In 2016, everything changed for me when I saw the “Ghostbusters” reboot film that starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. I never had any affinity for the original “Ghostbusters” of the 1980s, but I fell in love with the 2016 film’s cast, its trashy Fall Out Boy cover of the iconic […]
Read MoreTag: Arts
The art of teaching
For 35 years, artist Alexandra Sonneborn has been sharing her passion for painting vibrantly colorful scenes statewide. From exhibits showcasing her color-filled gardens, landscapes and still-life scenes, like her pieces currently on display at the Homer Public Library, to her commissioned work painting people’s pets and gardens, to the workshops she hosts such as her […]
Read MoreFor MIT students, there is much to learn from crafting a chair
Design spans disciplines and schools at MIT as a versatile mode of inquiry. Whether software, furniture, robots, or consumer products, design classes at MIT guide students through the iterative process of ideation, planning, and prototyping. “Design is 80 percent problem-setting and 20 percent problem-solving,” says MIT Professor Larry Sass SM ’94, PhD ’00, designer and […]
Read MoreAI generates high-quality images 30 times faster in a single step
In our current age of artificial intelligence, computers can generate their own “art” by way of diffusion models, iteratively adding structure to a noisy initial state until a clear image or video emerges. Diffusion models have suddenly grabbed a seat at everyone’s table: Enter a few words and experience instantaneous, dopamine-spiking dreamscapes at the intersection […]
Read MoreCreative collisions: Crossing the art-science divide
MIT has a rich history of productive collaboration between the arts and the sciences, anchored by the conviction that these two conventionally opposed ways of thinking can form a deeply generative symbiosis that serves to advance and humanize new technologies. This ethos was made tangible when the Bauhaus artist and educator György Kepes established the […]
Read MoreUnalaska artist gives traditional bentwood hat-making workshop
Unangax bentwood hat maker Patty Lekanoff-Gregory from Unalaska visited Homer this week to provide an instruction course in creating traditional Aleut bentwood hats. Her visit started off with a community lecture on the art and history of the hats at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on Saturday. In his introduction, Alaska Maritime National […]
Read MoreOff the Shelf: Ghosts come alive in Kizzia’s ‘Cold Mountain Path’
Whoever coined the saying about real life being stranger than fiction may have had the town of McCarthy, Alaska, in mind. That was my opinion several chapters into Tom Kizzia’s “Cold Mountain Path: The Ghost Town Decades of McCarthy-Kennecott, Alaska,” which I bought recently in the Anchorage airport. I haven’t read Kizzia’s 2013 true crime […]
Read MoreIndigenous language film fest returns with 16 submissions
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Indigenous Education Program hosted its Second Annual Indigenous Language Film Festival last Thursday, Feb. 29, featuring 16 films made by 52 people. The film festival, which premiered at three separate showtimes on Thursday, can be streamed on YouTube under the title “2024 Indigenous Language Film Festival – KPBSD Noon […]
Read MoreFaces of MIT: Lydia Brosnahan
A lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into creating an art installation or a theater production – not just by those making or performing their craft, but also by the staff members who coordinate the logistics of exhibits and events. One of the people at MIT who helps artists bring their projects to life is Lydia […]
Read MoreOn the Screen: ‘Orion and the Dark’ is resonant, weird
Dreamworks Animation have been perhaps too quietly plugging away and putting out great stuff for decades. Despite some breakout hits like “Shrek” or “How to Train Your Dragon,” their films don’t seem to receive the same amount of reliable attention as those put out by Disney or Illumination. Case in point, I wholly missed that […]
Read MoreExploring the meaning of home
Moving from his birthplace of Iquitos, Peru, to Anchorage then to Homer, Peruvian-American artist J. Piotreck Pawlikowski creates colorful acrylic paintings inspired by the peace and beauty of the landscape around him. Currently on display in the “Finding Home” exhibit at Homer Council on the Arts are two of Pawlikowski’s acrylic paintings. “By My Side” […]
Read MorePlay it again, Spirio
Seated at the grand piano in MIT’s Killian Hall last fall, first-year student Jacqueline Wang played through the lively opening of Mozart’s “Sonata in B-flat major, K.333.” When she’d finished, Mi-Eun Kim, pianist and lecturer in MIT’s Music and Theater Arts Section (MTA), asked her to move to the rear of the hall. Kim tapped […]
Read MoreOff the Shelf: Meditations on middle age
“Trust the process.” It’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but I still often doubt the process. I’ll cringe at a video on social media, for example, of somebody making over a decrepit home, but ultimately find myself smiling at how lovely the final product turns out. I found myself with similar warring […]
Read MoreInaugural exhibit
Currently on display at Grace Ridge Brewing are large print Alaska-themed landscape and wildlife photographs by Homer photographer David Veith. Included in the exhibit are images of mountains, glaciers, lighthouses, churches, the aurora borealis, moose, sandhill cranes, bear, eagles, otters, birds of prey, and many others. “Contemplating Bull Moose” showcases a large bull moose at […]
Read MoreMiguel Zenón, assistant professor of jazz at MIT, wins Grammy Award
MIT Music and Theater Arts Assistant Professor Miguel Zenón has won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album for his work on “El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2.” Zenón recorded the album with Luis Perdomo, a follow-up to their critically-acclaimed “El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 1.” “I’m incredibly happy and honored with this Grammy win,” […]
Read MoreIllustrating India’s complex environmental crises
Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT, and Sarnath Banerjee (no relation), an MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology (CAST) visiting artist share a similar background, but have very different ways of thinking. Both were raised for a time in Kolkata before leaving India to pursue divergent careers, Abhijit as […]
