"Look up from your screens. The only adventure is resistance."
That sentiment, by writer-philosopher-anarchist John Zerzan, accompanies the most recent art installation by Department of Art Assistant Professor Christopher Michlig. Michlig asked Zerzan to collaborate with him on the installation for Portland2014, a biennial exhibition that celebrates artists who are defining and advancing contemporary art practices.
The March 25 issue of Art Jewelry Forum spotlights a recent series by Associate Professor Anya Kivarkis. In this work, Kivarkis reconstructs jewelry from the September 2007 Vogue that showcased luxury goods, an issue of the magazine ironically released at the beginning of the Great Recession. Declining to project the message of wealth and power in the opulent pieces of the magazine spread, Kivarkis instead mediates their conventional perfection and material value.
A cover story in the spring 2014 (47:1) issue of Exposure explores UO art Professor Terri Warpinski’s unfolding series of photographs about borders, Surface Tension. “Warpinski places us at the edge of the action with an opportunity to experience [the border] viscerally,” writes photography curator Katherine Ware. “A wall is not a solution but rather a monument to an ongoing crisis.
Experimentation in teaching is not new in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. From the noncompetitive, nongraded studio courses in architecture initiated at the school’s founding to experiments with new media and motion graphics leading to national leadership in digital arts, to pioneering public policy efforts such as Oregon’s land use law, A&AA is a rich environment for trying out new ideas. Enterprising faculty members and students who shared a spirit of collaboration and experimentation and who were not adverse to risk-taking founded the school in 1914.
A student-designed and created drinking cup from the ARTC 410 “Prototyping and Manufacturing” course may end up on a table in Carson Dining Hall or the A&AA Willcox Hearth in the future.
The experimental course, under way in winter 2014, combines the disciplines of product design and ceramics and introduces students to social practice, design, and manufacturing. The class instructs students to formulate a design for a cup that is suitable for UO campus food vendors.
Michael E. Walsh was on track to teach English as a second language in Kenya on a Peace Corps mission when the Vietnam War took his career on an unexpected detour in 1966. He was at Columbia University, training for the Peace Corps at the Institute for Education in Africa, Teachers College, when his draft number came up.
University of Oregon Professor Craig Hickman's tinkering to create a computer drawing program that his 3-year-old son could use has landed him a prominent niche in the 30th anniversary celebration of the Macintosh computer.
Honored as a man who epitomized the “highest ideal of the word ‘teacher,’ ” Paul Buckner is remembered for his work in stone, metal, and wood and for his legacy of fine arts teaching.
Professor Emeritus Paul Buckner (1933-2014) passed away on Saturday, February 1, of a recently diagnosed illness, ALS. He was an important member of the Department of Art, the school, and the university community.
Student athletes often have to balance their academic course loads with physical activities, and Laurenne Ross, an art major, is no exception. A long time avid skier, she is getting ready to compete in the downhill skiing portion at the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. To get the full story, read about it on Around the O.
The movie “Monuments Men,” which opens in theaters across the country Thursday, February 6, has a direct connection to the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The movie tells the story of nearly 350 architects, artists, art historians, curators, and museum directors who joined the U.S. military specifically to save cultural treasures from destruction by the Third Reich in the waning days of World War II. Two of these “art heroes” spent significant time in A&AA: Gordon Gilkey, MFA ’36, and Mark Sponenburgh, who taught art at A&AA from 1946-1957.
