Crowdscapes

Sherrie Nickol

Crowdscapes

Sept. 3 — Dec. 18, 2009
CHAT Gallery
10th floor of Gladfelter Hall
M-F, 10 am — 4 pm

Sherrie Nickol searches for the interconnection between groups of people and their surroundings. The emotional interaction among the subjects that populate these places is central to this body of work. Nickol’s insightful photographs lead her viewers to a larger understanding of the meaning of ‘crowds.’

The Secret Life of Plants

CHAT distinguished faculty lectures

Oliver Gaycken, English

Thus., October 22

12:30-1:50 p.m.
CHAT Lounge, 10th Floor, Gladfelter Hall

The understanding of plant life was changing at the end of the nineteenth century, transforming from an Aristotelian conception that separated plants from animals absolutely to a more Darwinian conception where the

Oliver Gaycken

boundary between the animal and vegetable kingdoms was less definite. Probably no other visual medium supported this transformation more powerfully than time-lapse cinema. Film’s ability to compress time and thereby visualize plant movement created moving images that became touchstones for both avant-garde movements, especially Surrealism, as well as for a variety of other audiences, ranging from the first time-lapse plant film made for a non-scientific audience, Percy Smith’s The Birth of a Flower (1910), to the psychobotanical documentary The Secret Life of Plants (1978). This talk will present an overview of this intriguing cinematic sub-genre that hovers somewhere between science, art, and magic.

FILM : Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur Pour L’echafaud)

Wolgin Prize Finalist Sanford Biggers selected films to be screened in conjunction with his Temple Gallery exhibition.  This week’s film is:

Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur Pour L’echafaud), 1957 (92 minutes)
Wednesday, October 14, 7pm

Tyler School of Art, 12th and Norris Streets, Lower Level, B004
Cohosted by STOOP, Tyler School of Art

Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows is a “film noir” suspense thriller set to a Miles Davis soundtrack. A man who has fallen in love with his boss’ wife plans a murder to look like suicide so he can be with his love, but nothing goes as planned.

Everything but the coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks

What are we drinking and what does it say about who we are?

That’s the question Temple historian Bryant Simon contemplated one day five years ago while sitting in a Starbucks. And it’s one he addresses in his new book, Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks (University of California Press, October 2009).

But, Everything but the Coffee is not just about Starbucks. It’s about what Starbucks’ success and recent downturn says about America, Americans and our search for meaning, community, justice and relevance in the 21^st century.

photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography

For the book, Simon visited and revisited more than 400 Starbucks in ten countries — purposely dropping in on the same stores at different times of the day and positioning himself differently each time, at a table or near the counter. He invited linguists, branders, colorologists and teenagers to join him and “tell him what they saw” and once even surreptitiously ran off with a bag of Starbucks’ trash.

What he learned was that at its peak Starbucks thrived by giving Americans what they thought they wanted, which wasn’t coffee. It was predictability, class standing, a sense of community, more natural and authentic products, and a sense of themselves as caring and more benevolent individuals.

“You rent out space for work or a meeting or pay for a chair for twenty minutes of relaxation, or maybe you use it as a place to show off your good taste. Go to this place with art on the walls and jazz flowing out the speakers and you become sophisticated, arty, eco-friendly and cosmopolitan.  But this isn’t necessarily who you are; this is an image you pay a premium to display,” said Simon. 

According to Simon, Starbucks’ skyrocketing success demonstrates how deeply consumption has steeped into our lives—how much energy, emotion and time we invest in what we buy as a representation of who we are.

“As our sense of association and communalism has rolled back, buying has seeped into more and more aspects of daily life,” said Simon. “Starbucks used that retreat in public life to sell us what we want.”

Bryant Simon is Professor of History and Director of American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, and author of Boardwalk of Dreams:  Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America.

Panel Discussion on the Work of Wolgin Prize Finalist Ryan Trecartin

"Re'Search Wait'S (Edit 1: Missing Re'Search Corruption Budget)" by Ryan Trecartin (2009) (courtesy of Courtesy of Ryan Trecartin and Elizabeth Dee)

When: Wednesday Oct. 7, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Paley Library Lecture Hall

Ryan Trecartin’s work advances understandings of post‐millennial technology, narrative and identity. Discussed from a variety of perspectives, panelists will examine issues of social media and networks; gender and aesthetic themes in video art; and more.

