On April 29, 2008, Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced the recipients of its 2008 Media Arts Fellowships; the Fellowship program was founded and is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. This year, TFI awarded $715,000 to 22 innovative filmmakers and media artists.

Awarded to filmmakers and media artists whose work is innovative, creative and pushes boundaries, the Fellowships provide support to 22 filmmakers and media artists each year. The Fellowships offer financial support for artists working in the narrative, documentary, experimental, installation and computer-generated media genres. The Media Arts Fellowships recognize the artistic excellence of 20 film, video and new media artists in the United States with cash awards of $35,000 each. The program also awards two additional Fellowships of $7,500 each to emerging film and video artists.

PAUL VANOUSE
Buffalo, NY 

Latent Figure Protocol is an installation in which human DNA samples will be treated in order to produce images. This live scientific experiment will be performed for audiences and recorded for subsequent exhibition. The images created will comment upon issues related to DNA fingerprinting, Eugenic theory and the genetic basis of identity. 

Paul Vanouse’s work, which touches upon genetics, identity and history, has been exhibited internationally. He has previously been recognized with awards from Ars Electronica, Creative Capital and New York State Council on the Arts. Vanouse currently teaches in the Department of Visual Studies at SUNY in Buffalo.

Link to full article at Renew Media

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“Totally Wired”
at Soundlab
Wed. May 7, 7-10 PM

“Totally Wired” features interactive installations, sonic experiments and media performances by students in Visual Studies courses: Interactive Computer Art and Real-Space Electronic Art. Artists include: Jason Acquilano, Jozef Bajus, Seokhwan Cheon, Sullivan Kerry Sheehan, Josh Petroski, Angel Rivera, Josh Rutski, Rob Rzeznik, Dan Sieracki, Olivier Delrieu-Shulze, Jessica Thompson,  Bingxia Yu. These artists are based in the Departments of Visual Studies and Media Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Soundlab (dedicated to the music, media & performance of Big Orbit Gallery)
110 Pearl St, corner Pearl/Swan (entrance behind building)

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Buffalo, NY—A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.

In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble.

Professor Kurtz’ lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was “pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end.”

The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.

Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds for Kurtz’ legal defense, said, “We are all grateful that after reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action.” She added that “this decision is further testament to our original statements that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been charged in the first place.”

BACKGROUND ON DR. STEVEN KURTZ AND CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

Critical Art Ensemble (which Kurtz co-founded in 1987 with Steven Barnes) has won numerous awards for its bio-art, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, honoring more than two decades of distinguished work. The group has been commissioned to exhibit and perform in many of the world’s cultural institutions—including the London Museum of Natural History; The ICA, London; the Whitney Museum and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; der Volksbüne, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; El Matadero, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo de Arte Carrilo Gil, Mexico City and many more.

For more information about the case, please visit: caedefensefund.org

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FRIDAY APRIL 25 1-3PM
The lawn directly west of The Center for the Arts

Bodies performing structures: this annual collaborative event features artworks creatively investigating the themes of BODY BASED ARCHITECTURE, MOBILITY, PORTABILITY AND MINIMAL ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Presented by the students of ART 120: Public Space, Department of Visual Studies – University at Buffalo

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What: Meet the City game (description below)
When: May 2nd at 5:45pm-8:30pm
Where: Allentown (starting location TBA)
Who: Teams of 3 people

WHY? Because it’s a lot of fun!

Meet the City is a two hour, supercharged scavenger hunt that encourages teams to investigate different areas of the city and interact with the people in it. Various clues lead players to ten checkpoint locations and their next photo assignment. Each checkpoint has a topic and a minimum number of people required for it. Some topics are meant to cause reflection (Worst Presidential Moment) and others are just plain fun (Broadway Musical). After deciding on an idea for the topic’s photo, teams must get other non-players to help them act it out and then send the photo via picture messaging to the Central Game Phone. When the two hours are up all teams meet back at the designated location to share experiences and judge each photo submission. Points are counted and the winning team receives the coveted Roaming Gnome.

Interested? Check out the website at meetthecity.calhoonplay.com to see the pictures from the last game!

How?!? If you have a full team of three - that’s great! But if you have two or one people I will find you a full team. Just send me your names, email addresses, and a team name (if there’s two or three of you) to:
morgan@calhoonplay.com

You will get a reminder email a few days before the game.

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Do Ask Do Tell: Observations on Emotional Health and Well-being

do tell us who your choice is for the People’s Choice Award! Voting begins Thursday, April 10 at 9am, through Wednesday, April 16 at 4pm. Ballots are located in the Department of Visual Studies Office, 202 Center for the Arts, Buffalo, NY 14260. On Thursday, April 17, 2008 be at the Center for the Arts Atrium for the Closing Reception and Awards Presentation.

