"We Are Living Installations" -- 2 Performances, 4/21 -- With Draper Alumni: Emily Colucci (Curator) / Matthew Annis (Performer)

See below for information about "We Are All Living Installations," a two show performance on April 21 which two former Draperites are involved in! Emily Colucci (May 2011) curated the show and Matthew Annis (May 2011) is one of the performers. Congrats to both Emily and Matthew!

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Michael Alan’s Living Installation
“We Are All Living Installations”Curated by Emily Colucci
Dumbo Arts Center (111 Front Street, Suite 212)
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Two Shows: 7pm and 10:15pm
Tickets $15 online; $20 at the door
*Tickets and more information  at:http://www.michaelalanart.com/art/upcoming-projects/

Michael Alan’s Living Installation is proud to present Brooklyn Arts Council Community Art Fund Regrant-awarded project We Are All Living Installations, 2 shows in one night curated by Emily Colucci, hosted by the Dumbo Arts Center.

Revealing and forging the connections between Michael, the performers, the collaborating musicians on the soundtrack and the audience, We Are All Living Installations shows that all people, no matter our differences, experience the same pain, emotions, consequences and joys.  From a same-sex couple stuck together to a baby dancing to Michael’s own mom, the performers will move, dance and act as if in a live music video and Alan, who will be painting, tin-foiling, wrapping, sculpting, spraying, smashing and transforming them into living sculptures, prove that we all are made up of bodies and minds that must endure whether it is a 6 hour performance or the twists and turns of life.

A New York staple for 7 years, Michael Alan’s Living Installation has recently evolved into a larger musical project entitled Sound Drawing, gathering together musicians from across the globe to collaborate with Alan  on a live soundtrack for the Living Installations. The soundtrack from Sound Drawing ranges from collaborations with Alan and artist Kenny Scharf, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys, Vas Deferens Organization, Jibz Cameron, Japanther, Maripol, Renaldo from Renaldo and the Loaf, Ramsey Jones, Tim "Love" Lee, Jeff and Jane Hudson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Noah Becker, and many, many more. A new way of merging art and music and bringing it into a gallery and performance space, the Living Installation asks the audience to slow down, listen to the soundtrack, watch the performers act out the music while Alan turns himself, the performers and the space into an installation. Michael Alan Alien's 35-song album, including songs with Japanther, Kenny Scharf, Vas Deferens Organization, Jeff and Jane Hudson and more as well as solo tracks by Michael Alan Alien, will be released on Bed Bug Records the night of the show.

With 5 of Michael Alan’s drawings and paintings placed around the space, becoming performers themselves with their drawn movement, a sculpture that will be built during the show, a photo slideshow of past Living Installation photos by Worm Carnevale and a video of the Living Installation by Michael Alan, We Are All Living Installations is a celebration of creativity in all of its forms. Despite our differences, all people forget so much in life. We Are All Living Installations is about coming together and creating an experience that you will not forget.
  

Performers: Dave Modello, Kim De'ville, Matthew Annis, John Holly, Michelle Woo and Michael Alan Alien

Musical Collaborators: Kenny Scharf, Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys, Japanther, Vas Deferens Organization, Shinji Masuko of The Boredoms, Jibz Cameron, Geneva Jacuzzi, Maripol, Renaldo from Renaldo and the Loaf, Jeff and Jane Hudson, Ramsey Jones, Tim "Love" Lee, Kingdom Scum, Worm Carnevale, Noah Becker, Johnny 23 Virus Crew Journalists, Ellis G, Raindrop (my mom), Woof woof (my dad) and Bed Bug.

Michael Alan’s Living Installation We Are All Living Installations is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
ABOUT BAC'S COMMUNITY ARTS GRANTSBAC Community Arts Grants help fund project-based work by individual artists and nonprofit organizations in all artistic disciplines, and support capacity building for Brooklyn-based non-profit organizations.  Grants are made possible through the generous support of: the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA); the New York State Assembly and Senate; the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA); New York City Council; JPMorgan Chase Foundation; and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
BAC is the borough’s leading nonprofit organization supporting artists and cultural groups in all disciplines.  BAC reaches hundreds of thousands of artists and audience members each year through music, dance, film and visual arts programs, web-based directories and communities, arts education, urban folk arts initiatives, grants, training programs and artists services.

 Michael Alan’s Living Installation We Are All Living Installations is also sponsored by:

   http://www.newyorkcostumes.com/                           http://davinciartistsupply.com/                   http://www567framing.com

Draper Alumna Dinika Amaral Reading in the "NYU Emerging Writers" series, 4/20

Draper alumna Dinika Amaral, now a student in NYU's Creative Writing MFA program, will be reading from her novel in progress, "The Devil's Bathtub," as part of the "NYU Emerging Writers Reading Series," on April 20. She will be reading alongside Anne Enright (winner of the Man Booker prize) and other CWP students. 

Congrats, Dinika!

NYU Emerging Writers Reading Series

April 20

7:00 PM

KGB Bar: 85 E. 4th Street

Dinika suggests that anyone attending try to get there on the early side--the space is small and these events are usually crowded.

 

Larissa Kyzer: Fulbright Scholar

Draper is thrilled to announce

that our very own Program Administrator,

Larissa Kyzer,

has received a Fulbright grant

to study in Iceland!

As Draperites head back to NYU for fall classes, Larissa will be starting an Icelandic language program at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik with the eventual goal of translating Icelandic works of literature into English.

We could not be more proud. Congratulations, Larissa!

