Dear prefrosh (and prospies),

By the time you get to MIT, you’ll have had about eighteen years (or less for some of you overachievers) to figure out your hobbies and interests. Many of you probably have been playing an instrument for years or participating in art, dance, or theatre for just as long. I mean, you’ve spent your whole life being told to try new things and find what you like and what you’re good at. It’s been almost two decades so really, you’d expect that by now you already know, right?

In some ways, this is entirely true. You come to college and you’ve been playing violin for ten years, so naturally you look into the MIT Symphony Orchestra or Concert Band or other music groups. It’s a way to keep in touch with something you love and something you’ve dedicated time and effort to.

But at the same time, you’ve always wanted to sing. Or dance. Or draw. You’ve liked it, but in high school you had to choose which hobbies to focus your time on and there just weren’t easy and inexpensive ways to pursue these interests. Besides, other people your age are probably experts. By age eighteen, it’s probably just too late now.

But wait, prefrosh! Eighteen’s not that old. Not really. It only seems old because that’s how old you are. There’s still plenty of time to learn. It only feels like it’s too late because you’re thinking about those people who started when they were young, but remember, there’re just as many people who start your age or older.

It’s like, when I was six, I thought I might want to play the piano. But I saw a lot of my parents’ friends’ kids playing piano since they were three or something and I thought to myself, I’m so old. I’m never going to be as good as them, I’ve missed my prime! All these little kids will be better than me. I might as well not even try. I know, six is by no means old. It really isn’t. And when I turned eight, I smacked my forehead and thought to myself, why didn’t I start piano at six? Six is so young.

So it’s really all about perspective. There’s still so much time to learn a new skill. It’s okay to be a n00b at age eighteen. It’s okay to be a n00b at age twenty or forty or eighty. Comparatively, you guys are just little six-year-olds!

MIT makes it easy for you to not only get involved in things, but to get good. Don’t worry that just because you’re starting late, you’re going to be that awkward kid playing “Yankee Doodle” while everyone else is playing sonatas by dead composers. You too, can play sonatas by dead composers! (Can you tell I never got into piano after all? Such regrets)

First example, I know a guy who had little singing experience. In high school he wasn’t in the chorus or musical theatre crowd. But he came to MIT and on a spur of the moment deal, tried out for an acapella group.

There are nine acapella groups at MIT (I think) and some are more intense than others, but I don’t think any of them assume you’ve had extensive experience. After all, very few people are in acapella groups before college. But anyways, he did get in and now, not only is he surprisingly really good, he spends a lot of his time practicing with the other members. I think singing in an acapella group has actually become a big part of his life. He seems to always be singing, even quietly under his breath.

Another case is my other friend who probably never had a dance lesson in his life. Never was in a dance group or a dance crew. He, as well as a lot of my friends actually, got involved in something called DanceTroupe.

DanceTroupe is a program run by MIT students who choreograph dances of different genres and levels of difficulty. Other MIT students can then audition and most are accepted since a good portion of the dances are created for beginners. Not only do they work to put on a big show each semester, they also get to learn from other students. In fact, my specific friend was in DanceTroupe for three semesters before he auditioned for Mocha Moves, an actual dance crew at MIT and got in. Now, I’m pretty sure he spends more hours in dance practice than in class.

I think the best part about MIT extracurricular activities is that a lot of it is student-run so it’s not as intimidating or competitive. It’s just a bunch of students having fun. In both cases, they came to MIT with no experience, but have gained not only a new skill, but also something they enjoy and something that’s become a big part of their life.

So as you excited prefroshes get ready and start packing to come to MIT this September, start thinking about that one (or two or three) passion(s) you never pursued. Think about what could possibly happen if you tried and when you get here, take advantage of the activities fairs and keep an open mind as you look at the different groups. Don’t let lack of experience or familiarity discourage you. You can literally do anything you want. It’s never too late to start, but there’s no better time to start than now.

Sincerely,
An eight-year-old

P.S. In case you guys haven’t come across this yet, I found this wiki article useful– it’s not all-inclusive, but it’s a good start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditions_and_student_activities_at_MIT

P.S.S. I’m not actually eight. I’m twenty. It’s a metaphor.
 

The very first time I heard of Richard Wagner was many years ago, in a summer novel: an elegant, cultured but boorish man took the heroine to see a Wagner opera. Being a frilly type of girl though, she did not hear a word of what he was saying about the plot and could only think about the lovely things that he could afford to give to her. It sounded fairly interesting at the time though (I paid attention to the plot) – what really caught my eye was the name of one of the operas: Gotterdammerung.

A couple of years later, I watched a the film that mesmerized me: Tristan+Isolde, which is similar to Romeo & Juliet in the sense that both deal with romantic love unrequited because of overarching politics, although the former is on a grander scale. Turns out one of Wagner’s greatest works was entitled Tristan und Isolde! This reenergized my desire to experience Wagner.

Prospects for me not only managing to get tickets but also find an opera buddy steadily dwindled, until I became an Arts Scholar. This program’s mission is as follows: to foster an active community of students with an exceptional interest in the arts. The community’s resultant role is that of an arts leadership group, cultivated through events and mentorship. 

During the first weekend of the semester, we travelled to New York to the Metropolitan Opera, to go see Wagner’s Gotterdammerung (!!!) and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Because many of us hadn’t studied Wagner’s works, we didn’t really know what to expect. Luckily, one of the arts scholars on the trip had, and gave us a synopsis during the ride, which I shall summarize:

In exchanging vows of love, Siegfried, a warrior, gives Brunnhilde, a Valkyrie maiden, his magic ring, and Brunnhilde in return gifts him with her magic horse. Siegfriend then goes off on a journey, where he stops by Gunther’s and his sister Gutrune’s castle. Hagen, the villain, wants the magic ring and so comes up with a convoluted plot where he gives Siegfried a drug that makes him fall in love with Gutrune and agree to win Brunnhilde for Gunther. Meanwhile, Brunnhilde receives a request that she give up the ring to the Rhinemaidens or the gods will forever be cursed; she refuses. A number of battles and more deception ensue, and it all culminates in . . .

Well, I won’t reveal the ending because it worth watching for yourself! In any case, if you know the Lord of the Rings, then it is strikingly similar. Tolkien wasn’t as original as he claimed!

We finally arrived in New York; where we stayed at a really chic hipster hotel, the Hudson, interior decorated by French designer Phillip Starck: 

The next morning we had a lovely brunch at Fiorello’s, and then arrived at the opera house!   

Once inside, there is a lobby that stretches the height of the building, with a grand staircase that branches and weaves around it. The interior is gorgeous! It looks like gilt leaf overlaid on brick, close-up. But from far away, the unfurling petals give a magnificent backdrop to the dazzling chandelier.

Wagner’s opera lasted for six hours! I had never been to an opera before, and fully expected to fall asleep (especially after our huge delicious brunch that morning). But it was mesmerizing! And I was especially interested after the first hour, once I figured out how to turn on the subtitles (did I neglect the part where it’s all sung in German?).

My favorite aspect was the set design: across the stage, a set of roughly twenty trapezoidal beams stacked vertically. They rotated in sync in interesting patterns, during a scene they would stop in whatever configuration needed (for instance, at one point when Siegfried is rowing a boat, the center four beams were swaying horizontally, while the rest of the beams had a waterfall projected onto them.)
 

During the parts when only the orchestra played, abstract visualizations danced across the beam surfaces.

I didn’t even remotely want to sleep – although a number of people in my row dozed off. It was so incredibly dramatic though, and lived up to all of my expectations and more.
Afterwards, we had a scrumptious dinner at Puttanesca, and then back to the opera to watch The Barber of Seville. This is much more the typical opera, sung in Italian, is also comedic, and includes the famous “Figaro, Figar-oooo”. A short summary:

There is a Count, who falls in love with a beautiful girl, Rosina. However, he wants her to love him for himself and not his money, therefore he disguises himself a poor college student and courts her. However, Rosina’s guardian Doctor Bartolo locks her up in his house since he intends to marry her himself. When the Count runs into an old servant of his, Figaro – the Barber – his luck changes, since Figaro has access to the doctor’s house. Figaro devises several ways for the Count and Rosina to meet and talk, and the story culminates in their marriage.

A couple of us also snuck down during intermission and found some seats by the orchestra. The sound quality was truly incredible! And I didn’t need to borrow binoculars to see the set this time around. All in all, a fantastic first-time experience with opera! I am excited for when we go back next year.

A big thank you to Sam Magee, the coordinator of Arts Scholars, the Arts Council at MIT, and all of my fellow Arts Scholars!
 

First of all, I need to second Miren’s statement a while back about 21M.A12: Freshman Arts Seminar Advising Program (or FASAP, or Arts at MIT. It also may be the class with the most names ever!) being the best class ever.

All the way back in September, we talked about a play called World of Wires by MIT Associate Professor in Theater Arts, Jay Scheib. One of our FASAP advisors, Sara Brown, was the set designer, and I ended up being in the cast myself, so I couldn’t resist writing about the show.

World of Wires is such an intriguing show. I did a fair amount of theater in high school, but I had no idea what to expect when I got here. Sara had mentioned the play in class our first week, and I saw an email encouraging freshmen to audition, so I showed up on a whim, not knowing what to expect. We ended up throwing together a workshop of the show in less than 2 weeks with a cast of six people; in other words, the shortest rehearsal period I’ve ever had for a show. It was also one of the most fun shows I’ve ever been part of.

Not surprisingly, Jay describes the plot much better than I could:

“World of Wires chronicles the development of an immense computer simulation that's so life-like that it's nearly indistinguishable from reality. When one of the scientists who authored the simulation goes missing, Fred Stiller begins to investigate. As the investigation spirals out of control he discovers that he is, himself, part of the very simulation he thought he'd been hired to design, and his colleague(s) had simply been deleted. Based on Fassbinder’s early precursor to films like The Matrix and Tron, World of Wires offers stiff critique of both the genius and the fallibility of virtual simulations—in a world which, as Baudrillard suggested, regularly migrates simulations into reality, and vice versa. World of Wires is an all-best-are-off-joyride into the startling possibility that you might actually Really be one's and zeroes in someone else's immaculately programmed world.”

Unnerving, no? Jay and Sara played around with the idea of simulation with how the show was staged. The stage was split roughly in half with a long hallway with open side windows.

In this shot from the stage, you can see through the hallway to the other side (and me sitting on the couch!).

This both split up the stage into different areas and gave us lots of places to run/jump/crawl through during chase scenes. Another amazing aspect of the production was the use of live film and projection. When the audience walked into the theater, they saw the front of the stage completely blocked off by a wall of boxes, which were later knocked down. These boxes, as well as a monitor near the edge of the stage, were the spaces to stream the live video feed from the camera Jay carried with him onstage during the entire play. So the audience got the best of both worlds - a whole scene to watch and dramatic closeups of the action. 

Like this one!

Or this one! Very intense. 

Finally, several of the side walls were mirrored, which gave us even more fun effects to play with.
 

This high action scene of the group looks even more frantic when there’s two of everyone! Plus, you can see Jay filming in the background, which breaks the already-smashed-to-pieces fourth wall even more.

Our production of World of Wires was a rough workshop of some of the script, but the play continues to move forward in production. In fact, the full show of World of Wires will be performed in January in New York. So, if anyone happens to be around New York during IAP and happens to hear of it, I’d highly recommend seeing it. At the very least, you’ll get to see people run through a wall of boxes.
 
 

This semester I am currently taking STS.064J/21A.339J (Documenting Science Through Video and New Media).

It’s ridiculously cool. In the period of one semester you learn how to use serious equipment to create a film. Above is a photo of me shooting outdoor footage from the terrace in Simmons Hall for a practice assignment. I was trying to capture the sunset on film.

We also explore different types of documentary, from the classically framed interview to cinéma vérité and direct cinema (which, I should emphasize are not the same).

One of my favorite films that we watched is Chronique d'un été by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, which follows people in Paris and Saint-Tropez. There is a cathartic moment involving Marceline Loridan Ivens that I love because it is raw and powerful, which makes it beautiful. A still from the original film is below.

Photo credit The Life Cinematic, 1000-films 2009 Edition

A few weeks ago, I went with Doug, a fellow ARTalk blogger, and our friend Natthida, over to the MFA to see a screening of the documentary Urbanized. It is by Gary Hustwit, who also made Helvetica and Objectified.

Simply amazing. It was interesting to watch while taking STS.064J, and analyzing it for how he used certain techniques to catch captivating interviews and footage. Hustwit is able to capture so much movement with the camera that keeps the audience engaged with the film. All of his shots are gorgeous.

