Monthly Archives: November 2010

This Week at Art Center

It’s another busy week here at Art Center. Just some of this week’s events:

Photo © Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

  • It’s International Education Week, and there are a ton of fun events planned. Dotted Line Blog
  • Director of Photography Paul Goldsmith, whose credits include Academy Award-winning documentary When We Were Kings, will be on campus for the Distinguished Filmmakers Series Tuesday at 2 p.m. More info.
  • East or Beast: What does Jaws have in common with Slumdog Millionaire? Sarha Moore, soprano saxophonist in the Bollywood Brass Band and Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield will discuss the topic and air clips of great movies and music. Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1-2 p.m., Room 208, Hillside Campus.
  • Blurred Boundaries: Interactive Design and the digital agency Schematic invite a host of industry professionals to explore how the shrinking space between brand communication and product design is changing the way we design. Thursday, Nov. 18, 7-9 p.m., L.A. Times Media Center. More info.
  • Art Center Student Government elections will be held this Wednesday and Thursday.
  • Save the date: registration is now open for Imaging DNA 2011, held on March 26 at Art Center. Imaging DNA

Big Picture Lecture Series: David Wilson

Don’t miss today’s Big Picture Lecture Series featuring David Wilson, who will speak on Nikolai Federov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the Roots of the Russian Space Program.

Wilson is the founding director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT), which he opened in 1988 in Culver City. MJT has exhibited internationally and Wilson has lectured throughout North America and Europe.

He has produced eight independent films, most recently under the auspices of MJT in conjunction with Kabinet, an arts and science-based cultural institution located in St. Petersburg, Russia. The latest of their collaborative efforts is titled Bol’shoe Sovietskia Zatmenie (The Great Soviet Eclipse).

In 2001, the MacArthur Foundation granted Wilson a fellowship in recognition of his accomplishments at the museum.

And don’t forget—podcasts of the lectures are up at Art Center’s iTunes U site.

Big Picture Lecture Series: David Wilson
Monday, November 15, 1 pm
Ahmanson Auditorium

Design Activists: Narbeh Dereghishian and Jessica Yeh

The following is a posting from Daily BR!NK. Interview by Lauren Rigney, photographs courtesy of Narbeh and Jessica

Narbeh Dereghishian and Jessica Yeh: Design Activists

There are two things in this world that Art Center Product Design student Narbeh Dereghishian and Environmental Design student Jessica Yeh believe everyone should have access to: A warm shower and wonderful design

By Lauren Rigney for Daily BR!NK

The next time you pick up a product and admire it for its sheer beauty, simplicity or functionality, you can thank people like Jessica Yeh and Narbeh Dereghishian. Students at the Art Center College of Design in California, Jessica and Narbeh love nothing more than improving life through innovation and design.

When they were both offered the opportunity last fall to spend two weeks at a campamento (or slum) in Chile, researching how to design basic tools that would improve the Chileans’ lives, neither realized at that point just how big of a difference they were about to make.

The result of their research and efforts is the Ducha Halo, Spanish for “Halo Shower”: a low-cost, portable tool that makes taking a warm shower as easy as 1, 2, 3 – you heat the container on a grill, pump the handle to pressurize the water, and step on pedal to let the comfort of a nice, warm shower wash over you.

What made you want to go to school for design?
Jessica Yeh: I think it was just something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I made up my mind in middle school that I just had to be a designer (laughs).
Narbeh Dereghishian: I knew I wanted to solve problems.

Why did you want to be part of the class that undertook the assignment of visiting, and designing for, a Chilean slum? That’s not typical homework…
JY: Design is wonderful, and it can be really innovative and have the potential to help people who need simple things. Just to help make their lives a little bit easier, a little bit better and more enjoyable.
ND: Exactly. As for me, I’ve done other projects related to social design, and the one prior to this one was one in Guatemala where I did water filtration for a rural community there. This was right up that alley.

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Upcoming: International Education Week

It’s going to be a fun week on campus for Art Center students, faculty and staff: International Education Week. A joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, the week of events celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange.

Photo © Steven A. Heller/Art Center College of Design

All week, the cafeteria will serve a variety of international cuisines, there will be a display of multilingual art and design books in the library, and there will be information available about the Designmatters Department. International Education Week is sponsored by the Center for the Student Experience, Designmatters, Illustration Department, FOOD, the Armory Center for the Arts, Continental Art Supply Store and the Japanese American National Museum.

International Education Week events:

Monday, November 15
Global IQ Quiz
CSE Lounge, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Enjoy international coffee, tea, snacks and music, then test your global knowledge by taking a short 15-question Global IQ Quiz and enter to win a prize.

