Kestrell

MIT: free talk: Technology in Stagecraft and Storytelling

2012-04-23T18:06:36Z

Reserve your free tickets now!

This Thursday:
Technology in Stagecraft and Storytelling
with Robert Lepage and Peter Gelb
Thursday, April 26, 2012
5:00pm | Kresge Auditorium
48 Massachusetts Avenue‚ Cambridge, MA 02139

FREE and open to the public.
Online tickets available until midnight Wednesday April 25. Tickets available in person in Kresge Auditorium starting at 3pm on Thursday April 26.

Robert Lepage, 2012 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT recipient in dialogue with Peter Gelb, General Manager, Metropolitan Opera.

Join Robert Lepage and Peter Gelb in a conversation about the use of technology in stagecraft and storytelling that includes highlights from the Met's Ring cycle.
http://arts.mit.edu/mcdermott/lepage-at-mit/
In residence at MIT from April 24-26, Robert Lepage will collaborate with MIT students, meet with the MIT community, and participate in two free public programs. Learn more about Lepage and his MIT residency: http://arts.mit.edu/mcdermott/

Lepage's residency is made possible by:
Council for the Arts at MIT
Arts at MIT
MIT's Department of Music and Theater Arts

The arts at MIT are rooted in experimentation, risk-taking and imaginative problem-solving.
More at arts.mit.edu

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Registration has opened for MFA art classes

2011-12-01T15:56:42Z

Here's a link to the sculpture and multimedia classes, which include assemblage and welding
http://www.mfa.org/search/programs?solrsort=sort_date+asc&filters=event_type%3A%22Studio+Art+Class%22+studio_art_sub%3AOther

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New NFB mailing list: Artists Making Art

2011-11-28T02:49:35Z

From the e-mail announcement:

The purpose of the Artists-Making-Art list is so that we can explore art with all our senses. We want to encourage each other to make art.
We want to share what we make as well as how we make it. Everyone is welcome. Join us on this journey of self-expression.

(it is hoped that the list can generate enough interest to start an artists and art division in the NFB. To subscribe to the list either go to:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/artists-making-art_nfbnet.org

or send e-mail to
artists-making-art-request@nfbnet.org
and put the word subscribe in the subject line.

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Imaginary image blog

2011-11-26T13:18:06Z

Kes: This blog posts descriptions of surreal images which don't actually exist, so being blind is not a problem
http://imaginaryimageblog.tumblr.com/

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Mobius strip bracelet

2011-11-24T15:55:34Z

Pricey but so cool! The mobius strip is my favorite shape, as it is infinitely twisted.
http://www.readerscatalog.com/collections/jewelry/products/ralph-waldo-emerson-mobius-bracelet

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An Evening in Greece program at the MFA

2011-11-22T14:04:13Z

As part of the Aphrodite exhibit, the MFA will have a program on Nov. 30 which will include Greek music, wines, and drama based upon Ovid's "Metamorphosis"--it all sounds delightful!
http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/evening-greece

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Kinetic sculpture and sonnets at MIT Museum's Friday After Thanksgiving event

2011-11-21T21:12:54Z

Arthur Ganson, renown for his kinetic sculptures at the MIT Museum leads the 14th Annual Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction Event!

Friday, November 25th
Rockwell Cage Gymnasium at MIT
1 - 4 p.m.

This year we're celebrating the number 14 (where else but here do we have such fun with numbers?) by also running simultaneously a number of Sonnet/ poetry activities.

Join in this afternoon public/community art & engineering event with friends and family - escape the commercial pressures of the world to shop - and come express yourself, enjoy the teams who bring wildly imaginative contraptions to get connected up with each other, and just have fun.
Admission includes admission to the MIT Museum 9open till 6 pm on Friday) a few blocks up the street, as well.

http://web.mit.edu/museum/about/pr/2011/fat.html

Discounted tickets available until 11/23 at
http://mit.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.asp?id=188&cid=28

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Silk batik scarf tutorial

2011-11-21T18:21:01Z

From the Dharma Web site
Silk batik scarf tutorial you can make in your kitchen in an afternoon
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/10181838-AA.shtml
The Facebook post also mentions being able to use their Setasilk paints for the batik, and I know they sell tie-dye silk scarf kits that you can do in the microwave.
This sounds relatively simple but...chartreuse and violet?? Oh my eyes!