I also find the emphasis on design and architecture interesting as well, especially presenting all of the problems in housing people given the current population growth. I’m not going to give it all away, you should get ahold of a copy and watch it yourself :)

Trailer can be found here: http://urbanizedfilm.com/trailer/

Oh, and I must give a MITSO shout-out before I end.
Decebmer 10th. Kresge Auditorium. Free tickets the week preceding the concert in either the student center or Lobby 10. $5 at the door. Program is Piano Concerto in Eb by Mozart and Symphony No. 1 by Mahler. BE THERE. http://web.mit.edu/mitso/ for more info.

Going to college and moving into a dorm means taking on the job of making a home out of a small shared room with preset furniture, dorm rules, and maybe even a giant curved wall that doesn’t seem to fit with anything. The latter is more specific to my own dorm, but more on that later. 

Before and After!

At home, I was offered quite a bit of freedom with my room, even going as far as switching bedrooms with my brother at one point so I could paint a mural on a larger wall. But it still wouldn’t prepare me for decorating and organizing a dorm room. Sure, it can just be a bedspread and a poster of your favorite band or sports team. But it can also be a chance to really customize your living space.

I was hesitant in taking pictures of my current room arrangement, mostly because I rearrange the room usually around once a month. I’ve had some pretty ridiculous arrangements—there was the one time freshman year I had actually lofted my desk so I could sit on my bed and work at my desk. The main problem aside from the inefficient space use and the sheer ugliness of the arrangement was that any time I sat at my desk, I’d just flop over and fall asleep in my bed.

It’s actually surprising how much MIT supports this kind of artistic expression. You actually have a lot more freedom than most other college students. Most dorms allow you to paint your walls. Simmons allows it as long as it gets painted back to white eventually and the curved walls some of the rooms have can be chalked up. Another way to dress up plain white walls if you don’t feel like dealing with paint fumes or chalk dust is to just hang some posters and art on the walls.
 

Some of my art around the room.

My roommate's art (she likes them Greeks).

Since both my roommate and I had pretty extensive art portfolios from high school, it wasn’t too difficult to find things to hang. However, even if you aren’t artistically inclined, you can get your hands on some fantastic art for your walls through the Student Loan Art Program, offered through the List Visual Arts Center. http://listart.mit.edu/student_loan_art_collection. It’s a really cool program that lets you keep art for the entire year. Or you know, you could always take some art classes at MIT so you have things to hang!

Another way Simmons specifically encourages students to customize their rooms is actually in the furniture. From my frequent arranging, I realized that the furniture’s dimensions all matched in a way that made them very easy to stack. All you need is a typical hexagonal Allen wrench, one that Simmons usually provides in welcome bags. The drawers, shelves, desk, and even wardrobe are 40 inches wide. The drawers are 10 inches high while the small shelves are 30 inches, the tall shelves are 40 inches and the wardrobes are 70 inches high. When lofting a bed you can basically choose what you want to use to build up the supports, as well as how high you want the bed to be. Not to mention all the furniture is heavy and very sturdy; meant to withstand the weight of any furniture you’d like to stack on top of it.

These characteristics basically turn your furniture into giant, heavy Legos. You can stack them up, use them to build, loft beds (or in my case a desk), and really anything you can think of. My roommate and I have used the drawer sets to build stairs up to a lofted bed. We’ve built an entertainment system using shelves and drawers for our electronics. We’ve even used the wardrobe, lofted bed, and shelves to create a walk-in closet!

My roommate’s “walk in closet” (under a lofted bed where one side is her wardrobe and the other side has a shelf for her make up and girly things).

It was really this that got me thinking I might want to try architecture. Although I do love matching colors and arranging decorations, it was the ability to build things that I really enjoyed. I felt like I was building my own little home. My current double has these sections:

A bathroom (Simmons gives you one-- do not try to build this! The decals were bought from Target for $12 and the fireflies glow in the dark!).

A kitchen (complete with a tea bar).

My study room (curved walls always present a challenge with furniture arrangement. But it just looks so cool!).

My bedroom (there’s nothing like a well-made and well-decorated bed. I sewed both the body pillow and small decorative pillow).

My roommate’s “bedroom” (It’s bunked up super high so it’s like a separate little room up there).

Also, my roommate's closet (already shown above).

A family/TV room (every MIT dorm has free cable access to ~60 channels).

There’s really so much more I want to say on the matter, like tips to make a small room look bigger or how to decorate a shelf to keep it pretty but functional, but that might be diverting from the artistic message of this post. Which is, MIT loves art and architecture. That’s why it lets you do awesome things with your dorm space. Because it wants you to love art and architecture too -- it certainly worked on me.

Roommate’s comment after reading: “You make our room sound so cool. I was like, I wanna live there, but then I realized I do!"
 

Photo Credit: cmagz.com

tldr; version:
pretty to look at and nice to listen to (the tagline says it all), 5 out of 5 stars!

The whole shebang:
I had originally intended to write this article on the Degas exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), but I saw something equally as awesome during my visit there this past Saturday.

When I reached the Huntington Street entrance of the MFA that afternoon, there was a line stretching all the way down the exterior set of stairs from the door. So many people were waiting to gain entrance to the museum that I would have had to wait half an hour to get in. Seeing a smaller line to the side, I asked the doorman about the differences in the queues. “This line is for the Melancholia film screening. It’s by invitation only.” Serendipitously, I had happened to have an invitation from the International Film Festival (IFF, a series of film events of which I highly recommend you all to attend) to the free showing of Lars von Trier’s most recent work in my inbox. I showed the doorman the invitation on my iPhone and was shuffled to the Regis Theatre hastily, since the film was about to begin…

…two hours later, I stumble out of the MFA in a silent, dream-like stupor of which only a movie as mind-boggling and entrancing as the first Matrix can cast.
Photo Credit: melancholiathemovie.com

Without sharing too much about the film, Melancholia is “…an oddly tasteful, composed take on doomsday,” “…a heartbreakingly beautiful experience,” and “…a moving rumination on mental illness…” that features “…awesome special effects emulating the terrifying splendor of the end of days”. Thank you, Rotten Tomatoes. Doesn't that sound epic? Well, just so you know, it was.

Starring Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia opens up to a surreal, slow motion introductory sequence (a la Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life) set to Wagner’s prelude to the opera Tristan and Isolde. The film is split into two parts, dedicated to the two main characters Justine (Dunst) and Claire (Gainsbourg). Rich with metaphor, heavy themes, and gorgeous visuals, the mostly linear narrative explores such notions as depression, sense of purpose, and fatality.

Photo Credit: movies.about.com

Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Antichrist) based the idea for his newest movie from a depressive episode he experienced. After talking with his therapist, von Trier learned that people suffering from severe depression usually remain calm in stressful situations. The end of the world counts as a stressful situation, in my opinion, but unlike other doomsday films such as The Day After Tomorrow and Armageddon which attempt to show the viewers how the end of the world affects the social, economic, and political realms on a large scale, von Trier limits his scope to the small, intimate worlds of Justine and Claire. So instead of seeing, for example, how the president will react to these outside forces threatening all of mankind, we are shown how the two central characters deal with a tragic reality that is seemingly inevitable.

The stunning cinematography is inspired by German Expressionist cinema. Paired with a dramatic and emotional soundscape, the cinematography and von Trier’s treatment of the subject combine to create an unforgettable, entrancing, and quite unsettling piece of work. It’s not a first-date type of movie to go see, but if you are feeling contemplative and upbeat, definitely check it out.

After taking 2.97 (Design for People) I changed my major to 2A and decided to concentrate in product design. I was immediately hooked after watching the documentary Objectified http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/. 

 I had never know or even though of how everything around us was “designed.” I took 2.97 during IAP of 2011. I am currently more and more involved with classes that focus on design, particularly 4.500 (Computational Design). I am currently cross-registered at MassArt where I am taking Industrial Design 1. Though out all my classes I can see that design is literally around us all. Design is applied art.

It is Design Museum Boston’s goal to show Boston and the greater New England community that we are a design capital of the world. On October 6th I went to my second DMB event where The Boston Globe presented it new webpage redesign. More information about the event and pictures can be found at http://designmuseumboston.org/2011/10/unite-boston-globe-event-offers-peek-inside-the-news-icon/ .

If you are a web designer this book will be your bible for internet designing your internet experience.

I would say that I DMB’s event are great for networking but for some reason I always feel like I should be volunteering to put on the event as a student rather than attending it. I’ve had long talks with graphic designers, product designers and engineers on what all the possibilities are for my future career. Since most events are hosted at the headquarters of large companies that you may possibly work at it is nice to always stick around for private tours of the workspace. Last year DMB’s logo launch party was hosted at Continuum.

http://continuuminnovation.com/Contact/Boston.aspx

If you’re interested in more DMB events in Boston there is one coming up November 18th. More information can be found here: http://designmuseumboston.org/2011/10/unite-space-with-a-soul-with-fpac/

Design is everywhere. Like most things, you just need to know where to look.  
 

On behalf of the four other freshmen and two other ARTalk bloggers in 21M.A12 (Arts at MIT), I would like to state something: our advising seminar might be one of the coolest classes ever.

Each week we spend the first hour or so of class learning about different facets of art here at MIT, followed by some casual chitchat about how classes and activities are going. Some of our most recent artistic endeavors have included sitting in on Senior Lecturer Anna Kohler’s Acting with the Camera (21M.624) class and taking a tour of MIT’s public art collection. This week, we went to the MIT List Visual Arts Center to see Otto Piene’s Litchballett and the Hans Haacke 1967 exhibit.

We went to Litchballett (literally, ‘light ballet’ in German) first. The exhibit is in a completely dark room except for the moving and flickering light coming from the pieces themselves. Originally, music composed by the artist accompanied the patterns of light, but this exhibit is silent. As soon as you step inside, you see this glowing ball of lights called Electric Rose.

Electric Rose in black and white. Photo Credit: listart.mit.edu.

The 171 light bulbs–which are all orange except for one– glow in a certain sequence: the singular purple bulb first, then the upper hemisphere, then the lower hemisphere, then all of them. The calm, hypnotizing pattern of the switching colors draws onlookers into the piece. I found myself staring intently at the soft light for a while, even though, after a few cycles, I knew which phase of the sequence would be coming next. For a piece of machinery that is very different from stereotypical contemporary art (i.e. a painting hanging on a museum wall), it was quite beautiful. But let’s move on.

Inside the main room of the exhibit, there are half a dozen or so pieces. Inside each piece are different light bulbs which light up at different times to make myriad moving patterns on the walls. Hence, the Light Ballet is created.

Like this, but the patterns are moving. Photo Credit: RP-Online.de

My favorite pieces were the cube pictured above and these neat concentric circles of dots in the wall. Multiple light bulbs rotated behind the circular pattern to create this piece of the ballet. We weren’t allowed to take photos, so besides the above Google images I have nothing to show you guys. However, this gives you even more incentive to check out the exhibit and see Lichtballett for yourself! It runs from October 21st to December 31st of this year.

The other exhibit that List is currently showing is entitled Hans Haacke 1967 because it is a recreation of an art show that Hans Haacke held at MIT in 1967. To quote the little booklet that I picked up at List:

Haacke rejects the name ‘sculpture’ for his works. He calls them ‘systems’ …Haacke deliberately designs his ‘systems’ to “evolve in time and be affected by time. Changes are desired and are part of the program.”

Because of Haacke’s interest in systems, his creates art which captures these systems by containing or framing them in little bundles. One of his pieces, Condensation Cube, is comprised of water and condensation inside of a plexiglass cube. Here, Haacke captures the natural system of water which self regulates; it changes from droplets to condensation inside the cube based on the heat in the room. So, in a way, the viewer does interact with the exhibit since they input extra heat into the system, but the water self regulates on its own.

Science + art = condensation cube. Photo Credit: c4gallery.com

Pretty much all of the exhibit has to do with the ways in which forces of nature are systems. The pieces are mostly comprised of wind, water, and grass.

This is how the exhibit looked in 1967. Photo Credit: listart.mit.edu

Since the current exhibit is based off of the original exhibit, Hans Haacke 1967 looks quite similar to the above photo. The balloon hovering in the foreground of the photo is still there, as is the moving sheet and the ice pillar in the background. Once again, go to the exhibit to see for yourself! (It also runs from October 21st to December 31st.)

Throughout his career, Haacke’s theory of systems developed from those of natural systems to political systems and social systems. For example, he has a piece in the Reichstag building in Germany which was restored in the 90s once the Berlin Wall came down. The MIT exhibit does focus primarily on his earlier work, so I would recommend looking up some of his more recent pieces if you interested in finding out about the other types of systems.

