Award winning composer Susan Botti and poet Linda Gregerson will be on campus this week, presenting several events on April 27 and 28 that highlight their collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches in the arts. These will include a Meet the Composer talk and q&a with with Susan Botti;  Resonating Poetry, Words with Music with Botti and Gregerson discussing the collaborative process of creating a work together; and Twice Told Tales: Adapting Ancient Stories in Contemporary Arts, a talk by Linda Gregerson, currently UMBC writer-in-residence in the English department.

The culmination of their visit to UMBC will be Moon and Myth, a concert of contemporary vocal chamber music by Susan Botti. Renowned musicians Airi Yoshioka (violin), James Wilson (cello), and Carsten Schmidt (piano) will join Botti in her work Dido Refuses to Speak, featuring the poetry of Linda Gregerson. The world premiere of a new work for voice and violin, Mangetsu, commissioned by Yoshioka/UMBC will also be a highlight of the program.

Composer and soprano Susan Botti has an eclectic background which is reflected in her music. Her musical explorations have encompassed traditional, improvisational and non-classical composition and singing styles. Among Botti’s awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, and grants from Meet The Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund, The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the NY Foundation for the Arts. Her commissions include works for the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Linda Gregerson is the author of several collections of poetry and literary criticism. She is a Renaissance scholar, a classically trained actor, and a devotee of the sciences. Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the Consuelo Ford Award from the Poetry Society of America, three Pushcart Prizes, and the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine. She has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

These events are sponsored by the Vice President for Undergraduate Education; the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; the Dresher Center for the Humanities; CIRCA; and the Departments of Music, English, and Ancient Studies:

Wednesday, April 27th, 4:30 p.m.
Meet the Composer: Susan Botti
Music Department Conference Room (246 PAHB)

Thursday, April 28th, 10:00 a.m.
Resonating Poetry, Words with Music: Susan Botti and Linda Gregerson
The Music Box (151 PAHB)

Thursday, April 28th, 4:00 p.m.
Twice Told Tales: Adapting Ancient Stories in Contemporary Arts: Linda Gregerson
Dresher Center Conference Room (216 PAHB)

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Moon and Myth: Works by Susan Botti
Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall

Images: Left, Susan Botti; Right, Linda Gregerson

For anyone needing an extra push to make it through the final few weeks of spring semester, UMBC’s annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day offers a healthy dose of extra energy and a contagious sense of curiosity. This year, the must-see, campus-wide event celebrates its 20th anniversary on April 27th with a diverse array of performances, film screenings, exhibits, posters, and talks.

“Creating a vibrant community of scholars is a major goal at UMBC, and URCAD is a realization of that goal,” says Diane Lee, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education.

“Undergraduates in every field share the knowledge they have gained,” Lee explains. “Beyond the talks and performances we all look forward to, through conducting and sharing their research and creative work, our students develop habits of mind that will serve them well in the future.”

Andreas Seas ’17, chemical engineering, agrees wholeheartedly. “Being involved in this research has really shaped what I want to do after I graduate from UMBC,” he says. “It has provided clarity as well as given me something that I can channel my passion into.”

Seas’s research focuses on risk factors for strain to femoral arteries, as part of a larger project in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Seas’s experience at the medical center combined research and clinical work. He says, “Working with UNMC has definitely helped me focus in on what I am passionate about—improving patient care by developing more effective treatment techniques.”

This Goldwater Scholar still has one more year as an undergraduate researcher before pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. degree. For now, he encourages all of his classmates to attend URCAD if they can: “Not only is it really cool to see what everybody is doing, you never know what will spark your interest or what you can contribute to someone’s work.”

Nneka Opara ’16, psychology, began attending URCAD as a freshman. “It’s been a very inspirational event to attend every year and see the [work] students just like me are doing. It left me with the sense that I could achieve just as much as they were if I put my mind to it.”

For many UMBC students, who want to tackle tough questions that reach across different fields, URCAD is a chance to see up close what interdisciplinary research looks like and to learn about opportunities to do research that has real, positive outcomes.