Awards

• Best in Show $250
• Runner Up $100
• Honorable Mention $75
• People’s Choice Award $250 (DADT Artwork Exhibited in the CFA that receives the most votes as selected by the students, faculty & staff of the University.)

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UB’s Department of Visual Studies Presents:
4 cm Dilated:
The Exit Show
The work of 44 Graduating Seniors

Buffalo, NY-Opening April 13th, 4 cm Dilated: The Exit Show, an exhibition of this year’s graduating class, presenting their work collaboratively at Buffalo’s historic landmark, the Central Terminal, located at 495 Paderewski Drive. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be hosting an opening on Sunday, April 13th, 2-6 pm, and will have additional open hours on Saturday, April 19th, 1-5 pm, and Sunday, April 20th, 1-5 pm.

Each student was allowed to create their own piece without conceptual restraint, so the exhibit is as varied as the students creating it, and is the culmination of a year of research and studio work. This unique show deals with varied aesthetic and conceptual themes ranging from U.S. foreign policy to self-exploration, from identity to humor. The wide array of resources available at UB’s department of Visual Studies, along with the professional knowledge and support of the department professors, and the generosity of the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, has allowed students to organize this exhibition collaboratively, from public relations to curatorial, opening, and installation. The combination of talented young artists and the striking landmark structure of the Central Terminal in the midst of restoration aim to help creatively revitalize the Buffalo, New York area.

For more information, visit 4cmdilated.com.

Directions to Central Terminal:
From the North: 190 south to exit #4 (Fillmore/Smith Street). Right off the exit. Right onto Paderewski Drive.
From the South: 190 north to exit #4 (Fillmore/Smith Street). Left off the exit. Right onto Paderewski Drive.
From the 290: 290 to 90. 33 towards downtown Buffalo. Best Street/Science Museum exit. Left onto Best St. Right onto Fillmore. Left onto Paderewski Drive.

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Theories of Immersion
Graduate Seminar – Fall 2008 Term
VS 500, Reg # 036386
Tuesdays, 5:00 pm – 7:50 pm
UB North Campus, Room 606, Clemens Hall

Opinions are divided on the notion of immersion. Some assume it to be a by-product of the so-called “New Media” and the particular qualities set out by the apparatus itself, which enables those media to simulate an environment into which the viewer or user may insert him- or herself as a foreign body. In the context of this school of thought, one that recalls the impetus behind André Bazin’s “Myth of Total Cinema,” the synthetic spatial properties of such media are paramount. Thus technological developments are seen as key to an every more plastic experience. Continue reading New Course: VS 500 Theories of Immersion

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Juliet Koss, Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at Scripps College, “Invisible Wagner.”

Tues., April 15th at 1:15 in CFA 112.

The auditorium of Richard Wagner’s festival theater at Bayreuth, built in 1876 to present his music dramas, is famous for creating an uncertain relationship between the spectator’s body and the theatrical image. Numerous critics — from Camille Saint-Saëns in 1885 to Theodor Adorno in 1938 — have described this confusion of embodiment and opticality in terms of a loss of control, linking it to themes of intoxication, addiction, and sorcery long associated with Wagner’s music and his personality. “Invisible Wagner” lays bare the elements of this sorcery to perform what magicians call the “reveal.” Addressing the optical magic of the hovering stage image, the aural magic of the invisible orchestra, and the bodily phenomenon of the conductor who waves a baton like a magic wand, it traces these elements to Wagner’s notion of the /Gesamtkunstwerk/, or “total work of art,” from 1849. The mysterious, dark secret of Bayreuth, Koss argues, is a notion of invisibility that not only allowed Wagner and his work to be aligned with National Socialism half a century after his death but also, and as a result, buried the idea of the /Gesamtkunstwerk/ itself within the heart of modernism. 

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JAMES PAULSEN
“Corrupted Affinites”
Big Orbit 3/15 – 3/28
Closing reception: 3/28, 8-11 pm

COLLEEN CUNNINGHAM
“Velvet Death”
On view for one evening only 4/5, 7-11 pm
College Street Gallery

FOAD MOZAFFARI
“Local Anesthetic”
April 5 – April 19
Big Orbit
Opening reception 4/5, 8-11 pm

KEVIN KLINE
“Scripted Image”
April 19 – May 24, 2009
CEPA Gallery
Opening Reception: 4/19, 7-10 pm

GERALD MEAD
“Continuum”
Anderson Gallery
April 25 – June 1, 2008
Opening Reception: 4/25, 7-9 pm

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