In the March 2013 issue of ARTnews Magazine, arts writer Suzanne Muchnic features the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery on the Art Center Hillside Campus and its nearly two decade-long series of exhibitions. The cover story, “Under the Microscope,” also features other leading contributors to the burgeoning art/science movement, noting that “in museums, schools, and research facilities, scientists and artists are swapping methods.”
Lita Albuquerque's installation "Stellar Suspension" was included in OBSERVE, an Art Center/Caltech-JPL collaboration at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery in 2008.
“Strict old-style boundaries like the ones assumed to exist between art and science are eroding,” said Stephen Nowlin, an Art Center alumnus and founding director of the Williamson Gallery, which opened in 1992. “Traditional dichotomies such as intellect versus emotion, reason versus intuition, and the poetic versus the practical, are becoming less distinct under the influence of unprecedented communication networks and analytical tools that reveal in higher resolution and greater clarity the complex layers of things and ideas.”
Join Entertainment Design students and Chair of Entertainment Design Tim Flattery at the Intern Show on Sun., April 7, 12–5 p.m. on the Hillside Campus.
Entertainment Design concept art
The event, open to employers in the film, animation, theme park and gaming industries, showcases second- through seventh-term students looking for summer internships. Students will display environment, character, hardware and story concepts, plus portfolios and sculptures.
Internships are an integral part of the educational experience, and those offered to students in Entertainment Design can lead to lucrative work. Production designers, art directors and other recruiters consistently come to scope out the talent. In the past, students have earned internships at Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony, Blizzard, Mirada, 343, Riot Games, Thinkwell and more.
Entertainment Design student Brandon Liao was in his fourth term during last year’s Intern Show when he had the opportunity to talk with an art producer from Riot Games. She was so impressed by his character designs that it led to an internship where he created new champions and costumes, or “skins,” for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game “League of Legends.” He’s now working at Riot part time. “It’s actually really fun, because every assignment you’re doing something completely different,” said Liao.
UPDATE: On April 25, 2013 the 34th Annual College Television Awards awarded five College Emmys to Art Center students! Congratulations to everyone on their wins – below is a list of winners:
Alternative Category: 3rd Place, Filippo Nesci and Tim Hendrix, KOAN Sound – 80′s Fitness
Children’s Program Category: 2nd Place, Carlo Olivares Paganoni and Justin Wells, Cardboard Camera
Commercial Category: 1st Place, Kathleen Lorden, Kia Soul “Funeral”; 2nd Place, Lizbeth Chappell and Josue Lopez, Uncomfortable Situations; 3rd Place, Ellen Houlihan, Todd Glass for GLSEN
Art Center students have been nominated for the 34th College Television Awards, also known as the Student Emmys. This year marks the first time that six students have been nominated in the same year. The nominees will attend the College Emmys Gala Awards on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at the JW Marriot LA Live in Los Angeles.
Lizbeth Chappell, Tim Hendrix, Ellen Houlihan, Kathleen Lorden, Montana Mann and Carlo Olivares Paganoni were nominated in commercial, children’s and alternative categories. All students were nominated along with their respective production teams.
The College Television Awards is a national competition that recognizes excellence in student-produced video, digital and film work. Members of the Television Academy judged entries online, and will announce the winners at the awards ceremony.
Each student had their own story to tell. Mann’s “Obsession” spec commercial for the Calvin Klein men’s cologne examines the question, “what does it mean to be completely intoxicated by someone?”
Lorden’s spec commercial “Funeral” has already won 2012 CLIO® and ADDY® Awards, while “Uncomfortable Situations,” from Chappell, Jamie Yuen and co-producer Josue Lopez, wanted to create an ad for a difficult product. “It’s wild,” said Chappell. “Eagle suits are everywhere until you go looking for one.”
Hendrix created a music video for the song “80s Fitness” by Bristol musicians KOAN Sound with the commissioned help of OWSLA, the same music label as dubstep musician Skrillex.
Paganoni’s short film “Cardboard Camera,” co-produced with Justin Wells, focuses on creative 10-year-old Cameron. Hoping to enter a kids’ film competition, he uses his imagination and the help of two friends to create a movie.