Brittney Kramer ’16, English, shares that URCAD “is a way for all of the disciplines to come together and see what everyone is doing. It’s a way of showing how much research impacts every aspect of our lives.”

“A lot of times when you go into an English major, you think research is something [for science students],” Kramer says, “but this is a chance to really see how [all kinds of] research has an impact.” This includes Kramer’s own contributions to building a digital exhibit on women working in American textile mills during the nineteenth century, in collaboration with the American Antiquarian Society.

Filmmaker Paul Oh ’17, visual arts, describes URCAD as a helpful opportunity for creative students who want to begin connecting with audiences, but can’t yet access big festivals or performance opportunities. “It’s great that URCAD displays undergraduate work and allows people like myself…to exhibit their work for other students and peers,” he says.

Visit the URCAD website to access the brief event schedule and full schedule with abstracts, to learn about the featured speaker, or to see sneak peeks of select research projects. Guests can support participating students by asking them about their research during the event, and by sharing photos and messages on social media with #URCAD, #UMBC50, and #UMBCproud.

“Support is so important,” says URCAD presenter Austin Maduka ’17, biochemistry. “The support I received as an undergraduate pursuing my own research career has transformed my life,” he shares. For Maduka and his fellow student researchers, URCAD is a day to honor that transformation.

Funding for individual artists is often scarce and always highly competitive, but the Baltimore-Washington region is fortunate to have both state and private organizations awarding funds directly to individual artists. Award announcements this spring include many UMBC students, alumni and faculty, whose recognition speaks to ongoing artistic excellence at UMBC.

The Maryland State Arts Council’s annual Individual Artist Award (IAA) “recognizes the importance of artists and their works of excellence to the cultural vibrancy of Maryland.” The award categories cycle every three years and this year awards were given within the disciplines of Creative Non-Fiction/Fiction, Media/Digital/Electronic Arts, Theater Solo Performance, Painting, and Works on Paper. Selected from more than 585 applicants, the 2016 awardees receive grants for $1,000, $3,000 or $6,000 to honor their achievement and to support further advancement of their career.

This year’s recipients, announced March 30, 2016, include Lynn Cazabon, associate professor visual arts; Dominique Zeltzman, M.F.A. ’14, imaging & digital arts; Mina Cheon, M.F.A. ’02, imaging & digital arts; and David Anthony Brown ’99, visual and performing arts. Lynn Cazabon, whose project Portrait Garden includes photographic images of plants selected to represent eleven women incarcerated at Maryland Correctional Institution for Women and audio statements, received the highest award level in Digital Medi. She commented: “This is my 4th MSAC grant since 2003 and the first time winning it in the Digital Media category. The recognition and validation of the award is valuable in and of itself but also the merit basis means the funds can support any aspect of my work, not just a specific project.”

Finalists for the 11th Annual Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize were also recently announced and include Christos Palios ’02, visual and performing arts, a fine art photographer “whose work probes ideas and aspects of identity, memory, and isolation within urban, industrial, and natural spaces.” Palios’ work can be found in public and private collections all over the country, and has appeared in such online publications as F-Stop Magazine and Dotphotozine. The award is designed to support artists working in the Greater Baltimore area, and the winner, to be announced July 9 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, will receive a $25,000 fellowship to further their career. The work of the seven finalists will be presented in the Thalheimer Galleries at the Baltimore Museum of Art from Wednesday, June 22 through Sunday, July 31, 2016.

UMBC community members who were semifinalists for the prize include Marian Glebes, M.F.A. ’09, intermedia and digital arts; Jason Hughes, M.F.A. ’15, intermedia and digital arts; Vincent Carney ’06, visual arts; Ben Marcin ’80, economics; and Lynn Cazabon, associate professor of visual arts. An exhibition of the semifinalists’ work is shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of MICA on Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 31, 2016. An opening reception for the semifinalist exhibition takes place July 14, 2016, 6-9 p.m. at MICA, located at 1303 W. Mount Royal Avenue.

