Arts Creation

Arts Creation


Arts Creation

Project Description
Through partnership with a local Columbus orchestra, Ohio State student musicians, and the McConnell Arts Center in Worthington, Tom Dugdale (Department of Theatre), Paul Sutter (Department of Astronomy), and local composer, Jacob Reed, will create a new interdisciplinary journey into that most enigmatic of astronomical phenomena: black holes. Into the Void will combine astronomy, orchestral music, and elements of theatrical design in a performance that is educational and artistically compelling. Imagine the kind of presentation you and your children might have seen before in a science museum, but with the dramatic arc of a play and the emotional weight of a symphony. The interdisciplinary nature of the performance will embody the shared roles art and science play in how we understand the universe and our place within it.

Principal Investigators: Tom Dugdale (Theatre)

Project Description
This project will create cross-disciplinary community dialogue of the interconnectedness of mental illness and dance utilizing American-Jewish choreographer Anna Sokolow’s masterwork Rooms as a platform for campus-wide discussion about mental health. We will collaborate with students to reconstruct sections of Rooms, one of the iconic modern dance works of the 20th century. The sections entitled “Alone,” “Escape,” “Desire,“Panic,” “DayDream,” and “The End?” emulate, through movement, the often first signs of mental illness: personality changes, agitation, withdrawn behavior, poor self-care, and hopelessness.

Principal  Investigators
Nena Couch, (Thompson Library Special Collections) and Valarie Williams (Dance)

Executive Sponsors
Damon Jaggars, Vice Provost and Director University Libraries and Bernadette Melnyk, Vice President for Health Promotion, University Chief Wellness Officer, Dean and Professor College of Nursing

Internationally Recognized Visiting Artists
Lorry May
 and  Kirsten McKinney (Anna Sokolow Dance Foundation) 

Project Description
Afghanistan stands at a critical juncture. For the first time in the 18-year American-led war, real prospects exist for a peace deal. The U.S. and (separately) Russia are openly negotiating with the Taliban, trying to chart a possible end to the war. This project offers an opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and the Columbus community to engage with one of the most critical issues of our time--women’s voices and the refugee crisis--through witnessing a range of performance events grounded in Afghan experience. This will create a unique learning opportunity that will be maximized by faculty in a number of departments.  Other featured artistic practices --photography and film --provide a sense of the layered, nuanced ways one can view and come to understand other cultures. While wars do not define Afghanistan, they are critical for understanding the country today, and for connecting to Afghan history.  The art events that inform this project explore these experiences through theatre making: scripted plays and immersive theatre. The Middle East Studies Center will interpret plays for students and the public by hosting discussions on politics, culture, and global issues related to war. 

Principal Investigators
Lesley Ferris (Theatre), Kevin McClatchy (Theatre), Janet Parrott (Theatre), Alam Payind (Middle East Studies Center).

Project Description
The Woods’ is a mixed-reality, interactive installation that will address the perils of social isolation by promoting connections between people and actively engaging them through play. The narrative of ‘The Woods’ revolves around an elderly grandmother reaching out to her teenage grandchild through a telephone call. Together, the digital migrant and the digital native struggle to maintain their relationship which is crippled by the same technology designed to enable it. Using augmented reality (AR) apps and smartphones, players are joined by a virtual tether that visually connects their phones to one another, and serves as a metaphor of their own connectedness and to encourage collaboration. Throughout the experience, players are tasked with supporting the verbal exchange between the grandmother and grandchild while also avoiding distractions that are intended to sever the bond between them. The game culminates in a successful completion of the telephone call. By prompting an examination of human connectivity through the lens of contemporary technology, our artwork aligns with Global Arts and Humanities focus areas Livability and Community.

Principal Investigator
Kyoung Lee Swearingen (Design)

Collaborators
Marc Ainger, (Music), Scott Swearingen (Design), Rosalie Yu, (Columbia University),  Skylar Wurster, (Undergraduate Student Researcher, Engineering)

Project Description
Professor Daniel Roberts will make a choreographic work that is reflective of local and global perspectives on the effects of climate change and lead an artistic process that incorporates scientific and artistic research into a rigorous performance experience for an international group of professional dancers and OSU Dance students. He will create an hour-long site-specific dance performance at The National Concert House of Iceland (Harpa) in collaboration with Icelandic Composer Maria Huld Markan Sigfusdottir. Stemming from the perspective of livability in times of climate change, he will use text from Roni Horn’s book, Weather Reports You and the latest research gathered about climate/weather from discussions with an atmospheric meteorologist, as well as reflections from personal experiences of Iceland as inspiration for the development of choreographic movement material.

Principal Investigators
Daniel Roberts (Dance) and Jeanine Thompson (Theatre)