January 28, 2004

Creativity, Research And The Arts: Role Of Musicians
And Artists Explored In UCSD Lecture Series

By Barry Jagoda

The place of music and the arts in a research university will be explored in a six-part lecture/performance series sponsored by the University of California, San Diego Center for the Humanities beginning Feb. 11 and continuing on successive Wednesday evenings into mid-March. The series, featuring world-famous UCSD artists and professors, is free and open to the public.

“The scientists who founded this university wanted art departments that focused on the making of the work; they thought one should ‘do something,’” says Roger Reynolds, Pulitzer Prize composer and a music presenter in the series. The emphasis was to be cutting edge explained Reynolds, “The UCSD founders thought of art as a harbinger of the future not as the guardian of past cultural heritage.”

The new series, titled “Intuition and Understanding: Creativity, Research and the Arts at UCSD” is designed to showcase UCSD work in music and art. The program was developed by Georgios Anagnostopoulos, director of the Center for the Humanities, who says, “our arts faculty often experiment with new media, appropriate advances in other disciplines such as engineering, computing, cognitive science, psychology, and develop new forms of art, music, dance and theater. These activities resemble what other scholars here do in their research activities.”

Each of the six presentations will begin at 7:30 p.m. Their individual titles, presenting artist and UCSD campus location are listed below:

February 11
“Beyond Illusion: Alternative Theatre in the USA”
Theodore Shank – UCSD professor emeritus of Theatre and Dance
Institute of the Americas – Copley Auditorium

February 18
“Uneasy Dreams: A Percussionist and his Changing Body”
Steven Schick – UCSD professor of Music
Institute of the Americas – Copley Auditorium

February 25
“Resident Alien in Secondary Inspection”
Ruben Ortiz Torres – UCSD associate professor of Visual Arts
Institute of the Americas – Copley Auditorium

March 3
“The Artist and the Audience: Linking individual imagination to shared experience”
Roger Reynolds – UCSD professor of Music
Mandell Weiss Forum

March 10
"Coming soon...SPEC-FLIC: An Experiment in Distributed Cinema"
Adriene Jenik – UCSD associate professor of Visual Arts
Institute of the Americas – Copley Auditorium

March 17
“Dance Theatre: The Construction of Imaginary Worlds”
Yolande Snaith – head of the Dance Program of the UCSD Theatre and Dance Department
Molli and Arthur Wagner Dance Studio 3

UCSD arts programs are ranked among the best in the country. Faculty members are active all over the world making new works, publishing and advancing their fields. The Faculty includes winners of such respected awards as the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur Fellowship and numerous other distinctions.

Media Contact, Barry Jagoda (858) 534-8567