“It was inspired by my own childhood,” said Paganoni. “I created a flat camera made of paper and start ‘imagining’ that I was shooting a movie with it. Since I couldn’t shoot anything, I started drawing the little frames of the movie like storyboards. This was the basis for our story.”
Even before being nominated, Houlihan’s “Todd Glass for GLSEN” PSA was noticed by The Huffington Post and Perez Hilton. Inspired by standup comedian Todd Glass and his decision to come out of the closet on a 2012 episode of the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast, Houlihan asked Glass to take on the suicide epidemic in the LGBT teen community.
“I pitched Todd on doing a hard-hitting PSA unlike the typical anti-bullying messages we’ve seen before,” said Houlihan. “We wanted to shake people up and be honest about how serious the suicide epidemic facing LGBT youth is, and to show we’re all responsible for our words and how we affect one another.”
Congratulations to all of our Graduate Film Art Center students!
In case you missed it, Dotted Line brings you a monthly roundup of media coverage.
From the success of the student-led Dot Independent Film Festival (DIFF | LA) and the rise of 3D printing, to reflections on the life of Mike Kelley and the connections between art and science, catch up on any news you may have missed with our March media roundup.
“In 1987, [Mike Kelley] began teaching at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, a sign among his peers that he had ‘arrived.’”–Kelly Crow writing in the Wall Street Journal. Photographs of Kelley by Grant Mudford in 1989, left, and by Tyler Hubby on December 7, 2011, right.
Pasadena Magazine, “Dieter Rams: The Innovator,” March/April, 2013: Mark Breitenberg’s feature on legendary designer Dieter Rams includes announcement of the Honorary Doctorate Degree he will be awarded by Art Center. Republished by International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, March 18, 2013.
KCRW DnA: Design and Architecture,“What Will We Do With 3D Printers?,” March 19, 2013: Interview with Graduate Industrial Design Chair Andy Ogden about using 3D printers in the home.
The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2013: “The Escape Artist,” Kelly Crow’s in-depth story about late former faculty member Mike Kelley, “his extraordinary life — and his troubled last days.”
ARTnews Magazine, “Under the Microscope: In museums, schools, and research facilities, scientists and artists are swapping methods to illuminate natural phenomena and solve global problems,” March 2013: Suzanne Muchnic quotes Vice President and Director of the Williamson Gallery Stephen Nowlin and features the Williamson Gallery as a contributor to the growing art/science movement.
STEAM Journal, “Art Meets Science! Get over it . . .,” March 13, 2013: Stephen Nowlin’s essay is featured in The Claremont Graduate University transdisciplinary, international, theory-practice, peer-reviewed online journal focusing on the intersection of art and science.
People gather at South Campus for an evening exhibition.
The planned expansion of Art Center College of Design’s South Campus recently received a significant endorsement when the College was awarded a grant of $1 million from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.
The grant, which will be used to defray the cost of the 2012 purchase of a former U.S. Postal Service property at 950 South Raymond in Pasadena, will enable the College to extend its educational reach and resources while invigorating art and design education. The expanded South Campus is expected to be ready for use by students and faculty by September, in time for the beginning of the 2013–2014 academic year.
TEDxYouth served up generous helpings of Brain Food at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Among the cooks in the kitchen: Art Center Trustee Bill Gross; Professor and Director of Sustainability Initiatives Heidrun Mumper-Drumm; and Product Design alumna Mariana Prieto, who completed the Designmatters Concentration in Art and Design for Social Impact.
The day-long event took place January 19, 2013, and 8-minute videos of the talks were recently made available online. If you have an appetite for fresh ideas, watch!
Bill Gross is a lifelong entrepreneur who has been starting companies since he was 12 years old. He has personally started more than 100 companies in the last 42 years, of which more than 40 have gone public or been acquired. Gross is the Founder and CEO of Idealab, a “company factory” based in Pasadena, which he started in 1996. Gross is credited with starting the first online business directory company with CitySearch, the first online car retailed with CarsDirect, the first paid search engine with Goto.com/Overture, and the longest-running technology incubator where he has been the creator of all these companies. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, Gross currently serves on its Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of the Art Center College of Design, and more than 20 technology companies in California.
