Julie Marie Lemon has always been interested in revealing what cannot be seen at first glance. While working on her Master’s thesis at The University of Chicago, she examined how images from the Hubble Space Telescope mirror the conventions of oil paintings from the neo-Baroque period. In both the Hubble composites and the paintings, Lemon found, tiny details were made visible. “Deep down,” she says, “There are these connections.” These connections—invisible, powerful, and potentially field-altering—formed the basis for Lemon’s brainchild: the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative (ASCI).
Dieter Roelstraete, Curator at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society and Lecturer, Division of the Humanities, Contemporary Art, doesn’t restrain his curatorial skills to the gallery. On his Instagram account, Roelstraete shares selections of his favorite book covers with his followers, treating what could be an endless scroll in an app as an opportunity for sharing personal reflections and aesthetic musings.
While the public health consequences of the pandemic have been among the most acute, the novel coronavirus has left no domain untouched: The arts have pivoted to virtual performances and programs, religious communities have found new ways to offer services, and lawyers have had to think differently about the government’s role in mitigating the crisis.
Architecture and monuments hold space and attention, projecting myth, legend, and authority into the public sphere. Yet, recent uprisings and protests across the world suggest a rejection of what these structures represent.
This Valentine's Day, we at UChicago Arts thought we'd virtually explore the collections to find some, shall we say, vintage options for readers in search of a sweet—and historical—way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
For students and faculty on campus this year, the silence of the carillon bells was noticeable. But now, the familiar ring of the bells—often playing such hits as The Lord of the Rings theme song, one of the most requested carillon songs—has returned.
We spoke with Joey Brink, Rockefeller's Carillonneur, about how COVID19 changed the way he, and the Carillon, were able to practice.
Aportal in the Regenstein Library. A rabbit hole to a mysterious alternate universe. Messages from the beyond—and the 1980s. This might seem like an alternate plot of Back to the Future, but you won’t find Marty McFly combing the library stacks. All of these elements were part of ECHO, the newest game launched by the University of Chicago’s Fourcast Lab.
Quietly, an ancient chorus of cascading forms, conic figures, and gleaming orbs unfolds at the Smart Museum. The shadowy impressions of the natural world tease and vanish; gargantuan ghosts stare silently, knowingly. Vision spills through the galleries like light, stirring landscapes, birthing echoes, chasing epiphanies.
For University of Chicago student Zahra Nasser, this October marks the culmination of months of hard work—and the chance to see it shared not only on campus but around the world.
With the 2020 elections a little more than a week away, UChiVotes is ramping up its efforts to boost voter turnout on the University of Chicago campus by mobilizing students to make a voting plan, and encouraging the campus community to vote early.
This past Spring, when COVID-19 radically shifted the way we move—and yes, dance—through the world, TAPS Lecturer Julia Rhoads was not about to sit still. Through a collaboration with her own dance company, Lucky Plush Productions, and UChicago's Dance Program in TAPS, Virtual Dance Lab was born. During the initial onset of the crisis, Virtual Dance Lab brought free or low cost dance and movement workshops not just to the UChicago students in the TAPS Dance Program, but to the staff, faculty, and greater community, all of whom were adjusting to a life moved abruptly indoors.
Poet Rita Dove dances through genres. A former US Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, and classically trained dancer, she has never let genre dictate her creativity, allowing herself the freedom to create where she pleases.
For Court Theatre executive director Angel Ysaguirre, the magic of the stage exists in the actors’ ability to connect with the audience—to see their smiles and their tears, and to hear their laughter, gasps and applause.
“I'm a potter in the morning, a painter in the noon, I’m a bureaucrat in the night time, and I am a lover when the moon is bright, whoa de whoa de whoa.”
On July 31, interdisciplinary sculptor and DoVA Professor Theaster Gates delivered a performance that marked the conclusion of the Gray Center’s online exhibition, Another Idea, as well as their Gray Sound Sessionsseries.
In 2015 actor Katlyn Carlson, AB’05, got an email from her agent about an audition for a new musical. The message described high school queen bee Chloe Valentine as “self-absorbed, crass, sexy, manipulative, and hilarious in her disregard for others.” Carlson’s reaction? “Sign me up.”
She didn’t know she was embarking on a project that would make her (as best she knows) the first person from her hometown of Eureka, Missouri, to perform on Broadway.
"Yes. The vaccine is incomplete. I share these books in the hopes that through study and conversation exchange occurs. Germs are swapped. Maybe we need more than one vaccine. Maybe I need your vaccine and you need mine. The thing is resistance. Resistance is the thing.”
The Moon has long been a muse for artists, poets, and lovers. Yet, might we also find the Moon a site for temporary retreat and respite away from the cruelties of Earth? Away from COVID-19? Away from capitalism? Perhaps the Moon’s frozen terrain offers fertile ground for revolutionary ideas to sprout and new ways of being to blossom.
As museums across the world transfer their programming efforts onto virtual platforms, museum “goers” are finding themselves in online viewing rooms, watching video tours, and downloading coloring book pages. Some conceptual art forms do not need to undergo this transformation and are more presciently suited to this moment.
Marissa Fenley is a PhD candidate in English and TAPS (Theater and Performance Studies), as well as an ASCI Graduate Fellow. Lee Jasperse, a PhD candidate in English Language and Literature, as well as ASCI’s Graduate Management Fellow, interviewed Marissa on what puppets teach us about intimacy, how play and silliness enter into her scholarly process, and how a lifelong engagement with puppets inspired her dissertation project.
Each year, the Department of Creative Writing awards prizes to students for their work throughout the year. Ranging from prose to poetry, from fiction to non-fiction, this years winners span majors throughout the college as well as literary topics. See the full list of awards and winners here on the Department of Creative Writing’s website here.
