Dafna Lemish
A unique series of events will take place in Spring 2012 that will infuse Southern Illinois with the spirit of exploration and imagination, as well as enable us to learn about and experience aesthetic, scientific, historical, political, and technological aspects of Antarctica. These events are invitations to consider how past and present human endeavors in Antarctica have significant implications for the future of our planet and even outer space. In addition, as the leaders of this initiative, we hope to demonstrate how MCMA and the media arts can engage multiple communities across campus and throughout the South of 64 region.
The centerpiece of Antarctica Imagined Geographies is the media arts installation created by MCMA Dean and Professor Gary Kolb and Associate Professor Jay Needham (Radio & Television), exhibited in the rotunda of Morris Library on the SIU Carbondale campus from March 19 – May 4, 2012.
Altogether 23 events will take place on- and off-campus, including: 1 concert, 3 reading-discussions with author Lucy Bledsoe, 4 panels with SIU faculty members and guests, 5 workshops on core drilling and climate change, and 6 lectures by world-class scientists, scholars, and media artists.
We hope these events will attract and engage a variety of audiences across age groups and communities, and enable all of us to learn about Antarctica and related issues of global importance such as, climate change, international zone management, science and technology in the service of humankind, the spirit of exploration, the humanities and arts as essential contributors to expressions of the human experience and spirit.
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For more details and up-to-date information:
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Global Media Research Center is announcing a diverse fall 2011 speaker series that will expand to off-campus events.
Established in 2004, the Global Media Research Center’s mission includes assembling a core group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to research global media issues, establish national and international partnerships to promote research, and play host to visiting scholars and artists as it seeks to develop new courses addressing global media issues.
All of the events are free, and open to the public. The Global Media Research Center is within the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.
Deborah Tudor, associate dean and interim director of the Center, said she is pleased the Global Media Research Center continues to offer such a diverse speaker series, and that some of the sponsored activities are going out to the community this fall.
“That is something the Center wants to do more,” she said. “We welcome collaboration with community organizations that are interested in global issues as they pertain to media.”
The fall 2011 schedule begins with three events later this month that are part of a series of community-wide, “11 Days of Peace,” observance. The events showcase peace-related activities in observing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The three events are:
Tuesday, Sept. 13 -- 7 p.m., Southern Illinoisan, 710 N. Illinois Ave., Carbondale. Peter Lemish, a visiting assistant professor in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, will present, “How to Report on Conflict: The War Journalism/Peace Journalism Debate.”
Saturday, Sept. 17 -- 7 p.m., Attucks Park, 400-800 N. Wall St., Carbondale. An outdoor film screening of documentaries “Concrete, Steel & Paint,” and “Workers Republic.” The Big Muddy Film Festival and the Carbondale Park District are event co-sponsors.
Tuesday, Sept. 20 --12:35 p.m., Gaia House Interfaith Center, 913 S. Illinois Ave. “Human Potential for Peace: Summary Discussion of Historic Peaceful Societies.” This is a session of the SIUC Honors Program course, “Cultures of Peace.”
Additional information about the “11 Days for Peace” is available at carbondale.lib.il.us/peace.html.
The Global Media Research Center will also host three events on campus during the semester.
At 6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20, Steve Macek, an associate professor of speech communication and coordinator of urban and suburban studies at North Central College in Naperville, will present, “One Hundred and Fifty Years of Chicago Labor Media.” An expert in labor media, Macek will discuss the history of labor movements, organizations, and media coverage of labor issues, Tudor said. The presentation will be in the Communications Building, room 1032.
Also during that week, graduate students within the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts under the direction of Jay F. Needham, an associate professor of radio-television, will participate in a global sound performance, “There and Back Again: A Collective Work for Internet & Radio.”
Audience members in the Communications Building’s Anechoic Chamber and at the Future Places Festival in Porto, Portugal, will participate in a real-time event through the Internet. According to the festival’s website, the event runs Oct. 19-22, and is “four days of exhibitions and events addressing the potential and the impact of digital media on local cultures.” The specific date and time for SIUC to participate is still being determined.
“Part of our initiative is to work more with artists who have that same kind of global media art element to their work,” Tudor said.
At 3 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 3, Kelly Caringer, a doctoral student within the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, and Peter Lemish will examine how media officers operate within non-governmental organizations, such as various peace and refugee organizations. The presentation, “Roles of Media & Media Officers in Global Civil Society Organizations,” will be in the Communications Building, room 1032.
More information is available at gmrc.siu.edu, or by contacting Laura Germann at 618/453-7709 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Jay Needham began a new collaboration with the ABC National Radio program The Night Air. Several new pieces are in pre-production.
