Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival - February 20th, 2016

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Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Paradise Valley Community College

Center for the Performing Arts (CPA)

 

#puttingtheAinsteam

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Events/Activities:

12:00pm-4:00pm: OPEN HOUSE

Center for the Performing Arts Lobby/Gallery:

• PLAY, located in the SE corner of the gallery, is an interactive sound installation featuring a Theremin (electronic musical instrument) and several audio filters to alter the sound (via guitar effects pedals). Visitors are invited to PLAY the theremin and engage the guitar effects pedals to create unique tambres. In addition, schematic diagrams of the theremin and filters will be displayed for those interested in electronics and engineering.

• D!G, located in the West corner of the gallery. Designed as a dance/installation piece, D!G comprises 22 self-contained microprocessor/sensor/speaker assemblies. Each assembly utilizes a micro SD card to store and playback sensor data and a LiPo battery for power. Sensor/speaker assemblies are covered by hand-made crocheted pieces to give them a more appealing aesthetic. In playback mode in installation, sensors are distributed on string tapestries throughout the gallery. The intention is to allow audiences a more exploratory approach to the sound. Other features of the installation include a subsonic vibrating bench and tablets preloaded with an Android app. All elements work with the concept of the measurement/capture/representation of movement.

Center for the Performing Arts Music Room (CPA 115):

• A live electro-acoustic music performance featuring acoustic musical instruments (piano, percussion, strings, etc.) and electronic components, filters, compressors, effects units and computer software. PVCC commercial music faculty members Jacob Adler (instruments) and Tony Obr (technology) will lead the performance and hold a series of Q & A’s with audience members.

6:00pm-7:00pm: PRE-PERFORMANCE EXHIBITS

Center for the Performing Arts Lobby/Gallery:

• PLAY, located in the SE corner of the gallery, is an interactive sound installation featuring a Theremin (electronic musical instrument) and several audio filters to alter the sound (via guitar effects pedals). Visitors are invited to PLAY the theremin and engage the guitar effects pedals to create unique tambres. In addition, schematic diagrams of the theremin and filters will be displayed for those interested in electronics and engineering.

• D!G, located in the West corner of the gallery. Designed as a dance/installation piece, D!G comprises 22 self-contained microprocessor/sensor/speaker assemblies. Each assembly utilizes a micro SD card to store and playback sensor data and a LiPo battery for power. Sensor/speaker assemblies are covered by hand-made crocheted pieces to give them a more appealing aesthetic. In playback mode in installation, sensors are distributed on string tapestries throughout the gallery. The intention is to allow audiences a more exploratory approach to the sound. Other features of the installation include a subsonic vibrating bench and tablets preloaded with an Android app. All elements work with the concept of the measurement/capture/representation of movement.

7:00-10:00pm: SIGNATURE PERFORMANCES

Center for the Performing Arts Mainstage:

• An electro-acoustic musical performance featuring 3 miniature toy pianos and specially constructed speaker cones to playback 3 channels of 1-bit electronics.

• A new electro-acoustic performance and a multimedia embodiment (visual/audio) of real-time Twitter data. The Twitter data creates a generative graphic score that is interpreted by the performer on percussion instruments. Audience members are encouraged to participate by including the hashtag #SIFTT in their reaction tweets during the performance. Tweets that include the #SIFTT influence the algorithms that generate the audio and visual components of the work. 

• A live, improvised, multi-media work that blends digital and analog instruments and processes during a live performance

• A new percussion composition, Omónoia combines specific constellations (listed by Ptolemy) mapped as musical material and visual stimuli. The purpose is to create a graphic score that can be read in any direction. Additionally, the performers participate in creating the score by matching up portions of the score to make a map for performance. Performers use a wide range of implements to create various timbres while occasionally returning to the conventional method of playing the instrument. This piece demonstrates the importance of perspective and how vastly different interpretations can arise from the same material. 

• A real-time collaborative performance between two dancers, two musicians and a lighting designer. These five artists come together to compose a piece with light, music and dance in real-time. Each performance offers unique perspectives to the audience as it unfolds. Inspired by the passage of time, this collaboration revels in a temporal ebb and flow via the body, sound and shifting light.

The Fall 2015 Festival of Tales | Student Review by Nicole Zimora

The Festival of Tales is a FREE storytelling festival at Paradise Community college. From 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., children from the community engage in different types of literacy-based activities: arts & crafts, storytelling and more. During registration each child is given two tickets - one for a “book walk” and the other for a free book.

Children have the opportunity to pick their favorite book at a table set up with hundreds of different types of books for different reading levels. They receive free books by doing the “book walk.” Music plays as they walk around a number placement; when the music stops numbers are drawn and the number called out receives a free book! Children play games centered on literary characters and participate in storytelling sessions in which books are read aloud.