Finalists for the 2016 Baker Artist Award were also recently announced and include Vin Grabill, associate professor of visual art; Richard Chisolm ’82, interdisciplinary studies; Stephanie Schafer ’00, visual and performing arts; and current Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) students Jeffrey Gangwisch, M.F.A. ‘18 and Christopher Kojzar M.F.A. ’18. This year, five artists will be selected to win $85,000 in prizes: the $50,000 Mary Sawyers Imboden Prize, the $20,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, and three $5,000 prizes (the Semmes G. Walsh, Nancy Haragan, and Board of Governors Awards). These prizes will be awarded “to artists who exemplify a mastery of craft, commitment to excellence, and a unique and compelling vision.” Awardees will be announced on May 12 on a special episode of Maryland Public Television’s “Artworks” program.

Images by Lynn Cazabon: Above left, installation of Portrait Garden interactive poster in Baltimore Light Rail car; above right, Portrait Garden (C, Echinacea purpurea), 22″ x 23″, 2014

“We hope you will leave inspired and with new views about what is possible,” said Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research, as he welcomed the audience of  “Seeing Science: Photography, Science, and Visual Culture.” UMBC’s Office of the Vice President for Research hosted the forum on April 8, 2015, as an opportunity to examine imaging and visualization methods that support new scientific insights across diverse areas of research.

Sheldon Brown, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, delivered the opening keynote. He challenged attendees to understand how seeing translates into meaning.

“Imagination is the key to every new area of knowledge,” Brown explained. He added that art is “a collaboration between our senses, memories, and imagination,” more about asking new questions and offering new perspectives than about giving answers.

The first panel, moderated by Marvin Heiferman, senior visiting research scholar at UMBC’s Center for Art Design and Visual Culture (CADVC), explored how researchers utilize imaging to deduce and convey knowledge about Earth and outer space.

Max Mutchler, head of the research and instrument analysis branch at Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University, talked about his work on the Hubble Space Telescope. Over time, he explained, the quality of photos taken by the telescope improved, but “the best stuff we did, no one predicted.”

Christopher Shuman, associate research scientist of geography and environmental systems and faculty at UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), offered insight into how imaging helps scientists track environmental changes. Imaging allows Shuman to reveal the losses and reformations of Antarctic ice from 1986 through the present, helping scientists and non-science audiences alike better visualize and understand environmental change as it is taking place.

Joseph Tatarewicz, associate professor of history and director of the Human Context of Science and Technology (HCST) certificate program, took attendees back in time more than 400 years and talked about the first synthetic imaging tool used by Galileo in 1610. Although many images feel immediate and organic, he explained, there is no such thing as an unmediated image.

The second panel, moderated by Steiner, featured faculty working at a smaller scale.

Kirk Czymmek, director of North American applications and labs at Carl Zeiss Microscopy, LLC, described how 3D tools can help people visualize inner space by making cells and other small entities appear lifelike.

Michelle Starz-Gaiano, associate professor of biological sciences, discussed using images in computer modeling to show cellular change. She studies fruit flies to understand how developing cells know where to navigate and what function they will serve. In her lab, she marks cells with dye to track their movement and see exactly how cell migration takes place.

Stephen Bradley, associate professor of visual arts, discussed how art and science overlap in many ways. Bradley has studied past imaging technology used in science.  

Tom Cronin, professor of biological sciences, gave the audience a sense of what the world looks like through the eyes of animals. “Eyes are the link between things we see and what is happening between cells,” he explained.

By studying mantis shrimp, Cronin wants to understand why and how animals see the world in ways different from humans. Whether on a species level or on an individual level, Cronin noted, “All eyes see the world differently.”

Image: Sheldon Brown speaks with President Freeman Hrabowski during the “Seeing Science” forum. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Baltimore’s history as the first U.S. city to be illuminated by gas lamps has inspired Light City Baltimore, a major new public festival celebrating innovation and creativity across technology and the arts.

