Category Archives: News

Remembering Art Center Europe director, Uwe Bahnsen

Art Center Europe director, Uwe Bahnsen

Art Center Europe director, Uwe Bahnsen

It is with much sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of Uwe Bahnsen, a beloved director and leader of Art Center Europe from 1986 to 1995.

Recognized as one of the most influential European automotive designers of the 20th Century, Uwe was an inspiration and role model for our students and faculty during those exciting years in Europe. He was a former Vice President of Design for Ford of Europe, as well as the President of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Designers from 1995 to 1997. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, studied at the College of Fine Arts in Hamburg, was an accomplished painter and sculptor, and was truly one of the most revered and admired leaders of the Art Center campus in Vevey, Switzerland.

Geoff Wardle, currently heading our graduate program in Transportation Design and former chair of the Trans department at Art Center Europe, knew Uwe Bahnsen well and wrote movingly about his admiration and respect for this giant of automobile design:

I have always acknowledged Uwe Bahnsen along with Patrick LeQuement, his protégé, as the two automotive designers who most effectively invested their considerable intellect and energy to elevating the importance of design within the car industry and to the outside world. They did this in a way that has helped all of us who followed in their path. Not only that, both men added gravitas to the profession by truly understanding the full scope of design – as opposed to just styling – and how to fully leverage the contribution of the design process and philosophy into manufacturing industry.

Provost Fred Fehlau, remembering Uwe with great fondness, added the following:

I worked with Uwe when I was teaching one summer in the late ‘80s. He liked fast cars, good food and especially enjoyed working with students. He always had a smile on his face, as if he was getting more from them than they were getting from him. But he never let on.

Art Center has been distinguished throughout its history by many fine and impressive attributes, but nothing is more important or celebrated than the great people who have given so much and who have graced our community with their talent and skill. In Uwe, we have lost a great teacher, a true leader, and a wonderful friend.

Our condolences and warm wishes go to his family at this difficult time.

Dr. Lorne M. Buchman is the president of Art Center College of Design.

 

Conscious Commuter mobilizes an e-bike revolution at The Design Accelerator

Gabriel Wartofsky with his electric bike at the Environmental Media Awards

Gabriel Wartofsky with his electric bike at the Environmental Media Awards.

When entrepreneurial inspiration strikes, it’s often described as the convergence of creative and commercial instincts. An innovator perceives a void in the marketplace and conceives a product or experience to fill that space and drive demand for more. But for Gabriel Wartofsky and Bob Vander Woude, that well-worn path into the startup trenches has been less clear-cut.

The partners have spent the past two years developing Conscious Commuter, a company built around an electric bicycle with a sleek design and long-range battery. However the whole enterprise is driven by nothing short of a mission to revolutionize transportation.“We’re solution providers,” declares Vander Woude, an entrepreneur and CEO of a seed-stage investment fund, who was looking to fund an electric bike company when he happened upon a web demo of Wartofsky’s senior thesis project, now the basis for their partnership, which aims to implement e-bike sharing systems in cities around the world. “We’re multi-modal. That’s the secret sauce. Other electric bike companies are not coming from the background of solving a social problem. They’re just motivated to get to a retailer and make money.”

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Trayvon Martin protest: Photography student Kit Sinclair embeds himself on the front lines of the battle for justice

We first glimpsed the images above by chance, as Photography instructor Tony Di Zinno and student Kit Sinclair were reviewing the project in the cafeteria at South Campus. We were immediately struck by the bold and viscerally affecting quality of the shots Sinclair captured while attending a protest the night the Trayvon Martin verdict was rendered. Sinclair had been working closely with Di Zinno, a renowned sports photographer, in a class entitled, Project Photo: Sport, which focuses on navigating the intersection of sports, politics and art. “The culture of sport relates to conflict in many ways,” explains Di Zinno. “The Olympics are a thing of beauty – but also form of surrogate warfare. In this class we reflect on how examples of how sport acts as a mirror in reflecting ourselves as societies. We examine seminal figures like Mohammed Ali whose iconic LIFE magazine image by civil rights photographer Flip Schulke is featured on the profile of our Art Center-Sports class facebook page. Kit’s protest coverage was squarely in the tradition of the concerned photographer. We see in his images moments reminiscent of Sixties symbols of protest – which led in turn to class discussions of  visual literacy and image as art reference in terms of a so-called ‘black power’ salute by Tommy Smith and John Carlos on the 200m medal stand in the ’68 Olympic games.” 

“The larger point to me as an educator is to support these emerging artists,” continues Di Zinno, who co-teaches the class with Andy Bernstein, who shoots for the NBA and NHL. We are reminded by Kit’s work not to be too isolated in our silos of higher learning. But to realize that we are all indeed citizens and participants… and to learn to apply critical thinking. To dare and go see for ourselves. To take time to consider and deliberate in how to apply what we learned. Perhaps,most importantly – to share what we did learn with others.”

In the above gallery and blog post below, Sinclair incorporates each of these strands into a series of arresting photographs, that simultaneously call out for our attention and compassion.

