Perhaps Monday is the new regular time for the newsletter, that’s just how it is for this semester and we’ll see how we go in the summer. It would be nice to see a few more signs of better weather, but now I remember that Pittsburgh never enjoys an easy transition between seasons, there’s more rain to come and it will be uneven (at best) between now and those languid summer months searching for cool.
I’ll explain the image below, which is a little gruesome but one of the more dramatic of a weekend spent learning about shadow and light. If it’s a little too reflective of my state of mind, then at least an indication that I need a break.
Having said that, I had a great time, feeling good, and now onwards. I’m wrapping up a few more projects and looking ahead to new ones starting in the next few months.
Stephan
Spaces to Connect
The best part of last week was spent in an old warehouse a few miles from campus, which is the location of Studio 201, a space for Drama students to learn, rehearse, and occasionally present work. Manual Cinema is a Chicago-based company that creates shows using a combination of shadow-play, puppetry, and live-action theater. My colleagues and I chipped in some funding and invited students for an extended workshop, learning from Artistic Co-Directors Sarah and Drew, and their close collaborators Davonte - video installation artist, and Pornchanok (Nok) - musician and sound designer. During these three days, each shared their creative process, showed pieces of work, and trained the students, so that they could devise their own shows.
It was fascinating to see the work up close, Manual Cinema uses overhead projectors, the same that you used to find in schools, several in fact, operated in unison to create pictures using light and shadow. While conventional shadow-play often involves projection and silhouette from behind a screen, here the actors and puppeteers are in full sight, you can see them quickly switching sheets of acetate, moving figures, flipping between one and the next projector. There’s a language here that is part cinematic; they talk about cuts, fades, close-ups, etc; and part theater; there are actors moving in silhouette on the screen, live music, and performance. The audience sees both the projectors, in the presence of the live performers while watching a second screen of the piece.
The effect is something akin to silent cinema, German expressionism, the films of Fritz Lang, George Melies, or even more out-there like David Lynch’s Eraserhead or (as I was introduced to), the films of Guy Maddin and his short The Heart of the World. Needless to say, the students had a great time, enjoyed playing with the medium, and created their own pieces which were fun and witty, responding to various ideas and taking on board the concepts that were being shared and taught. It was fascinating too, to see how Davonte and Nok’s work complemented and overlapped, working in response to space and often having to adapt and generate responses in the moment. It is still amazing to watch a musician improvise, as Nok did, watching the student pieces for the first time.
I took a great deal from the workshop, thinking especially about the nature of collaboration, and how we might encourage more interdisciplinary work and cross-pollination between areas. I had hoped that a few more of my students might attend, so I’ll think about how I might promote these types of events and happenings to this audience. More to come on this, let me catch my breath.
One last note to say how lovely it was to work with my colleagues on this project, even though they did all the heavy lifting and I really only contributed a cost code. I met some great people, even a reader of this newsletter! And can’t wait to catch up in the next couple of weeks.
Life Lessons
I’ve been wanting to let you know that Jon Ronson's series, “Things fell apart” is now available outside of the UK to download and listen to. Rather than dive headfirst into the culture wars by highlighting particular aspects, (and in doing so become embroiled or assimilated by them) this show aims to provide some historical context, going back to the roots of these issues and telling stories about the first people whether instigators or early victims of what later became divisive hot topics in the culture wars. I had no idea about many of these, and it was fascinating to see how many of the arguments came from people trying to do good, tackle assumptions, challenge bias, and cruelty, but later as these became politicized or exploited for division, fell on the wrong side of a conversation that had spiraled out of control, that in many cases resulted in murder, imprisonment, shaming, and hatred.
In the final (bonus) episode Jon is joined by his friend and colleague Louis Theroux to talk about the series. An essential attribute both documentarians share is empathy, both are skilled interviewers, talking to people and giving them space to tell their stories. I’m often angered by the way culture war advocates, on the right, deny people’s humanity. They don’t care, people are reduced to an issue, without context, denied history, or even shared experience.
Last Friday was International Transgender Day of Visibility, in the same week as Florida passed a new law forbidding teachers to talk about gender, identity, and sexuality in school, and elsewhere across the states, there are bills being passed excluding Transgender people from sports, from healthcare or certain types of funding. These are laws that deny the very existence of Trans people. These bills will lead to more people dying, either murdered or through suicide. This is hatred perpetrated through statute.
Lost and Found
I’m behind on emails and also on newsletters, so apologies if you’re waiting on me. I usually like or comment on posts, and try to reply promptly if I can. I know I’m missing good things from @documentally, @tinydriver @fieldnotes.
@fixthefaucette is an account on Instagram that I’m loving so much at the moment; a couple with a newborn are renovating a house in the countryside and have discovered that the previous occupants buried all their trash. Every few weeks Shannon picks a spot and digs up all manner of strange things, gives them a wash and takes pictures. There are bottles and cans from the 50’s and 60’s and all sorts of vintage Americana - bicycles, bones, bowls, dolls, and many unidentifiable objects that her followers are often asked to identify.
This great letter from producer Steve Albini to Nirvana after they asked him to produce their third record.
The brilliant activist brass band festival Pittonkatonk is back for another year.
Tiny Wow is the website that will fix everything about a .pdf that you need.
Finally, if you want to know how we show how windy it is here… Thanks, Ray.
Thank you
This week is Carnival week on campus and students get the chance to have some fun and enjoy all the different activities and events that are taking place. This is the return after the pandemic (although there’s still a pandemic going on), and there will be a Buggy Race, students racing small torpedo-shaped racing vehicles that are pushed off at great speed and steered by a driver squished into a cockpit, these things are terrifyingly quick and not for the faint-hearted. Here’s a video from a couple of years ago.
We started our U11 soccer spring season off with a 6-2 win, which was even more impressive because we haven’t really had any chance to practice. I’m happy so far with our 100% win record. As the great Brian Clough modestly put it, “I’m probably not the best manager…but I’m definitely in the top 1.”
Okay, so let’s leave it there, I hope that you have a good week and I’ll catch up with you later.