Light City Baltimore will take place in the Inner Harbor, March 28-April 3, with 1.5 miles of glowing public artworks, free music, a free UMBC hospitality space, and a six-day ticketed innovation conference, Light City U. Named one of the top “intriguing things to see and do in the U.S. in 2016” by CNN, Light City Baltimore features artists, scientists, activists, and thinkers from around the globe, including several UMBC faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Look for these exciting free exhibits and events highlighting members of the UMBC community:

• “1,001 Lux,” a video installation by Symmes Gardner, director of the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
• “Diamonds Light Baltimore” light sculptures by Mina Cheon ’02 MFA, imaging and digital arts, and Gabriel Kroiz, with artist meet-and-greet April 2, 8:30-10:30 p.m., between Eastern Ave. and East Falls Ave. (watch video)

 
• “Project Aquaculture,” a large-scale projected animation on the roof of the Columbus Center by visual arts faculty Kelley Bell ’06, MFA, and Corrie Parks that comments on the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem (watch video)

 
• Red Sammy band performance with Adam Trice ’04, English, on the Concert Stage at Harbor East
• HydroPrismEchoChamber: Fluid Movement’s Ode to McKeldin Fountain including performers B. Simone Thompson, ’92, social work and psychology; Leah Marcus ’03 M.A., TESOL; Katie Leser ’04, theatre; and Delana Gregg ’04, M.A., instructional systems development, an academic advisor in the Honors College
• Performance by Colette Searls, theatre, combining animation, live theatre and puppetry on the Light Up the Night! stage

 
“Baltimore is shedding light on itself through media, social action, and art,” says Searls. “The festival emphasizes Baltimore as a generator of great art and a destination for lovers of great art.”

“Artistically, innovatively, I’m just so excited to have the opportunity to do this,” Cheon shares.

Light City visitors can stop by the UMBC Black and Gold Lounge in the Columbus Center, March 28-April 2, 6-9 p.m., for a complimentary beverage and free glow-in-the-dark UMBC gear (while supplies last). UMBC will host special alumni receptions for the visual and performing arts (March 28), IT and engineering (March 30), and the Honors College (March 31).

Black and Gold Lounge visitors will get a sneak peek of UMBC’s new Retriever Stories site, where members of the UMBC community can share their UMBC photos and experiences heading into the university’s 50th anniversary. The Black and Gold Lounge will also offer “buy one get one” coupons for Ekiben Buns, available during Light City at the Ekiben food truck, operated by UMBC alumni entrepreneurs Nikhil Yesupriya ’13, biological sciences, Steve Chu ’12, economics,and Ephrem Abebe ’13, information systems (site #2 on the official Light City map). For dessert, stop by the Harbor Flying Fruit smoothie kiosk operated by UMBC’s Choice Jobs Program.

UMBC is also a founding sponsor of Light City U, which includes conferences on social innovation (March 28-29), health innovation (March 30-31), sustainability innovation (March 30-31), and creative innovation (April 1-2), as well as the free Bright Lights Youth Festival.

Talithia Williams, associate professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and current American Council of Education fellow based at UMBC, will present “Connecting African American Girls and Their Parents to STEM” on day one of the social innovation conference, on March 28, 11 a.m. Her talk will be followed by two conversations featuring UMBC alumni. Invested Impact founder Rodney Foxworth ’07, anthropology, will speak on “Collaboration and Unexpected Outcomes” at 11:25 a.m. Center for Urban Families CEO Joe Jones ’06, social work, will join Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis at 1:05 for a conversation on “safety and civility.”

President Freeman Hrabowski will deliver keynote remarks for day two of the social innovation conference, on March 29, 9 a.m. His talk “Holding Fast to Dreams” will focus on creating a learning environment and community that supports success for all students.

