Fall 2011 ATLAS Black Box Schedule

Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (Eighth Annual)
This film and dance event is a niche film festival specializing in dance cinema as an art form and incorporating live performance. With an expansive definition of dance and an appreciation for experimental and interdisciplinary forms, this unique festival presents a wide variety of film and video in a wide range of venues, plus performance. Visit http://sanssoucifest.org/demoreel/.
7:30 p.m. Sept. 16 - 17, Friday – Saturday, ATLAS Black Box theater

Casanova at Twilight
An original musical theater piece written by Bill Mooney who for 14-years was a cast member
of ABC's All My Children as well as a performer both on and off-Broadway. See the tale of Casanova's exploits, based on his autobiography. Music is composed and conducted by Hunter Ewen, a doctoral student in CU’s College of Music. Singer/actors include baritone and CU graduate Garrett Smith as young Casanova and Leigh Holman, director of CU’s Opera Department, who plays one of Casanova’s loves.
7:30 p.m. Friday - Sunday, Sept. 23 - 25, Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, ATLAS Black Box theater
Tickets are available at the CU Presents Box Office, located in the University Club. Phone: 303-492-8008 or email: musictix@colorado.edu.

Vantage Points
An original, immersive, multi-sensory exploration of abstract video and sound by artist/composer Cole Ingraham. The performance includes live instrumentalists, synthesized sounds and a combination of 2D and 3D animated graphics. Ingraham is a doctoral student in CU’s College
of Music.
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Oct. 28 – 29, ATLAS Black Box theater
 
Black & White
A coming of age story told through multi-media dance, theater and video performed by choreographer Gabriel Masson in collaboration with video artist Tara Rynders. Masson is assistant professor in CU's Department of Theatre and Dance. Rynders is an MFA student in multimedia dance.
8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, ATLAS Black Box
Not recommended for children.  

What Are You Hungry For?  
A one-woman theater performance debut by writer/performer Beth Osnes who presents a series
of original, short pieces inspired by contemporary social issues. Interactively, audience members will choose from among 20 or more original pieces, thus influencing the flow of the evening and sequence of the production. Osnes has toured her original works around the world. Locally, one of her works was presented last year as part of the Boulder International Fringe Festival.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, ATLAS Black Box theater
 

Folk/rock musicians Andy Hill and Renee Safier to perform July 9 in a free concert and video recording in the ATLAS Black Box

ATLAS is presenting a very special live concert by award-winning folk/rock musicians Andy Hill and Renée Safier at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9, in the ATLAS Black Box Studio.

Since meeting in Colorado more than 20 years ago, Hill and Safier have carved out a unique niche for themselves in the Los Angeles area and beyond. As a songwriter, Hill is a student of the world’s folk and rock giants – Van Morrison, The Band, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Safier's prodigious blues and jazz vocals won the acoustic blues competition at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2005.

Hill and Safier have taken their distinctive sound and multi-instrumental skills to world venues large and small – while winning numerous awards along the way. (More information is available at their Web site here.)

The concert will be recorded using new equipment recently purchased by ATLAS, including high-definition cameras with live switching and audio that will be mixed and captured through state-of-the-art recording equipment.

Musicians appearing with Hill and Safier at this special event include Bruce Springsteen-sideman Marty Rifkin on pedal steel and electric guitar, eTown’s bassist Chris Engleman and Denver’s Mike Marlier on drums.

Seating for the performance is limited; to reserve seats, click here.

This performance represents the first of what is hoped to become a series of such events at ATLAS, offering quality live entertainment to the local community – and beyond.

Molecular robotics presentation now online

Nadine Dabby foresees a day when the science of molecular robotics means the creation of smart medicines that can act like teams of swallowed micro surgeons who can repair the ravages of cancer, or the creation of smart microchips that could rewire themselves instead of being buried in a landfill when they become obsolete.

Dabby is a Ph.D. student from the California Institute of Technology who gave a talk entitled "Building a Molecular Robotics Tool Kit" as part of the ATLAS Speaker Series on Wednesday, April 30.

