UMaine IMFA Students Participate in Augusta ArtWalk

Bringing together artists from the UMA and UMO communities, the Augusta ArtWalk will include a group exhibition of artwork by current students and recent graduates of the four-year-old University of Maine Intermedia Master of Fine Arts (IMFA) Program.

The exhibition, titled Juxtapositions and hosted by the UMA Department of Art, runs from January 30 – February 17, with gallery hours from noon-3pm, Monday – Friday. For more information about the Juxtapositions exhibition and the individual artists participating in it, see http://juxtapositions2012.wordpress.com

The three-year MFA degree in Intermedia at the University of Maine provides graduate students with the opportunity to engage in innovative, artistic and theoretical work in a flexible program that encourages individual creative development within an interdisciplinary context. For more information about the University of Maine Intermedia MFA Program, see http://www.intermediamfa.org/

Who: University of Maine Intermedia MFA Program

What: Juxtapositions reception in conjunction with the Augusta ArtWalk

When: Thursday, February 16, 4-8pm

Where: Gannett Building Gallery, 331 Water Street, Augusta, ME

UMA Exhibits Artwork by UMaine Graduate Students

The UMA Department of Art will host a group exhibition of artwork by current students and recent graduates of the four-year-old University of Maine Intermedia Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program. The exhibition, titled Juxtapositions, will run from January 30 – February 17, with an opening reception from 2-5pm on Monday, January 30. For more information about the Juxtapositions exhibition and the individual artists participating in it, seehttp://juxtapositions2012.wordpress.com

The three-year MFA degree in Intermedia at the University of Maine provides graduate students with the opportunity to engage in innovative, artistic and theoretical work in a flexible program that encourages individual creative development within an interdisciplinary context. For more information about the University of Maine Intermedia MFA Program, see http://www.intermediamfa.org/

Who: University of Maine Intermedia MFA Program

What: Juxtapositions art exhibition

Where: Gannett Building Gallery, 331 Water Street, Augusta, ME

When: January 30, 2012, noon-5pm

For more information contact Reese Inman at 207 322 3467 or reeseinman@gmail.com.

For event details, see http://juxtapositions2012.wordpress.com

http://soundcloud.com/intermedia/intermedia-promo

The University of Maine Intermedia MFA program is pleased to announce its annual open house exhibition titled "Converging Paths: Intermedia MFA Art Walk" on December 15, 2011 from 5:00 - 7:00pm.  This art walk will be centered in Lord Hall on the University of Maine campus in Orono and will included guided tours along an illuminated path to three other locations on the campus.

Converging Paths: Intermedia MFA Walk will be centrally located in Lord Hall where light refreshments will be served.  Two guided tours will start from Lord Hall beginning at 5:15pm and 6:15pm.  The tour guides will be MFA students and they will lead groups of guests through an illuminated path to Crossland Hall, Holmes Hall and Carnegie Hall.  Guests will be given maps that will include information on the artists being shown in each of the four locations. 288 luminaries provided by MFA student, Dee Clark, will light the pathways between the four buildings.

Intermedia MFA students will present a wide range of work including video installation, painting and drawing, wall stencils, radio broadcasts, live performance, sculpture, music and much more.  This is a family friendly event and college aged students are encouraged to attend to find more about the UMaine Intermedia MFA program.

The schedule of start times for live performances during this art walk is as follows:

Lord Hall Room 100

5:00 Sarah Cottrell & Owen Smith to give opening address

5:00 Aaron Boothroyd will perform live music in the lobby

5:15 Jennifer Hooper will read from her original short story titled, "Begin"

5:45 Sean George will perform "Correction"

6:45 Oren Darling will present a paper titled "Printing the Next Economy: The Return of the Artist-Inventor"

Holmes Hall Room 105

5:00 Amy Pierce performance titled "Alter/ation"

WMEB 91.9 FM

6:00 Kat Johnson, audio broadcast titled, "Experiments for Thesis Intermedia Score: Audio and Text Prototypes

For more information on the Intermedia MFA program please visit www.intermediamfa.orgFor more information on this exhibition please contact Sarah Cottrell via email at sarah.cottrell@umit.maine.edu

The Intermedia MFA Program, and the Intermedia Student Organization sponsor this event.For more information
contact Sarah Cottrell at sarahlou.cottrell@umit.maine.edu