Professor Chris Swan, geography and environmental systems, will present on the Maryland Green Prisons Initiative during the sustainability innovation conference on March 30, 4:15 p.m. Professor Yoni Zohar, chair of marine biotechnology, will participate in the health innovation conference panel “Our Planet, Our Health, & Taking Care of Tomorrow: Sustainability in Healthy Food Choices,” moderated by National Aquarium’s TJ Tate on March 31, 10:20 a.m.

The creative innovation conference on April 2 will include the panel “Incubator as Influencer” at 2:05 p.m., moderated by Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, who is CEO of Mission Tix, co-founder of Betamore, and namesake of the Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition through UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. Current UMBC student and emerging entrepreneur Markus Proctor ’16, interdisciplinary studies, who is founder and CEO of EduPal, will speak on the following panel, “Youth and Diversity in Entrepreneurship,” beginning at 2:35.

UMBC community members can enjoy a substantial discount on tickets to the four Light City U innovation conferences. Use the code “UMBCED2016” by March 27 to purchase individual conference tickets at $99, more than 50% off the regular price.

For additional information on Light City and Light City U, visit UMBC’s Light City page and the official Light City website. Remember to share your photos on social media with #UMBC and #UMBC50. You can find UMBC on Twitter @UMBC and Instagram @UMBClife.

Images: (1) “Diamonds: Will You Marry Me?” light installation in Seoul, Korea, 2007; copyright by Mina Cheon and Gabriel Kroiz. (2) “Diamonds R 4Ever” light installation at Sungkok Art Museum, 2012, in Seoul, Korea; copyright by Mina Cheon and Gabriel Kroiz. (3) “Project Aquaculture,” courtesy of Kelley Bell and Corrie Parks. (5) “Kendra’s Bay,” courtesy of Colette Searls and Lynn Tomlinson

The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) reaches audiences far beyond UMBC with dynamic touring exhibitions that explore the social and aesthetic issues of our times and inspire viewers to rethink how art institutions relate the public. The Center offers extensive educational outreach initiatives and publication programs, often in partnership with a leading educational and cultural institutions.

Four CADVC exhibitions currently traveling serve as excellent examples of this work:

For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights was organized by the CADVC in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Through a host of media—including photographs, television and film, magazines, newspapers, posters, books, and pamphlets—the project explores the historic role of visual culture in shaping, influencing, and transforming the fight for racial equality and justice in the United States from the late-1940s to the mid-1970s. For All the World to See includes a traveling exhibition, website, online film festival, and richly illustrated companion book. The exhibition originated on the UMBC campus and since then toured extensively; prominent exhibition venues include the International Center for Photography, the National Civil Rights Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

In addition to the partnership with the Smithsonian, the extension of the exhibition through digital and printed efforts, and the initial exhibition tour, a subsequent tour in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities’ On the Road program has been traveling since 2012, reaching cities from Portland to San Antonio. The 20th installation of the exhibition through the NEH partnership will open in April at Kean University in Union, New Jersey and then continue to tour at least through the spring of 2017 with additional upcoming exhibitions in Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana and Texas. The NEH is an integral partnership, supplying the resources and communications to reach diverse audiences and tailor the exhibition for a wide variety of venues.

Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, organized jointly by the CADVC and the Jewish Museum in New York, is the first exhibition to explore how avant-garde art influenced and shaped the look and content of network television in its formative years, from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. During this period, the pioneers of American television—many of them young, Jewish, and aesthetically adventurous—had adopted modernism as a source of inspiration. Revolution of the Eye looks at how the dynamic new medium, in its risk-taking and aesthetic experimentation, paralleled and embraced cutting-edge art and design. The exhibition premiered at the Jewish Museum, and then travelled to the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art where it was on view recently. The exhibition will open next at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts next month before returning to UMBC in the CADVC gallery October 6, 2016 through January 7, 2017.

Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen, which opened at UMBC in October 2013, explores the unique roles Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen have played as meticulous observers of the global military industrial complex. Investigating forms of military surveillance, espionage, war-making, and weaponry, Farocki and Paglen each examine the deceptive and clandestine ways in which military projects have deeply transformed, and politicized, our relationship to images and the realities they seem to represent. The exhibition initiates critical questions about the crucial part images play in revealing essential but largely concealed information, and places the oeuvres of Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen within the broader cultural and historical developments of the media they are creatively working with, namely photography, film, and new media. The exhibition marks the first time the work of these two internationally recognized artists has been shown together as well as significantly evaluated in respect to one another. After the exhibition premiered at UMBC an international tour included exhibitions at Die Akademie der Künst, in Berlin, Germany; Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago; and the Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio.

The exhibition Where Do We Migrate To? features the work of nineteen internationally recognized artists and collectives, including Acconci Studio, Svetlana Boym, Blane De St. Croix, Lara Dhondt, Brendan Fernandes, Claire Fontaine, Nicole Franchy, Andrea Geyer, Isola and Norzi, Kimsooja, Pedro Lasch, Adrian Piper, Raqs Media Collective, Société Réaliste, Julika Rudelius, Xaviera Simmons, Fereshteh Toosi, Philippe Vandenberg, and Eric Van Hove. The exhibition explores contemporary issues of migration as well as experiences of displacement and exile. Situating the contemporary individual in a world of advanced globalization, the artworks address how a multiplicity of migratory encounters demand an increasingly complex understanding of the human condition. After its presentation at UMBC in 2011, the exhibition has toured both nationally and internationally, most recently exhibited at the Värmlands Museum in Karlstad, Sweden (view here). It will be on view at DePauw University’s Richard E. Peeler in the fall of 2016.

Symmes Gardner, executive director of the CADVC, says he is “very excited to be working on the Center’s next project on the near horizon, SEEING SCIENCE, a new initiative that engages a wide variety of research happening at UMBC.” The year-long campus-wide interdisciplinary project will bring together UMBC’s science, humanities, and art communities to explore the central and evolving role that photographic images play in defining, shaping, promoting, and furthering science. The project asks how photographic images made in and about the sciences impact public opinion, policy, science education, visual and popular culture, and trigger awareness of and discussion about pressing issues. Seeing Science was initiated by the Office of the Vice President of Research, in collaboration with the CADVC. More information regarding the web-based projects, exhibitions, film series and publications can be found on UMBC’s Arts & Culture calendar.

Image: Installation view of the exhibition Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television. The Jewish Museum, NY. Photo by David Heald.

Timothy Nohe, director of the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) and visual arts professor, will introduce American audiences to the deeply woven human narrative of Botany Bay in his exhibition Sounding Botany Bay opening February 12 in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

The exhibition, which runs through March 31, is the culmination of ten years of research beginning in 2006 while Nohe was an Australian-American Fulbright Commission Senior Scholar fellow. Nohe returned for intensive research residencies in subsequent years, during which time change inexorably swept the bay.

Nohe will also present a lecture about his work in the exhibition, part of the Humanities Forum series from UMBC’s Dresher Center for the Humanities, on Tuesday, February 16 at 4:00 p.m. Nohe shares:

For many thousands of years the land adjacent to Kamay was an important source of food, place of trade, and site of spiritual importance to a number of Aboriginal clans. Botany Bay/Kamay is one of Australia’s most significant cultural and natural sites. This location was a significant point of both physical and cultural conflict: HMS Endeavour, the first ship carrying British explorers and colonists, landed on the southern shores of Kamay — renamed, at this time, Botany Bay — in 1770.

Today, Botany Bay is an unusual clash of pristine national park land home to a diverse but delicate marine ecosystem, and heavily industrialized areas including Sydney’s main cargo seaport and the desalinization plant, oil refinery, sewer treatment facility, and miles of industrial pipelines that line the shores.

By walking through bush and dunes, suburban streets and industrial estates, Nohe was able to directly observe the Bay with contemplative discipline. The artist was ready to document discoveries with digital audio recorders and cameras, and comprehensive database searches in state and national libraries and the online market eBay.