What do the following design concepts have in common: a streamlined re-design of in-flight meal preparation and service that reduces air-travel waste; a bicycle for tourists that collects environmental data as cyclists explore the city; and a human-powered washing machine and spin dryer for families living on $4 to $10 per day?
a. They were all designed by Art Center students.
b. They reflect the growing awareness of sustainability within art and design.
c. They are the winning concepts of the 2012 Denhart Family Sustainability Scholarship Prize.
d. All of the above
Too easy? The answer (d) shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the cutting-edge role Art Center students are playing in environmentally and socially responsible art and design. This year’s Denhart Prize winners, chosen from a highly competitive pool of undergraduates from Fine Art, Film, Photography, Illustration, and Industrial and Environmental Design, represent some of the year’s top design ideas in sustainability at Art Center.
Imre Molnar, who shaped designers as an administrator at Art Center and the College for Creative Studies, died on Dec. 28. Molnar had a heart attack while bike riding in California. He was 61.
Molnar joined Detroit’s College for Creative Studies in 2001 as dean and rose to the post of provost, overseeing the college’s faculty, curriculum and academic resources. He helped create an MFA degree and was instrumental in lifting the school’s transportation programs to world leadership levels, according to a statement from the school.
Born in Hungary and raised in Australia, Molnar earned a bachelor’s degree from the National Art School in Sydney, Australia, and a master’s degree from Art Center College of Design. He later returned to the college as a faculty member and director of education at Art Center’s one-time European campus in Vevey, Switzerland.
Art Center College of Design celebrated nearly a century’s worth of vehicle designers and designs — from the 1924 Rolls Royce to the 2011 McLaren — at Car Classic.
The annual event, held Sunday at the Hillside campus, drew a crowd of 1,200 and featured a cameo from “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno who arrived in his jet-powered EcoJet.
Nearly 90 vehicles were parked in a series of style-themed vignettes, including colorful all-American classics, a series of French Citroens from the ‘70s and a progression of cars built for speed, from a 1947 Indy racer to the 2011 Leela Spyder.
A section of the field — a ’61 Cadillac Coupe, ’88 Fiero, ’64 Corvair Monza Coupe and a ’58 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe — was dedicated to designs by Ron Hill, an Art Center alum and former chair of transportation design. Hill also received the Lifetime Achievement award for his 30-year career that spanned Corvettes, Camaros and Cadillacs.
“The theme of inspiration makes our car show unique,” said Stewart Reed, chair of Art Center’s undergraduate and graduate Transportation Design programs. “While other Concours d’Elegance events showcase the world’s most historic and luxurious vehicles, Car Classic draws a parallel between the vehicles on display and the people who created them.”
The event also benefitted Art Center students: General Motors Foundation donated $100,000 for Transportation Design scholarships and programs, and undergrads had a chance to talk shop with industry leaders.
“You get to meet world-class designers as car lovers,” said fifth-term Transportation Design student Marcello Raeli. “I talked to [General Motor design executive] Clay Dean for 40 minutes until I realized it was him.”
Matthew Manos, the philanthropic founder of VeryNice
It seems nice guys can finish first — even in the competitive world of design. Founded by Art Center alum Matthew Manos, VeryNice has a unique (and successful) business model rooted in social responsibility instead of profit margins.
The design consultancy, which was recently featured in Forbes, donates half of its time for free to nonprofits so volunteering is part of the job instead of an after-hours pursuit.
“Cleaning up a beach is great … but creative people especially want to contribute with the skills they have,” said Manos. “This is a way to do that.”
Manos started the business at the age of 19 with the goal of doing only pro-bono work. But as the startup and bills grew, he found a way for the company to make money while still giving back.
“It’s sort of a joke, but if we take on twice the amount of projects a regular design studio would, we have more bandwidth,” said Manos, who graduated from Art Center’s Media Design Practices program in 2012.