The final part of the exhibit is a separate room where some photos of Haacke’s work are hung. Some of the pictures are of work that Haacke did at his studio, but there are also pictures of the ruckus he caused on campus back in 1967. Haacke decided that he would do a line drawing in the sky with a bunch of balloons.

.
Release all of the balloons!!! Photo: mondoblogo.com

This picture is from a line drawing with balloons that Haacke did in Central Park in NYC in 1967 (the same year he did it at MIT). It is called “Sky Line.” Essentially, the MIT version of this consisted of releasing a lot of balloons from the roofs of the main campus buildings. There is an extraordinary picture in the List gallery which shows the balloons slowly rising above the Great Dome on a particularly clear day. I don’t know how much Haacke knew about MIT culture, but it is almost as if he pulled off his own artistic hack from the rooftops. Good job, Haacke!

Also, Haacke has a sense of humor. Some of the photos in the gallery are purposely hung askew. This makes the OCD part of me scream a little bit inside, but Haacke is just messing with all the precise MIT engineers who are going to come and see his exhibit and feel the need to tilt his pictures back into place. Boy, it was bothersome…but it was still funny to see all of the other people in the room squirm a little about it as well.

This concludes installment #2 of The Cool Things 21M.A12 Does. Good luck to all you EA applicants! I was in your position a year ago, and I found that it was best not to let the college process take over your life. Remember to spend time with your friends (or maybe looking at some art? [/shameless ARTalk plug]) so that you aren’t too stressed out. And, if your path happens to lead you to MIT next year, consider taking Arts at MIT! 

Before I first visited MIT, I envisioned it as a sterile place. Labs stacked on top of classrooms and everything having its place and assigned number. It didn’t seem like a place where I’d be bombarded with art from the most unlikely of places. But it is! And after a tour of MIT’s public art through my freshman advising seminar 21M.A12 (Arts at MIT), I’m flabbergasted at the huge amount of art we have on campus, and some things I never realized were art.

Now, MIT officially recognizes ninety pieces as public art, and I only saw maybe ten pieces on my tour, so you’re just going to get the highlights (as defined by me) here. If you’d like to peruse the entire collection, check out http://listart.mit.edu/public_art for virtual tours and more information on the individual pieces.

Public art at MIT took off during the Cold War as a way of humanizing the scientists who lived and worked there (AKA keeping people from having that same first impression I had). With the Percent for Art program instated in 1968, any new building project or renovation allots up to $250,000 to commission art for the space.

One of the most recent of these pieces is located in the Koch Center and it’s called “Through Layers and Leaves (Closer and Closer)” by Martin Boyce:

This is an example of the space relating heavily to the work. The wall sculpture itself is inspired by a photo of four concrete trees from a book on French Modernist gardens from 1925, but the title and the concept of the work relates to the Koch Center’s purpose as a cancer research center. Boyce sees finding the cure to cancer as a matter of being able to recognize patterns and to look through the “layers and leaves” of the disease. Another really interesting thing? See the grate in the bottom right of the photo? There’s three of them spaced along the wall. And within the grate pattern, each one spells out “closer” “and” “closer.” It’s not something you’d notice unless someone told you, or you spent a lot of time looking at the patterns Boyce created.

Next up is a piece that I’m quite familiar with. Mostly because it’s right outside East Campus and I see it every day on my way to classes. It’s called “Transparent Horizon” and it’s by Louise Nevelson:

Photo © Emma Frank
I apologize for the strange lighting and composition of this photo. My only excuse is that it is really hard to take a proper photo when you’re trying to simultaneously listen to the guide, set up your photo, and not get left behind.

The piece is supposed to suggest botanical shapes. It’s actually two older pieces put together and edited to create a new piece. When it was first being installed, there was some controversy over the piece and its infringing on the students’ living space, but nowadays it has just sort of blended into the general landscape of East Campus. I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t really noticed it before it was pointed out to me…whoops.

Speaking of not noticing things, did you know that benches can be art? And that they can have really cool stories behind them? Neither did I! In the Wiesner Building are some benches done by Scott Burton. I know, you’re about to tell me that I’m going crazy to think that of all things, benches can be interesting.

But these are controversial benches! And benches I also neglected to take a picture of…so have a picture from the internet!
 

See the curved things in the center of the photo? Those are the controversial benches. I.M. Pei originally designed the space to be all angles and no curves. But you’ll note that on the left there are some balconies that echo the curves of Burton’s benches. Well, Burton’s whole point in making his benches curved in a square and angular space was to make them stand out. He wanted them to have a dialogue with the space by being a disruption and making you feel uncomfortable with them (they’re weirdly leveled and spaced). Needless to say, when the plans got changed, Burton was less than pleased. Our tour guide told us that he can still be pleased that they are a disruption since the benches get really cold during the winter and it’s a pain to sit on them.

In the same space is a piece called “Here-There” by Kenneth Noland:

Photo © Emma Frank
This is one of my favorite pieces, it’s brilliant to just stand in front of it and look up and take it in. I’m a big fan of color, so it’s not a surprise I like this piece.

It’s actually a mural painted directly onto the metal panels, and if you look closely, you can see the actual brush strokes. For a piece that so massive and exact, seeing the brushstrokes made it just a little more human to me. It makes it easier to imagine a person creating this piece, instead of just a machine.

This next piece is located in the Stata Center. It’s called “Non-Object (Plane)” by Anish Kapoor:

Photo © Emma Frank
I really like this photo because you manage to get a sense of how the work relates to the space.

It’s made out of mirror-polished stainless steel, a material Kapoor works with often. It’s really interesting because it’s a piece that encourages you to interact with it. It’s sort of like an artistic funhouse mirror. I found it fun to walk around it and see how it changes with the light and angle that you view it at. I’d never noticed it before since I only have one class in Stata, and it’s something you could easily walk by without realizing what it was. It doesn’t really invade the space, but rather compliments it.

Finally, we have my favorite piece. Mostly because I spent a lot of time there before the tour and didn’t realize that what I was sitting on as I worked on a Pset was art.

This is Sol LeWitt’s “Bars of Color within Squares” (a very inspired title, I know):

Often, I come to this place as a quiet place to work. There’s always a lot of light coming in, and if I want to space out for a little while, it’s a pretty interesting place to stare out into space. Sol LeWitt was known for his wall drawings where he meticulously explained how things were to be set up. He believed that as long as you followed his instructions for works, you could have your own Sol LeWitt piece. This is in a really cool space that sort of encapsulates building 6C and the physics department. You can view it from a lot of different angles since there’s balconies set up all around the work. I definitely suggest taking some time to walk around the space, it’s a really cool place to just sit and think.

So, why did I bother writing a whole blog post on public art? Because I didn’t even realize that some of the things I saw everyday were art. It’s easy to think of MIT as a cold, heartless institution where science reigns supreme, but in reality, it’s a place where art and creativity is encouraged. Art brings life to a lot of spaces here, and the stories behind some of the art are fascinating. Public art has the task of relating to where it’s placed, and public art at MIT reflects how artists see our campus. MIT is a mishmash of buildings and styles and the art here mirrors that. As a freshman, I’m still finding new places and things all the time and I’m just beginning to realize how varied and unique a place this is.

So the next time you come to MIT’s campus, take a moment to go find some of these works or the many others I just didn’t have time to write about. I hope you’ll have as much fun as I did discovering all of these pieces.

Untitled (Passport), 1991, courtesy of BAK

You are invited to take a page from a stack of blank paper. As a "specific object without specific form," this stack transforms into a process. It's nondescript. minimal! sexy. But this visual identity lends itself to a political identity: the idea of a blank passport: no borders. no nations. no laws. You might be “present,” but your identity is “absent.” (Oh, and what about the droll role of paper within economic systems....?)

Questions of macroeconomics are very close to my heart. Most recently, I was involved in an exhibition at the New Museum: “Ostalgia”, surveying contemporary Soviet art. Our conceptual point of departure was: Soviet economic and political repression as creative catalysts:

The New York Times' review:
"For some artists repression had a psychological upside.... If what you were doing was censorable, you could trust you were doing something right; heroic, even."

With colleagues at the opening reception of “Ostalgia,” building designed by SANAA
Thomas Schutte, Three Capacity Men, 2005

Visitors have been baffled by a certain piece: during their walk through the galleries, they encounter performers lining up in random queues!?! Little do they know, it's an anonymous performance by Roman Ondak: Good Feelings in Good Times. (Because "lining up" in a soviet state was simply a sign of inefficient resource allocation, its relevence is amplified by current economic questions of pareto inefficiency, x-inefficiency, etc....)

I feel that there's something devious in staging an anonymous performance, (how do we call it art, if it doesn't announce itself?); there's something unresolved.... like stacks of blank paper.

But that's the beauty of the untitled. Its interpretation is always becoming what it will be....

Terribly honored to have worked with curators Massimiliano Gioni and Jenny Moore on the New Museum's “Ostalgia.”
The 2011 Istanbul Biennial: "Untitled" is curated by Jens Hoffman and Adriano Pedroso.

While MITSO, MITWE, and Chamber Chorus all have a very high level of musicality and are full of virtuosic musicians, my favorite group is Techiya. As an a capella group, Techiya does not have any professor as a director or musical advisor. Techiya is made up of a mix of undergrads, grad students, and other people, some of whom go to other colleges or are friends of MIT members. Most of them are Jewish, but a few (such as me) aren’t. Many of our songs are in Hebrew, so it is definitely helpful to speak Hebrew, but it’s not at all necessary. In the past, most of the non-Jewish members had at least some connection to Judaism; they auditioned for Techiya because they wanted to be in Techiya, not because they wanted to be in the Chorallaries. But not me. I didn’t have a clue what Jewish music was. I didn’t know that most Jewish music was in Hebrew or Yiddish, and I didn’t know whether Israeli was a language, a religion, or a culture (it’s the third). All I knew was I wanted to be in an a capella group, and since Techiya was the only one I got into, it would have to do.

Techiya's Fall 2010 Concert, "Once Upon a Techiya"

It turned out to be a great fit. I’m not really a fan of pop music, but many a capella groups sing pop music because that’s what attracts an audience. Techiya, on the other hand, sings a variety of music, from slow liturgies to jazz to a song about a drunken rabbi involving violins, a clarinet, drums, and other instruments. Violins and drums in an a capella group, you ask?!? Yep. A-capella violins (sing “hunv” through your teeth). Vocal percussion. Before hearing the Chorallaries, I had never heard vocal perc before. Yes, there were always beat-boxers in talent shows, but to me it was just a guy making a bunch of noise while the girls in the audience screamed. But vocal perc in a capella music really transforms a song. It’s what makes a capella pop music possible.

Techiya performing in Attleboro, Spring 2011

Techiya is also a very social group; currently there are fifteen members, and we’re all fairly close. The rehearsals are much more informal than those run by a professor, and there’s always time to talk and just have fun. We choose our songs democratically and arrange most of them ourselves. This allows us to add in whatever special effects we want (such as a-capella violins) and write the song so it works with the current members.

Just to be complete in describing my freshman year music experiences, I should mention music classes. Last semester I took 21M.011 (Introduction to Western Music) to satisfy part of the communication requirement. The class is essentially a music history class, tracing classical music back to its roots in Gregorian chant, then going through all the major composers up to the twentieth century. It’s really fun, and very educational. This semester, I’m taking 21M.302 (Harmony and Counterpoint II). If you took AP Music Theory in high school and still remember most of the material, you can probably skip 21M.301 (Harmony and Counterpoint I) by asking the 302 professor. Both 301 and 302 include weekly sight-singing and piano labs. In 302, we analyzed lots of pieces, we reviewed figured bass, part-writing, and voice-leading, we learned about some fancy chords (such as augmented sixths), and we learned about theme and variations. The final project is to compose a theme and variations which will be performed by a string quartet on the last day of class. This class is also very fun, and I would highly recommend it.

I love music. That said, however, taking a music class and being in three music groups is not a good idea. It can be very grueling having 8.5 hours of rehearsal and music class in one day. But if you’re a freshman on pass/no record, I say go for it. It’s good to know your limit and to try out different groups. If I had chosen to only be in one or two groups each semester, as many people recommended, I would keep wishing I could join more groups and wondering what the other groups were like.

If you want to be in something, you just have keep trying. Sometimes, you have to accept a different group and hope it turns out well. Othertimes, you just have to wait until the time is right and they need more members. Or who knows, maybe if you weren’t good enough to get in the first time, you’ll improve by participating in other groups. If your dream is to be a Chorallary someday, just keep auditioning. I don’t expect to ever get into the Chorallaries, but I know I won’t get in if I don’t keep trying. But maybe next year I’ll take it easier and not do 5+ auditions on one day.