The Kharkov City Art Gallery in Ukraine screened Needham's work OPENED on March 19 as a part of Cologne OFF 2011. The festival is collaboration between Cologne International Videoart Festival, artvideoKOELN, le Musee di-visioniste – the new museum of networked art & Goethe Institute Ukraine Kiev, Centre for Contemporary Art Foundation Kiev, Media Lab Kiev City Art Gallery Kharkiv, Nuremberg House Kharkiv Kharkiv National University. CologneOFF 2011 – videoart in a global context designed, coordinated, curated and directed by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne.
The Third Coast Festival's Re:sound aired and streamed The Transmissions Show. Needham's Listening at the Border is a part of the hour long line-up as well as David Goren's work Atencion: Seis Siete Tres Siete Cero: The Shortwave Numbers Mystery, Roman Mars work Max Neuhaus and Pirate Station by Emily Botein, Sherre DeLys, John Lurie, and Rick Moody.
Last fall, students in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts came together with other SIUC students from the School of Music, College of Engineering, and Information Science to start a local chapter of the Audio Engineering Society.
“The involvement of students from across the campus makes the SIUC student section unique,” said Kelly Caringer, AES chapter chairman. “Our AES chapter is closely affiliated with the Radio/Television department in MCMA, but we have active members from the Cinema/Photography department as well.”
According to Caringer, the group currently has about 20 members who are both undergraduate and graduate students. Todd Herreman and Jay Needham, Radio and Television Department, serve as faculty advisors.
"The Audio Engineering Society is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Founded in the United States in 1948, the AES has grown to become an international organization that unites audio engineers, creative artists, scientists and students worldwide by promoting advances in audio and disseminating new knowledge and research," according to the AES website.
Caringer said the SIUC chapter would host a series of special lectures and workshops related to the art and science of sound recording.
“Our first event was a special lecture from French researcher/recordist, Michael Williams on March 5 via Skype,” said Caringer. “We are in contact with several scholars and practitioners who are interested in presenting to our group, either remotely or by traveling to SIUC.”
Caringer added the student section is also a venue for students to share research and creative works with other students and faculty.
“We are fortunate to have an audio research suite in the Communications building which serves as both a teaching/research space, and presentation/exhibition space for technical and experimental works in the audio arts,” Caringer said. “As part of the New Media Center, this suite of rooms (complete with anechoic chamber) will likely be an integral part of future curriculum development and emerging research at SIUC. The AES is thrilled to host events in these unique spaces.”
The SIUC chapter of AES was recently awarded official status of a Registered Student Organization at SIUC.
Caringer is a second year Ph.D. student from Herrin, Ill. He is the recipient of the 2011 Edison Visiting Research Fellowship at the British Library Sound Archive in London.
An Evening of Radio Art & Surround Sound Works
Saturday, April 2nd
7:30 pm
Chris Moe Theatre, Communications Building
The Outside the Box New Music Festival presents an evening of international radio art and surround sound works. Radio-Television Department faculty member Jay Needham has organized the concert that features works by leading radio and sound artists from France, Canada, the United Kingdom and Southern Illinois. The evening includes a special live performance by Chicago-based musician and instrument builder Eric Leonardson.
Free Event – All Welcome
For more information, contact Jay Needham at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Presented by Outside the Box New Music Festival and the Department of Radio-Television. Link to the fest here:
Jay Needham's radio documentary Listening at the Border aired on Feb. 12th on Australia's ABC National Radio program 360 Documentaries.
Jay presented several of his sound works and a lecture titled Several Alternate Histories of Place in Chicago to The Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology on Feb. 18th
Cologne based curator Wilfried Agricola Cologne is featuring Jay Needham's piece OPENED during the month of February as a part of “Horror Vacui? - What is Happening Next?” along with eight other US based artists.
The nomination made by Associate Dean Deborah Tudor and Dafna Lemish of Amy Goodman, (an independent American broadcast journalist and investigative reporter one of the founders and principle hosts of Democracy Now! The War & Peace Report) for the University Honorary Degree was approved by the university. Amy Goodman has been invited for the May Commencement Ceremony of MCMA.
Lisa Brooten gave an invited presentation entitled: Democratization in Thailand: The Role of the Media in Asia to the Peoria Area World Affairs Council, Peoria, Illinois. Thursday, February 17, 2011.
David Burns was awarded a $3,000.00 William A. Minor Grant, for his research-creative project Chrysalis.
David Burns exhibited his 3D animation, Rebirth, at the Allen Priebe Art Gallery's National Juried Exhibition, Systems.
David Burns' 3D computer animation student, Will Roberts, was selected and participated as a student ambassador at SIGGRAPH Asia in Seoul, Korea.
John Hochheimer was invited to join the editorial board of research materials Spirituality of a Personality, methodology, theory and practice.