Over time he became aware of seasonal and long-term rhythms accented by notes of discordant change. A world of inaudible sound was sampled via a radio frequency scanner, allowing Nohe to intercept air traffic at Sydney Airport; hydrophones captured otherwise inaudible underwater sounds in mangroves, docks and tide pools.

His extended time and methods of observation revealed truths about a complex place told with documentary mural prints, sound compositions, video, archival documents, and ephemeral materials. In many ways this story mirrors our American experience of human stewardship, the colonization and the decimation of indigenous peoples, industrialization, national narratives, globalization and climate change.

“In the years that I worked on this project, I witnessed and recorded change that astounded me,” Nohe says. “One must contrast the epoch of Aboriginal stewardship of the Bay, with the radical reshaping of the environment after the founding of Modern Australia.”

Timothy Nohe is an artist and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in daily life and public places. His artwork has focused on sustainability and place, intermedia works, and sound scores for dance and video. He received a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the Australian–American Fulbright Commission and an Australian–American Fulbright Commission Fulbright Alumni Initiative Grant in 2011.

Nohe has forged strong ties to Australia, serving on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Unlikely, as an adjunct professor at La Trobe University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and as an artist-in-residence at the Centre for Creative Arts at La Trobe University.

Four Maryland State Arts Council awards have supported his work in the areas of music composition, non-classical; media; new genre; and installation/sculpture. Nohe has also been recognized with a Creative Baltimore Award and in 2015 the Warnock Foundation supported his interdisciplinary work in urban forests with a Social Innovator award.

Complete performance information and tickets are available through the UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar.

Timothy Nohe will be on WYPR’s Humanities Connection live at 4:44 p.m. on February 11, 2016. An archive of the broadcast will be available at Humanities Connection.

Image: Botany Bay, Australia. Photo by Timothy Nohe.

As Baltimore Dance Project rehearsed for their upcoming performances at UMBC’s Proscenium Theatre, directors Doug Hamby and Carol Hess took time out to discuss the new program featuring premieres by both artists as well as Sandra Lacy. The new works that will appear on stage February 4–6 reflect the interdisciplinary approach the company is known for and a deep sense of connection among the artists, all UMBC dance faculty, built over years of collaboration.

“For this season,” said Carol Hess, “I decided to re-construct Image in Red, a beautiful solo that was choreographed on me by Janet Soares in 1980. It has been thrilling to revisit this work and set it on Franki Trout.” Trout ’13, dance, now teaches dance in Anne Arundel County’s first Performing and Visual Arts Magnet Program at Annapolis High School.

Doug Hamby created one dance with a commissioned score, Second Nature, by associate professor of music Anna Rubin. He will also will premiere Duet, which includes a live performance by Umbilicus, conducted by associate professor of music Tom Goldstein. He shared, “UMBC is a wonderful community of artists and I really enjoy collaborating with everyone here.”

The program also includes the premiere of Sandra Lacy’s mysterious new solo Lost and the company premiere of Untitled, choreographed by instructor Desiree Koontz-Nachtrieb ’11, dance, with music, Walk, by Ludovico Einaudi and performed by guest dancers Eric Holmes ’17, dance and biology, and Koontz-Nachtrieb. Additional works include Carol Hess’ Dolled Up, examining the interiors of five women in fancy dresses, with an original score by sound artist and visual arts professor Timothy Nohe; dance instructor Adrienne Clancy and Sandra Lacy’s quirky and playful duet, Stalked by Time; and The Lights from The Heavens are Called Stars, choreographed and performed by dance instructor Erica Rebollar with sound by Charlie Campagna.

Baltimore Dance Project is a professional modern dance company dedicated to presenting the creative work of Doug Hamby and Carol Hess, described as “two of the most exciting choreographers in Maryland.” Formed in 1982 under the name Phoenix Dance Company, the company is known for its edgy collaborations with composers, directors, sound artists and visual artists, and for infusing visual media and technology into riveting dance performance. This will be their 32nd annual performance at UMBC.