Read MoreOn the screen: Anticipated spy flick falls flat in unmemorable ‘Argylle’
Perhaps the only person I can blame for my disappointment with “Argylle” is myself. From the first trailer, something about “Argylle” captured my imagination — it came in highly anticipated — but when credits rolled, I was left far from satisfied. “Argylle” is the latest film by director Matthew Vaughn — who previously helmed the […]
Read MoreArt examines life
Wood sculptor Deb Lowney strives to create work that is visually intriguing, intellectually stimulating and that invites viewers to consider social issues. In 2014, her exhibit, “Canary In a Coal Mine” shown at Fireweed Gallery, combined 20 sculptures with various quotes and statements addressing climate change issues. One piece included in the exhibit, “Hanging On,” […]
Read MoreA night at the orchestra, with Pokémon on the program
Around 50 musicians crowd the well-lit Kresge Auditorium stage. They wear formal black attire and concentrated facial expressions. As the conductor carefully raises her baton, the audience comes to a perfect silence. A single piano lets forth a delicate cascade of high-pitched notes and is soon joined by a dozen violins that burst into a […]
Read MoreOff the Shelf: A quirky pandemic love story that hits close to home
I’ve written before about how difficult it is for me to read novels in which the COVID-19 pandemic plays a central theme. The virus doesn’t feel far enough in the past to have already become a subgenre of historical fiction, and trying to stay focused on books about the pandemic often ends with me staring […]
Read MoreOpening the doorway to drawing
On the first Friday in November, the students of 21A.513 (Drawing Human Experience) were greeted by two unfamiliar figures: a bespectacled monkey holding a heart-shaped message (“I’m so glad you are here”) and the person who drew that monkey on the whiteboard: award-winning cartoonist and educator Lynda Barry, whose “Picture This” was a central text […]
Read MorePerformance art and science collide as students experience “Blue Man Group”
On a blustery December afternoon, with final exams and winter break on the horizon, the 500 undergraduate students enrolled in Professor Bradley Pentelute’s Course 5.111 (Principles of Chemical Science) class were treated to an afternoon at the theater — a performance of “Blue Man Group” at Boston’s Charles Playhouse — courtesy of Pentelute and the […]
Read MoreSolving complex problems with technology and varied perspectives at Sphere Las Vegas
Something new, large, and round has dominated the Las Vegas skyline since July: Sphere. After debuting this summer, the state-of-the-art entertainment venue became instantly recognizable thanks to pictures and videos on social media and Reddit. Some of the most viral posts depict the 580,000-square-foot, fully programmable LED Exosphere projecting a giant yellow emoji that smiles, […]
Read MoreMichael John Gorman named MIT Museum director
MIT has appointed Michael John Gorman the Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director of the recently re-imagined MIT Museum. Gorman replaces longtime museum director John Durant, who stepped down in 2023. Originally from Ireland, Gorman is the founding director of BIOTOPIA – Naturkundemuseum Bayern in Munich, Germany, a newly established innovative center and museum […]
Read MoreTurning history of science into a comic adventure
The Covid-19 pandemic taught us how complex the science and management of infectious disease can be, as the public grappled with rapidly evolving science, shifting and contentious policies, and mixed public health messages. The purpose of scientific communication is to make the complexity of such topics engaging and accessible while also making sure the information […]
Read MoreBunnell to host Maker’s Spaces for parade
The Bunnell Street Arts Center exhibit gallery may be closed for the month of January, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t still happening behind their doors. Bunnell, in partnership with Homer Drawdown, will host two weekend Maker’s Space sessions for community members to build walkable, wearable sculptures, such as marionettes, puppets and masks, to “outlandishly […]
Read MoreWhat’s happening at Homer Counil on the Arts this month
Since 1975, Homer Council on the Arts has been offering performances, exhibitions and arts education for community members of all ages and abilities, serving the community by creating space and opportunities for people and innovative ideas. Here are HCOA-hosted events and activities through January. All take place at the HCOA Gallery unless otherwise indicated. Ceramics […]
Read More3 Questions: A new home for music at MIT
More than 1,500 students enroll in music classes each year at MIT. More than 500 student musicians participate in one of 30 on-campus ensembles. In spring 2025, to better provide for its thriving musical program, MIT will inaugurate its new music building, a 35,000-square-foot three-volume facility adjacent to Kresge Auditorium. The new building will feature […]
Read MoreCo-creating climate futures with real-time data and spatial storytelling
Virtual story worlds and game engines aren’t just for video games anymore. They are now tools for scientists and storytellers to digitally twin existing physical spaces and then turn them into vessels to dream up speculative climate stories and build collective designs of the future. That’s the theory and practice behind the MIT WORLDING initiative. […]
Read MoreOff the Shelf: Small town girl weaves tales of home
I’ve always enjoyed it when people joke about the State of Alaska being a small town. It seems absurd on the surface given that Alaska boasts a total area of more than 660,000 square miles, but after living here for going on four years, I am always surprised at the number of people I run […]
Read MoreBuilding technology that empowers city residents
Kwesi Afrifa came to MIT from his hometown of Accra, Ghana, in 2020 to pursue an interdisciplinary major in urban planning and computer science. Growing up amid the many moving parts of a large, densely populated city, he had often observed aspects of urban life that could be made more efficient. He decided to apply […]
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