Throughout the event live music was playing provided by the PVCC Ensembles. Two bands played: a jazz band and a Latin jazz band. They had various instruments such as a saxophone, cello, bass guitar, and tambourine as their timbre and a piano. The rhythm of the songs that were being played made you want to get up and dance! It was a fun and great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Lecture and Workshop with Ana Thiel, International Glass Artist

Internationally known glass artist, Ana Thiel will be at PVCC in the ceramics studio to teach a workshop in techniques for casting molten glass in sand molds, Friday and Saturday, October 30, 31, 8am-4pm. Interested students, faculty or staff are encouraged to participate. The cost is free. Contact David L. Bradley to register.

On Sunday, November 8th, 3pm in the Center for Performing Arts, Ana will give a lecture on her artwork and philosophy of art. Free admission. Read below for more information on Ana and her artistic philosophy.

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How is a sculpture born? How can something come into form, being, that was not here before? How is the actual process?

Visiting artist Ana Thiel will share moments from her own (decades long) experience as she illustrates the various ways that the process from inception to completion actually takes place. She will describe how ideas are formulated, including the moments of struggle, escape, depth, discovery, and some of the hidden factors that she takes into account to actually allow a piece to exist or not in working with a fascinating material such as glass.

In short, Thiel will show us how she works through the creative process and how the creative process works through her.

The lecture will take place at the PVCC (Paradise Valley Community College) Center for Performing Arts auditorium in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sunday, November 8th at 3:00pm.

Admission is free, all are welcome.

Born in Mexico City, Ana Thiel first trained for Industrial Design and became actively involved in glass as an art medium in the 80s after attending Pilchuck Glass School, where she studied with James Carpenter, Bertil Vallien, Dan Dailey and took a master class with Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova. Her art is exhibited both in Mexico and internationally. Thiel has taught workshops in many countries and has been invited as a resident artist in the US, Japan, Egypt, Spain and France. Ana Thiel now lives and works in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

For more information, please visit:     www.anathiel.com

Introducing The Glassblowing Workshop @ PVCC

Seth Fairweather, Glassblowing Workshop Instructor

The Division of Fine and Performing Arts is pleased to announce the PVCC Glassblowing Workshop where students will learn the fundamentals of glassblowing from Seth Fairweather. 

Held from 5-10 pm in D building patio of the ceramics studio, the workshop is a 1 credit college course, ART295GA Section 45484. 

The workshop meets six times: 11/2,11/3, 11/4, 11/9, 11/10, 11/11

Cost: $81 tuition; $50 lab fee.

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For more information contact Professor David Bradley at david.bradley@paradisevalley.edu or (602) 787-6615.

Call for Submissions: Western Eye Student Photography Competition

The Western Eye Photography Competition is open to all Maricopa Community College students. Photos must have been taken between November 2014 – October 2015. This year's judge is nationally-acclaimed commercial photographer Rick Gayle.

Cash prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. A ribbon will be awarded for Honorable Mention.

1st place $400

2nd place $200

3rd place $100

Submissions will be accepted October 26 – 28, 2015 at the Eric Fischl Gallery or the Art Program Office in the ART Building at Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Rd. in Phoenix. (602.285.7277)

The deadline for entries is Wednesday, October 28, 2015 by 6:30 p.m. Click here for full details and a downloadable submission form.

All winners will have their photography displayed in the Eric Fischl Gallery at Phoenix College from November 2 – 26, 2015. An opening reception will take place in the Eric Fischl Gallery on Monday, November 2, 2015 from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. All are welcome! 

For more information, contact Jennifer Laffoon at 602.285.7280 or email jennifer.laffoon@phoenixcollege.edu

Faculty Landscape Photography on Display at Desert Foothills Library

You are all invited to view the spectacular landscape images of three Valley photographers:
WILLIS PETERSON | former resident of Cave Creek, Former Chairman of Photography, Glendale Community College, long time Arizona Highways contributor
JERRY SIEVE | Long time resident of Cave Creek, Teacher at Paradise Valley Community College, long time Arizona Highways contributor
TOM BAKER | Current resident of Carefree, Photography student)

The images will be on display at:

Desert Foothills Library
September 21- October 5, 2015
38443 N. Schoolhouse Road
Cave Creek, Arizona

For more info email sieveimages@gmail.com

Student Spotlight: Nikkida, Visual Arts

"Drawing has provided me with an escape. It helps me express myself, relieve stress. When I’m finished with a piece of art I feel very accomplished. I feel like I achieved a small goal." -Nikkida, PVCC Visual Arts student

Fired Up! - RAKU Nights - PVCC Ceramics Program Benefit

Join us for a very creative and unique date night or outing with friends!