The following materials have been recently added to the Intermedia collection and are available or your consideration and use in 404 Chadbourne hall:

Voids

Between Nietzsche's "death of God" and the ascent of Buddhism in twentieth-century America and Europe, the idea of "void" has permeated Western art and culture, and the means by which artists and thinkers have dismantled conventions of reality and perception with acts of emptying, removing, destroying, or emphasizing nothingness, are numerous, as this massive survey testifies. This hardcover edition of Voids serves as a catalogue to the Centre Pompidou's retrospective of empty exhibitions, curated by the dream team of Laurent Le Bon, John Armleder, Mathieu Copeland, Gustav Metzger, Mai-Thu Perret, and Clive Phillpot, and featuring Yves Klein, Robert Barry, Art & Language, Stanley Brouwn, Laurie Parsons, Bethan Huws, Robert Irwin, Maria Eichhorn, Roman Ondak; but it also supplies a crucial anthology of texts, with contributions by artists and writers such as Stuart Comer, Brian O'Doherty, Ralph Rugoff, Jon Savage, Sarah Wilson, Peter Downsbrough, Lawrence Weiner, Sherrie Levine, Seth Price, Trisha Donnelly, Wade Guyton and Olivier Mosset, among others.

In Deed: Certificates Of Authenticity In Art

Certificates of authenticity are a critical aspect of art works today. They often embody the artwork itself, while referring to it, serving as its deed, legal statement, and fiscal invoice. Certificates by artists validate the authorship and originality of the work and they allow the work of art to be positioned in the marketplace as a branded product. Providing examples of artists certificates from the past fifty years, this book reveals how roles have shifted and developed, as well as how the materials and content of art have changed.

THE NEW NOW SOUNDS OF TODAY!: SONGPOEMS BY TWENTY-ONE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS

The New Now Sounds of Today! is a CD compilation of songpoems written by contemporary visual artists. They composed the lyrics, and specified the musical genre and vocal style in which they wanted to hear them performed. A professional songwriting company then wrote the songs, thereby allowing contemporary visual artists to test the unfamiliar waters of consensual ersatz glamour. In giving up creative control in order to become a star, the song-poet enters into a collusion with the musician/producer to construct an alternate, democratic version of celebrity culture. Highlights include John Baldessari's new-age "Learn to Draw" and Mike Kelley's pop-folk tune "Anal Sadistic". Other lyrics were provided by Alexis Smith, Jim Shaw, Rev. & Mrs. Ethan Acres, Stephen Prina, Pae White, RubÈn Ortiz Torres, Martin Kersels, Tamara Fites, Sharon Ellis, Judy Fiskin, Steven Hull, Doug Harvey, Jeffrey Vallance, Museum of Jurassic Technology, Joe Scanlan, Dave Muller, Eleanor Antin, Gary Simmons, and Robert Heinecken

Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art

Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show held February 18 - March 26, 2005. Text by Marc Glimcher. Artists include: Josef Albers, Ad Reinhardt, Alfred Jensen, Jasper Johns, Marcel Broodthaers, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Piero Manzoni, Frank Stella, Carl Andre, Tony Smith, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Mel Bochner, Hanne Darboven, On Kawara, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Chuck Close, Richard Serra, Robert Mangold, Jo Baer, Joan Jonas, John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, Mario Merz, Charles Ray, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Sherrie Levine, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Peter Halley, Damien Hirst, Tom Friedman, Andrea Zittel, Keith Tyson, Vik Muniz, Gary Hill, Michael Rovner, James Siena, Tara Donovan, Corban Walker, Julie Mehretu, Jonathan Monk, Paul Pfeiffer, and RSG. Includes black-and-white and color illustrations accompanied by artist quotes, brief narrative artist biographies, and exhibition checklist.

Continuous Project #12

The latest in a series of facsimile appropriations, pamphlets, performances and interventions by the collective Continuous Project, this illustrated volume, the second in their "institutional" series, marks the occasion of the exhibition Seth Price/Kelley Walker/Continuous Project at Modern Art Oxford. Here the past becomes an episode of the present: part catalogue and part anthology of writings, Continuous Project #12 combines commissioned texts with historical reprints.

Documenting the work of Seth Price and Kelley Walker with reproductions of their installation in Oxford, the book brings together new essays by Robert Hobbs and Jan Avgikos alongside contributions from curator Suzanne Cotter and religion scholar Joshua Dubler, in addition to historical documents.

