Anne Bogart, the Artistic Director of the New York-based SITI Company and a renowned theater director in her own right.
Note the special day and time for this Penny Stamps Presentation:
Sunday, January 15th at 4:00 pm at the Michigan Theater.
Co-sponsored by the University Musical Society (UMS) and the U-M Museum of Art (UMMA) and Living Arts. Part of Pure Michigan Renegade.
Video
December 8, 2011
Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa
Out Of Thin Air: THE 99
Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is a Kuwaiti clinical psychologist and creator of THE 99, the first Islamic archetype comic superheroes. Inspired by Islamic culture and history, the series promotes tolerance, teamwork and appreciation of diversity. Forbes named THE 99 as one of the top 20 global trends, and President Barack Obama praised it as the most innovative of the thousands of new entrepreneurs viewed by his Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. In his presentation, Dr. Al-Mutawa shares the progress of THE 99 from idea, to comic book series in 8 languages, to a theme park in Kuwait and an animated series.
With support from Arts Engine and the Arab American National Museum.
December 1, 2011
Paul Kaiser
Drawing on Childhood: a 3D Presentation
With his partners at OpenEndedGroup, Shelley Eshkar and Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser pioneers approaches to digital art combining non-photorealistic 3D rendering, body movement through motion-capture and other means, and artworks directed or assisted by artificial intelligence. Believing that many of art’s deepest impulses trace back to childhood, Kaiser’s presentation explores these early sources, including how the game of cat’s cradle inspired a portrait of Merce Cunningham, and how toy soldiers suggested projecting miniature trompe l’oeil figures on New York sidewalks.
With support from the Institute for the Humanities celebrating a year of digital humanities in conjunction with HASTAC.
November 17, 2011
Mx. Justin Vivian Bond
Tango Backwards and in High Heels
Singer, songwriter and Tony-nominated performance artist Mx Justin Vivian Bond is an Obie, Bessie and Ethyl Eichelberger Award winner. V has written, directed and starred in numerous performances including Christmas Spells and the GLAAD nominated show Lustre. As one-half of the Performance duo Kiki and Herb, Bond has toured the world headlining at Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House, and London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Film credits include Shortbus, Fancy’s Persuasion and Imaginary Heroes. Television appearances include Ugly Betty and Late Night With Conan O’Brian.
With support from the Spectrum Center’s 40th Anniversary Celebration, the Institute for the Humanities and the University Musical Society (UMS).
Video
November 10, 2011
Nick Cave
Strategies of Performa: Scene and Unseen
Nick Cave is an American fabric sculptor, dancer, and performance artist best known for his figurative sculptural “Soundsuits.” Constructed of found materials and designed to rattle and resonate in concert with the movement of the wearer, these works reference a range of cultural, ritualistic, and ceremonial concepts. Cave discusses his work as Performa, focusing on strategies that mobilize, activate, instigate, and escalate.
With support from the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Chelsea River Gallery.
Video
November 3, 2011
Zandra Rhodes
A Lifelong Love Affair with Textiles
Fashion icon Zandra Rhodes creates a dialogue between art and design that has put her at the forefront of the international fashion scene for over forty years. She has designed for Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Bianca Jagger, Paris Hilton, Jessica Parker, and Helen Mirren. Her work also includes jewelry, wrapping paper, china for Royal Doulton, furs, makeup, and recently, opera sets and costumes. She was made a Commander of the British Empire, has nine honorary doctorates, and is currently Chancellor of the University of the Creative Arts (UCA).
With support from the Institute for the Humanities and the University Musical Society (UMS).
Video
October 27, 2011
Emily Pilloton
Design. Build. Transform.
For Emily Pilloton and her non-profit agency Project H Design, design is a process of building and activism to benefit the community. Pilloton and her partner, Matthew Miller, also developed and teach Studio H, a design/build high school curriculum in the poorest county in North Carolina. In one year, her students earn college and high school credits researching, designing, and constructing a contextually responsive and socially transformative piece of full-scale architecture for their home town. This is the only full-scale design/build program at a high school level in the country. Pilloton has appeared at TED and on the Colbert Report, and authored the book Design Revolution.
With support from Arts Engine and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA).
Video
October 20, 2011
Sissel Tolaas
Scent Navigation
Smell can empower vision and sound or convey meaning on its own. Sissel Tolaas’ work is all about making systems of scents as the basis for communication. These systems can be used for navigation, education, design, architecture, health care, and the environment. She has an archive of 6730 smells from reality, plus a professional lab archive of 2500 molecules. Tolaas’ smell walks and projects help people reach a new understanding of their environments.
In conversation with Marylene Delbourg-Delphis, writer, philosopher, serial entrepreneur and CEO.
With support from the Chelsea River Gallery and the University Musical Society (UMS).
