We’ve been looking forward to these two events since the calendar was published in January! Looks like EMPAC’s potential is slowly being unleashed. Both events use space differently, in real life, and with animation.

+ EXHBITION
Dancing on the Ceiling: Art + Zero Gravity
Thursday, March 18 – Saturday, April 10, noon to 6 PM
Free

Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity is a major group exhibition in which contemporary artists explore the condition of weightlessness on earth by deploying techniques such as parabolic flight, rigging, and digital effects. The exhibition presents the work of multiple national and international artists, including three newly commissioned pieces for the exhibition.  Distributed throughout the public spaces at EMPAC the exhibition is itself un-tethered from the confines of the traditional gallery exhibition paradigm.

Exhibition opening: March 18, 6 – 10 PM
6 PM: Reception with commissioned artists – visitors to the opening reception receive a free exhibition catalog! (while supplies last)
7 PM:  Talk by special effects legend Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey,  Close Encounters, Star Trek, Blade Runner), followed by a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of science fiction cinema, 2001: A Space Odyssey on EMPAC’s massive 56′ concert hall screen.

http://www.empac.rpi.edu/events/2010/spring/zerogravity/

+ PERFORMANCE
The OpenEnded Group: Upending
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7 PM
Friday, March 26, 2010, 7 PM
Saturday, March 27, 2010, 2 PM
with music by Morton Feldman, recorded at EMPAC by the FLUX Quartet
Followed by the making of Upending with The OpenEnded Group
$5 for Students

Upending is revelatory work of 3D animation: an actor-less drama of disorientation and reorientation that compels viewers to rethink their relationship with the material world. The play of images is accompanied by a gutsy, EMPAC-produced spatial recording of Morton Feldman’s first String Quartet by the FLUX Quartet.  Following a short break, each evening will conclude with a talk and q&a that traces this EMPAC-commissioned work over two years, from inception to completion.

http://www.empac.rpi.edu/events/2010/spring/oeg/index.html

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EMPAC being a bit bashful and trying to hide behind a tree. That only works in cartoons!

Continuing our “Uncovered” series, we look into the people behind perhaps the most mysterious building perched on the side of campus: EMPAC. We interviewed the Director of EMPAC, Mr. Johannes Goebel, and EMPAC’s Curator for Music, Mr. Micah Silver. More info about them is available on EMPAC’s site.

Mr. Goebel tackles the hard questions and perhaps has stumbled upon EMPAC’s new slogan: “Now Here Jump”.

Our new favorite way to think about art comes from Mr. Silver:

It’s about falling in love with things that we’d never dreamed to exist.

Interviews after the jump!
Read more…

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We have left the original post intact, and added clarification at the bottom of the article. Please read both parts.

We couldn't resist...

$1,598,247

(approximately)

Or, the full tuition of 41.94874 students.

That’s how much Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, our beloved President, received in compensation for the fiscal year running 2007-2008. That’s the highest in the nation among university presidents.   This made a big news splash today because of a report published by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The story was picked up by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the Huffington Post, All Over Albany, and many more media outlets, because it far exceeds the median average salary of college presidents, which is currently $358,746.

The Chairman of the RPI (well, technically Rensselaer) Board of Trustees also released a statement today on behalf of the board, defending their decision to set her salary at such a high rate, claiming that “Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson’s leadership embodies prescient vision, meticulous strategic planning, and persistent implementation.”  We’re not sure about that, but we do know one thing: Sam Heffner has a thesaurus with some pretty good adjectives.

Read more…

Share Uncategorized Dr. Jackson, economy, GM, media, salary

Well, we though it would just be just like the usual H1N1 update, but it turns out that our last H1N1 update has gotten as far as The New York Times today.  Aside from our last post that we appeared on WNYT and FOX, we’ve also appeared in the Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, and Inside Higher Ed.

But this one takes the cake: Saturday Night Live.  Check out the video on YouTube:

UPDATE: Higher quality available on hulu for the next few weeks.

Share Uncategorized Beer Pong, media, SNL, video

If you’re looking for a chuckle, check out this link. WNYT, the local NBC affiliate tells the world that RPI has warned us that beer pong can spread H1N1. What’s next? WNYT reporting that RPI is telling us that kissing can spread germs, and sex can spread STIs?

And apparently beer pong is banned on campus: MyFoxPhilly. (I’d like to see them try…) Fox manages to butcher the pronunciation of Rensselaer, and then contradicts their headline in the report by saying that not playing the game is only “urged”.

Share Uncategorized health, media

This is an illustrative device to show you how your favorite RPI blog reports on stuff before the other guys.

So it seems that our top-notch uber-serious reporting has beat the local news by just under a week. We reported our first case of H1N1 last Friday, and that the magic number of cases that the local media requires before they swarm campus is 5. There have been 5 reported cases of alleged H1N1 on campus. Our favorite comment by “real” media? Tweeted by @WTEN: “Swine flu has reached the RPI campus….but youll be surprised on how students are laxed about it.” What good is fear and panic? Damn straight RPI.

Times Union story.
WTEN’s story and video here.

photo: flickr user Paul-W

Dr Lawrence’s update to the campus is after the jump:
Read more…

Share Uncategorized H1N1, health, media, Times Union, WTEN

Just in case you missed it, I’ve decided to include a few links for you…

The Troy Record has quite a nice video of the event, which ends with the very poignant singing of the alma mater.

Capital News 9 did a news story on the event.  Short and sweet.

Even though Marc Parry was kicked off of campus by Jason Gorss from Media Relations (see article for citation), he spoke with the GM anyway and covered the story.

Another blogger, on Brian’s World, wrote a summary of the event.

The Facebook group has lots of pictures.

All Over Albany mentioned it in their Morning Blend today.

Barker Kelley left us a comment and mentioned that they took some good pictures of the event.

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