College of Design

Influence of neuroscience on art explored in talk Jan. 23

Associate Professor Kate Mondloch will discuss new media artist Mariko Mori’s multimedia installation “Wave UFO” during a talk at noon January 23 in the Jane Grant Conference Room, 330 Hendricks Hall, 1408 University Street, on the UO campus. The presentation is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mondloch is associate professor and director of graduate studies at the UO Department of the History of Art and Architecture. Her talk is entitled “Mind Over Matter: Mariko Mori and the Neuroscientific Turn.”

Entries for inflatable architecture design contest due Feb. 1

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) and Master Capital Management are hosting an inflatable architecture design contest inspired by the 1970s designs of an experimental architectural group and artist collective. Submissions are due February 1.

All architects, artists, designers, students, faculty, and members of the public are welcome to enter. The JSMA encourages both professionals and amateurs to create teams of three to five people to explore the possibilities of inflatable design.

New project aims to design, build, sell new residence annually

Architecture and landscape architecture students in the “OregonBILDS 2” studio at the University of Oregon are designing prototypes for an annual series of classes that will design and build a residence every year, with profits from each unit’s sale poured into a fund to make the program self-perpetuating. A grant from the UO Meyer Fund for a Sustainable Environment helped launch the idea.

Ending ‘separate but equal’ spaces

“That one is very disorienting,” says Kyu-ho Ahn, handing a visitor eyewear designed to simulate what it’s like to have macular degeneration. The low-vision goggles only allow vision at the outer edges of the eyes, forcing the wearer to turn their body sideways to view reading material, a store aisle, a bus doorway, or a large room, making daily navigation anything but simple.

Symposium May 25 to honor Professor Kenny Helphand

“Landscape Thinking,” a special symposium honoring University of Oregon landscape architecture Professor Emeritus Kenneth Helphand on his retirement from forty years of teaching, will be held Saturday, May 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the UO Ford Alumni Center, 1720 E. 13th Avenue, Eugene. The event will help fund an endowment for a lecture series named in honor of Helphand. The deadline to reserve tickets is May 15.

Ribe coauthors journal article on ecosystem services

University of Oregon Professor Robert Ribe recently coauthored an article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article focuses on how cultural and aesthetic experiences factor in when applying ecosystem services to policy- and decision-analysis. The global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment advocated this method of decision-making, which has been adopted by the European Union, Australia, the U.S.

Mark Sponenburgh, artist, faculty member, UO donor, dies

Sculptor and educator Mark Sponenburgh died December 6, 2012, at his home on the Oregon Coast. He was 94. He taught at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts from 1946 to 1957. Sponenburgh was devoted to the study and practice of the arts with special focus on sculpture and art history. He established an endowment fund in 1997 at the UO Foundation to support a lectureship on the history and aesthetics of sculpture and for a graduate student research award.