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Aquatopia: Rolling in the deep with Grad Art alumna Jennifer West

"Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws Reversal Film" (2011) by Jennifer West. Super 8 print transferred to hi definition video with sound.

“Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws Reversal Film” (2011) by Jennifer West. Super 8 print transferred to hi definition video with sound.

With 90 percent of the earth’s oceans yet to be explored, “the deep” is and has always been a place of mystery, fear, desire—and wild imagination. One Art Center alum who’s creatively plumbed this furtive, fertile territory is Jennifer West ’04 (Graduate Fine Art). Her recent multimedia work, “Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws Reversal Film” (2011) is featured in Aquatopia: The Imaginary of the Ocean Deep, a major exhibition that opened this past weekend at the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham, England, continuing through September 22.

Bringing together more than 150 contemporary and historic artworks, Aquatopia explores how “the deep” has been imagined through time and across cultures. Sea monsters, sirens, sperm whales, giant squids, octopi, submarines, drowned sailors and shipwrecks are all portrayed. In a show that includes iconic works by JMW Turner, Odilon Redon, Hokusai, Barbara Hepworth and Oskar Kokoschka, West finds herself in prestigious company.

West is known for her digitized films that are made by hand-manipulating film celluloid, and the description of materials and processes she used to create “Heavy Metal Sharks Calming Jaws Reversal Film” tells a story in itself: “Faded pink super 8 film print — library copy of select scenes from “Jaws” — from Lorain, Ohio public library — treated with black fabric dye enriched with heavy metals: iron and zinc vitamins, celluloid grated with stone, whipped with hair headbanging, impressed with thumb and pink prints devil ears. Super 8 print transferred to hi definition video with sound.” Total running time: 6 minutes, 47 seconds.

In reviewing a previous show of the artist’s work, Wendy Vogel noted on Artforum.com, “Like her experimental predecessors, West forgoes narrative cohesion in favor of creating jumpy cuts and abstract visual collages — splicing, rolling, and drenching the celluloid using materials from Mylar tape to pickle juice, whiskey to candle smoke.” Writing on West’s work in Frieze, Joanna Kleinberg observed how “the intermingling of materiality, feeling and identity creates a wild blend of synaesthetic experience wherein the substances of life literally and figuratively colour the film.”

Born in Topanga, Calif., West lives and works in Los Angeles. Before earning her MFA at Art Center, she received a BFA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. She has had solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and has done commissioned projects for exhibitions at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, the Aspen Art Museum and the Tate Modern. West also creates “zines” — DIY photo booklets of production stills of the making of her films — in conjunction with her exhibitions.

Curated by Alex Farquharson, Aquatopia is a collaboration with Tate St Ives in Cornwall, where it will be on view from October 2013 to January 2014.

“Like” Jennifer’s film on Facebook!

Nap Stars: Art center students rally around a dedicated sleep space

Nap time for Isaac Oaks

Nap time for Isaac Oaks

In addition to the beautiful illustrations and sleek looking car models adorning the halls at Art Centers’ Hillside Campus, there’s an intriguing installation viewable to students and visitors alike. In the library, on couches in the hallway and on top of most any flat surface available: students can be found splayed out catching some shut-eye, desperate for a place to rest their head during the long demanding days and weeks of the term.

Rumors and horror stories flood new students, with tales of students who crashed their cars and somehow walked away unharmed (i.e.’How funny it is that so-and-so hurt themselves while building a model?’) and how people in authority positions support and contribute to this propaganda of self-denial. As the student population diversifies in age and life experience it is clear that additional co-curricular and non-curricular structures are necessary to continue producing top-notch designers and artists.

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Nelson Mandela: Icon lost and regained

The work of three Art Center students was selected for the Mandela95 Poster Project

The work of three Art Center students was selected for the Mandela95 Poster Project

Today is Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. To commemorate this momentous event, a group of South African designers formed the Mandela Poster Project Collective, whose mission was to collect 95 posters for inclusion in a traveling exhibition which would ultimately be auctioned by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust. After receiving over 700 submissions from designers around the world, yesterday the committee announced the final collection of 95 entries, which includes the work of three Art Center students — Zarina Mendoza , David Iker Sanchez and Jasveer Sidhu — who developed their contributions as part of a Designmatters and Graphic Design collaboration under the creative leadership of Leonard Konopelski. 

To further honor Mandela’s vast contributions to human rights, we’re republishing the following essay by Amanda du Preez, professor of visual arts at University of Pretoria, paying tribute to the former President of South Africa’s role as a cultural icon and nonviolent global changemaker. 

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From Breaking Bad to Modern Family: 2013′s Emmy noms confirm TV’s at the top of its game

Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad

Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad

I write this day before the Emmy nominations are announced. As a member of the TV Academy I vote for the Primetime Emmys; and for several years now it’s been hard to choose a favorite in each category.  This year in particular has had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to outstanding TV.

Rather than try to predict the nominees (to be announced tomorrow) or the winners (revealed during the live broadcast on September 22), here is a very subjective list of can’t-miss current series. I am also including some guilty-pleasure shows I’ve been known to watch, none of which run the risk of getting an Emmy nomination.