The company features outstanding professional dancers and has been honored with numerous grants and awards. Hamby, Hess, and company veteran Sandra Lacy have received a total of twelve individual artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, and their work has appeared in theaters and film festivals across the United States.

Complete performance information and tickets are available through the UMBC Arts & Culture Calendar.

Image: Baltimore Dance Project performance. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The last five years have witnessed a wave of significant new fairy tale books. In a recent article published in the New Republic, Honors College Professor Ellen Handler Spitz explains why the fascination with classic fairy tales still exists even as the world continues to change.

“The core of fairy tales seems to reach deeper—well beyond the delights and shocks caused by improbable events…towards a species of raw, non-contingent honesty and authenticity,” Spitz wrote. “It is through the sharply-focused lenses of psychology, particularly those of child development…that we can parse some whys and wherefores of our irresistible draw into these enchanted realms.”

Using several examples, Spitz examines the ability of fairy tales to spark imagination and nostalgia, especially when looked at through the lens of a childhood development perspective.

“Fairy tale carries us back to this primordial kind of attention, the attention we gave the world when everything was ‘for the first time.’ In earliest childhood, noticing and remarking matters most…If, by the term ‘psychological,’ we mean relevance for mental life in its entwined cognitive and affective functioning, we are right to invoke it here, for fairy tales speak directly and indirectly to the psyche. They stimulate rainbows of feeling, insatiable curiosity, and inexhaustible searches for meaning.”

Read Spitz’s full article “The Irresistable Psychology of Fairy Tales” on the New Republic website. Spitz is the author of six books on the arts and psychology and her most recent research focuses on children’s aesthetic lives. Read more about her work on the Honors College website.

Image: Ellen Handler Spitz reads to children as part of the Program on Child, Family, and Community Development in Sewanee, Tennessee.

UMBC celebrated the accomplishments of over 1,000 new Retriever alumni at 2015 Winter Commencement, with a graduate ceremony held on December 16 and undergraduate ceremony on December 17.

The ceremonies included representatives from UMBC faculty, staff, student, and alumni leadership, as well as the University System of Maryland Board of Regents. UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski shared more than a dozen inspiring stories of accomplishment, highlighting graduates who have achieved great things, often despite significant challenges in their lives and while balancing personal and professional commitments.

These graduates included students like Muntadar Al-Luwaim ’15, design, a deaf student from Saudi Arabia who welcomed the challenge of mastering two new languages, English and American Sign Language. He has helped build a welcoming community at UMBC for other deaf and hard of hearing students, and plans to develop his own design studio in Saudi Arabia.

Fellow graduate Wafa Raja ’15, information systems, came to the United States with her family eight years ago to pursue an education, but felt pressure to marry and return to Pakistan. Yearning to continue her education, she returned to the U.S. and enrolled in community college, while working and raising her young daughter. She soon transferred to UMBC, where she became both a Cyber Scholar and a Newcombe Scholar, and has shown a remarkable commitment to mentoring other students. She will work for Northrop Grumman as a cyber intelligence analyst.

During the UMBC Graduate School commencement, President Hrabowski recognized Erika Nesvold ’15 Ph.D, physics, who “spends her days thinking about asteroids smashing into each other.” She has accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institute of Washington and, in her free time, is a volunteer firefighter and EMT.

Nichole Zang Do ’15 M.A., history, has explored the history of the juvenile justice movement in Baltimore, focusing on understanding the use and misuse of juvenile reform institutions. She will support UMBC’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations through alumni outreach.

“The point of these stories is that every one of you indeed has a story,” President Hrabowski reflected, sharing that for each student the path to their degree “has not been easy.”

UMBC is proud to honor all of the students who received graduate and undergraduate degrees in Winter 2015.

Videos of the ceremonies will be available soon on the UMBC Commencement website. The ceremonies were also live-tweeted @UMBC, with posts available through #UMBCgrad. For additional photos, see our Undergraduate and Graduate Commencement galleries on Facebook.

Images: All photos are by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.