Tuesday, November 16
London Ancient Modern: The Mix
Faculty Dining Room,1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Would you like to study in London next spring? Learn more about this annual trip led by Illustration Department Chair Ann Field. While you’re there, try your hand at flag painting, enjoy a British afternoon tea service, and meet Paul Smith’s L.A. team and more at this event hosted by the Illustration Department.

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Art Center Media Minute

Some recent media coverage featuring Art Center, our faculty, students and alumni:

The Zen Master’s Search for the Wild West

On Monday, Occidental College professor Dale Wright was on campus as part of the Big Picture lecture series to talk about Buddhism, Buddhist wisdom and creativity.

The most entertaining part of the talk, however, was the story of the Zen Master who came looking for the Wild West—and how he found it.

Wright met the Zen Master at a conference in New Mexico. The Master had traveled from Japan in large part because of his love for all things Western—especially Western movies. The first night of the conference, the Master talked Wright into walking into town in search of a “saloon.”

Wright tried to talk him out of it, explaining that things had changed, and that today’s cowboys rode pick-up trucks instead of horses. Not to mention, he doubted that there was a saloon in the small town, anyway.

The Master was not deterred, so he and Wright set out for town on foot—the Zen Master in his robe, wooden sandals and shaved head.

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Faculty’s Cookbook Among Best of 2010

More about Art Center faculty member and cookbook writer extraordinaire Krystina Castella—her latest cookbook, A World of Cake, has just been named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2010 by Publisher’s Weekly, who dub it the “best international baking book.”

From the publication: “Pictures of marzipan-covered fruitcakes are gorgeous, and sidebars on such topics as street cakes make this an educational book in addition to a holiday workhorse.”

Congrats, Krystina!

Enjoy these photos taken at Castella’s book signing in the Library on Thursday:

Safe Agua Wins Top Spark Award

The following post was written by Product Design alumnus Will Tang, Product Design student KC Cho and Environmental Design student Stephanie Stalker for the Designmatters blog.

Last October, our class of 12 students was still busily refining concepts, building mockups, and preparing for midterm presentations for Safe Agua, a sponsored project focused on addressing water issues in the campamentos, or slums, of Santiago, Chile.

Since then, six projects were developed including a shower solution, dishwashing station and community laundromat being field-tested by Un Techo para Chile.

A year later, on October 17, KC Cho made the long drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco to submit Safe Agua for the 2010 Spark Awards, an International Design Competition.

With guidance from Mariana Amatullo, Karen Hofmann, and David Mocarski, Liliana and KC worked diligently to complete the application process. Along with the oversized poster, the Safe Agua documentary by Elizabeth Bayne, Harry Gota by the Ming Tai’s motion team and the Safe Agua book by Lisa Wagner’s graphic team were delivered the next morning to the site of the Spark Awards at the Autodesk office on One Market Street.

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Big Picture Lecture Series: Dale S. Wright

Don’t miss today’s Big Picture Lecture Series featuring Dale S. Wright, who will speak on Buddhist Wisdom and the Foundations of Ironic Humor is Zen.

Wright is the David and Mary Gamble Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College. His areas of expertise are Buddhist thought, particularly Chinese and Japanese, and modern continental European philosophy. Among his publications are Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism, The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character and a series of Oxford University Press books on the history of Zen Buddhism.

And don’t forget—podcasts of the lectures are up at Art Center’s iTunes U site.

Big Picture Lecture Series: Dale S. Wright
Monday, November 8, 1 pm
Ahmanson Auditorium

Meet Ronald J. Llanos

Metro’s Exposition Line connecting downtown to Culver City (and eventually Santa Monica) may not be up and running yet, but when it is, it’ll be impossible to miss the work of Illustration alum and Art Center at Night instructor Ronald J. Llanos.

Metro has commissioned the Art Center alum and Art Center at Night instructor to create Ephemeral Views: A Visual Essay for its light rail station being constructed at Western Avenue, and the 24 mosaic panels (each one standing 8’ x 3’) that comprise the work are being created right now.

Much of Llanos work captures the everyday moments of life in the greater Los Angeles area—whether it’s a visual documentation of downtown’s Toy District or an homage to Manet at Hot Dog on a Stick—so it’s not surprising that his Expo Line work inspired by the vibrant characters that make up the city’s street life.

Llanos work has been shown at Wax Poetic, Black Maria Gallery and Ghettogloss and he was the featured artist in Draw the Line, a recent group show at Cactus Gallery in Eagle Rock. We caught up with him to ask him about his favorite artists and teaching at Art Center at Night.

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