DIRTY BABY

DIRTY BABY is a provocative "trialogue" between the paintings of Ed Ruscha, the music of Nels Cline, and the poems of David Breskin. The title comes from the idea that when different art forms mate, the resulting offspring is no purebred but rather a wonderfully dirty and lovable mutt. The book is divided into two "sides" in the manner of a vinyl record: Side A offers a time-lapse history of Western Civilization; Side B charts the American misadventure in Iraq. The 66 Ruscha pictures in the book are drawn from two rarely seen bodies of work, the "Silhouettes" and the "Cityscapes," in which Ruscha uses "censor strips" in place of the words which normally occupy a prominent place in his pictures. Throughout, Breskin's lyrical verses, using the ancient Arabic form of the ghazal, serve as powerful companions to Ruscha's gorgeously reproduced paintings. To this mix Cline adds more than an hour-and-a-half of new music for a large ensemble: by turns rhapsodic and edgy, heartfelt and raucous, it ranges from acoustic impressionism to dense, dark electronica. Housed in a luscious slipcase and including four CDs, two of music and two of spoken-voice poetry, this vibrant, polyphonic book is a wild surprise produced by three of the most exciting artists working today.

The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1 and 2

This book provides a unique perspective on the story of photography through the particular history of the photobook. The first of two extensive volumes, it is a study of the major trends and movements that have shaped the photobook genre since the birth of photography in the early nineteenth century. It represents a valuable catalogue of rare and important photobooks. This volume covers the history of photobooks from the earliest examples of the genre from the nineteenth century, through the modernist and propaganda books of the 1930s and 40s, to the radical Japanese photobooks of the 60s and 70s. While the history of photography is a well-established canon, much less critical attention has been directed at the phenomenon of the photobook, which for many photographers is perhaps the most significant vehicle for the display of their work and the communication of their vision to a mass audience. In the first of two volumes, both co-edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook provides a comprehensive overview of the development of the photobook, from its inception at the dawn of photography in the early nineteenth century through to the radical Japanese photobooks of the 1960s and 70s, by way of the modernist and propaganda books of the 1930s and 40s.

Volume one is divided into a series of thematic and broadly chronological chapters, each featuring a general introductory text providing background information and highlighting the dominant political and artistic influences on the photobook in the period, followed by more detailed discussion of the individual photobooks. The chapter texts are followed by spreads and images from over 200 books, which provide the central means of telling the history of the photobook. Chosen by Parr and Badger, these illustrations show around 200 of the most artistically and culturally important photobooks in three dimensions, with the cover or jacket and a selection of spreads from the book shown. Volume One also features an illuminating and provocative introduction, 'The Photobook: Between the Film and the Novel' by Badger, which is accompanied by a preface written by Parr.

Following on from the success of the first volume, The Photobook: A History volume II brings the story of the Photobook fully up to date. It features publications by many well-known photographers ranging from Man Ray, Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol to Christian Boltanski, Stephen Shore ad Sophie Calle by way of Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Lewis Baltz. Several innovative books by unknown photographers are also included, offering an opportunity to discover these overlooked works.

Digital new media artist, Zach Poff, addressed an audience of faculty and students on campus this past October 3rd about his ideas and questions that shape and mould his work.  Poff's current focus explores how "artists can exploit the flexibility and currency of information technology to challenge the values of a culture that is being transformed by it."

Through the influence of Sol le Wit, Alvin Lucier and John Cage, Poff walked his audience through the chronology and history of how his work has been informed, created, and distributed to explore themes of authorship, political speech, broadcast media and public discourse.   His work is witty and creative, often blending sculpture and object-based work with digital technology to create innovative sound experiences for the viewer.  Speaking at length about authorship, Poff said,  "Making and sharing art is not about sharing our personal obsessions, but rather working in an open field.  Individuals are not the center of things, however the artist is still responsible for creating the structures that let the artist share "things" with the viewer / audience."

Poff frequently collaborates with MFA faculty N.B.Aldrich and their recent work is currently on display at the CMCA in Rockport, Maine.  For more information visit the CMCA website www.cmcanow.org

Zach Poff is a New York area digital media artist, educator, and maker-of-things. For more information on his work please visit his website www.zachpoff.com

This event was sponsored by the Intermedia MFA Program and the University of Maine Cultural Affairs / Distinguished Lecture Series.