Video
October 6, 2011
Mariko Mori
Oneness
“Oneness" is a consistent concept in Mariko Mori’s work - a world in which human beings are one with nature, where the rhythm of humanity moves in concert with that of the natural environment. Her current projects aim to evoke this memory in our consciousness and to celebrate the existing balance in nature, using themes of life, death, rebirth and the universe. Her large sculptures such as Tom Na Hiu (2006) and Plant Opal (2009), contain elements that interact with their natural environments. Mori's most recent project is Primal Rhythm, a monumental permanent installation at Seven Light Bay in Miyako Island, Okinawa.
With support from the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures, the Center for Japanese Studies and the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA).
Video
September 29, 2011
Mark Dion
Follies in Public Art
For Mark Dion, architectural follies — Baroque idiosyncratic structures, water gardens and grottos — are a model for contemporary public art practice, forcing architecture and landscape design to extremes of innovative experimentation. Dion’s large-scale public projects include a Captain Nemo-like interior constructed in a gas tank in Essen, Germany, a fire escape-like vertical garden in London, and a large scale folly in Norway featuring a massive sculpture of a sleeping bear resting on a hill of material culture from the neolithic to the present. He is currently working with the architectural firm of James Corner Field Operations on the visual art programming and redesign of the Seattle Waterfront.
With support from the Institute for the Humanities, the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) and the Museum Studies Program.
Video
September 22, 2011
Francois Delaroziere
Creative Motion
Francois Delaroziere is the artistic director of La Machine, a French theater company that creates living architectures that use movement as a language and source of emotion. Radio France says, “[Delaroziere] creates a world both real and dreamlike which invades cities for beautiful, moving and crazy celebrations.” Recent creations include a 37-ton mechanical spider for the show “Les Mecaniques Savantes” and the 35-foot tall mechanical elephant featured in 2005's "The Sultan's Elephant" at the edge of the River Loire.
In conversation with Elisabeth Hayes, Executive Director of FACE (The French American Cultural Exchange).
With support from Arts Engine, the University Musical Society (UMS) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).
Video
September 15, 2011
Cory Doctorow, Mark Stevenson and James King
Futurology: Optimism and Failure
Emerging technologies can transform society, for both good and bad. How can we shape technology to create the tools we need to face the future? Futurologists Cory Doctorow and Mark Stevenson are joined by James King to discuss what we can hope for and what we should guard against.
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer, journalist, technology activist and co-editor of the weblog Boing Boing.
Mark Stevenson is the author of An Optimist's Tour of the Future.
James King, 2011 A&D Witt Artist in Residence, investigates the unintended consequences of technology.
With support from Living Arts and the Risk Science Center.
Video
April 7, 2011
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
Sound Unbound
Image: Michael Raz-Russo
In his Stamps presentation renowned composer, turntablist, multimedia artist and writer Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), explores the theme of sound in contemporary art, digital media, and composition, reconstructing the history of sound and recorded media through works by Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Moby, Chuck D, Pierre Boulez, Jonathan Lethem, Bruce Sterling, Manuel Delanda, and Naeem Mohaimen. Using the essays that are in Miller’s recent book, Sound Unbound, Miller creates a rip-mix-burn-lecture, using historic texts and rare audio recordings and films, to demonstrate the complex relationship between text and art in a multimedia context.
With support from the University Musical Society (UMS) and the Department of Performing Arts Technology of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Video
March 31, 2011
Mitchell Joachim
Envisioning Ecological Cities
Named as one of "The 15 People the Next President Should Listen To" and "The 100 People Who Are Changing America" Dr. Joachim is a leader in ecological design and urbanism. With degrees from MIT, Harvard, and Columbia University he is currently an Associate Professor at NYU, and formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, and Pei Cobb Freed. Joachim discusses his non-profit design group, Terreform ONE that promotes green design in cities, developing innovative solutions and technologies for local sustainability in energy, transportation, infrastructure, buildings, waste treatment, food, water, and media spaces.
With support from the College of Engineering, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Arts Engine, and SMART - – Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation.
Video
March 24, 2011
Utopia in Four Movements
Premiered in 2010 Sundance Film Festival, "Utopia in Four Movements" is a multi-media documentary/lecture about the battered state of the utopian impulse at the dawn of the 21st century created by filmmaker Sam Green and musician Dave Cerf (both known for the academy award nominated film The Weather Underground). This 'live documentary' includes narration by Green and a performance by the Brooklyn-based band The Quavers, with special guest Brendan Canty of Fugazi on drums.
In partnership with the Ann Arbor Film Festival and with support from the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures.
Video
March 17, 2011
Number 17
17 by 17 by 17
Founded by Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler, Number Seventeen is a multi-disciplinary design firm working in print, television and online. Their projects include opening sequences for Saturday Night Live, the Daily Beast website, Lucky Magazine and the Sex in the City book. Using projects, including their own column in Newsweek, their comic strips, and more traditional design work, they use the occasion of their 17th year in business to take a look backwards to “see what the hell it is that we have done.”
With support from AIGA Detroit – the professional association for design.
Video
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