Sometimes I come late to a series that has already become a phenomenon (24). Or I’ll skip it all together (Lost.)  I mention this to explain why I am the last person on the planet not to be caught up in Game of Thrones mania.  I watched the first episode and didn’t find a good reason to come back to that world or those characters.  But everyone tells me it grows on you, so I will catch up one of these days.

Another reason I’m not actively seeking another series to watch is that there are so many great ones that I’m hooked on already.

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The Collective Action Toolkit workshop equips designers and changemakers with versatile problem-solving techniques

David Sherwin leads the Collective Action Toolkit workshop.

David Sherwin leads the Collective Action Toolkit workshop. Photography by Takayuki Mark Kasuya

“Go ahead and join a group.” This was David Sherwin’s opening directive to the students and faculty members spilling into Art Center’s faculty dining room for the Designmatters-sponsored Collective Action Toolkit workshop.  Sherwin, interaction design director and researcher at frog design in San Francisco, was not merely suggesting attendees sidle up to strangers. It was a non-negotiable requirement, which I discovered when I suggested I would not join a group because I only present to observe and report. “This is all about collaboration, so why don’t you find a group and participate?”

Roger that. Next thing I knew, I had wedged myself into a table full of students seated near the back of the room. We then embarked on our first assignment — writing our names and special talents on separate pieces of paper, which we’d then merge into one document listing our group’s core competencies. This exercise represents the Collective Action Toolkit’s first step in assessing the resources available to each collaborative cohort. In our case, we possessed an unsurprising abundance of design, drawing and drafting skills along with singing, writing and storytelling. Though we had no idea what task we would be asked to perform; it was hard, at that point, to see how this hodgepodge of talents would meld into a whole that was stronger than the sum of its parts.

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Art Center in the News, May/June 2013

Environmental Design student Jonathan Wook Kim with his new design “Remix” as seen in the Los Angeles Times coverage of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and New York Design Week.

From the launch of Art Center’s The Design Accelerator to showcasing new chair designs at the top industry confab in New York, from Grand Theft Auto to anti-gun violence campaigns — here’s where you can catch up on any news you may have missed with our latest media roundup.

Bloomberg Businessweek, “Want to Build the Next Pinterest? Focus on Great Design,” June 26, 2013: Art Center partners with Caltech and teams up with Idealab to develop design-driven startups.

Huffington Post, “Entrepreneurship Driven by Design,” May 29, 2013

Bunch Magazine, June 2013: Interview with Grad Art shop instructor and alumnus Zack Stadel (GART 04).

Brand Republic, June 20, 2013: Student Gevorg Karensky’s short, Grand Theft Auto: RISE, selected for Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Director’s Showcase.

GOOD Magazine, “Reducing Gun Violence, One Middle School Class at a Time,”June 19, 2013

KCRW DnA: Design and Architecture, June 18, 2013: Designmatters’ Mariana Amatullo and Elisa Ruffino are featured in the first segment of the program about the Uncool Anti-Gun Violence initiative.

KCET Artbound, June 11, 2013: Art Center, JPL and Caltech present symposium on the emerging field of data visualization.

Los Angeles Times, “ICFF 2013 and New York Design Week: Top trends in home décor,” May 24, 2013: Environmental Design students Jonathan Wook Kim and Zara Vardayan are featured in this story about furniture companies which premiered their newest designs at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and New York Design Week. Chairs designed by both students through the Art Center Bernhardt Design partnership are shown in a roundup of designs and trends spotted during the show.

For the latest Art Center news, follow us on Twitter at @art_center.

Calling all video sleuths: Archivist issues APB for lost footage of Keith Haring

Keith Haring painted this mural at Art Center shortly before his death

Keith Haring painted this mural at Art Center shortly before his death

 

The Archives needs your help locating a lost video treasure.

In 1989 artist Keith Haring was invited to paint a mural at Art Center to serve as a “permanent memorial to members of the art community who have died of AIDS and as a symbol of hope and compassion.” Painted over the course of two days, the mural covers a large wall near the Hillside campus Library and offers a daily source of inspiration to the College’s growing community of students focused on social impact art and design. Haring’s painting also stands as tribute to Haring himself, who passed due to AIDS-related complications in February 1990, two months after the Art Center public work was completed.

It was a significant moment in the College’s history; and steps were taken to capture the process on video. However, after searching high and low, we’ve been unable to locate a single frame of the footage captured while Haring worked on the painting.  Can you help us locate it?  We worry that video from that event is deteriorating somewhere. And without Indiana Jones around to dig it up this Holy Grail of archival material, we’re turning to you for help.

The Archives collects, preserves, and makes accessible materials related to the history of Art Center.  We accept items on a regular basis, including photographs, documents, course materials, examples of student work, and film and video.

If you would like to donate materials to Art Center, contact College Archivist Robert Dirig at: archives@artcenter.edu or 626.396.2208. As Keith Haring might have encouraged anyone with an inkling about where this footage might be hidden: Silence = Death (and/or a serious void in Art Center’s archives).