I recently had the pleasure to exchange a few words with Maine artist, Deborah Wing-Sproul about her work and her thoughts for younger artists in Maine.  Be sure to check out her show at the CMCA October 1 - December 11, 2011.  For more information please visit the CMCA website www.cmcanow.org

Sarah Cottrell:

For those who are not familiar with your work can you briefly describe what kind of work you do and what you are interested in as an artist?

Deborah Wing-Sproul:

I'm interested in that which is uniquely personal and that which is socially/culturally relevant (relevant to others but also relevant within a contemporary and cultural framework). I'm looking for ways to translate ideas in two directions at the same time: inside to outside and outside to inside. I'm interested in finding nuanced ways of articulating my personal voice while also responding to (as a way of participating in) current conditions in the world. My practice embraces several disciplines: performance, video, film, printmaking, photography, sound and sculpture (though I prefer "object making" to sculpture as the prior conjures up stone monuments etc., which is not at all what I do/make). My work is conceptually driven. Sometimes the same idea materializes in more than one medium, either as part of a simultaneous and integrated practice or as discrete gestures. My body is the primary medium--everything is an extension of it in one way or another--it provides the connective tissue for all of these otherwise seemingly disparate practices. I was a dancer and choreographer many years ago. However, the specific ways in which I use my body are not based so much on any kind of technical movement. Instead, I'm interested in the physical body as something we all have--not something that is trained specifically for one thing or another. I don't think my work stems from having been a dancer so much as I became a dancer because then, too, I was looking for ways to articulate and amplify what I knew to be true within my body.

Sarah Cottrell:

I am excited about your upcoming show at the CMCA.  Can you talk a little bit about the piece you have in that show titled Still / Moving?

Deborah Wing-Sproul:

Actually there are no works in the exhibition of that title. Rather, "still / moving" speaks to all of the works in the exhibition, in that I'm engaging with the space between (to quote from Nancy Princenthal’s catalogue essay) “stasis and mobility”. I think of stillness as a kind of quiet. I identify with John Cage's reflections on silence--there is no silence, there's always some kind of sound, however subtle it may be. Similarly, there is no “stillness,” there is always some measure of movement. It's just a question of how keenly you listen or look and how fast you're going in comparison.  In keeping with the larger arc of my practice, all of the works in this exhibition function as an extension of my body in all its various stages of stillness or movement.

Sarah Cottrell:

As a successful interdisciplinary artist in Maine can you talk just a little bit about what kinds of skills young Maine artists will need to be successful themselves?

Deborah Wing-Sproul:

Trust your instincts. Be true to yourself. Be informed. Be a diligent and rigorous researcher. Persevere. There is no roadmap to being an artist. You just have to do it. The path a person takes will, ultimately, be uniquely her/his own. This comes back to following your instincts. Instincts are like fingerprints; they're unique. I know that all of this might sound vague and not terribly helpful, but in truth it's that simple.

Deborah Wing-Sproul: still / moving a solo exhibition in three parts

October 1–December 11, 2011 Reception, Saturday, October 1, 4–6 pm

Durational Devices + photographic prints + video works

October 1 – December 11, CMCA galleries

embodiment durational performance Saturday, October 15, Pascal Hall*, 4:30-6:30 pm

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies this exhibition, with essays by MASS MoCA Curator, Denise Markonish and writer/critic Nancy Princenthal. Available for purchase at CMCA.

CMCA

162 Russell Avenue, Rockport

Tuesday - Saturday: 10 am to 5 pm

Sunday: 1 to 5 pm

Closed Monday

*Pascal Hall is located at 86 Pascal Avenue, Rockport

The artist’s Tidal Culture: Part VI (Outer Hebrides) and exhibition catalogue were funded in part by grants from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Throughout his twenty-one year career Boston-based photographer Dominic Chavez has traveled the globe documenting some of the most challenging of human conditions. Chavez demonstrates an exceptional ability to reveal elements of beauty amidst grim circumstances through his compassionate manner and technical expertise. His work portrays the depth of the human spirit and straddles both photojournalism and fine art photography, shedding light on the complexity of issues encountered by people around the globe. Chavez has recorded the effects of war in Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Angola, the AIDS crisis facing the nations of Africa, and a wide variety of global health issues. His most recent project documents the lack of clean water in Sierra Leone and other locations throughout Africa. “The best way to tell a story as an artist is to combine your craft with the passion in your heart. It would be a crime to tell a story with only craft and no heart. It would also be a crime to tell a story with only heart and no craft.”  

http://umainetoday-dev.umaine.edu/past-issues/fall-2011/student-focus

Without Borders VIII: Breaking Ground

The University of Maine's Intermedia Master of Fine Arts presents
Without Borders VIII: Breaking Ground. The exhibition will open on
August 12 in the Lord Hall gallery on campus and run through September
16.

