Events

Greenscreen: Screening Environmental Films and Documentaries
Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 6 p.m., 225 Rapson Hall
Join Greenlight and your fellow design colleagues to watch When the Levees Broke. Spike Lee commemorates the people of New Orleans with a four-hour epic documentary that doesn't just recount the events of late August 2005 but asks why they unfolded the way they did in the first place. Weaving interviews with news footage and amateur video, Lee uses the film to give meaningful voice to the people who were left behind. With a detached unsentimental eye, he delivers a poignant account of a major moment in recent US history.

Exhibitions

HGA Gallery, Rapson Hall

Noguchi: The Sets for Martha Graham
November 9-December 20, 2009
Organized with assistance and generosity of the Noguchi Museum
Isamu Noguchi (1904-88), a prominent Japanese-American artist and landscape architect, designed more than 20 innovative sets for original Martha Graham (1894-1991) dance productions. A ground-breaking dancer and choreographer, Graham defined the modern dance movement.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

Dewey Thorbeck Travel Sketches: An Architect's Recordings of Natural and Human Landscapes
September 25-December 27, 2009
Architects who draw and record their travels have a special way of seeing the world. It is a methodology where images are engraved in their mind rather than on film. A photograph or sketch is a snapshot of a moment in time. The photograph shows you reality as seen through the camera lens, while the sketch records the emotion and character of place as seen through the eyes and hands of the artist.

Goldstein Museum of Design, McNeal Hall

Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller
November 21, 2009-January 17, 2010
Good Design: Stories From Herman Miller explores the problem-solving design process of the world-renowned furniture company, Herman Miller, Inc. The exhibition features selections from The Herman Miller Design Collection -- an archive of the company's innovative processes and products, most of which have never been on public view.

• Fall 2009 College of Design events, lectures, and exhibitions
• Download the Fall 2009 College of Design events and lectures poster (.pdf; 9.4MB)

Questions? Contact Laura Walton at 612-626-6385 or lwalton@umn.edu.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Luke Stanke (BS Housing Studies, 2006) worked three years with Teach for America and has returned to the University for graduate school, focusing on quantitative methods in education and working full time as the assessment coordinator for the College of Pharmacy.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The students in Brad Hokanson's (Graphic Design) Creative Problem Solving class invented and constructed unique musical instruments as a class project. The students then performed under direction as the Creative Problem Solving Orchestra in the McNeal Hall atrium on Wednesday, November 18, 2009.

• View Creative Problem Solving Orchestra -- all sections (.mov)
• View Creative Problem Solving Orchestra -- section 3 (.mov)

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The University's Hmong Student Association is holding a Hmong cultural education event on Saturday, November 21, 2009, 12-4 p.m., in the Saint Paul Student Center. Apparel Design student Susan Vue will display her work.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pat Nunnally (Landscape Architecture), coordinator of the Institute on the Environment's River Life Program, will moderate a panel, "Imagining the River: The Mississippi Gorge," on Thursday, December 3, 2009, 4 p.m., 125 Nolte Center. The panel discussion examines the only stretch of the Misissippi river that forms a gorge -- right through the University campus -- from the perspective of history, geology, policy, and art.

Nunnally has also recently started a blog, River Talk.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kim Yeager, writing for the Star Tribune, covers Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller, opening at the Goldstein Museum of Design Friday, November 20, 2009. Yeager writes the exhibition "includes four case studies -- on ergonomics, the 'action office,' graphic communication and midcentury classics, or how good design explores, inquires, engages and endures."

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dong-Eun Kim (PhD Apparel Design, 2009) was awarded second place in the doctoral paper category at the International Textile and Apparel Association conference for her work, "Apparel fit based on viewing of 3D virtual models and live models." Kim is currently an assistant professor at California State University-Long Beach.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear Colleagues,

You may have heard me talk about the dean's discretionary fund bequeathed by Ann Salovich, but I wanted to give you a sense of how we plan to apportion the money this year.

First, to attract exceptional students, we have set aside funds for student scholarships where there exists the greatest need. Second, to support our outstanding faculty and staff, we have established a pool of money for staff development, and we have given pro-rated amounts to the three department heads for their use in faculty development.

Third, to enhance innovation, we have restarted the Design Institute (DI). To that end, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Brad Hokanson (Graphic Design) as the new director of the DI. He has great ideas, evident in his conversations with many of us about what the DI could be, and I want to thank him for his willingness to lead our efforts in this area.

Finally, to help move our organization forward, we have set aside money to seed ideas from faculty and staff that have the greatest promise to generate new revenue and advance our mission in new ways. If you have ideas, please contact Kate Solomonson if a faculty member, Marilyn DeLong if a member of an R&O unit, Kathy Witherow if a staff member, or Kate Maple if it pertains to students. We will gather your ideas over the next several weeks and start planting seeds.