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Can you name this Vermeer painting?

2011-11-21T13:45:17Z

I've been attempting to discover the title for my favorite Vermeer painting for a couple years, with no luck, so I thought i would post a description and find out if any of my friends could identify it.

The subject of the painting is a young woman, side view facing to the left, wearing a white apron and carrying a white pitcher. She is a little to the right of the painting, with a wall behind her. The wall and the stones beneath ehr feet are sunlit, giving them a slightly creamy gold color (for some reason, this always makes me think that it is early morning in the painting). The wall behind the young woman ends, leaving the upper left corner of the painting open to reveal a background showing a wooden ship with a bright blue sky behind it.

I don't think this is one fo Vermeer's most well-known paintings, but I love the color of the wall and that Vermeer blue sk

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Bat art

2011-11-04T13:05:38Z

The photo of the flock of bats sounds as if it would be amazing, as do the line drawings of individual bats
http://www.shadowmanor.com/blog/?p=11061

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NEA releases information about artists in the work force

2011-10-29T14:18:44Z

Kes: This has lots of intriguing data, but perhaps most interesting is how it contradicts the stereotype of the artist as living alone and existing outside the world of everyday business
http://www.arts.gov/news/news11/Research-Note-105.html

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Director Robert Wilson to lecture at MIT

2011-10-28T12:32:19Z

Kes: for those theatrically-inclined friends of mine who may not be acquainted with this artist, I encourage you to check out the Wikipedia article which discusses his career and style.

Wed. November 9, 2011, 7 PM
MIT ROOM 10-250, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has frequently been called the world’s foremost vanguard theater artist. His
early activities often focused on work with blind and deaf actors and incorporated themes of autism. Over the course of his diverse career, Wilson has
worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and light designer.
Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wilson_%28director%29

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How to make your own Big Daddy doll

2011-09-17T16:38:45Z

Alexx came home with one of these--the backstory is that a Little Sister makes one from found objects. The beauty of this is, it's almost impossible to make it look wrong, I mean, any more wrong than it already looks, so you don't have to worry about your skill level. Also, there's lots of room for using whatever comes to hand--Alexx's had a corkscrew drill which looked particularly awesome, I mean, evil, very bad, don't make these at home, kids.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bioshock-2-Big-Daddy-Doll/

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San Francisco artist plans prosthetic eye-cam for creating transmedia art

2011-09-14T17:24:17Z

Somehow, I failed to hear about this Kickstarter project while it was running but, happily, the artist did meet her goal.
Kickstarter page for
Grow a New Eye by San Francisco artist Tanya Marie Vlach
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/growaneweye/grow-a-new-eye
which describes the technical details and also--be still my little media studies heart--describes her transmedia ambitions for the eye-cam.

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Some people will probably hate me for this but...

2011-06-27T15:16:22Z

Craft Roulette
http://www.craftroulette.com/
combines crafting cravings and time wasting to a degree that is pretty much irresistible.

Also, I appreciate the suggestion, but I think I should just say "No" to the Nutella brownies (why does this strike me as a Londo food?)

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Sleep No More/Play Dead/NYC report

2011-03-15T14:07:39Z

It was a very fun weekend of spooky theatre in NYC. Both of the shows Alexx and I went to are of the "difficult to describe without giving spoilers" variety, so I shall limit myself to some comments.