This year's Without Borders features the thesis work of the first graduating class from the IMFA program; John Bell, Richard Corey, Ryan Guerrero, Bethany Engstrom, Matthew Leavitt and Justin Taylor. The exhibition presents a variety of art that exists "between" traditional art forms, and includes installation, variable media, sound art and community based graffiti.

"The Without Borders exhibition this year is very exciting for me, not only does this present the first full class of graduating University of Maine MFA students in Intermedia, but also the nature and breadth of the work itself is really remarkable. What is a clear, is that if nurtured, creativity can take almost any form, and what I keep coming back to is that although the work presented is very divergent, there is a wonderful and strong sense of what is possible in, or through an intermedia approach, Owen Smith, Director of the IMFA said.

The exhibit is free and open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A closing reception is scheduled for September 15 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. More information on Without Borders is available at www.withoutbordersfest.org/ and information on the Intermedia MFA can be found at www.intermediamfa.org/

For my graduate thesis project, which will consist of a two-part, live mural paint session will take place from July 26th-29th. Locations for this mural thesis project will be at the corner of Mill Street at Verve and Dr. Records, and on the University of Maine Campus' mall near the Lord Hall parking lot.

The mural will be painted with aerosol cans. The theme/idea of the mural includes 4 plywood panels (16 by 8 feet) using a Maine theme. The side panels will have a landscape. The two center panels will include graffiti lettering, which are to be painted at the campus location. At the campus location the mural parts will all be joined. The main focus of this project is community engagement with a focus of the potential positive effects of graffiti art within a community.

Times & Locations:

JULY 26 TUESDAY 8am-1pm/2pm
JULY 27 WEDNESDAY 8am-till mural completed
JULY 28 THURSDAY (rain day if needed) 8am-1pm/2pm

MCRCSM is a multimedia installation, which prioritizes the process of change between macrocosmic to microcosmic points of view. It does so by accepting audio and visual information as it is captured in real time while utilizing computer processing to render a spatialized output. The processing codes that dictate the way sound and digital video are rendered are dependent upon information gathered from audience interaction and environmental data during the event. All aspects of the installation are interconnected. Upon investigation any one individual component will demonstrate its dependence on a web of relationships to reveal both broader and more focused layers of complexity. A single sound may emerge from the space and have an identity, however it’s recognized identity will eventually bring one’s recognition back to its’ relationship to the whole system.

The space in which humanity exists is always linked to the greater system of the universe, or the totality of existence. Direct effect cannot always be measured, but the effect on the environment is always present,whether it appears so or not. MCRCSM celebrates the importance of each individual within a larger structure, but also appreciates the vastness of the system operating outside of individual, and human control.

In the space of MCRCSM each individual has her own definite effect on the environment, working in conjunction with the other individuals (knowingly or unknowingly) along with simulated environmental processes in order to create the universe of MCRCSM.

Above text found at the MCRCSM website mcrcsm.wordpress.com

The 2011 GradExpo, a two day event that features the research of each graduate department was in full swing this past week at Wells Commons. This year the Intermedia students took over an entire conference room to showcase works ranging from paintings and performances to exercises in wabi sabi aesthetics and video art to name a few.  WABI covered a portion of the event and that video can be seen here:

Contraulationbs to all of the prize winners for excellence in research.  The categories and winners are listed in alphabetical order below.

