Established with the generous support of alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Distinguished Visitors Program brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities. Additional support is provided by our media sponsor, Michigan Radio.
Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place on Thursdays at 5pm at the historic Michigan Theater (603 E. Liberty Street) in downtown Ann Arbor, and are free of charge and open to the public.
"Inventing Puppetry"
Dan Hurlin has been creating original puppet theater since 1980 when he began directing a collaborative program between children ages 8-18 and internationally known artists. His work has been presented at New York's The Kitchen, and Dance Theater Workshop; and Minneapolis' Walker Art Center. Hurlin's presentation follows the trajectory of his artistic career, from making theater for children, to being a solo theater artist in the East Village during the '80s, to his current experimentations with puppetry and object based theater."
Supported by the UM Department of Theatre & Drama.
"Creative Defiance"
Chaz Maviyane-Davies has been described as "the guerrilla of graphic design". For more than two decades this award-winning Zimbabwean designer's work has taken on issues of consumerism, health, nutrition, social responsibility, the environment and human rights. In 2003 he was recognized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with an award for outstanding innovator in his commitment to the struggle to transform society and create a just future.
Supported by AIGA Detroit – the Professional Association for Design.
Chaz Maviyane Davies - A Selected Bibliography
"Performative Technologies"
Working at the intersection of sculpture, theater and engineering, Heidi Kumao presents carefully sculpted moments that explore personal responses to imposed social structures. Her work demonstrates the poetic affect that memory and emotion instill in our everyday interactions. Her "Performative Technologies" generate artistic spectacles using forgotten technologies from previous centuries and powerful tools from the digital age.
Heidi Kumao – A Selected Bibliography
"Body-as-Screen"
Using multi-channel projections, Cynthia Pachikara's installations imagine a spectator's shadow as a void waiting to be filled with implicative video and photographic imagery. Stemming from her experience as the daughter of immigrants, these projects attempt to engage the viewer as the subject in situational quandaries about movement, space, and identity. Her presentation will survey a series of extruded video works that contemplate the notion of a body-as-screen.
Cynthia Pachikara – A Selected Bibliography
"On the Line: Now Here and Nowhere"
How are self, place, and communication established in communities and how can we understand the systems-within-systems of which each is composed?" Takahashi explores these issues through multi-media, large-scale works incorporating body movements, perception and memory. Considering the relationship between memory, history and the architecture of large-scale spaces such as cities, gardens and buildings, Takahashi's works aim to produce both a place of meditation and a meditative experience.
Satoru Takahashi – A Selected Bibliography
"Trimpin: A Kinetic Retrospective"
Trimpin's work is an ongoing exploration of sound, vision and movement, introducing our senses to a totally new experience. Although he uses the latest technologies, he works with "natural" elements -- water, air, light, fire, etc. -- reconfiguring them in new and unusual applications, pushing them to the limits, and beyond, of their traditional roles.
Supported by the UM College of Engineering, UM Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, UM School of Information, UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the UM German Department.
Trimpin – A Selected Bibliography
"A Number of People"
Brief statement: "Words, pictures, yay!!!"
Often called "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design, Knopf art director and author Chip Kidd has designed more than 2,000 book covers for authors from Michael Crichton to John Updike. Kidd has compiled his graphic design work in Book One; written a well-reviewed novel, The Cheese Monkeys loosely based on his college experiences, and exhibited his work at Cooper Union in 2006. Kidd's newest piece of fiction, The Learners, made its debut in 2004 online as part of USATODAY.com's Open Book series.
Supported by AIGA Detroit – the Professional Association for Design
Chip Kidd – A Selected Bibliography
"Julie Mehretu"
Julie Mehretu is a painter and a 2005 McArthur Award winner. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970, Mehretu draws inspiration from numerous sources including social and political events and historical painting. Through the energetic tensions of a world spinning out of control, Mehretu also reveals a nostalgic impulse of utopian longing for a past that never was and a future of positive social agency.
Supported by the Chelsea River Gallery.
Julie Mehretu – A Selected Bibliography
"Out of My Mind"
Out of My Mind is the title of artist and designer Eric Staller's new book about his art and life; a life that took him from Ann Arbor (B-arch 1971), to NYC, to Amsterdam where he lives today. His work focuses on pedal power and devices that stimulate community, which cars don't. He is known worldwide for his startling "urban UFOs", high-tech gadgets that "sneak up behind people, and goose them into thinking and feeling." His circular 7-person ConferenceBikes have been seen on the TV's 'Amazing Race' and are now being marketed. Staller will be demonstrating a "CoBi" in Ann Arbor. Everyone is invited!
Supported by the Ann Arbor Art Center and the Ann Arbor Commission on Art in Public Places.
Eric Staller – Selected Bibliography
"Light Matters"
Filmmaker Joost Rekveld sees the world of science and technology as a part of human culture that is at least as rich as the worlds of mythology and art. In recent years his work has been steadily moving off-screen, as he has been designing projections and light for various dance- and theatre productions. He is becoming increasingly implicated in activities that resemble artificial life and evolve towards swarms of interacting robots. Besides his artistic work he is also active as a curator and teacher.
Supported by the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Joost Rekveld – Selected Bibliography
"Third Nature"
Reaching back to nature primordial and existing through existential transformation is the work of Michele Oka Doner. In her career of over four decades Oka Doner has taken nature at its most basic level – a stick, a twig, a palm leaf and the spiraling of galaxies – and made it the subject of her art. In her talk Oka Doner will present a selection of her public art projects, sculpture, jewelry, furniture and design objects. Oka Doner's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.
Supported by the UM Museum of Art.
Michele Oka Doner – Selected Bibliography
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