This event is part of a series of collaborative public programs presented in conjunction with the Tyler School of Art’s Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts

 

About Finalist Ryan Trecartin

Ryan Trecartin (b. 1981, Webster, TX) lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, where he structures his art practice in varying collaborative ways. Trecartin has established a singular video practice that, in both form and in function, advances understandings of post-millennial technology, narrative and identity, and also propels these matters as expressive mediums. His work depicts worlds where consumer culture is amplified and absorbed to absurd or nihilistic proportions where characters circuitously strive to find agency and meaning in their lives. The combination of assaultive, nearly impenetrable avant-garde logics and equally outlandish, virtuoso uses of color, form, drama and montage produces a sublime, stream-of-consciousness effect that feels bewilderingly true to life. In addition to his work in video, Trecartin also has a collaborative sculpture practice with artist Lizzie Fitch. Trecartin’s work has been included in several major exhibitions and institutions worldwide, including the 2006 Whitney Biennial, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Saatchi Gallery, London; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Wolgin Exhibit opens October 1

Musical Theater director gives to Charity

 

 

Peter Reynold’s interpretation of Neil Simon’s Sweet Charity now on stage at Tomlinson Theater

It’s opening night of Temple Theater’s production of Sweet Charity, and the Tomlinson Theater backstage area is awash in nervous energy. The stage manager is busy checking final details, and the dressing rooms are crowded with actors and actresses putting the finishing touches on make-up and costumes. Dressed in all black, assistant professor Peter Reynolds makes his way around the theater, taking one last check before curtain.

Read more…

Theater undergrad wins Princess Grace Award

Craig Bazan, an undergraduate theater major, received a Princess Grace Award.

The junior, who appeared in Temple Theater’s production of The Seven last season, was nominated by The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Camden to participate in a 15-week theater apprenticeship.

In the summer of 2007, Bazan was filmed performing a monologue from Hamlet entitled “Hamlet on the Street” across the street from his high school in Camden, NJ. The video went on to be featured on the front page of YouTube and on ABC News.

Temple’s previous Princess Grace Award winners include Karen Carpenter (2005) whose film My Scarlet Letter also won the Hamptons International Film Festival and Heidi Saman (2006) whose film The Maid was selected for the international Cannes Film Festival.

-Jazmyn Burton

MFA student wins Princess Grace Award

MFA candidate Chinonye Chukwu received the 2009 Princess Grace Award in Narrative Film making.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA honors six student filmmakers in the nation. Chukwu will receive $24,000 to produce her next film, Chidinma and Buchi, which will be shot in her native country of Nigeria late this year.

This national competition is entered by every major film school in the United. With three Princess Grace Awards in Narrative Filmmaking over the last five years Temple has received more awards in this category than any other school in the country.

Chukwu, a second year MFA candidate in Film & Media Arts, is an American citizen who was born in Nigeria. Her films feature new and complex representations of Africans and African-Americans with a focus on women and the challenges they face when attempting to build a dual identity.

For the Princess Grace competition, Chinonye submitted a proposal for her thesis film that will be shot in Nigeria in December 2009 and her recently completed production Igbu Kwenu!, which was shot during the FMA course in screen directing under the supervision of film and media arts professor Warren Bass.

Chukwu’s film Igbu Kwenu! received a 2009 Pennsylvania Independent Film and Video Association grant from the independent film community and the “Best Motion Picture Award” and “Best Screenplay Award” at Temple’s Diamond Screen 2009.

-Jazmyn Burton

Sweet Charity

Maria Konstantinidis (who alternates the title role with Victoria Mayo) stars in Temple Theaters' jazzy musical classic "Sweet Charity."

When:

Sept. 22 – Oct. 11

Where:

Tomlison Theater

1301 W. Norris St.

(on Norris Street between 13th and Broad Streets)

Temple Theaters opens its fall season with a productions of Sweet Charitity; a jazzy musical directed by Peter Reynolds, with music Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields.

Tickets can be purchased online.