Visual and Performing Arts News

Category: News

Production on the 1913 Copper Strike at Calumet Theatre

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Red Jacket 1913Associate Professor Patricia Helsel is directing Red Jacket 1913, a special production in collaboration with the Calumet Theatre. This play uniquely presents the history and conflict surrounding the 1913 copper strike, focusing on one family’s struggles. While fictional, Red Jacket 1913 is based entirely on historic events.

Dennis Kerwin, former VPA faculty, heads the cast comprised mostly of community members, while Jonah Mueller, a Tech sound design major, and Dollcie Webb, majoring in theatre and electronic media performance, are both involved in the play’s production.

Performances are tomorrow and Friday at 7:30 p.m. Contact the Calumet Theatre box office for tickets at 337-2610.

From Tech Today.

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Two Tech Students on “America’s Got Talent”

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Mothmen Dance
Mothmen Dance

Two Visual and Performing Arts majors, Josh Maiville and Devin Miller, will be part of the popular summer series, “America’s Got Talent,” broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall in New York this week.

They will be riggers and flying-effects operators for Mothmen Dance, an aerial performance group created by On the FLY Productions–the production company that partnered with Michigan Tech last year to produce the flying extravaganza, “Beautiful: A Cirque-Tale of How the Butterfly Grew Her Wings.”

Maiville and Miller were riggers and operators for the productions of Beautiful, and Maiville performed some flying stunts on stage. 

On the FLY was so impressed with Michigan Tech’s students that the production company invited several of them to work with Mothmen, according to Associate Professor Kalen Larson (VPA). Michigan Tech is one of the only schools teaching performer flying, Larson said.

The live broadcast of “America’s Got Talent” is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12, on Charter Cable channels 6 and 785. An elimination round will follow at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 13. See the audition.

This is not the first time Michigan Tech has been represented at Radio City. Ken Showler, a 2007 Tech graduate in sound design, was a designer with 7th Sense for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular 2011. He received an Excellence in Live Design Award for that work.

From Tech Today.

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Auditory Emoticons Publication for Plummer

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In Print

J. Sterkenburg, M. Jeon and C. Plummer were published in M. Kurosu (Ed). Human-Computer Interaction, Part II, HCII 2014, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 8511 for their paper, “Auditory emoticons: Iterative design and acoustic characteristics of emotional auditory icons and earcons,” pp. 633-640. The paper was published by Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-07230-2_60
Print ISBN
978-3-319-07229-6
Online ISBN
978-3-319-07230-2

From Tech Today.

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Collin Doerr-Newton is the Student Speaker

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The next generation
Michigan Tech holds commencement

Nearly 1,000 graduates were honored at Michigan Technological University’s Spring Commencement Saturday with 747 students receiving bachelor’s degrees, 203 master’s degrees and 38 Ph.D.s.

Student speaker Collin Doerr-Newton, a sound design major who was chosen to speak after submitting and reciting his speech to a panel, likened Michigan Tech to a piece of music. Originally from Lansing, Doerr-Newton said that he frequently encounters the idea that everyone at Michigan Tech is the same. They are, he agreed, just as much as they aren’t.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Meagan Stilp.

Watch the YouTube Video: Michigan Tech Spring Commencement 2014, Featuring Collin Doerr-Newton

Collin Doerr-Newton 2014

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SURF Award for Kirby

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This summer, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program will fund 23 students from across the University with funds from the Vice President for Research and the Honors Institute. The total funding for the program this year is $80,500.

Among the recipients is Audio Production major Paul Kirby, working with Christopher Plummer on “Capturing the Soundscapes of Point Abbaye.”

From Tech Today.

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Water’s Edge Exhibit During Earth Day

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With the sun shining and the mounds of snow disappearing, it is starting to feel like spring–just in time for Earth Day. Today is Earth Day and Michigan Tech is celebrating with activities all week long, including a Lake Superior Celebration and a rainforest reptile show.

The Lake Superior Celebration, from 6 to 8 p.m., at Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center, will feature hands-on activities, a new PBS video on the Great lakes Stewardship Initiative, school-community projects, local foods, “Wildflowers of the UP” by Bob Wild and the “Water’s Edge Art Exhibit.”

A new PBS video will be aired at the celebration. It features local participants in the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. The event is free and open to the public and all are welcome. The Lake Superior Celebration is sponsored by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and Michigan Tech’s Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.

Read more at Tech Today, by Erika Vichcales.

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John Luther Adams at Michigan Tech

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John Luther Adams and Libby MeyerA delicate balance
Pulitzer Prize winner visits Tech

Scientists, researchers and artists work daily at Michigan Technological University but do not often come together. In an effort to bridge the gap between two disciplines, faculty and staff gathered for a panel discussion Tuesday featuring composer John Luther Adams, who was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for music Monday.

“In a lot of his writing he talks about what art and science have to say to one another and I thought, since we are a school that has both, it would be an interesting topic for conversation,” said Libby Meyer, instructor of visual and performing arts at Tech.

That dialogue was facilitated by a panel including representatives from science and humanities disciplines, with John Vucetich, associate professor in the school of forest resources and environmental science; Amy Schrank, research assistant professor in the school of forest resources and environmental sciences; Chris Plummer, associate professor in visual and performing arts; M. Bartley Seigel, associate professor of creative writing and diverse literatures; and Evan McDonald, executive director of the Keweenaw Land Trust.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Meagan Stilp.

In the News

National Public Radio (NPR), Associated Press and Canadian Press wire services and other national and international media outlets reported that Alaska composer John Luther Adams was an artist in residency at Michigan Tech when he was notified that he had won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

From Tech Today.

Alaskan Composer Wins Pulitzer For ‘Become Ocean’

By telephone Monday afternoon, I located John Luther Adams, 61, in Houghton, Mich. (in the state’s Upper Peninsula), where he is in residence at Michigan Tech. He said he was napping between classes when he got “a most welcome wakeup call” informing him he’d won the award.

Read more at Deceptive Cadence from NPR Classical, by Tom Huizenga.

Details on the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners in journalism and arts, and reaction

MUSIC: John Luther Adams’ “Become Ocean” (Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature)

John Luther Adams knew he’d been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his composition “Become Ocean,” but he had no expectations of winning. He was so busy with classes as part of a residency at Michigan Tech University that he even forgot the day they’d be handed out.

“I was actually taking a quick power nap between classes and got a phone call. It was a quite a wake-up call,” Adams said with a chuckle. “It was pretty great.”

Though based temporarily in Michigan, Adams’ thoughts are never far from Alaska.

Read more at The Canadian Press News Service.

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