Graduate students in the MCMA Interdisciplinary MFA program and MCMA faculty premiered a new sound artwork at an international festival on Oct. 15th. "Close Seconds,” was conceived by MFA students Josh Gumiela and Derek Smith and was performed live from the MCMA anechoic chamber via the Internet to the Future Places Festival in Porto, Portugal. Curated by Jay Needham, the piece also involved MCMA graduate students Justin Edgren, Will Roberts and Cinema and Photography Assistant Professor Robert Spahr.
WSIU HD PREMIERE: Fri, Dec 10, 9:30-10pm
REPEATS: WSIU HD: 12/5, 12:30pm; 12/7, 11:30pm & 12/10, 5pm
WSIU WORLD: 12/4, 4pm; 12/5, 4pm, 12/6, 8pm
DESCRIPTION:
WSIU TV senior producer Jak Tichenor takes a closer look at the museum exhibit “Antarctic Dreams,” which showcased the photography and sound work of photographer Gary Kolb, Dean of the SIU Carbondale (SIUC) College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, and sound artist Jay Needham, an associate professor in SIUC's Department of Radio-Television. The exhibit, which was on display at the University Museum
Kolb and Needham discuss the adventures of British explorer Ernest Shackleton, who led several expeditions to Antarctica in the early 1900s, and explorer Robert Falcon Scott who's 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole ended in tragedy. Kolb explains that photos from the Scott expedition served as the inspiration for he and Needham's trip to Antarctica. He points out the surprisingly vivid colors of the white continent's unique geologic features, such as Deception Island, and its vast array of wildlife, such as penguins, seals, and whales (a series of whalebone photos were part of the exhibit).
In the second segment, we examine the art work of students in the Hughes Gallery at the John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, Illinois. The artists' work focus on the themes of three-dimensional paintings, sculptures, and abstract works. Students discuss their work from class, their creative intentions, and the process of displaying their work to the public. Examples range from “Hand Solo”, toothbrush sculptures, and tree paintings to creating abstract art with shoes.
WSIU's Jennifer Fuller interviews Gary Kolb, Dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, and Radio-Television faculty Jay Needham.
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wsiu/local-wsiu-893456.mp3
The interview was for WSIU Radio Morning Conversation for March 30, 2010.  They talk about Antarctic Dreams, an visual and audio exhibit running from March 30 through May 9 at SIUC's University Museum.
The exhibit features about 40 of Kolb's images and selections from 25 hours of Needham's sound recordings. The imagery features wildlife, which includes penguins and seals; landscapes, with mountain ranges and glaciers; and an audio-visual installation focusing on the economic and industrial exploitation, primarily by the whaling industry, at Deception Island. The installation, portraying the remains of "collision and industrialization" in a completely unlikely area of the world, is the exhibit's centerpiece, Kolb said.
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wsiu/local-wsiu-893456.mp3
A reception is set for 4 to 7 p.m., April 2, in the museum.
 
Media Advisory: Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to cover the exhibit. For more information on the "Antarctic Dreams" exhibition, contact Gary Kolb by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or Jay Needham at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
This story was featured in the Southern Illinoisan special Entertainment Guide
A video feature and an image gallery is available at http://www.thesouthern.com/entertainment/article_1fa7090c-3838-11df-88db-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=image
An idea first conceived in an alpine valley near Steamboat Springs, Colo., and executed on the isolated continent of Antarctica has resulted in a unique gallery exhibition by two Southern Illinois artists.
"Antarctic Dreams," an exhibition by Gary Kolb and Jay Needham opens Tuesday, March 30, in the Mitchell Gallery at the University Museum. A reception will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 2.
Kolb is a photographer and Dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Needham is a sound researcher and associate professor in radio and television at the university.
Their multimedia exhibit will feature photographs and audio recordings made during the artists' 2008 trip to Antarctica. Forty-five of Kolb's photographs and five sound sculptures, which consist of Needham's audio recordings played over antique gramophone horns customized for the exhibit, will be on display. The artists said the installation is a combination of document and dream, and it was inspired by early Antarctic expeditions, the history of the continent and their experiences on the journey.
"Over time your experience of the place becomes less clear-cut, less hard-edged" Kolb said. "And it's replaced with the memory that we've preserved in the photographs and in the sound and the memory that's in our head. It becomes this mix of some sort of document and some sort of dreamscape."
The artists' process
The shear volume of material brought back from Antarctica by the artists created a long and thought-provoking editing process. Kolb said he took nearly 2,700 images on the trip, while Needham recorded more than 25 hours of audio. The artists said editing that much content down to 45 photographs and five short audio loops for exhibition has been a collaborative process several months in the making.
Kolb said his photographs went through a number of edits and re-edits before he ended up with a pool of 300 images from which he would draw the final images for the show. Needham said his editing process is similar.