Unable to choose a single group, I decided to stay in MITWE, MITSO, and Techiya, at least for the first couple weeks. I ended up staying all semester, which turned out to be a very bad idea by the end of the semester. All three groups had their end-of-semester concerts on the same weekend, which coincided with end-of-semester projects, the last round of psets, and other hecticness. By the end of the semester, I knew I couldn’t stay in all three groups. But I really didn’t want to leave any of them, because they were all so much fun!

MITWE fall 2010, photo courtesy of The Tech.

I decided to quit either MITWE or MITSO, since Techiya was the only singing group, and I figured I could handle two groups.

The MITWE director, Dr. Fred Harris, is a great conductor. He’s very fun, energetic, and he comes up with the most ridiculous – yet appropriate – analogies. One of my favorites was when he was trying to explain how to be more expressive and what sort of mood the piece should have: “…more like a feather bed. Right now, you’re sleeping on a water mattress- only, it’s frozen.” Although MITWE rehearsed 7:30-10pm twice a week, it was just really fun. And in case you’re wondering, a “wind ensemble” is the same as a “band.” I think they call it MITWE (pronounced mit’-wee) just because it sounds nicer.

The MITSO director, Dr. Adam Boyles, is simply amazing. Words cannot describe why I love him as a director. He’s very professional, patient, and supportive. He pays attention to the tiniest musical details and fixes everything so that it’s perfect. His level of musicianship just makes me feel so lucky to be a part of MITSO.

MITSO

After much debating, and much wishing I could stay in all three groups, I finally chose to stay in MITSO simply because it was less of a time commitment. As a wind player, I often don’t play in every piece, so I don’t have to go to the entire 7:30-10pm rehearsal twice a week. Also, playing in fewer pieces means less music to practice, which saves time.

Ironically, I ended up joining yet another group a couple weeks later. Chamber Chorus was looking for more altos, so I came to their rehearsal and got in without an official audition or having to sing solo! I guess sometimes music groups are just as desperate for members as I was originally desperate to be in groups. Also, there apparently aren’t very many people who want to rehearse at 9:30am. The Chamber Chorus (and Concert Choir) director, Dr. Bill Cutter, is yet another excellent conductor. With so many incredible singers (the ones who actually had to audition to get in) who can actually sight read pretty well, he can spend time on details like dynamics or when to say the final /s/ at the end of the word “place.” He also teaches us how to speak English – did you know “whisper” (and other words that begin with a “wh”) is actually pronounced “hwisper”? It’s amazing how much better a song sounds when everyone says the words the same way, with clear diction. Chamber Chorus is a really great group, and I still can’t believe I got in.

"With the Void, full of Powers"

             ~Albert Camus

Yves Klein sought “to create an atmosphere, a pictorial, climate that is invisible but present.”

Predicated by [The Void]


I’ve been working with artist Otto Piene + the MIT Museum to produce Sky Sculptures.

Helium explores the “spatialisation of sensibility.”

Return to this page at 5pm ~ this Saturday

The liftoff will be broadcast live! Electronic participatory art; engage in the creative process. Follow @NouveauRealisme !

If you’re in Boston, come to Killian Court!

(yes yes! you can fly the sculptures)

http://vimeo.com/17036813

Time for Nouveau Réalisme?

In high school, I sang in the choir, played oboe in band and full orchestra, and participated in every musical, but I assumed that when I came to MIT, music would play a much smaller role in my life. I was very wrong.

When I came to MIT last August, I decided I wanted to be in an instrumental group and a vocal group. I didn’t think I had much chance at getting into the Symphony Orchestra (MITSO) or Wind Ensemble (MITWE), and I didn’t want to bother preparing an audition piece or go through the torture of auditioning. Luckily, the Concert Band advertised that they would accept everyone, even if you’d never played an instrument before but wanted to learn. For singing, there was the Chamber Chorus, the elite group which required a prepared solo for the audition, and there was the Concert Choir, a much larger group which did auditions in groups of 8 with no solos. There were also numerous a capella groups, but they all required prepared solos too. Having had many bad experiences with solo auditions in the past, I decided to just audition for Concert Choir and join Concert Band.

At the Convocation during Orientation, the Chorallaries, MIT’s oldest a capella group, performed MIT’s Alma Mater, then broke into a rousing “Take me back to Tech,” one of their classic nerdy MIT songs (the most famous one being the Engineers’ Drinking Song). I fell in love with them. I knew I didn’t stand a chance of getting in, but I desperately wanted to.

The Chorallaries singing at the MIT Convocation 2010.

I finally decided that if I did enough auditions, I would eventually overcome my nervousness about singing solo. To that end, I went to the Activities Midway (an event where students advertise their groups and ask you to join lots of email lists) and signed up to audition for eight of the nine a capella groups (now, there’s a tenth one, the Ohms). I tried to sign up for the ninth one, the Logarhythms, but one of the members stopped me, apologetically informing me that it was a male-only group. After hearing other a capella groups perform, my desperation to join the Chorallaries had turned into a desperation to be in an a capella group.

Next, I went to the instrumental music table. When they heard that I was joining Concert Band because I didn’t think I was good enough to get into anything by audition, they told me to audition anyway. Despite not having prepared an audition piece, I signed up for MITSO and MITWE auditions. (Later, I had to dig up a piece I’d played years before and relearn it.) I also came across the four theatre groups and signed up to audition for a play, a musical, and a pit orchestra. I figured if I was going to make a fool of myself attempting to sing solo and playing a piece I didn’t really know, I might as well go all out and do it multiple times.

The first day of auditions was the worst. I had scheduled it so that I would have four a capella auditions, all about an hour apart, then the Chorallaries audition. Sure enough, by the time I got to the Chorallaries, I was too tired of auditions to be nervous about singing solo. But my voice also wasn’t too happy about the grueling schedule. All the auditions were very casual; most of them did warm-ups to test my range and some sort of pitch-matching or sight-reading exercise, and then I would sing my solo. Over the next week, I auditioned for all the remaining groups. Some of the auditions were kind of awkward. The Cross Products are the Christian a capella group. They asked me what certain quotes from the bible meant to me and whether I agreed with them. I explained that I wasn’t religious at all, so most of the quotes didn’t mean anything to me, and it didn’t really matter to me whether they were true or not. I just wanted to be in a singing group. I also explained that it wouldn’t bother me if I was in the group and we went around spreading Christianity, but I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t accept me.

Eventually, all the audition results came in. Most of them were rejections: Syncopasian (they sing Asian music), Muses (the female group), Cross Products, Toons, Chorallaries, Resonance, Asymptones (you’ve gotta love these names), and a play. But some groups accepted me. I somehow got into both MITSO and MITWE, and I got into Techiya, the Jewish/Hebrew/Israeli a capella group. Unlike the Cross Products, Techiya isn’t a religious group, although it often sings religious music. I also got into both the cast and the pit orchestra for a musical, as well as Concert Choir (but they’ll accept almost anyone).

Moral of the story? If you really want to be in a music group, or if you tend to get really nervous at auditions, just audition for everything. Chances are you’ll get into at least one group, and even if it wasn’t a group you would normally have considered joining, well, at least you’re in something. And if you decide Jewish music isn’t your thing, you can always leave at the end of the semester. You can also just try it for a week and then decide.

Wonder which music groups I chose and why? Then stay tuned for my next blog!

Last weekend, I took advantage of a new opportunity that allows MIT students to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum for free (you can also do the same at the nearby Museum of Fine Arts). On the outside it seems like it’s a normal, historic home in Boston. Only the signs really give it away as being a museum.

The inside is magnificent, and the history is quite interesting. All of the objects and paintings in the museum are exactly as Ms. Gardner left them as stipulated in her will. This rule is followed to the extent that the empty frames of artwork that was stolen in a heist during the 1990s are still hanging. What I love the most is that stepping into the Gardner museum is like stepping back in time because nothing has changed.

Also I really like that the Gardner is personal. It felt as if I was walking through someone’s home rather than walking inside of a museum. The rooms are decorated for experiencing and living, not simply for viewing under bright florescent lighting and against white walls. Furniture and adornments, along with juxtaposing sketches and painting, also give the rooms character.

The first painting I approached was “El Jaleo,” by John Singer Sargent. Its impressive size and energy is captivating and irresistible. I had to resist taking photos though, because it is strictly against the rules of the museum. (Hence some of these photos are from websites, and not me ☺ )

"El Jaleo" by John Singer Sargent. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

What this photo lacks is how the painting is displayed on the first floor of The Gardner. It’s almost framed off from the rest of the room in an alcove that is ornately carved in stone. Its isolation makes it the focal point of the museum’s entrance.

Next is the impossible-to-avoid the courtyard. It’s fabulous, and glass enclosed; meaning flowers can bloom all year long.

Photo Credit: Gardnermuseum.com

Not only is the courtyard art in that all of the plants are as meticulously placed, but also because of the rare and ancient objects that fill it. In the center is a large Roman tile mosaic from around 115 AD of Medusa. I wish I could have actually stepped into the courtyard, but it is roped off from the public. Also, like the rest of the museum, absolutely no photography is allowed either. But, I can understand why photography is prohibited. If I had a mosaic from 115 AD I would want it preserved as much as possible!

There is so much I could write about (I didn’t even mention two other floors in the museum!) but I would rather make this post short and cut out some of the details. I strongly believe that art is an experience, and we should all go and experience it ourselves. Instead of gleaning details from my writing, go and check out Isabella Stewart Gardner’s final vision of her collection.

Glory be to MIT! The Arts Scholars went to see Wagner at the Met! A weekend-long trip to New York, centered around the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Das Rheingold, directed by Robert Lepage. Here is some background, so you understand why I am so excited.

Rheingold is the first opera (Wagner called it the prelude) in the massive 4-opera cosmos-encompassing saga known as the Ring Cycle. It is the tiddler of the bunch, lasting but a single act and being only two and a half hours long. But the opera is self-standing and utterly awesome - perhaps my favorite opera of all time. I tend to listen to it on loop while writing long math papers... It is effectively a continual piece of music. No intermission, no dialogue, not even any distinct songs - it flows, and holds together by the use of little musical ideas called leitmotifs (of which there are many dozens) which represent particular characters or ideas. The plot features giants, dwarves, Norse gods, and epic-scale lust for the power caught up in a little golden ring (Tolkien denies getting any inspiration from Wagner)...

Here is the "villain" of the Ring Cycle, Alberich (the head dwarf), currently engaged in stealing the magical gold from the Rhein with which he will fashion the Ring of power.

And so now to the afternoon of April 2, and the arrival at Lincoln Center after a comfortably squashed trip in the Boston-NYC Megabus.

The Met is pretty magnificent even without Wagner. It is filled with red-velvet staircases, tidy little balconies, filigree, crystal chandeliers in the shape of snowflakes, and in this case, a surprisingly large number of MIT affiliates. I ran across many friends outside Arts Scholars who turned out also to be going to this production. But we were going for free! :-) And we had our own personal expert to guide us through the leitmotifs - Professor Lowell Lindgren, glorious professor of music history, teacher of the class 21M.273 (Opera!).

The Met - isn't it pretty?

Wagner is big. Very big. If you need to know one thing about Wagner, that might be it. The orchestra we saw had six harps, a band of guys playing anvils, and a number of instruments that Wagner invented. When Rheingold originally premiered, it premiered in a theatre Wagner built specially for it. True to form, the production we were seeing involved a set weighing 45 tons... They had to build a new stage at the Met just so it wouldn't collapse.

Why the set was so heavy was because it consisted of huge metal bars that were rotated in various ways by computer, then projected onto to create, by turns, the bottom of a river, a gaping chasm in the earth, clouds, etc. The singers were at times literally hauled up these metal bars by winches. How one can be a graceful Rheinmaiden while suspended 30 feet in the air I will never know, but they managed it.

Three spectacular singers managing to be graceful Rheinmaidens while suspended 30 feet in the air.

Powerful singers (you need to be a very very powerful singer in order to sing Wagner since you are singing over the entire orchestra) met a powerful orchestra and behold they were audible and sounded beautiful as well. Humor in the staging kept the production from collapsing under its own weight. (For instance, having gods slide flaming headfirst down a great slope onto the stage, is, it turns out, a remarkably amusing thing.) At any rate, a completely full house at the Met cheered wildly when the show was complete.