"Sleep No More" takes place in a labyrinthian industrial space with dozens (a hundred?) smaller spaces,each an eerie assemblage which could be said to reflect some literal or psychological space contained within the text of "Macbeth." Each of these spaces has it's own soundscape, thus the 1920s bar plays steampunk/darkwave music, while a strange maze constructed of bare and twisted trees has the sounds of a howling wind blowing over a blasted heath. Through this space or labyrinth of spaces move the actors, who come together and sepearate in a nonlinear performance of the scenes from "Macbeth."
My feet gave out at just about the time I was getting seriously squicked by the dynamics of this performance. This is the setup: the "audience" wanders through this immense wasteland of a space, coming upon the disconcerting rooms--Hecate's workshop, for instance, a small room filled with bundles of herbs, small animal skeletons, and old empty bird cages--and whenever the viewers spot Macbeth, or Lady M., or the witches, the various viewers take off to follow the character to witness the unfolding scene. A couple of times I was caught up and carried along by Alexx or the audience, and I became increasingly uncomfortable with my role as a viewer. The intimate scenes between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth which first combine sex and bloodlust and then become increasingly tinged with guilt and madness come to feel almost unbearable when you are in the bedroom with the characters. The various collections and shrines of old books, statues, and medical instruments invoke tragedy and nightmare even when the rooms are uninhabited.

"Play Dead"
http://www.playdeadnyc.com/
was another mixed experience for me. Todd Robbins
http://www.toddrobbins.com/ToddHome.htm
is a fantastic performer, and I enjoyed his discussions of mostly early twentieth-century murder and spiritualism. However, I really didn't feel the fear and surprise experienced by the people around me. Am I just a jaded horror fan? Is it because, as a blind person, I don't feel a sense of anxiety about sitting in a room in the dark, as many of the people around me experienced when the lights went out? I don't think I jumped even once, although I could feel Alexx jumping occasionally. My reaction to my lack of reaction was not disappointment in the show, which I feel is well worth seeing, but a certain wistfulness regarding my own inability to be spooked or surprised.

On our way to "Play Dead," which is being staged in Greenwich Village, Alexx and I stopped at a very eccentric bookstore named
Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books.
http://unoppressivebooks.blogspot.com/
which is also a shrine to Bob Dylan. We also had a snack at Rocco's Pastry Shop on Bleecker St., which advertised having "the world's best connoli." It was a damn fine cannoli.

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Free knitting/spinning event this Saturday in Worcester

2010-10-20T19:51:55Z

Sheep to Shawl - Llama to Pajama

Presented by the City of Worcester
and sponsored by VSA Massachusetts
with support from the Greater Worcester Community Foundation

Saturday, October 23, 2010
Noon - 4:00 p.m. (Rain or Shine)
ADMISSION IS FREE

Green Hill Park Farm
Green Hill Parkway,
Worcester, MA

A sheep saying - Learn how clothing is made from our wool.
A llama saying - Live llama shearing at 2:00 p.m. See me get a haircut!

Learn how to card, spin, knit, and weave using animal fibers!
Enjoy hands-on games and songs for the whole family!

This event is knitted, woven, and patched together by: City of Worcester;
SAORI Worcester Freestyle Weaving Studio; Orchid Patch Farm;
Thread Gardens; Moondance Color Company; The Sheep Shack;
VSA Massachusetts; Worcester Center for Crafts;
Wachusett Spinners Guild; Lori Schafer Public Relations.

This project is funded in part by a grant from
Greater Worcester Community Foundation.

For more info call 508.757.4646 or email
Mihoko

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New book by C. G. Jung

2009-09-22T21:51:12Z

I requested that Bookshare try to acquire this book fromt he publisher and encourage other Bookshare members who are interested to also make a request. The $100+ price tag and the language issues make me think this book would be difficult to acquire and scan for myself. There's a link to a fascinating NY Times article about teh book at the end of this post.

The Red Book
by C. G. Jung, Sonu Shamdasani, Mark Kyburz, and John Peck (Hardcover - Oct 7, 2009)
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (October 7, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393065677
ISBN-13: 978-0393065671

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
By SARA CORBETT
Published: September 16, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html

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