"It is a similar process," Needham said. "You're reflecting on what you've gathered in the field, then you begin to make art out of it. One of the nice things of traveling and making work is returning and reflecting on where you've been and what you've done. I really like that process because I think it re-informs my work."
Kolb said throughout the development of the idea, the changed and required content adjustments. He said a pivotal moment came last October when Needham played for Kolb a recording he had been mixing. Kolb said the audio track gave the artists the idea of having a central installation within the show that would be a hinge point for everything else. The hinge point was inspired by a place called Deception Island, a caldera with a dark past tied to the whaling industry.
"It completely changed my conception of how I thought about what we were doing," Kolb said. "It sounded like whale songs, but it sounded like tortured whale songs, which was perfect for this place. I mean it was like an epiphany."
Needham said he finds the scale of sound interesting and that he'll often listen for subtle, barely audible sounds, which he found on Deception Island in over-sized oil tanks left behind by whalers.
He said because it's a place of intense isolation, Antarctica is full of what he calls lonely sounds.
"When you see Gary's images of the Antarctic landscape, you see a very isolated space," Needham said. "Something similar happens when making field recordings in that environment, the sounds one hears in Antarctica are intensely isolating. Just listening to the environment there, is a form of forced introspection. It's a real magnifier for your own human experience in the natural environment."
Antarctic history
Kolb said he and Needham were inspired by two events that affected the history of Antarctica, the whaling industry's operation on Deception Island in the early 20th century and the era of exploration, especially that of Ernest Shackleton.
Kolb said Deception Island is a caldera of an ancient volcano, which has a gap that ships are able to sail through, finding a natural harbor protected from the sea. It is in this harbor where the whaling industry would send factory ships to process whales.
Kolb said from roughly 1910 to around 1940 the industry used a highly industrialized process and would process whales onboard, pump the oil into large tanks on Deception Island, drag the whale carcasses back into the harbor for disposal and then pump the oil back onboard the ships. Over the course of 30 years, Kolb estimated that tens of thousands of whales were slaughtered and boiled down at Deception Island, resulting in whalebones being spread across the beach.
"It's a place that historically is really important, and emotionally when you go there it's like walking through a cemetery or graveyard where all the bones have been unearthed and all the graves are on the surface," he said. "It's really spooky, it's a very charged place, a very powerful place."
Shackleton's expedition turned tragic when his ship became trapped in the ice and was eventually crushed by ice floes. The crew had to survive by living for months in lifeboats on the ice floes. Eventually the explorers sailed the lifeboats hundreds of miles across the open ocean to safety.
The artists said old photographs of the expedition showing gramophones and whiskey crates in the Antarctic environment inspired a portion of their work. Needham constructed a replica whiskey crate for the show and inscribed on it an unpublished Shackleton poem, which was discovered in a hotel ledger in 2009.
Gallery installation
The exhibition is the culmination of Kolb's and Needham's artistic processes, collaboration and historic influence. Some of Kolb's photographs will be displayed around the outer walls of the gallery with Needham's sound sculptures carefully interspersed. The soundtrack to the exhibit will be played through gramophone horns hanging by ropes from the ceiling, which references the technology of the early Antarctic expeditions.
Needham said the audio portion of the exhibit will act as a collage as viewers move through the gallery space. He said some of the collages will be of wildlife recordings, the engine of the boat that took them on their journey and recordings of Antarctic wind.
He said there will be a form of interactivity in that the viewer can create their own mix of sounds depending on their viewing habits.
"The nice part about this from the standpoint of the human element is you'll be able to walk around and create your own mix," Needham said. "You'll be able to hear them, but it will depend on where you're walking, how fast you're walking and what pieces are playing and when."
Toward the back of the gallery, much like an island, a freestanding, dimly lit octagonal room will display the photographs from Deception Island. The soundtrack for this room is the same soundtrack that provided the artists with their pivotal moment of inspiration last October, what Kolb described as whale songs.
Kolb said his photographs of whalebones, as well as an aerial photograph of Deception Island, will be on display in the room. He said the aerial photograph of the island looks uncannily like a whalebone and his photographs of whalebones parallel this.
"What I did was I took the bones and I dropped out the sand that was around them," Kolb said. "I just left the bone, and it's just floating in this black space."
Kolb said the idea for the exhibit was a long time in the making. It was in an alpine valley on a backpacking trip with Needham four years ago to Mount Zirkel Wilderness area near Steamboat Springs when the idea was first suggested.
Kolb said Needham brought his recording equipment, and he had his camera and the idea came to them as they were hiking out.
"We were hiking back out, and we were saying we have to do something with this,'" Kolb said. "We need to do a show together with sound and pictures. So we've been thinking about this for a long time, and this opportunity was just kind of the one to push us over the edge."
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Source: http://www.thesouthern.com/entertainment/article_1fa7090c-3838-11df-88db-001cc4c002e0.html
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