Tom

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kim Johnson (Retail Merchandising) presented several papers, co-authored with current and former graduate students, a the International Textile and Apparel Association conference:

• "Let's Shop! Exploring the experiences of therapy shoppers" with Minjeong Kang (MS DHA, 2006; PhD DHA, 2009)
• "Appearance management during childhood and adolesence: Resolving conflicts" with Jae Eun Kim (PhD DHA, 2009) and Minjeong Kang (MS DHA, 2006; PhD DHA, 2009)
• "Sales associate characteristics linked to credibility: Influence of sales associate credibility on satisfaction, purchasing, and store loyalty" with HaeWon Ju (MS DHA, 2008) and Jae Eun Kim (PhD DHA, 2009)
• "Moral emotions and socially responsible consumption: A cross cultural examination" with Jae Eun Kim (PhD DHA, 2009)
• "Deterrance and avoidance of risky appearance management behaviors" with Jihyeong Son (MS DHA, 2009

Posted by Michael Fraase at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lectures

Shanties fit for swine in God-forsaken places: How picture-brides made homes in the Pacific Northwest landscape lecture by Gail Dubrow
Monday, November 16, 2009, 6 p.m., 100 Rapson Hall
Ordinary women rarely have been imagined as significant agents of change in shaping the landscape of the American West, but a new exhibit at the Autry Museum of the American West starts from that premise. Commissioned for one segment of the exhibit, this research draws on the material culture, personal narratives, and poems of Japanese picture brides to reveal their key role in transforming the rough architecture and raw landscape associated with Japanese men, who immigrated before them to work in lumber camps and on farmsteads, into places women considered suitable for human habitation.

Events

Design @ Noon
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 12 p.m., 225 Rapson Hall
The School or Architecture hosts the Fall 2009 Design @ Noon lecture series on select Wednesdays this semester. This week's lecture will be given by Rachel Iannacone.

Greenscreen: Screening Environmental Films and Documentaries
Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6 p.m., 225 Rapson Hall
Join Greenlight and your fellow design colleagues to watch Crude Awakening. Award-winning filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack examine the world's dependency on oil and the impending chaos that's sure to follow when the resource is dry in this straight-from-the-headlines documentary. Through expert interviews on a hot-button topic that might represent the world's most dire crisis, the film underscores our desperate need for alternative energy and spells out in startling detail the challenge we face in finding it.

Opening party for Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller
Friday, November 20, 2009, 6 p.m., Goldstein Museum of Design Gallery
Good Design: Stories From Herman Miller explores the problem-solving design process of the world-renowned furniture company, Herman Miller, Inc. The exhibition features selections from The Herman Miller Design Collection -- an archive of the company's innovative processes and products, most of which have never been on public view.

Dirty Laundry
Friday, November 20, 2009, 7 p.m., William G. Shepherd Room Weisman Art Museum
Dirty Laundry is back for Fall semester. Come hear some great design professionals divulge stories about their best and worst work experiences. It's a great way to learn more about the field of design and meet designers. Free and open to all U of M students and alumni. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. View the Facebook Event page.

Exhibitions

HGA Gallery, Rapson Hall

Noguchi: The Sets for Martha Graham
November 9-December 20, 2009
Organized with assistance and generosity of the Noguchi Museum
Isamu Noguchi (1904-88), a prominent Japanese-American artist and landscape architect, designed more than 20 innovative sets for original Martha Graham (1894-1991) dance productions. A ground-breaking dancer and choreographer, Graham defined the modern dance movement.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

Dewey Thorbeck Travel Sketches: An Architect's Recordings of Natural and Human Landscapes
September 25-December 27, 2009
Architects who draw and record their travels have a special way of seeing the world. It is a methodology where images are engraved in their mind rather than on film. A photograph or sketch is a snapshot of a moment in time. The photograph shows you reality as seen through the camera lens, while the sketch records the emotion and character of place as seen through the eyes and hands of the artist.

Goldstein Museum of Design, McNeal Hall

Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller
November 21, 2009-January 17, 2010
Good Design: Stories From Herman Miller explores the problem-solving design process of the world-renowned furniture company, Herman Miller, Inc. The exhibition features selections from The Herman Miller Design Collection -- an archive of the company's innovative processes and products, most of which have never been on public view.

• Fall 2009 College of Design events, lectures, and exhibitions
• Download the Fall 2009 College of Design events and lectures poster (.pdf; 9.4MB)

Questions? Contact Laura Walton at 612-626-6385 or lwalton@umn.edu.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Center for Sustainable Building Research's Minnesota Building Materials Database is mentioned in Green Building Matters' wrap-up of the GreenBuild 2009 conference. The site's authors say the database "provides a wide array of technical information on building materials, including location and distance traveled for manufacturing."

Posted by Michael Fraase at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HGTV is seeking participants to compete in its design-based reality show, Design Star. HGTV notes that not only design ability and expertise are required but also the personality that its audience would want to watch. Design Star is the HGTV version of the formulaic competitive reality show: Participants compete in challenges and one or two are eliminated during each episode. The winner of the competition is given a chance to host their own HGTV design show.

If you are interested in applying, e-mail Jonathan Tanzman, tanzman.casting@gmail.com with your name, age, hometown, phone, photo, and brief description of your design background.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dean Tom Fisher (Architecture) will participate in the GeoDesign Summit plenary on Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., in Redlands, California.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Harwood of Oberlin College, and a Quadrant visiting scholar, delivers two lectures November 19-20, 2009 as part of the Quadrant lecture series.

Thursday, November 19, 2009, 4 p.m., 125 Nolte Center
"Anaesthesia; or, The Chair as Image"

Friday, November 20 , 2009, 12:00-1:30 p.m., 235 Nolte Center
"The Redesign of Design: Computer, Architect, Corporation"

Harwood is a professor of art history at Oberlin college, where he specializes in modern and contemporary architectural history. Harwood's research centers on the relationships between science, technology, corporate organization and their architectural articulation.

Quadrant is a joint initiative of the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Minnesota Press.

Posted by Michael Fraase at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spero Daltas (BArch, 1943), 89, passed away on November 8, 2009. Daltas was a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Richard Chin writes in the Pioneer Press that Daltas "roamed the world as a pioneering international architect with offices in Boston and Rome and projects in such far-flung locations as Iran, Burma, Uganda, Turkey, Somalia, and Mexico."

Posted by Michael Fraase at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)