Since this blog post is already obscenely long, I will refrain from talking about the other things we did in New York whilst there, but suffice it to say a most marvelous time was had by all. And hoorah for Wagner!!!

A house decked out in Mardi Gras swag in the French Quarter.

How did you spend your spring break?

Eight students in the class 11.027, City to City, spent our week doing ground research for four different planning projects: working for a neighborhood advocacy group, blight mapping, collecting data on transit systems, and examining urban design standards in New Orleans.

Course 11—Urban Studies and Planning—is one of the smaller majors at MIT, and it is an absolutely awesome field. MIT’s planning department is one of the best in the nation and encompasses a variety of different specializations, ranging from urban design to international development to environmental policy, and more.

I joined course 11 as a junior and have been loving it ever since. 11.027 may be one of my favorite classes I’ve taken so far, though, and much of that has to do with the field work we did in New Orleans this past week.

New Orleans is an eclectic, raw, beautiful city that is slowly but surely revitalizing today post Katrina. Much reconstruction work is still being done, and that’s what makes it such an interesting city to study. As rebuilding continues, we as planners must find the balance between returning the city and its fiercely loyal residents to their former home, and grasping the opportunity to restructure and redesign NOLA so that it may continue to prosper for many years to come.

I was part of the transportation group. Each day, we worked with alums from the MIT master’s program in city planning to ride and experience the different types of public transportation in New Orleans, from buses to streetcars to the ferry. We biked around on our last day, interviewing locals about their experiences with the system and recording our observations about some of the problems with signage and bus shelters (i.e., the lack thereof) on routes throughout the city.

When we weren’t working, we spent hours exploring and walking around the city. New Orleans is such a conglomerate, a fusion of various cultures, and the vast distinctions between neighborhoods definitely reflect that.

We lived in the French Quarter, just a block away from Bourbon, a historic street known for its madcap wild nightlife. Our first night in New Orleans happened to coincide with Saint Joseph’s Day, and we experienced a procession of hundreds of exultant, flamboyantly dressed Italian American men giving away red, white, and green flowers, beads, and garters for kisses.

Bourbon Street

Another night was spent on Frenchmen Street, an area with a distinctly European feel. Live music is everywhere in New Orleans, but especially on Frenchmen, and we had a lovely dinner at The Maison while enjoying the soulful beats of a jazz trio.

Art is everywhere in NOLA, from the decadent parade floats that seem to be a year-long phenomenon; to the musicians who make their living playing on the streets; to the beautiful galleries of professional artists; to the architectural wonders of the buildings, both new and old; to the increase in intricate street art done by graffiti artists after Hurricane Katrina. All lend themselves to the elaborate, colorful tapestry of art which forms an enormous part of the culture of New Orleans.

Art on a Canal Street Bus shelter.

Live street musicians performing an instrumental cover of Justin Bieber's "Baby".

The controversial, but beautiful, houses built through Brad Pitt's Make It Right foundation.

The entire class was blown away by NOLA’s vitality and very special way of life, and many of us are hoping to come back down to New Orleans for the summer.

What are your summer plans, and how did you experience art over your spring break?

Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera has stunning visuals and technology, but it is Prof. Machover's haunting melodies that send a chill up your nerves. © Nicholas Wiltsie G (MIT Technique)

It is far too easy to be taken by the material—one of the many fitting themes of Prof. Tod Machover's masterpiece Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera—but judging by MIT Technique's and ARTalk's sneak preview of the production, technology, quite literally, only serves as the mechanism by which the story is told. Like the OperaBots that introduce us to the story of Simon Powers, a wealthy entrepreneur and inventor who resolves to download himself into the System after mortality approaches, the technology is unfeeling and utterly unable to comprehend the sinews that make us human.

“What is this ‘death’? Is it a form waste?” one OperaBot asks.
“Or is it a form of entropy? Of data rearranged?” another OperaBot asks.
“How can I perceive what I cannot feel?”
— Lines from Death and the Powers (Libretto available here)

And yet, it's the technology which completes the metamorphosis from beautiful art to beautiful production. Opera has a rich history of elaborate, extravagant, and sometimes downright gaudy sets, but the compositional simplicity of Machover's set is brilliant without doubt. Three triangular "bookcases," at once industrial, contemporary, and abstract (anything but natural in feel) loom over the drama, while OperaBots attend to the Powers like robots in a Japanese hospital. And then there is the chandelier, in all of its hypar glory, which I had for many years passed by in the Media Lab and wondered exactly how it would be integrated into the Opera. Good design gives you everything you need and nothing that you don't, and likewise, the use of technology in Death and the Powers strikes that perfect balance of providing the phantasmagoric visual splendor of the opera but not distracting from the story, the themes, or most of all...

The voice! My goodness, can these people sing! Although I have been fortunate to have seen previous operas, including Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with my family and La Bohème at the Boston Opera House as part of FASAP, the freshman advising program in the arts, I have not been so moved to the core as I was last night. Perhaps it was the circumstances of how I, along with two of my photographers from Technique, managed to get a sneak preview of a sold-out opera ten years in the making; but it was undoubtedly the human voice, especially the melliferous Evvy Powers (played by Emily Albrink, who joins the cast along with Sara Heaton as Miranda), which proves that the fun but Auto-Tuned crap that calls itself Ke$ha could never compare to true talent.

Slideshow of Nick, Carolina, and my adventure getting to Death and the Powers. (Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR)

So how did we manage to get so lucky?
The answer: Email. Or rather, email-ing.

I am the Managing Editor of Technique, the yearbook of MIT, and knowing that the premier of Death and the Powers was quickly approaching, I resolved last Friday to email Tod Machover directly to see if there was any way we could photograph it. Tod and I had met at least once my freshman year when I was a part of the Media Lab's Freshman-Year Program, and I think I had attended a few meetings with him when I was Coordinator for ARTalk and part of the Arts Communication Council at MIT. Nevertheless, I fully expected that, with the show coming up, Tod would be utterly flooded with emails and unable to respond to our request.

Exactly 1.5hrs later: "Great to hear from you, and I love the idea of having a yearbook photographer at the dress rehearsal."
And this is why MIT is absolutely incredible.

I even received permission to use one or two photos from the dress rehearsal for this blog! The incredible photo at the beginning of this blog was taken by Nicholas Wiltsie, Technique's Technology Manager, Orders Tsar, and all-around most awesome member. Nick was an undergrad here is course 2 (mechanical engineering) and is now a graduate student here pursuing his Master's, also in course 2. The fantastic photo at the end of this blog was taken by Carolina Kaelin '14, one of our newest members who jumped at the opportunity to photograph the show.

The Flickr slideshow above shows our journey from MIT, missing the 1 Bus, then getting stuck on the T between Hynes and Copley for ten minutes, and finally arriving at Emerson College's stunning Cutler Majestic Theater, right in the heart of Boston's theater district and where the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T. for short) is producing the opera.

We waited patiently until finally the doors opened (an hour and a half late...I swear they do this to make us more excited) and finally made our way onto the mezzanine level where everyone would sit for the dress rehearsal. I took a seat at the dead center (#106) while Nick set up on the left corner and Carolina set up on the right corner. But as the show was about to start...

A woman from A.R.T. approaches Carolina! I rush over, and we speak in the hallway to clarify permissions regarding photo usage. A few minutes later, I get her email address, send her email, and get back into the theater just in time to see Simon Powers having a stroke.

Some time later (15 minutes?), I am approached again. This time the woman, whispering, asks us if we would like to go down and take photographs on the orchestra level. The photographers they had asked to come were missing.

So of course, we grabbed our gear and made our way down to the first floor. We were so excited that we left our jackets on the mezzanine.

Needless to say, the experience was mindblowing, and we are all incredibly fortunate and lucky, not only to attend MIT but to have ridiculously awesome and friendly professors like Tod. Whomever thinks MIT is Hell obviously isn't doing it right.

And so I leave you with a particularly poignant line, uttered by Simon Powers from the depths of the System, to his wife Evvy.

SIMON:

“Forever doesn't matter.
Enough isn't good enough.
What matters is more.

Forever is not the point.”

From L to R: James Maddalena (Simon Powers), Tod Machover (Composer & Creator), and Sara Heaton (Miranda Powers) practice their curtain call for what will undoubtedly be a very long ovation come Friday. © Carolina Kaelin '14 (MIT Technique)

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DEATH AND THE POWERS: The Robots' Opera
By Tod Machover (Opera of the Future Group, MIT Media Lab)
Libretto by Robert Pinsky (Boston University)
Premiering this Friday, March 18, at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theater, in Boston, MA.
World premiere in October 2010 in Monaco

TICKET INFO:
BOSTON: March 18, 20, 22, 25 (2011) by The American Repertory Theater, at the Cutler Majestic Theater — Buy tickets
CHICAGO: April 2, 6, 8, 10 (2011) by Chicago Opera Theater, at the Harris Theater - Buy tickets

Check out the Metropolis trailer!

On Saturday, March 5, the Somerville Theatre was packed for a World Music Crash Arts event. There was a sold-out showing of Metropolis (1927) that I had the pleasure of attending that evening. If you have heard of or seen Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, then you’ll know that it was one of the first films ever made, which by virtue makes it a—gasp—silent film! You may wonder how the showing of a classic silent film could pack an entire theatre. When Metropolis and other silent films were originally shown, a large orchestra would play a score made especially for the film to accompany the visuals. What drew such large crowds for this particular screening was the fact that the Alloy Orchestra would be playing their version of the score alongside the film. Such an event is rare; even Roger Ebert was quoted saying that this would be “the event of the year” to attend.

The Alloy Orchestra, based here in Cambridge, is composed of Terry Donahue, Ken Winokur, and Roger Miller (from the band Mission of Burma, who also played here at MIT once). They’ve created accompaniments to several classic silent films such as F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera, and Sergei Eisentien’s Strike. If you happen to take film or video classes here at MIT such as The Film Experience (21L.011) or Introduction to Video (4.351), you’ll surely be exposed to some of these classics.

Now back to the event itself. The film and music were amazing! There’s nothing like seeing a silent film on the big screen, especially when the orchestra does such a phenomenal job seamlessly integrating a modern score with a classic work. The Alloy orchestra used a synthesizer, a musical saw, and (my favorite) a junk, among other instruments to create the soundtrack. The film is a precursor to almost every sci-fi movie made, because Fritz Lang’s vision of utopia and its implications still resonate today. What he was able to accomplish in the 1920’s in terms of set design and special effects is remarkable! Typical to German Expressionist films, the acting is over-the-top and, at some points, hilarious. You have to check this movie out, especially to see Maria, the protagonist turned antagonist, dance on stage. Her facial expressions are absolutely entertaining!

It was mentioned during the introduction of the film that due to the high demand for the event, it might happen again in the fall. If you are interested, visit the World Music Crash Arts website for further details.

There are a ton of upcoming arts events on and off campus! If you have a chance, stop by Harvard’s Carpenter Center to see the exhibition About Academia by Antoni Muntadas. It features images and dialogue concerning education at Harvard and MIT, including some interviews with Noam Chomsky and other MIT faculty.

Last Friday I went to Pulse: “Our Heritage, Our Heart,” an event that explores Black culture through the arts. It was really cool to see so many different aspects to Black Culture and watch performers from all over the Boston Area. Some of the performances from MIT included Rambax, Gospel Choir and Mocha Moves.

ABOVE: MIT Gospel Choir Performing.

ABOVE: Mocha Moves (It was really hard to get a clean photo for obvious reasons, but the movement adds its own artistic quality!)

I was taking African Music this semester (21M.293, to those who are interested), and we watched videos of Senegalese drumming during lecture. Watching Rambax at Pulse, I was able to experience what we had learned in person. Videos are one thing, but attending a live performance is another. While some of the energy translated in the videos, all of the energy came through in Rambax’s performance.

I loved that spoken word and literature was also included that evening. I feel that literature and speech can often be overlooked as an art form. One of the texts narrated that evening was Malcolm X’s “You Can’t Hate The Roots Of A Tree And Not Hate The Tree.” I had never heard it before, but I think that the metaphor is true.

There were also performances of original spoken word. What impresses me about it is how a person can get into their performance to convey emotion and meaning (which holds true for the arts overall). Spoken word is about more than poetic text. There is facial expression, body language and voice inflection that help set the tone.

ABOVE: Victoria Okuneye '13 performing spoken word,"What Have You Done with our Men?" (Photo taken by Joy Ekuta '13)

There is a lot of talent at MIT. Pulse and similar events are wonderful because you are able to see a variety of performances in one evening. Attending Pulse allowed me to see that the Arts at MIT and psetting are one in the same. It requires collaboration and cooperation with others. Otherwise, many of the activities here at MIT would not be possible, including academics.

