SPARK Fall 2015

VOLUME ONE, ISSUE ONE 1 Photo by Emily Wade When the College of Fine Arts moved into the former Noyes Buick dealership Shifting Gears in 1954, the phrase “adaptive reuse” had not yet entered widespread usage. But this spirit of simultaneous preservation and adaptation, the sentiment of making better, rather than just making do, is a feeling that all artists share. Inspired by the industrial Welcome to Spark, the new bi-annual “bones” of our building, and eager to tell the stories of our artistic community, we have re-conceptualized and reengineered what was once just an events calendar publication from the College of Fine into a publication that fully celebrates the College of Fine Arts. Arts at Boston University. We hope you’ll be excited by our events, and stirred by interviews with our energetic, extraordinary students and faculty. Without further ado, let the sparks fly! IN THIS ISSUE volume one, issue one 02 Up, Up, and Away 03 Lynneterview 04 Sharing the Stage 06 Fall Events 08 Studio Practice 09 On the Road 10 The Big Pcture 11 Around the World 12 Overdrive 855 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215 2 SPARK VOLUME ONE, ISSUE ONE 3 Up, Up, Just Call Me LYNNE and Away Lynne Allen, Dean ad interim and former Director of the School of Visual Arts, talks about bringing a fresh perspective to the mission of the College in An interview with Photography a candid discussion with School of Theatre senior, Sam Farnsworth Lecturer Toni Pepe proved unsuccessful. A physical oceanographer at Woods Hole Observatory plotted and estimated GPS coordinates of the floating The role of experimentation is important. Students see, firsthand, that cre- payload over the next few days, and hypothesized that the balloon ativity is a process involving trial, error, failure, and the unexpected. would most likely wash ashore in Nova Scotia. The students worked together as a team to reconfigure the design of the payload, where the camera should be placed, and how the different components (balloon, parachute, and payload) should be tethered. “The role of experimentation is important,” adds Pepe. “Students see, firsthand, “The project has both theoretical and practical goals,” says Pepe, that creativity is a process involving trial, error, failure, and the unexpected. Photography Lecturer at the College of Fine Arts. “The students are exposed We send this balloon up taking care, prior to the launch that it would be to technology they have either never used, or have very little practice with. successful, but there are elements that were out of our control. Students learn Few students in the class had ever used a satellite GPS unit, and none had to be flexible, and to work with instead of against spontaneity.” ever handled a weather balloon.” Pepe plans to further develop the weather balloon launch for the Spring More importantly, students come away with an understanding of the 2016 semester, but hopes to schedule the project earlier in the syllabus to limitations of human sight and appreciation for how the camera has opened allow students to create an art piece that explores what the project means SAM Thanks for meeting with me today. Do you know you’re going to be good at something this year where freshmen are signed up for a course, the rest of the University the talent that we have here. up new worlds previously unseen or rarely seen. “I can’t go into space. I and how they can respond to it. like that? Of course not. You have no idea. But when similar to what students do in Theatre, where students In an interdisciplinary project incorporating STEM disciplines, students can’t personally get an aerial view,” continues Pepe. “The camera gives us a Additionally, Pepe’s spring Digital Photography course plans to continue First question… do you want to go by Dean Allen, or to you work with other creative people, it helps you hone are required to go to other events at the College, whether And, I think we need more outreach within the continue being Lynne? those skills. I’ve learned from a lot of other people. I’ve it’s an opera performance or a concert, and then, at community of Boston. This past spring, the School of in Toni Pepe’s Experimental Photography course set a weather balloon perspective of the Earth that we otherwise wouldn’t have access to.” collaborating with the School of Music in a project called The Sensory learned what not to do, and I’ve learned what sorts of the end of the semester, they write a paper about what Visual Arts painted a mural at Roxbury Prep. They are aloft, visually chronicling its ascent to the upper atmosphere. With the Akin to the scientific process of trial and error, the Wachusett launch Photograph, in which students work with graduate students from School of LYNNE I prefer Lynne. Even with the incoming students things I should be doing. they’ve experienced. It’s not even graded, but it’s part working with communities in areas where they can offer help of collaborator Don McCasland, Director of Blue Hill Observatory, was the students’ second attempt at the project. The first launch, from Music to create a visual response to musical pieces (from improv music to during Orientation, I told them to call me Lynne. I think of what’s expected. some talent, and I think we can do more of that as well. the students used a weather balloon kit configured with a satellite GPS Littleton, MA, resulted in an overestimated trajectory. That balloon landed prepared pieces) in different environments. they appreciate the fact that it’s a little bit more informal. SAM Is there an example of that you can share? I’m in meetings with Ty Furman, the Managing Director for retrieval, and attached to a GoPro camera, to launch the balloon over twenty miles off of Provincetown, MA, in the Atlantic Ocean. The GPS unit “The project drives students to think creatively about what a photograph I think it’s really valuable to go see other students at the of the BU Arts Initiative, and Julie Burros, the new Chief Wachusett, MA, where it traveled for nearly two and a half hours before became water logged, and attempts to retrieve the balloon by the U. S. Coast can be beyond the 2-dimensions on paper,” continues Pepe. “The result is SAM You have a lot of things set up in this incoming LYNNE Well, the people who nurtured me, that have seen College doing what they do. I would like to see that course of Arts and Culture under Mayor Marty Walsh. We want year for incoming students to get the chance to talk that I have a certain propensity to think imaginatively, be a College-wide thing. There should be a lot of synergy. to be more involved in Boston. We need to be part of landing in a swamp near Bridgewater, MA. Guard, the Provincetown Harbormaster, and a local whale watching crew an extraordinary intersection between the oral and visual world.” to you, right? What are a couple of those that we have allowed me to take that initiative. We want our students to connect when they’re in their that conversation. Students come here and are blown can look forward to? away by how hard it is, how much they learn, and how much they love it. We need to voice these sentiments LYNNE Dean Juárez had a wonderful tradition with As a faculty, we are all passionate about what so that the world hears it! Donuts with the Dean. I want to continue his legacy, but am expanding it to include Lunch with Lynne, we do. We all struggled very hard to get where we SAM It’s going to take a lot of coffee to get through that, a way to sit down and converse over some pizza. isn’t it? But, I hear you drink decaf, is this true? I have are. We all had the same ambitions and fears when no idea how you survive on that. I also want to set up town hall meetings, where students we got out of school. And I’m wondering, ‘How can can come and talk with me. I want student input because LYNNE I’ve been drinking decaf for years. I have enough I’m putting together a task force of faculty to develop the the College help that? How can the College energy without the coffee. With caffeine, I was too future vision for the College. Where do we want to go energetic… I had to give it up for the sake of my staff. with the College; what are our best assets? I need student actually make that road easier?’ input for that too. SAM Well, it’s good to know we have a cool, calm, and And, when you start doing that, you start to understand, actual learning environment, because who knows how collected Dean. Thank you for taking this time with me. As a faculty, we are all passionate about what we do. We “Well, wait a minute, I can actually do this.” important that will be further in their careers. Are there any parting words that you would like to give all struggled very hard to get where we are. We all had the student body as they’re either coming in, the same ambitions and fears when we got out of school. I also try to do that with the people I work with, not to SAM So, we’ve talked a bit about the kinds of things or finishing their time here? And I’m wondering, “How can the College help that? micromanage them, but to give them the chance to grow we’re doing in CFA.

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