In the Intermedia division:

Third place is Richard Corey (Intermedia) - for his piece “The Gorsedd” 

In the oral presentation division:

Third place is Megan Patterson (Ecology and  Environmental) - for her presentation Negative Effect of Phostrol on Colorado Potato Beetles

In the PechaKucha  division:

Third place is Patrick Spinney (Electrical Engineering) for his presentation Next Generation DNA Sequencing

In the Poster presentation division:

Third place is Yosef Manik ( Forest Resources) for his poster Attribution Life Cycle Assessment of Palm BioDiesel

The Intermedia MFA Visiting Artist Series PRESENTS:

This past Friday, March 25th, the Intermedia MFA program and the Graduate Student Government (GSG) co-hosted a graduate humanities wide workshop on how to write an effective grant proposal.  The event was organized by Intermedia MFA student, Sarah Cottrell with some help by GSG Vice President, Kurt Klappenbach.  The event was held from noon until 4:00 PM with guest presenters Donna McNeil from the Maine Arts Commission, Dr. Linda Silka from the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and Dr. Laura Lindenfeld from Communications and Journalism and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center.

The Camden International Film Festival is currently seeking experimental and new media works for the Panoptic section of it’s program for 2011. We’re looking for pieces from emerging or established artists which transcend traditional forms and give a fresh perspective on the idea of documentary.  In the past we have shown animation, sound, sculptural installation, video installation, photography, interactive works, experimental shorts and live performance. This year we are looking to expand our program by offering a program of experimental short films to be shown in the festival lineup and a gallery show of forward thinking artworks in emerging media.  Please spread the word and help us bring exposure to some amazing work!

Short films: We're looking for the best in experimental short films with a documentary focus. Please submit if you have work that pushes the boundaries of the traditional documentary form and is under 15 minutes in length.

For more information, or to submit your work go to:

www.kahbang.com/festival-info/submit-your-work 

Submission Period: OPEN
mail to art@kahbang.com 

This past Friday we were lucky to have the talents of second year Intermedia MFA student, Reese Inman for a DIY Workshop on building simple online artist portfolios using Wordpress.  Reese walked the participants through the basics of Wordpress and gave everyone time to play with their newly acquired skills.  By the end of the three hour workshop each participant was able to walk away with a basic portfolio posted online with skills for maintaining their individual sites.

This past Monday evening, 100 Lord Hall was packed with Art, New Media, Intermedia and Philosophy students to hear Ian Kerr discuss a possible answer to the crazy question, What is art?!  Throughout his talk Mr. Kerr drew form the canons of history, evolution, and philosophy to seek a new perspective on answering this "absurd" question. He began with discussing the tendency for people to describe as being anything and how this attitude comes at the cost of separating the art world into it's own untouchable sphere.  He went onto to reimagining new ways to engage with art in terms of existing in - and creating a new world. 

Ian Kerr, Associate in Critical Engagement, has had an academic affiliation with the Intermedia MFA program since 2009.  He frequently visits students in their studios and classrooms, often involving grads in workshops, lectures, and collaborative projects.  This spring semester Mr. Kerr will be heading to Detroit with a small group of graduates to collaborate on an open-ended project involving urban landscape.

Ms. Poitras-Santos talk is titled: "wishbone, dowser, migration, home (the art of searching for anything lost, missing or badly needed)”, and will be held in Lord Hall, Room 100, at 7:00 p.m.. On Wednesday, March 16, Studio Visits can be arranged by appointment or ‘one-on-ones’, in Stillwater, Chadbourne Hall, by emailing Carol Ayoob, at carol.ayoob@umit.maine.edu

*This Lecture is in part generously funded by the University of Maine Cultural Affairs and Distinguished Lecture Series 

Greetings,

Formerly the Graduate Research Exposition, the GradExpo (Graduate Academic Exposition) is an annual showcase for all graduate students across the wide spectrum of graduate programs available here at the University of Maine. It provides a platform for them to showcase the fruit of their explorations and research as well as their innovations and creations.

The GradExpo takes place this year, 2011, for two full days on April 21st and 22nd at the Wells Conference Center. Entrants are selected from graduate students at the University of Maine who want to present their work in an academically competitive atmosphere. Entries may consist of an academic poster presentation, art installation or performance, or oral presentation, and this year we have added Pecha Kucha (www.pecha-kucha.org/what) for those who wish to try this exciting new way of presenting information.

This year entrants will be divided into separate academic categories – so they will be competing against other graduate students in similar fields: Physical Sciences and Technology (Physics, Mechanical Engineering, etc.); Natural Sciences (Forestry, Ecology and Environmental Science, etc.); Liberal Arts I (Economics, Sociology, Communications, etc.) and Liberal Arts II (English, Modern Languages, Inter Media, etc.). This evens the playing field while facilitating the judging of the events as well.