Happy Autumn!

This entry marks the beginning of yet another great semester in MIT arts, and to celebrate this MIT Associate Provost Philip Khoury brought together the MIT arts faculty and community through his annual MIT Arts Party:

ABOVE: Carla Sehbani (Office of the Arts), Pardis Parsa (Office of Arts Initiatives), myself, and Mei '13 (ARTalk). (Photo by Mei Zuo '13)

The party was held in E15 (the old Media Lab building, and now the home of many MIT arts departments) and included a DJ, hors d'œuvres, and an open bar! (Despite now being 21, I was in the mood for milk.)

ABOVE: Pouring myself a nice big glass of 2%. (Photo by Mei Zuo '13)

ABOVE: DJ booth blasting "Blue Monday" with rainbow LED spheres! (Photo by Mei Zuo '13)

ARTalk will be back in full swing too, with bloggers Mei Zuo '13, Shelby Heinecke '13, and myself, along with a variety of guest bloggers. Biyeun '10, as indicated, graduated this past year! So she won't be blogging anymore :(

The semester is looking pretty busy (but in a very good way). Here's a preview of just some of the many things heading your way in the near future:

• MIT ARTS PORTAL: MIT has an Arts Communication Council which has been working tirelessly to improve publicity of and communication within MIT's arts community. I've been sitting in on meetings, just for fun, and it's been a great experience. We've come up with a logo to represent Arts at MIT graphically and got a direct link on the slighlty-redesigned MIT homepage ("arts" under "life@mit" at mit.edu) which will soon enough connect to the official MIT Arts Portal! (coming soon...)


• F.A.S.T.: To celebrate MIT's 150th anniversary, the Institvte is throwing a huge festival this spring that'll last approximately 150 days. This Festival of Arts, Science, and Technology [F.A.S.T.] will bring together professors, researchers, and students across disciplines to showcase MIT's talent, legacy, and future, and to prepare for the festival, there's even an class you can take to work on one of F.A.S.T.'s many projects. Hopefully we'll get a student from the class to guest blog the experience for ARTalk.


• A HOUSE IN BALI by Jay Scheib and Evan Ziporyn: This is a new opera created by MIT music Prof. Evan Ziporyn and directed by MIT theater arts Prof. Jay Scheib over at Emerson's Cutler Majestic Theatre. House In Bali will be playing on October 8th and 9th, and hopefully we'll get someone to cover it for ARTalk.


• SIMMONS ARTS INFUSION: I live in Simmons Hall, which I like to describe as living in a *very* nice condominium. However, it can get a little...sterile at times. Some people like the modernity, and others wish the dorm had more "culture." As a compromise, we've decided we could probably liven up the place a bit by painting murals (on canvas, not the walls)...I'm going to be helping with this, so once this gets up and running I could probably blog about it.


• A DAY IN THE LIFE by Technique: I am the Managing Editor for Technique, the yearbook and photography club of MIT, and as such it is my job not only to manage all business matters related to the club but also to shamelessly promote it by any means necessary (e.g. here). That said, we've actually been doing a lot of really great work (renovating our office, tutorials, and of course photography), so I will probably blog about that at some point. Most recently, Technique held A Day In The Life [ADITL], a 24-hour photo marathon open to the MIT community. It was this past Thursday (9/23), and you can check out the results HERE.


• WIESNER EXHIBITIONS: The Wiesner Student Art Gallery, run by the Student Art Association [SAA], has an exciting group of student artists scheduled to exhibit in the upcoming year, and I myself was graciously offered a spot—which means I'll have to think of what to exhibit!


• LOBBY 7 DESIGN COMPETITION: Also as part of MIT's 150 celebration, there's a design competition focused on submitting theoretical proposals for what should sit atop Lobby 7's empty plinths. Although I personally think the plinths should stay empty (Op-Ed in the Tech HERE), I love coming up with fun ideas and am really excited for this. I am working with fellow blogger Mei Zuo '13 and course 4 friend Kris Swick '13 and so far it's been great. Hopefully we won't all get bogged down in work :S


• COOKING ADVENTURES: My single in Simmons Hall is obscenely large, but I am trying to make good use of it by cooking myself a healthy dinner every night. I've come up with some really good meals just by throwing things together :) In the meantime, you can check out a great blog by one of our past bloggers, Sadie '10, on cooking HERE.

And then of course there's a blog on my research which I've been meaning to post...

Well the semester (if not the year) looks very promising, but unfortunately I have to eat lunch and run off to class, so until next time, thanks for reading!

ABOVE: "How We Make Someone Invisible, 1" (2010): India ink on Mylar®.

I will admit upfront that I am a bit, if not a byte, more of a museum nerd than your typical MIT student, which is why this exhibit makes me so happy. The List Visual Arts Center's current exhibit of Tavares Strachan's show, Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such a Bad Idea if I Never Went Home, is really one of the best exhibits I have seen anywhere and is easily my favorite LVAC exhibit that I've attended. (And I'm not just saying that because I am writing a blog for MIT Admissions that is supposed to highlight the best of MIT's arts community.)

For those both within and outside of the Institute who have not yet visited, the List Visual Arts Center [LVAC] is MIT's official art museum. The center launches five to eight exhibits each year highlighting the work of a visiting artist (often an artist-in-residence), but it also organizes various other programs, including the Student Loan Art Program and Percent-for-Art program responsible for contributing new works of public art to campus. The museum itself is located in the old Media Lab building (HERE!) on the first floor and is free to everyone :)

Those artists who show their work at LVAC do not necessarily have to produce any new work for the show, but Tavares, a space and technology afficionado, collaborated with various research groups, including the 3D Optical Systems Group and the MIT Sea Grant College Program, to develop novel and advanced works of art which could only be created at MIT. All of Tavares's work, though, is interdiscplinary in nature and stems from a desire to establish the Bahamas Aerospace Sea Exploration Center [BASEC], a "dreamed-of educational center in his [Tavares's] homeland."

I had the great pleasure of attending an LVAC Gallery Talk with Tavares himself back on June 3rd with Li Brunetto '12 (a talented artist in her own right), Mark Linga (educator for LVAC), and Leila Kinney (Director of Arts Initiatives at MIT, who runs ARTalk) in the middle of a hailstorm, so thankfully we all stayed dried and didn't break any umbrellas.

ABOVE: LVAC Gallery Talk with artist Tavares Strachan. (Photo by Mark Linga)

What I like about Tavares's work is both how interdisciplinary it is and how methodical his process is. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, the medium is the message, and in Tavares's case, the medium is transparent—literally.

ABOVE: "What Will Be Remembered in the Face of All that Is Forgotten" (2010): Hand-blown glass circulatory system, 900 gallons of mineral oil, Plexiglas® tank, steel base.

The drawing at the top of this blog is a study done in India ink on Mylar® for the piece above. As you can't see, the cube contains a hand-blown hollow glass replica of a human circulatory system. The reason you can't see it is because it is immersed in mineral oil, which possesses the same refractive index as glass. Even in person, you can only see hints of it, usually when someone else walks on the other side of the sculpture.

ABOVE: "C.W. Sawyer", "D.W. Davis", and "H.O. Nash" (2010): Calcium carbonate. In the distance is "Purplish Blue Light" (2010): Hand-blown glass underwater vehicle, 100 gallons of mineral oil, plastic, computer systems, and Plexiglas® tank. "Purplish Blue Light" was made in collaboration with the MIT Sea Grant College Program and mimics the motion of the waves in the Bahamas in real time.

Tavares's work tends to be symbolic and suggestive of themes of exploration, failure, and homeland. One of his pieces—three chairs made from calcium carbonate (i.e., chalk)—is named after three schools in the Bahamas which are themselves named after prominent Bahamian educators. Tavares chose calcium carbonate because, in addition to being a medium of pedagogy, the islands of the Bahamas are composed largely of calcium carbonate. Another piece dramatically balances and exploded spacesuit over the viewer's head, surrounded by black walls and preparatory drawings in India ink on Mylar®.

ABOVE: "Finding My Way Home" (2010): Cast resin and steel. (Photo courtesy of Mark Linga/LVAC)

What I also like is the staging of the exhibit itself. As an architecture minor, I appreciate the attention to detail regarding how the pieces are placed. Makng art is one talent, but presenting it is another. Even though some pieces are new and others are old, all feel very much cohesive and uniform in both aesthetic and theme. It's great whether you're an art scholar or art novice.

     
ABOVE: A rocket made entirely of glass (L) and a robotic rover (R) are in a second smaller gallery just across from the main gallery. Don't miss them! (Photos courtesy of Mark Linga/LVAC)

Orthostatic Tolerance runs through July 11. The gallery is open every day except Monday from 12-6pm and is open until 8pm on Thursdays. Additionally, there's a Gallery Talk with Mark Linga of LVAC and Sarah Hammond of MIT's Sea Grant Program tomorrow (6/24) at 6:00pm, and I would definitely encourage you to go.

It's summer! Which means that yet another academic year is completed, and as such, it's also the time of year that MIT doles out various awards and honors to those who've made significant contributions to MIT life, culture, and academics.

In the realm of arts@mit, this means recognizing the winners of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts. So without further ado:

*2010 SCHNITZER PRIZE WINNERS*

Last Friday I had the chance to check out all three recipients' art as part of the annual exhibit of Schnitzer Prize winners at the Wiesner Student Art Gallery in the MIT Student Center.

Richard The (G)

Richard is a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab and is a part of an art collective called The Green Eyl, named after three of its five members (Richard The, Gunnar Green, and Frédéric Eyl, + Dominik Schumacher & Willy Sengewald). As part of the Schnitzer exhibit, Richard showcased three of his pieces. The first, "Appeel," was a large wall covered in peelable orange stickers. Viewers were allowed to peel, replace, and take the stickers as pleased, resulting in an ever-changing amalgam of graffiti, text, and images, all made from the presence or absence of the stickers. The wall has been displayed at a bunch of venues, including the famous Ars Electronica. When it was shown at Ars Electronica, some people even took the stickers with them and replaced them thousands of miles away. Richard told me that when he was in London, he found one of the stickers on a street sign. It's a kind of viral art, so to speak.

Another of Richard's pieces was "Omnivisu," a temporary installation atop an interchange station in Berlin. The piece allowed an observer to look into a box which would then project the observer's eyes onto the exterior windows of the currently-vacant office space which had once been owned by Narva, a light-bulb manufacturer and company that was part of Berlin's "new economy boom." The piece gave a literal face to the building that gazed out over the city at night, using the eyes of the city's inhabitants. That's pretty cool.

Richard's last piece (not pictured here, unfortunately) was a giant mural assembled on a plaza using pennies, which was really beautiful and intricate. After the mural was unveiled, people were allowed to interact with the piece much like "Appeel," but apparently a concerned citizen later called the police, who then came over and swept the piece away in an odd effort to preserve it.

Jaekyung Jung (G)

Jaekyung is a student in MIT's graduate program in visual arts (formerly VAP, now ACT). He showed two pieces at the Schnitzer exhibit. The first, an untitled video piece (or at least, I didn't catch the title) is a six-screen video of Jaekyung listening to comedy programs in six different languages (as rated by his friends). The video shows his reactions to the programs. For most, the expressions are subtle--more reflections of an appreciation that something funny is happening without understanding the precise nature of the joke. In the bottom left screen, Jaekyung listens and reacts to a Korean comedy program, and as a native Korean, you can immediately see the difference in reactions. Jaekyung told me that the piece reflects how he feels when trying to integrate in America. Headphones are provided so that you can listen along. I wish there was a mirror, though, so that the observer could compare his/her reactions to that of Jaekyung while listening along.

Jaekyung's second work was a performance art piece he did for a VAP class back in September of 2008. He and friends walked around Boston with a drum bearing the phrase "HIT HERE IF YOU FEEL VICTIMIZED." Anyone who wanted to could come up and take a whack at the drum. I asked Jaekyung about the people he met. He told me that most struck the drum in good fun rather than in frustration, although there were a few who stood out, including a homeless veteran who, despite his good demeanor, may have felt a greater emotional relation to the piece. As Jaekyung notes, "The act of hitting the drum becomes the healing ritual."

Sam Kronick '10

Finally, the undergraduate! So I'm a bit biased, of course—both because it's wonderful to see an MIT undergraduate doing art (and for fun!) and because, as a former architecture major, I'm acquaintances with Sam. Sam's work is really awesome. "Walkinghouse," which he did as part of N55, an artists' collective in Copenhagen, is a modern day Conestoga wagon. It's solar powered, surprisingly roomy, and even has a wood-burning stove. It reminds me of something Buckminster Fuller would dream up.