Fired Up! - Raku Nights is a fundraising event AND a hands-on ceramics workshop rolled into one!

$25 per ticket includes:
*Your selected piece of hand-thrown pottery to design, glaze and take home.
• Dramatic Raku Kiln firing of each piece
• Pottery throwing demonstration
• Appetizers and dessert
• Live music performed by the PVCC Faculty Jazz Ensemble

Purchase tickets in advance as seating is limited.
Call 602-787-6684 for additional information or email:
development@paradisevalley.edu

Proceeds benefit the PVCC Ceramics Program Support Fund.

Art + Gender | Collective Art Project & Exhibition

PVCC students Katlynn McNab and Heidi Klotz pose in front of Kande Mickelsen's HERstory blog.

When the chance to organize a collective art project and exhibit on campus to celebrate Women’s History Month presented itself, budding curators Heidi Klotz and Katlynn McNab seized the opportunity.

Psychology faculty Caron Sada discusses the psychology of gender with the group.

Klotz and McNab became acquainted with one another this term as classmates in Dr. Caron Sada’s "Psychology and Culture" and Adria Pecora’s "Drawing" courses. Dr. Sada and Ms. Pecora entered into the spring semester eager to have their students collaborate on a creative project exploring gender for an activity of Women’s History Month, an idea that was also ignited by the enthusiasm of library faculty, Kandice Mickelsen who volunteered Buxton Library as the location and exhibition venue for the art project.

Sada’s students from “Psychology of Gender” and Pecora’s students from “Drawing” volunteered to participate in this extra-curricular project rooted in performance, specifically in conversation. Pecora has previously taught a course in “Gallery Operations” in which students have curated exhibitions on campus. She introduced the curatorial team to a type of art called “social practice” and to curatorial projects incorporating “relational aesthetics” that revolve around conversation. Klotz and McNab learned about the curators Nicolas Bourriaud and Hans-Ulrich Obrist and artists such as Rirkrit Tiravanija and the late Allan Kaprow (the creator of “happenings”).

Katlynn McNab and Heidi Klotz discuss social practice and relational aesthetics with Art faculty, Adria Pecora.

Pecora commented, “The idea of disrupting the regulated quietude of a library with a passionate discourse seemed suited to an artwork exploring gender.”

Moreover, the library’s new media lounge (a circular sofa with built in media station) suggested a more social role for the library, one in which exhibits might be rendered interactive by incorporating viewer feedback via messaging.

Library faculty Kande Mickelsen at blogging stations. 

Mickelsen had been orchestrating a library guide entitled “HERstory” to function as an informational hub for Women’s History Month events. After meeting with Klotz and McNab, Mickelsen helped arrange for the guide to also serve as a blog site for the artwork featuring audio and video excerpts of the conversation. Sada’s students brainstormed thought-provoking questions to guide discussion. Pecora’s students brought or created images that resonated of gender and posted them on an idea board in the space.

Artistic inspiration came in the form of a lecture exploring “How gender roles affect relationships”, presented earlier in the week by Counseling faculty, Donna Mosher. The art students also drew enthusiasm from a visit by PVCC alumni curators, Collin Pressler (Exhibitions Manager, School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Eric Heimbecker (Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility Group) from whom they learned more about curatorial practice and socially engaged work beyond the studio.

Counseling faculty Donna Mosher

PVCC alumni Collin Pressler and Eric Heimbecker visit Katlynn McNab, Heidi Klotz and PVCC art students in the painting and drawing studio to discuss their work with curating and social engaged projects. 

The conversation lives online and awaits your thoughts. Please tag #pvccfinearts.

HERstory library blog: paradisevalley.libguides.com/HERstory

Twitter and Instagram: #artandgenderchatroom

Student Spotlight: Jo Van Loo, Fabric Artist

Jo VanLoo is a fabric artist, specifically working in the medium of quilting for eighteen years. Her quilts have been exhibited in national shows, and are currently showing in the Center for Performing Arts Gallery.

From Jo's blog:

Some of my quilts emphasize aesthetics and craft; others meaning and relationships, and others make socio-political statements. Some speak to all three.

Tomb of the Unknown Quilter

I love the inter-mingling passion, storytelling and, tactile nature of fabric arts. Using commercial and hand dyed fabrics I am able to express my feelings using a variety of manipulations and methods. 

Ceiling View. Inspired by Jo's trip to Hagai Sophia in Instabul, 2011.

Because I was a teacher for more than thirty years, I love to share my passion for quilting with others through quilting classes. I have taught quilt making in Canada, the United States, Uganda, Haiti, and Nicaragua. Through teaching the art and craft of quilting, I have become a learner of culture, of values, of life. 

Las Cocinaras

View Jo's complete gallery, blog and shop at her website: www.jomamavl.com