This last week marked the 42nd Earth Day, a worldwide holiday to increase awareness and celebrate the Earth’s natural environment. Many honor this holiday, which takes place annually on April 22, by planting trees, holding garage sales, educating themselves about the environment or simply spending a relaxing day in the sun. College seniors Lucas Briffa and Devra Freelander, however, celebrated our planet five days after the rest of us, through a more abstract, artistically deconstructive manner, however, with their Senior Studio show Through Earth.
Articles: Kara Brooks
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Senior Studio Duo Leads Viewers Through Earth in New Light
May 4, 2012
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Solarity, RTC to Host Fracture from Reality
April 19, 2012
Despite reclaiming some of its lost identity this year, Drag Ball is still incomparable to its heyday of four-plus years ago. The student group Solarity emerged in early 2010 in response to the void left by Drag Ball’s absence, kicking off its on-campus activities with Neon Garden, a somewhat “do it yourself” event, as College junior and Solarity co-founder Dan Cook summed up.
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Man, Animal or Albatross?
April 12, 2012
The idiom “a picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the idea that a complex concept is more easily represented by a single image than any number of words. First coined by Frederick R. Barnard in an article published in the advertising trade journal Printers’ Ink in the early 20th century, the phrase was originally intended as a commendation of the effectiveness of graphics in advertising. Last Friday night, College seniors Alexander Voight and Jillian Kron proved the truth of Barnard’s statement, translating literature into visual data to construct the content of their Senior Studio shows.
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Breath Between Us Proves Fresh Take with Delicate Intimacy
March 9, 2012
In 1963 Betty Friedan provided the roots for the Second Wave Feminist Movement with her groundbreaking book The Feminine Mystique. In it, she drew back the curtain on society’s false, limited conception of the role of the female as one that is exclusively domestic. Years later, perhaps the means of feminine mystique can be redefined more literally: the charisma, charm or allure of a woman. The work presented by College senior Alison Karasyk in her Senior Studio show played off of this modern conception of femininity. There was no “problem.”
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On the Record: Nusha Martynuk, Founder of OASIS
March 2, 2012
This coming fall, Oberlin College will introduce a new semester–long arts program called the Oberlin Arts Intensive Semester. In collaboration with guest artists from the Cleveland Public Theatre, it will feed into a full-time Winter Term project and culminate in an evening-length production of the work of both faculty and students.
The focus of OASIS is to integrate the arts more extensively in the curriculum, to learn about collaborative processes and to provide the opportunity to engage with a community of like-minded peers in the creation of an original stage piece through intensive work in Cinema Studies, Dance, Music and Theater.
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Video Installation Desert Blue Gives Audience Chills
Feb. 23, 2012
Antarctica is on average the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth, with temperatures reaching -89 °C (-129 °F). Polar deserts, relatively common during ice ages, still make up most of the land’s interior, despite its thick ice cover. But none of this stopped Associate Professor of English and Cinema Studies Program Director Geoff Pingree and Associate Professor of Cinema Studies / New Media Rian Brown-Orso from embarking on a three-week expedition to Earth's southernmost continent to collect footage for their installation Blue Desert: Towards Antartica, on display at the Baron Gallery Thursday, Feb. 16 to Saturday, Feb. 18.
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Love, Actually in Translation
Feb. 17, 2012
Love has no boundaries, but, as demonstrated by the event “Love in Many Tongues,” perhaps regional boundaries would be the more appropriate term. While some Oberlin lovebirds snuggled up in love nests elsewhere, others showed up at Slow Train Cafe, where Main Street Readings presented a Valentine’s Day poetry reading featuring a diverse range of love poems.
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Ntozake Shange on Why She Had to Dance
Feb. 10, 2012
Every seat was filled in the Science Center’s West Lecture Hall at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 8, which was surprising for the time of day. After a brief delay due to wheelchair inaccessibility, Ntozake Shange finally made her way to the stage.
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Lev Rosen Returns to Oberlin with Newly Published Novel
Nov. 10, 2011
On the night of Nov. 8, a modest yet devoted number of students and faculty gathered in King 106 to hear Lev A.C. Rosen, OC ’03, read passages from his work of fiction.
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Art Exhibition in Mudd Seeks to Create Political Dialogue Among College Students
Oct. 13, 2011
The Oberlin Peace Activists' League erected Ten Years of War this past week in Mudd Library. The eclectic collection of art aimed to draw attention to the United States' militaristic involvement in the Middle East over the past 10 years with a five-day display in one of the most student-populated venues on campus. As this past decade has seen countless deaths from the U.S., Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even farther abroad, the pieces in Ten Years of War were intended to portray the magnitude of the horrors of U.S. war overseas.
“The work produced by each artist portrays an individual, and ultimately a community perception, on modern day issues of peace and conflict,” said OPAL Co-Chair and College junior Lexie Bean.
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Dancing Community: The Dance of Social Resistance
Sept. 30, 2011
In celebration of Latino/a Heritage Month at Oberlin College, Ana María Alvarez, OC ’99, came to Oberlin this past Tuesday to provide a public lecture, as well as instruct two master dance classes. After studying at the North Carolina School of the Arts and training with the Urban Bush Women, Alvarez, a Cuban-American choreographer, created CONTRA-TIEMPO, a dance program at University of California Los Angeles Lab School, which is now the focus of her work.
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Senior TIMARA Recital: In "My Little Daemon," Singer Stages His Own Nightmare Before Christmas
April 22, 2011
“What would Christmas be like from a demon's point of view?” This was the poignant question posed by Conservatory senior Calder Singer’s Senior TIMARA Recital. The answer: from a demon’s point of view, Christmas would be a torturous experience.
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Mustard Pimps Out 'Sco Girls
April 5, 2011
The name Mustard Pimp does little to inform us of the DJ duo’s musical stylings. “Mustard” makes me wonder if the duo coming to the ’Sco on Friday, March 18 was German. Does “Pimp” mean they perform hip-hop? Perhaps they were a German hip-hop duo? These were the only conclusions I could draw and I was not alone in my confusion.
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Uncommitted Crowd Brave Snowy Monday for Homostupids
Feb. 24, 2011
There was a passable crowd at the ’Sco on Monday night, but it seemed as though only a fraction of the turnout was truly excited to see punk band Homostupids, with opening act Aaron Dilloway.
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Ratatat Opens for Vampire Weekend in London
Dec. 9, 2010
Earlier this fall, Brooklyn-based instrumental electro duo Ratatat embarked on a North American tour. Beginning in Montreal on Sept. 7 and ending in New York 23 gigs later, the group elected to give away free digital copies of its new album, LP4, to everyone who purchased a ticket. While this prospect was exciting, Ratatat did not replicate the same generosity in the UK — wisely so, for the British probably would have declined the offer.
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Deacon and Dog Dick Flash Familiar Faces in London
Sept. 27, 2010
Shows at Oberlin are fairly predictable — the ’Sco opens at 10 p.m., the band goes on at 11 and we all go to The Feve at 1. However, once you increase the city’s population by over seven million, there is far greater room for error.