Sam's other piece (his Senior thesis) was the Microdot, an impromptu "micro-nation" he organized this past spring on MIT's McDermott Dot. In addition to founding the nation, he and fellow friends used the opportunity to conceive of a novel culture, history, and politic, based on Sam's previous studies and various precedents. Once it's all done and published, you should check out his documentation of the Microdot project, which should be available in one of MIT's libraries for public viewing.

THE Gustavo Dudamel, you know, the hip, vivacious, and inspiring Venezuelan conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, visited MIT last Friday to receive the 2010 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts (i.e. $75,000 cash prize and on-campus residency). In addition, he conducted the MIT Symphony Orchestra in an open rehearsal and the following day, he participated in a panel discussion with MIT professors John Harbison and Tod Machover that was moderated by PBS journalist Maria Hinojosa. As you might have known, I am a violinist in MITSO, and I experienced his incredible conducting. I was in the presence of a musical genius.

ABOVE: Gustavo Dudamel. Looks young, huh? He's only 28!

Dudamel conducted us in two quite monumental pieces—"Prague" Symphony No. 38 by Mozart and "Capriccio Espagnol" by Rimsky-Korsokov. These were pieces that MITSO performed in October 2009, so we were already comfortable with the notes and rhythms. We generally felt that we "knew" the music. Yet Dudamel was able to teach us so much about the music that we did not know. He enlightened us. His teaching and insight enhanced our musicality and helped us to sculpt phrases ever so beautifully. Our playing went from outstanding to masterful at some points. Even the audience could hear the subtle changes in interpretation. They witnessed our musical growth. In fact, after the show, an audience member came to me and told me that he even felt a sense of triumph when we masterfully performed a particular measure of the Mozart symphony with the guidance of Dudamel.

ABOVE: It's me! On the MIT Newletter and MIT News website.

Music is more than just notes and rhythm. It is about expressing emotions, feelings, moods, and ideas. This is the purpose of the art of music. And Dudamel reminded us MIT musicians of this fact. With the help of notes and rhythms, we are able to paint a picture or share emotions, but to do so fully, musicality, interpretation, and emotion are necessary. There is indeed a huge difference between simply playing what is written in your music and playing for the purpose of creating a work of art. And to create a brilliant work of art, you not only need talented musicians, but also a knowledgeable and enlightening conductor, such at Gustavo Dudamel. I think the idea of an open rehearsal was excellent. It demonstrated, to audience members, the importance of a conductor in an orchestra, which is an especially great learning experience for audience members who do not play an instrument. I have had many friends, who are not musical, inquire about the purpose of a conductor. And I am generally overwhelmed with such a question. After this open rehearsal, I think the audience members would understand why. The conductor is not a regulator for the orchestra, but rather, a sculptor, a historian, an artist, and an interpreter.

Two months after really worrying that this year's yearbook might not actually get done, I can confidently and quite thankfully proclaim: IT IS FINISHED!

Oh thank goodness......

As Design Editor for this year's edition of Technique (the yearbook of MIT, since 1885), it was my duty not only to come up with a concept, design the book, and make sure every page was laid out correctly, but also to steer the design process so that everyone working on the book, including myself, was aware of what needed to get done, who was doing each task, who wasn't doing each task, etc.; and after our first deadline two months ago caught us by surprise (forcing us to contact our liaison with Friesens, our publisher, to ask for an extra week), I am proud to say that we are completely on time (pending nothing apocalyptic happens in the meantime...knock on wood). That means that the books should be in towards the end of April, with distribution scheduled for the first two weeks of May—mark your calendars!

But what exactly goes into the making of a yearbook?
(...and one so fine as Technique?)

ABOVE: Heng '12, Sam '12, and Steph '11 reviewing photos for TNQ'10.

Although it might sound a bit generic, the answer really is teamwork. We all needed each other's fortes, whether it was taking creative photos of MIT's many living groups, sports, and student groups; helping Greg, our photographer from McGrath Studios, take Senior Portraits by sending out countless emails; or rushing to the office late at night to re-Photoshop entire sections of the book after realizing that what looked good on our monitor came out much too bright in the proofs. Most importantly, we needed each other to stay sane and focused and happy. Despite having psets, lab reports, and many less stressful things to do, the yearbook is something every member at Technique, for whatever unexplainable reason, decides to take on, even if it means losing a few hours of sleep each night in the final months of production.

For me, the design process began almost a year ago, when last year's book was finally finished and elections were held for new Manboard (i.e. Managing Board) positions. After watching our previous Design Editor, Tiff '09, slave away at last year's book (a MATLAB-gone-wrong inspired edition to capture the craziness that was 2008), I decided that it was a challenge worth undertaking, especially as an aspiring architect/designer/neuroscientist. (I'll talk about that weird mix in another blog post...)

ABOVE: Tiff '09 showing off her MATLAB-inspired cover for TNQ'09.

The cover has been by tradition the starting point for the design editor: a way of encapsulating a theme without yet the limitations of the book's construction or its content. After initially toying with various themes throughout the fall, including random dot stereograms (didn't work), an autostereogram (too overwhelming visually), and Escher-esque tessellation (better! but not yet...), I stumbled across an idea that seemed to hold promise as something fresh, clean, and composed. I know that I'm not supposed to be doing this, but it couldn't hurt to give you a sneak preview of what the cover's going to look like :S

Isn't it pretty? Lol.

The next steps are usually done over IAP, the month that MIT gives its undergraduates off for the pursuit of extracurricular activities. Last year I took Italian, Drawing, and Archery (all were wonderful), but this year, I intentionally cleared my schedule so that I would have as much as necessary to work on the book. The book is divided into eight sections: the aptly-named "Life in Hell" (a photoessay of life at MIT), "Journal" (a review of the year's events), "Activities," "Sports," "Living Groups," "Seniors," "Patrons," and "Endgame" (credits, etc.). These eight sections, plus a small introduction, comprise the 400 pages of this year's book. There are a lot of fun things we added just for this year's book, but of course if you want to find out you'll have to stop by our booth when it comes out or order your own copy online (HERE!).

After finishing the first 200 pages of the book in early February, we sent it out to Friesens so that they could send us a proof of how our photos and designs would look when printed. We then started working on the second 200 pages, despite classes beginning, and submitted them to Friesens again for proofing. Once the proofs for both pages and cover came back, we all worked closely with Odia, our absolutely wonderful liaison from Friesens, to make sure that nobody's name was spelled wrong, that the photos printed correctly, that all the pages were in order, and that every other little detail you could think of was corrected if needed when needed.

And it is at this point—the book designed, the files submitted, the proofs proofread and corrected files resubmitted—that I find myself today, and able to relax, or at the very least, cross my fingers and hope nothing egregious slipped past our eyes.

ABOVE: Kat '10, Editor-in-Chief for TNQ'09, celebrates the arrival of last year's book with cake.

If you're interested in Technique then you should have no excuse not to stop by our weekly meetings (Saturdays @ 1pm in Room 451 of the Student Center, fourth floor). In addition to congregating over free delicious food, we'll be planning for next year's book and events already. We also hold lots of tutorials and have fantastic equipment and facilities that you can use if you join.

And yes, look for us at CPW...

(If you made it this far, thank you for reading! As a reward, here is an actual sneak preview of the book :)

ABOVE: A mockup of the cover for Technique 2010! (not quite sure what's going on with my face though...)

P.S. In case you haven't already, you can order you copy of Technique 2010 here for the very affordable price of $60, or you can buy it at our booth in the Student Center in early May for $65.

This past Friday, the MIT Symphony Orchestra (MITSO) played an exceptionally original and edgy concert. As a violinist in MITSO, it was quite an interesting experience unlike any other. This concert was unique for several reasons:

1. We premiered a newly composed symphony. How often does an opportunity like that come around?! The symphony was composed by Charles Shadle, a faculty member in the Music Department here at MIT. This was the first time I had ever been exposed to a modern piece, and boy, was it fascinating (and at times, difficult to learn)!

2. We featured the 2010 Concerto Competition co-winner, Latifah Hamzah, who performed the third movement of the Dvorak Violin Concerto. It was stunning!

3. We premiered, in Massachusetts, the "Adam and Eve Ballet" from the movie Can Can. (You know, the cheesy 1960 movie with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. It featured absolutely incredible music, though!) This piece has only been performed one other time, in Arizona, actually.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

4. We performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, led by MIT Music and Arts Lecturer Mark Harvey. They treated us to a couple movements from Duke Ellington’s The River, and then, together, we accompanied the lively and jazzy voice of our guest artist, Patrice Williamson, who sang You Make Me Feel So Young, I Stayed too Long at the Fair, and Embraceable You.

Patrice Williamson, Guest Artist. (Photo via arts@mit)

The performance of "Adam and Eve Ballet" was simply naughty! The music originally accompanied a scene in Can Can where dancers were performing the Adam and Eve story. The piece starts off rather heavenly, you know, the orchestra playing beautifully and peacefully as we usually do :) . Then, all of sudden, the serenity is abruptly halted by the entrance of the snake who induces Eve into apple eating. From that point on, musically, there is an aural duality, a good versus evil, present in the music. The sweet and heavenly side represented by the classical phrases and the sinful and raunchy side represented by the wild, less-restricted, jazzy phrases played by the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. So who won, good or evil? You know the story! Evil won of course! And evil's triumph was blatant in the music since the piece ended with an outrageously loud, energetic roar of swingy jazz. The audience went crazy, demanding an encore! And that's how this historic MITSO concert ended. While our next concert won't be filled with debuts and jazz, it will be just as thrilling. I mean, we're playing Saint-Saens, Bernstein, and Weber for cryin' out loud, how can that not be exciting? During CPW, I encourage you to inquire about MITSO! There will be opportunities to learn about MITSO, as well as other performing groups such as MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE), MIT Chamber Music, and MIT Concert Choir. Join the excitement and keep music alive at MIT! I hope to see some of you in MITSO next year.

Yes, everyone; shocking as it may seem, MIT has a thriving student theater scene. Though MIT theater is not as large-scale or well-known as that of its nearby Ivy-league counterpart, there is still a contingent of incredibly talented, committed people who manage to struggle through their exams and psets and still put on a series of fantastic shows each term. This term I've been incredibly lucky to be a part of a production of Richard III by the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble, one of our four main student theater groups (Musical Theater Guild, Gilbert & Sullivan Players, and Dramashop being the other three). The cast and crew (of which many of us are both) are now almost finished with a month of very hard work, excitement, creativity, superhumanly fast costume changes and late-night power-tool construction and are incredibly proud of what we've created. Here's a short behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing our collective baby, Richard III to the stage.

Grace Kane '11 and Chris Smith '12 as Lady Anne and Richard.

When most people think of Shakespeare they imagine old English men in ruffs reciting iambic pentameter at arm's length to a skull. Nothing could be further from our production, which sets Shakespeare's play—written about a fifteenth-century civil war—in an alternate version of modern-day America. Director Susanna Harris Noon says that when reading the play she began to see parallels between the ambitious King Richard III's murderous rise to the throne and the power-hungry politicians of today. This created some interesting challenges for both directors, designers, and actors. And, I'll admit, rather appropriate for a theater group that primarily uses its fake Yoric-from-Hamlet skull as a cookie bowl. I asked each of the prod staff how they approached bringing Richard III to life.

Starting Out: Envisioning the Play (Susanna Harris Noon, Director)

"When I first sat down with the script, I was honestly mostly worried about the length. It took me a month to cut down what turns out to be Shakespeare's second longest play (next to Hamlet), to a running time of about 2 hours. I started out thinking of all the fun ways to play with setting it in a modern context. A scene in a bar. A press conference. Business meetings. However, some things didn't change (for instance, Richard and his cohorts all wear ceremonial daggers). I love that we changed many of the genders of the characters; having women involved in the politics makes it much more relevant to today. My goal is to direct a show that gives both the actors and the audience something to explore. Performing Shakespeare is absolutely one of the more rewarding experiences an actor can have—the deeper you go into these characters and the text, the more he gives you."

Elise Kuo '11 curses the rest of the cast as Mad Margaret.

Designing the Show

One of the most fun parts of working on a show is being on the design team. The light, set, costume, props, hair & make-up, and effects designers all have to work together to bring the director's vision to life, adding quite a bit of their own vision along the way. Some of our team were taught their skills in one of MIT's many fantastic theater classes, while others simply joined a theater group and learned by doing. I asked some of them to talk about how they rose to the challenge of designing the show.