Click here for video of her Speaker Series presentation.

Dabby is a student in Computation and Neural Systems at Caltech, where she works on DNA nanotechnology and molecular programming in the Winfree Lab. She has a double major in Molecular and Cell Biology, and English Literature, from UC Berkeley.

Dabby also is an adjunct lecturer at the Art Center College of Design, where she teaches a course on Biomimicry to art and design students.

While introducing Dabby, ATLAS master's program director Revi Sterling noted that ATLAS grad students first met Dabby while attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference last year in Atlanta. The event is the leading conference for women in the field of computer science and is named in honor of U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist. ATLAS was a Gold Academic Sponsor of the conference and about a dozen women from ATLAS graduate and undergraduate programs attended.

Dabby talked about her work with manipulating DNA molecules to "walk" along predetermined paths, and her work on creating a tool kit for manipulating molecules to simulate directional movement by controlling their growth, or active self-assembly, in specific directions.

Her work also includes techniques for measuring these nano-level reactions, and developing a theory for the active self-assembly of molecules.

The next Speaker Series event is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, in ATLAS 100. Margaret Dickey-Kurdziolek, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at Virginia Tech and researches issues of human computer interaction, will give a presentation entitled "Technology for Learning: Developing Educational Technologies that Survive in the Classroom."

The ATLAS Speaker Series is made possible by a generous donation by Idit Harel Caperton and Anat Harel.

Performance a memoir of Four Mile fire

8 p.m. Jan. 28-29 Friday-Saturday

"September Sixth" by Nathan Wheeler
is Boulder artist Wheeler's musical/theatrical memoir and response to the devastation of the recent Four Mile Canyon fire.
Free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended.
Reserve your seats here.
CU music graduate Wheeler explains, "September Sixth is my reaction to the Four Mile Canyon Fire which started on September 6th, 2010. The fire burned our home to the ground--home to my grandfather who built the house, my parents, younger brother and me. My mother and her family were raised there, and so were my brother and I. We moved in when I was six."
The piece uses a combination of found art, sound sculpture, dance, music and video to explore the fire, its aftermath and effect on Wheeler's life. Photos of the site taken by collaborators Michael Theodore, Jeff Ruane, Mark McCoin as well as Wheeler will be projected on the video wall of the ATLAS lobby.
The performance features:
- Wheeler on electronics, harmonium, voice, guitar, found objects and live video and dance.
- Janet Feder (regular performer with Boulder Laptop Orchestra) on prepared guitar and found objects.
- Mark McCoin on found objects.
- Curtis Broome on drums.
- Also dancers Luke Iwabuchi and Skye Hughes of CU's Music & Dance.
"The work mirrors the emotions I continue to go through as a result of the fire--surprise, anguish and suffering, then acceptance, and finally peace, joy and reverence."
Musical genres include a cappella, ambient, drone, noise, post-hardcore rock, and electronica. Live video accompanies most of the performance. Dance includes contact improvisation.
Note: The show will have moments of loud sustained sounds; earplugs will be provided at the door.

Upcoming Events

Una: A Journey of Three Worlds
6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18; 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 AThroughout time, people have been drawn to and fascinated by journeys. Travel has been significant to history, literature and pop culture for centuries. The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings are rich literary examples.
Jack Kerouac exploded the 1950s with his revolutionary book, On the Road, while
Dorothy’s journey down the yellow brick road and Alice’s trip through the rabbit hole continue to draw audiences and explore the whimsical and profound.
Katie Key’s MFA concert, Una, is a similar story of a female protagonist taken on a both dark and fanciful journey. The production begins one night in Una’s home. After her mother puts her to bed, Una is visited by three fantastical birds, each representing the qualities of their individual worlds, who take her on to a journey into the unknown.
Una is a story told in fairy-tale form; it utilizes the theatrical elements of text and story combined with video, music and dance. Una is a kinesthetic journey into the shadows.