We will also have a special keynote speaker for the opening night celebration and dinner, and a special presenter for the closing awards ceremony. Our U.S. Senators and Representatives, as well as their State of Maine counterparts and Governor LePage have all been invited to attend and see just what it is our graduate population accomplishes here.

In addition University of Maine undergraduates and students from all State of Maine institutes of higher education have been extended an invitation as well.

Guidelines and entry forms will be available in late January for each of the categories, and will be available for download and submission via this site.

So mark your calendars now! We look forward to seeing all of you.

Kurt M. Klappenbach

Graduate Student Government

Vice President and GradExpo Chair

It is tradition that an MFA program hold an annual open house event to draw in visitors from the community to share the talents and work of its students.  Since the Intermedia program is in its infancy, the students have taken to the streets to hold an annual showcase in some very untraditional spaces.  By doing this the students and their leadership hope to encourage community engagement and to bring some attention to local talent.

This past December the 34 intermedia graduate students worked together to create a three days showcase in two different locations, Orono and Bangor.

A small group of intermedia students calling themselves Core 5, created an immersive community driven dinner theatre.  Core 5 titled the event The Gorsedd: A Culinary Incident and was held at the Pavilion Theater on the UMaine Orono campus.  The Pavilion theater seats 89 and was originally built as a livestock judging space.  The Gorsedd event used the spookiness of the space to create a post-apocalyptic meeting hall where townspeople would gather to have their memories adjusted.  Audience members unwittingly played the part of townsfolk and were subject to a delightful evening of marvelous food and a mixture of improv and scripted acting.  This is the second dinner theater collaboration for this group of students.  

In Bangor, IMFA graduate students worked together to create an eclectic show at the old Movie Gallery storefront in downtown.  Walls were primed and painted, lighting was adjusted, and installations, performance, sculptures, paintings and video projections were all installed in time for the December 16th opening.  During the opening Slou and Kate Dawson performed a Fluxus piece titled Draw A Straight Line And Follow It composed by Lamonte Young.  Slou re-choreographed the piece to be in homage to Nam June Paik's famous version of the piece, this time being performed by two women.  Later in the evening a popular local band, Good Kids Sprouting Horns, helped to bring the show to an energetic close with a 30-minute set.  On display were over 17 artist works ranging from culinary creations to interactive sculpture and video installations.  

For images from the show check out the department Flickr page.

Third year student, Allison Melton hit the ground running with her first chance to teach an undergraduate New Media class.  The class, NMD 295 Creative Concept Development, introduced students to thinking critically about developing creative work strategies, research methodologies and finding interesting ways to communicate ideas and questions through a work of art.  Throughout the semester the 10 students met to discuss readings, in-progress works and to plan for a final art show, which was held this past December in downtown Bangor

The show, titled CLUTTER: A Creative Exploration Of Junk & Stuff, which the students organized entirely on their own from creating works of art to securing a location and even creating their own PR and press kits, turned out to be a truly successful event for everyone involved.  

After a full semester crash course in learning about the creative process the students were able to articulate their lessons in an abstracted way through the theme of their show.  While describing her experience with the students Allison had this to say about the show and the students involved; "The clutter theme speaks to this process of learning because through out the class the students have learned how to organize their thoughts and ideas through a streamlined process in an effort to create a finished work."

CLUTTER: A Creative Exploration Of Junk & Stuff was open for one night, December 10th, 2010 at 29 Broad Street in Bangor, Maine.  The NMD 295 Creative Concept Development students, and instructor, Allison Melton, sponsored this show.

  

(left) Scott Forand's installation depicted his own personal workspace. The workspace included reference books, sketches, and 3d models as you would see them as if he was actually working on them in the space.
(right) Jordan Moody's photos depicting feelings of nostalgia and loss. The images were in a variety of frames adding to the intent of the project as well as the theme of the show itself.

On the evening of Thursday, December 2nd, Professor of Sculpture and Director of Public Engagement at MECA - Christina Bechstein spoke to students and faculty who gathered in Lord Hall 100 for her talk entitled “Cover the World”.  One and a half hours was not enough to show in detail, the twenty-year career of Bechstein’s collaborative and public works.  She spoke about the need to pose the questions, “What do you live by?”  “What do you live for?”  These questions are based on Bruce Mao’s “Incomplete Manifesto”.  She shared a recent project “What is Your Soundtrack”, in which teens are invited to speak about these very questions.  The voices are recorded and layered with minimal instrumentation; it is a beautiful, rich, and telling voice scape.  