Lights (Dan Perez '10)

"As a starting point for the lighting design, I was inspired by the artwork of Shepard Fairey and Frank Miller, among others. Their almost sculptural portraits and use of a restricted color palette seemed like a great foundation for the aesthetic of the alternate United States we were trying to create for Richard III. The elements of both artists' work complemented the monochromatic scenic design and the contained use of color in the costume design. By choosing some specific images and collaborating with the director and other designers, the lighting design was driven in a direction much more exciting and compelling than if I would've approached the show without any research. It is composed of severly angled lights and shadows that are filled in with saturated colors and graphic textures. Once I had a good sense of what the show should look like and had seen a couple of rehearsals, I created a light plot (a map of the theater detailing where lights should be placed) and chose color filters that would achieve the looks of each individual scene."

An example of one of the lighting effects used.

Scenic Design (Kellas Cameron '10, Set Designer, and Grace Kane '11, Scenic Painter)

"Scenic desing involves two main challenges: building a set that fulfills the practical needs of the play and also capturing the play's themes and ideas. Because of Richard III's modern setting, we were wary of trying to make the set too "real" for fear of anchoring it to a particular modern-day place or person. The set is stark and clean, providing a perfect backdrop for lights, costumes, and actors to be displayed against. All the set features are there for a purpose—in some cases several. The tower, for example, doubles as Richard's presidential balcony and as the prison where he has his young nephew murdered. Despite the modern setting, we went back to medieval England for symbolic inspiration—the designs on the presidential banners of Richard and his predecessor Edward IV are taken from the original Plantagenet coats of arms."

The original hand-sketch of the set layout.

Final set.

Costume Design (Emily King '09 and Naomi Hinchen '11)

"One of the biggest challenges in costuming Richard III was dealing with the doubled (and tripled, and quadrupled...) roles. Together, the thirteen actors in the cast played twenty-nine distinct parts—some of which changed costumes over the course of the play. Add in the modern, White House setting, and it's a real challenge to distinguish between two dozen characters running around in suits.

"We were very concerned about distinguishing between the different characters played by the same actor and so tried to make each costume distinct. For instance, Catesby, Lady Anne, and 2nd Murderer are all played by the same actress. Of these, Catesby wears the closest thing to a suit (though, unlike in the orignal, our Catesby is female). Anne is the only character in a dress, which makes her stand out as a very different personality from all the other suit-wearing characters. And the murderer gives an opportunity to break out of the realm of suits completely.

Grace Kane '11 transforms from the aristocratic Lady Anne to ambitious politician Catesby, via a 15-year-old hired murderer.

"Another challenge was to give visual cues to tie together certain groups of people. The indication of rank we chose to makr the King is a royal purple sash, which allowed us to use color to connect the members of the royal family. Until King Edward's death, Queen Elizabeth wears a shirt of the same color as the sash, and Rivers and Dorset, Elizabeth's brother and son, have purple ties. This marks them as members of the same group, and the subsequent loss of the purple garments shows their loss of power following Edward's death. At Richard's coronation, he gains the purple sash along with the kingship and the power he's been seeking."

Projection Effects (Megan Nimura, MIT Staff: Energy Initiative)

One of the greatest challenges of Richard III was the "ghost scene"—a dream sequence where Richard is tormented by the ghosts of his dead victims. Though often cut from productions because of its logistical difficulty, our team decided to take on the challenge. Megan Nimura, who designed and edited the video, explains how it was made.

"When approaching a scene like the ghost scene in Richard III, a director can choose to play it in many different ways. Because our director, Susanna, wanted to modernize our production, it gave us more creative license with this scene. Susanna decided to attempt a video that would be projected onto the set. We shot all of the actors playing ghosts on one day using only two lights to create more contrast on the faces. We added some make-up to create even more contrast and then made all the decisions about effects in post-production. After choosing the best clips and then splicing them together, we were able to add some very fun visual and audio effects. I worked in collaboration with Susanna to create a cohesive final project with my vision—skeletal, vampire-like faces—and hers—color-washed and other-worldly floating heads. After adding some of my effects with the color of her vision, we played with audio reverberation and echo effects as well as adding additional audio tracks to emphasize certain action words. We then worked with the sound designer in creating a backtrack and intro music."

"Murdered princes" Brianna Conrad '11 and Anna Brunner '12 don ghostly make-up in preparation for the photoshoot.

The murdered princes as projected in the final effect.

Rehearsal in Progress

The rehearsal period for our spring shows is very short, only around four weeks. It's crucial for all the actors to be on the ball for every rehearsal. Particularly important are the fight scenes, which have to be carefully choreographed (here by our fight director, Noel Morales '12) and practiced continually to ensure no one gets hurt.

Hired murderer James Tyrrel (Jacob Austin-Brenemann '13) rehearses killing the young Prince of York (Anna Brunner '12).

Tech Week: Bringing It All Together

Tech week, which for us is now drawing to a close, is the most crazy, hectic part of the whole crazy, hectic process. From Saturday to Wednesday, lights have to be hung, the set has to be built, costumes finished and cues programmed, and the cast has to get used to acting in their peformance space for the first time. This is the part of the process where the whole cast and crew really have to come together and put in all the effort they can to make the show the best it can be. It's tough, but also a whole lot of fun. Part of that might be due to having people you can construct a stage with until 3am, then pset with til 5am while still having a great time...

Producer Elaina Present '12 having fun with power tools.

Technical Director Brianna Conrad '11 and Master Carpenter Paul Romer '12 take a break from construction to survey their set.

Hair & Make-up Designer Sarah Laderman '12 creating a scar for King Richard (Chris Smith '12) before a dress rehearsal.

...which, in the end, is what it's all about. What really makes the show are the wonderful people that we get to hang out with all through the process and with whom we manage to create something we can all be proud of.

RICHARD III opens today and runs Thursday to Saturday March 11–13 and 18–20. For more information about the show and about the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble in general, visit our website at http://web.mit.edu/ensemble/www/.

Photo Courtesy of Andy Ryan

Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art –
Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart.
     – John Keats, "Bright Star"

The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same.
The Cambridge skyline welcomes a new Player: the MIT Media Lab Complex.
Alas, here I stand. Under the starry sky, with my eyes frozen on the glowing building.
It's the opening ceremony, mellow, so I hum the Smiths ~ "take me out tonight, where there's music and there's people and they're young and alive...." ("There is a light that never goes out")

As I walk inside, my pulse slows; the air is of another planet. The lighting is simply ethereal. Hush...Moonlight Sonata,
A feeling of weightlessness.

Below: Tod Machover, professor of music and media, discusses his interaction with the space.

Just a bit of background: the new building was designed by Fumihiko Maki & Associates architects. It's an extension to the existing Media Lab built by I.M. Pei, and it'll house certain programs in architecture and planning and comparative media studies, among others. It was envisioned as a forward-thinking building to increase transparency and collaboration among the various programs there. Undoubtedly, there's a certain pervasive energy that's felt instantly.

The building as the organism.

One of my favorite interior elements is the UFO. In the lobby, a saucer-shaped den becomes a cosmonautic meeting-space. Welcome to the space age! So mod!

**We’re on the set of Space Odyssey: 2001! Mad props to John, my ardent photographer! ^_~
Style inspiration: structured shoulders from Balmain’s FW 2010 Collection, redux theme;
minty melon color palette from Balenciaga’s FW 2010 Collection, 60’s pop mod much?

Notice the curved panels that wrap around in a futuristic fashion? For some reason it reminded me of the Guggenheim Museum. Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiraling rotunda—inspiration through vertigo.

Guggenheim’s rotunda. (Photo: JMG galleries)

Talk about concentricity!

Since we’re on the circular theme: artist Alyson Shotz did an exhibition at the Guggenheim of 18,000 fresnel mirrors caught in suspension with staples. A crystallized curtain of lenses.

The Shape of Space, 2004, Alyson Shotz. (Photo: Kristopher McKay)

Isn’t it magical—what light can do to a space?
A surreal feeling, like the lighting of the new Media Lab Complex. To create a perfect view, Fumihiko Maki designed with louvered windows, injected with argon!

So anything you see through the windows undergoes a pixelation effect.
The light diffuses through the building, and is amplified in all the glass structures, like this floating staircase. Creating pure luminosity.....

It’s a light that never goes out.
A Bright Star.

Yes, it's true. Believe it or not, MIT has its very own radio station, run by the students for the students (and for the rest of Cambridge/Boston to enjoy!). It's located in the cozy yet unfamiliar basement of Walker Memorial. It was one of the first places I visited during my CPW, and I encourage you all to visit it as well. Ever since I stepped foot in the station during CPW, I knew that I wanted to get involved with the radio station and have my very own show—and that's precisely what I did!

My show is called "Peaceful Purgatory" and it airs on Tuesday nights from 11pm – midnight (sounds late, but this is prime psetting hour = more listeners). You're probably wondering why my show has this name and where the heck it came from. You see, the name of my show conveys the unique combination of music I play; that is, hard rock/metal and classical music.

Here is a sample playlist:
"Quartet No. 1" by Sofia Gubaidulina
"Am I Evil?" by Metallica
"Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath
"Violin Sonata No. 3" by Brahms
"Ciaconna in D Minor" by Bach
"Pathetic" by Lamb of God
"Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin

Hopefully you can see how the name of my show is relevant now! Not only do I play eclectic works, but I also give away concert tickets on air and sometimes I invite friends to chat on air or just to hang out in the control room with me. It's great to be able to have this hour of airtime, an hour of freedom. I can play any songs or pieces I wish, the sky is the limit. My radio show is a highlight of my chaotic week—it's a time where I'm forced to sit down, relax, and enjoy music. And you too can have a radio show at MIT. It's as simple as applying for airtime and preferencing your ideal timeslots. There are also perks with having a radio show, such as having full access to the entire record library. That's right, the ENTIRE library (think about the new music and artists you’ll be exposed to! I've discovered quite a few interesting bands since I've been a member at the station). Besides the library, you also have access to free concert tickets, definitely one of the coolest benefits. There are literally concerts in Boston/Cambridge everyday of the week, and you can potentially see these great artists for free. Feel free to listen to WMBR streaming live on www.wmbr.org. The shows are also archived, so you can even listen to previously aired shows. Enjoy the great music of WMBR. Rock on!

P.S. Photos coming soon!

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone....
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
     – W.H. Auden, "Funeral Blues"

How to Stop Traffic 101:
     #1 It’s better if you don’t
     #2 Wear Heels
     #3 Look Fabulous
     #4 Buy Insurance

     Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home... :)

You see, I live on MIT’s West Campus, Vassar Street—home of everything quaint, serene, and trustee.fund.developmentish (meticulous urban planning!). So coming back from a long day of classes, my walk down Vassar Street tends to be relaxing, mindlessly relaxing.

My thoughts drift to tomorrow’s forecast: moderate with a touch of grey; chromatic chords; corporate elm trees planted precisely 1.5 meters apart.

O, the joys of walking!

Breathe, and I dream of Lord Byron and the Iberian coast.

     Of this brutal Lisbon packet.
     Now at length we're off for Turkey,
‚Ä®     Lord knows when we shall come back!‚Ä®
     Breezes foul and tempests murky
          – Lord Byron, "Lines to Mr. Hodgson Written on Board the Lisbon Packet."

And so, that was the inspiration for my weekend photoshoot, entitled "Istanbul via Lisbon." The chiffon accordion pleats are clearly baroque, while the pearl headdress and studded metal have Byzantine charm. But, in case you’ve forgotten, it’s FEBRUARY in Boston! The time of frostbite and puffy coats—√† la Michelin man. Going outdoors was scary; but the truly frightening part was posing in the middle of the street as the cars line up! Special thanks goes out to Shelby H, my photographer, j’adore!

With New York Fashion Week in full swing, I’m also going to address my favorite trend:
Urban Tribal—post-industrial savagery; strong colors and origami draping. It’s an infectious look for next fall, epitomized by BCBG’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. In the following outfit, the softly draped tunic of neutral tones juxtaposes fiercely with the rigid belt and patent boots. (faintly reminiscent of Yohji Yamamoto’s FW 09 collection?)

ABOVE: An Urban-Tribal piece from BCBG's Fall/Winter 2010 collection.

And finally, to someone who has been a creative catalyst to the fashion world—Alexander McQueen. Truly genius. Who can ever forget "Plato’s Atlantis?" Everything endures.

May peace be with you, McQueen.

     Silence the pianos and with muffled drum....
     He was my North, my South, my East and West....
     The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
          – W.H. Auden, "Funeral Blues"