– Daniella Vinitski

Free admission; reserve your seat at:
http://una.eventbrite.com


Artist talk about interactive digital art
and technology presented by Daniel Rozin

7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29, ATLAS 100; a reception will follow. See your reflection in his interactive, digital/mechanical piece, Rust Mirror (shown at left), currently on view in the CU Art Museum (the building next door to ATLAS) until Dec.18.
See examples of this internationally exhibited, award-winning artist and educator’s work:

http://www.bitforms.com/daniel-rozin-gallery.html.
Note: This talk is part of the ATLAS Speaker Series made possible by
a generous donation by Idit Harel Caperton and Anat Harel.


Movie premiere–international-in-scope
snowboard film: Gawn Git Suum Wit Us
7:30-9 p.m. Dec. 2, Thursday, ATLAS 100 Director, producer and soon-to-be-graduate of the CU film school and ATLAS TAM program, Nathan Minatta explains, “It was shot on location at Breckenridge, Keystone, Echo, Eclipse, Wolfe Creek, Whistler, Minnesota, Ischgl, Switzerland, Stubaier Glacier, Austria, Nebraska (that’s right!) and a street near you.

Misdirecting the invisible hand

Listening to Eric Goldman's talk on Reputational Systems via Berkley iSchool podcasts recently (free on iTunes), I was shocked to learn that a growing number of doctors have their patients sign forms prohibiting patients from writing a review of the doctor.  In order to ensure enforcement, the form states that any review of the doctor written by the patient will carry a copyright assigned to the doctor.  The doctor can then use a DMCA take down notice to get the review taken down.

Goldman calls this a hack on the system.  He is referring to the reputational system that is part of the digital invisible hand.  There is some great research on the danger to users as endorsers or endorsees (think Facebook's old automatic endorsement system using beacons), but only after thinking about the type of manipulation discussed by Goldman did I understand the danger to the system as a whole.  People will lose faith in endorsements, as explained by William McGeveran and skimmed over by me.

The manipulation of speech by doctors (and software vendors) is not so different from the manipulation in social marketing.  Prohibiting a consumer from saying something does not seem that different from making a consumer say something.  One instantly triggers the First Amendment and another appropriation, but both tactics attempt to take reputational control away from the consumer and misdirect the invisible hand.

Meg Ambrose is a second year doctoral student in the ATLAS Technology, Media, and Society Ph.D. program. She is researching the impact privacy and intellectual property laws have on creativity and innovation.

The social network propagates creativity myths

The Washington Post (click here) recently slammed the movie "The Social Network" for its inaccuracies.  The WP criticizee the film's characterization of Zuckerberg as a loner and Saverin's innocence in his ejection from the company.  The focus of the review, however, is on the inaccuracies of Facebook as an idea.  In the film, Zuckerberg experiences a series of eureka moments that result in the Facebook we know today.  Even though these sparks are socially derived, WP is unhappy that the collaborative nature of innovation is ignored as Zuckerberg is portrayed as an individual creator.

Our concepts of creativity are socially constructed. Americans have held romantic notions of creativity, believing that artists and scientists are uniquely gifted to experience more and better "ah ha" moments than the rest of us.  Our intellectual property system is based on this view of creatives. We can see our concept of creativity changing as a mainstream media, like WP, breaks down our creativity myths.  The article even offers a quote from leading researchers: "The idea of the lone genius who has the eureka moment where they suddenly get a great idea that changes the world is not just the exception," says Steven Johnson, author of "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation," "but almost nonexistent."

The article then calls for a change in the education, intellectual property and tax systems to spur creativity. If we continue to study creativity in a rigorous way, we will not be as susceptible to concepts of creativity that lead us down the wrong policy paths.  On a side note - I really liked the movie.

Meg Ambrose is a second year doctoral student in the ATLAS Technology, Media, and Society Ph.D. program. She is researching the impact privacy and intellectual property laws have on creativity and innovation.