Bechstein will be back in the Spring (2011) semester to teach the Collaborative Practices Research Studio Class.  There, she is bound to talk about reciprocity as having an ongoing dialogue with one’s work. “Collaboration can be murky”, says Bechstein, “a place to challenge one’s ego, and allow others’ ownership over one’s ideas.”  

Amy Pierce, a “first-year” Intermedia Grad Student said of Bechstein’s request for the audience to close their eyes and listen to the “What is Your Soundtrack” recording, “I became present and more receptive from the start, by closing my eyes and hearing the piece.  I thought that was an important way to open her discussion.”  Christina met with a number of students the next day, before her trip back to Portland; we are excited to explore the depth of more questioning whence she returns in January.

The art installation that I presented in the VI Biennale of Tijuana was called Skinning (In Spanish Desprendimientos).  This was an installation of a huge human cocoon measuring 17.40 feet tall and made of transparent plastic, pork skin, horsehair and thread. The materials explore the paradoxes of the human condition; the relationship between wrappings and smothering, and oppression and freedom.  To complement the dialog with materials and technique, sewing and embroidery with hair horse and thread are presented in the piece to refer to the invisible connections, attachments, and suturing incisions that we are continuously involved with in daily life. 

In a metaphorical context this installation refers to the transformation, metamorphosis and diverse forms that exist in a determined space. This space is where small events can have large and wide spread changes such as the color of a flapping butterfly's wings while in flight once it has gained its freedom from the cocoon. Creating this discourse of cause-and-effect in context of the course of change and movement in a human life is an important part of this work. 

Realtime Moments

 Artist Reza Safavi will talk about his current interactive art projects and collaborations. Reza's work investigates how the presence of technology in daily life shapes human experience: our perceptions, social behavior, economics, entertainment and the way we meet our basic needs. He uses video, photography, sound, sculpture and digital devices to create interactive experiences that highlight the interface between people and machines. For more information On Reza's projects visit his web site at: http://www.hi-reza.com/

Safavi received an MFA in Digital Arts from the University of Oregon and a BFA from the University of Victoria.  His work has recently been exhibited at the University of Maine's Without Borders Festival,  Medialab Prado (Spain), Hartwick College (New York). He is a member of a video performance collective called DataIRJ that has recently performed at Disjecta, Portland, OR and the Live Cinema Summit in Chicago, IL.  He is a recipient of a Washington State Artist Trust grant and has been living in Washington for the last three years working as Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Washington State University.

Mr. Safavi will give a public presentation on November 9th in room 100 of Lord Hall.  He will also meet with students, one-on-one the following day, November 10th in Stillwater.

As Carol placed pieces of trash on the conveyor belt, Sarah Peters turned the conveyor's crank that fed the trash over the belt and dumped it out on to the floor below, which was painted like an asphalt road complete with yellow lines.  Anatole Wieck performed music that he interpreted by the patterns placed on the conveyor belt while Karen Montanaro danced to Wieck's musical cues.  The performance continued through three parts until all of the trash had made its journey across the conveyor belt and onto the floor.

The piece was met with great applause by the audience.  Carol Ayoob is beginning plans for a repeat performance in a larger venue.

The Camden International Film Festival, in partnership with Asymmetrick Arts, Binaural Nodar and the Maine Arts Commission is proud to present it's second annual exhibition of new media installation and experimental documentary shorts at the Asymmetrick Arts Gallery in Rockland Maine. Included in this exhibition is the work of Intermedia MFA  Graduate student Bethany Engstrom.

You are also invited to attend a gallery talk and panel discussion on Saturday October 2nd at 4:00 PM at Asymmetrick arts with Kirsten Gilg of the Maine Arts Commission, Owen Smith of the University of Maine at Orono and artists Maile Colbert and Jonathan Laurence. The panel will discuss emerging media and experimental documentary in Maine and beyond.

For more information on PANOPTIC see: http://camdenfilmfest.org/blog/post/665

For more information on the Film Festival see: http://camdenfilmfest.org/