Proposals Invited by the NYU Animal Studies Initiative: Grants Available

The NYU Animal Studies Initiative invites proposals from NYU graduate students working in animal studies.  The ASI will support a range of projects and activities including research and travel to animal studies related conferences or to present animal studies related work.  Normally these grants will not exceed $3,000, but exceptions may be made in special cases.  Applications will be viewed at the end of each semester for the following semester, but can also be considered on a rolling basis when necessary.  To apply for funding, please fill out the application available online at http://animalstudies.as.nyu.edu/object/animalstudies.graduatesupport. For questions contact animal.studies@nyu.edu.  Please forward to interested graduate students.
For further information about the initiative, visit http://animalstudies.as.nyu.edu. 

MA Theses for May Grads Due Monday, April 16!

Dear Students:

Please be reminded that anyone who wishes to graduate in May 2012 *must* submit their completed and approved Master's thesis to Draper no later than 6:00 PM on Monday, April 16. Theses submitted after this date will be held for September graduation. There will be no exceptions. 

In order for your Master's thesis to be considered complete, it must include the following items:

• Cover page, signed by your thesis advisor
• Reader sheet, signed by your advisor
• A second reader sheet filled out with your name and ID number (this will be signed by your reader at Draper later)
• Thesis abstract
• Draper exit questionnaire

The forms above and thesis guidelines with additional information can be found on Draper's website, here. 

If you have any questions or concerns about your MA thesis or graduation, please contact us directly at draper[dot]program@nyu.edu.

Foucault Society April 12 Colloquium: Kelsey Borrowman, "Plasticization, Necrophilia, Foucault"

Kelsey Borrowman

"Plasticization as Necrophilia:
Death, Decomposition and the Inorganic in Foucault"

Thursday, April 12, 2012

7:30-9:30pm

CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5409
New York, NY

Open to the public.

Suggested donation: $5

Wine and light dessert will be served.

RSVPs are appreciated. Email: foucaultsocietyorg@gmail.com

For abstract and speaker bio, see below or go to our website: www.foucaultsociety.org

Abstract:

Throughout his work, Foucault wrestles with the notion of biopolitics, which can be defined broadly as the politics of and over life. This essay investigates the politics of death within life, specifically concerning the concept of plasticization, in order to illuminate contemporary society’s desire for an inorganic “body.” I root the discussion within The Birth of the Clinic and Foucault’s analysis of the development of a new concept of “death.” Just as we understand life as permeable by death, I propose that the dying or decomposing body, a remnant of the living body, is death permeated by life. I expand Susan Bordo’s discussion of plasticization to include not only forms of body modification like plastic surgery, but also the broader societal pressure to "look young." I propose that plasticity–an obsession with the non-decomposing, un-aging body–is, by definition, necrophilia. In the paper’s final section, I turn to the implications of my argument for biopolitics. Should we view plasticization as part of a technology of governing bodies? Connecting Foucault and Bordo, I argue that it is through plasticization as necrophilia that the sovereign regains a “right” to life and death. As a consequence, we see that death is not the last remaining region of freedom from the sovereign. Plasticization entails new techniques of power and makes already established techniques more prominent and invasive. Following Bordo, who addresses claims that the feminine body is not of political concern, I show the extent to which plasticization is political by illuminating how our obsession with the “dead” body has given the sovereign a new “right” over life.

Speaker Bio:

Kelsey Borrowman is a Master of Arts candidate in the Philosophy & Arts program at Stony Brook University. She has presented versions of her paper, "Plasticization as Necrophilia," at the Foucault Circle annual conference in Buffalo, NY; the NY Society for Women in Philosophy workshop (SWIPshop) in NYC; and the Radical Foucault conference at University of East London.

Object Ethnography Project & Stewardship Treaties for Barren Island

Stewardship Treaties for Barren Island
http://tradeschool.coop/newyork/class/#237
Sunday, May 6, 3:00-4:30pm

From the 1850s until its last inhabitants were forcibly evicted in 1936, Barren Island was a community built on trash. It housed both the stinking rendering plants and disenfranchised inhabitants who processed waste from Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Today, the detritus of what was once Barren Island litters the shores of Deadhorse Bay in south Brooklyn. The area has been designated a protected historical site, but without financial support to secure the area, thousands of New Yorkers flock to scavenge its shores every year.

I will entrust the art-artifacts of Barren Island to stewards of the history and culture of Barren Island. Any member of the public can become a steward by co-writing a stewardship contract, or Treaty, that designates the terms of care. The terms of these Treaties are open, but they must include plans to care for the artifact for the next two hundred years, and they must maintain some sort of public access given that the artifacts are part of the heritage of many New Yorkers and belong to the commons.

This project is being supported by Trade School, and is limited to 15 participants. Sign up to participate here:http://tradeschool.coop/newyork/class/#237

The Object Ethnography Project
http://objectethnography.wordpress.com/
Online, anytime

Each of the objects in the Object Ethnography Project have been donated by ordinary people. Each object has a story attached.
All these objects are available for exchange. You, or anyone else, can trade for any object by offering a new story about it. What attracts you to the object? What will you do with it? How will the object spend its time in your possession?
Once a story has been offered for exchange via email or post, the object will be mailed to its new owner. These objects and their stories will become the basis of a research project to see how narrative influence worth, economies, and circulation. Participate in an exchange here: http://objectethnography.wordpress.com

A Talk Presented by NYU's Romanticist Reading Group, 4/18

The NYU Department of English &  
The Romanticist Reading Group of NYU 

(nyurrg.org) 

PRESENT:

"Modern Nature; or, Imagination Revisited"

Anahid J. Nersessian (Presenter, Columbia English and Comparative Literature)

Maureen N. McLane (Respondent, NYU Department of English)

20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor Flex Space

Wednesday, April 18th

6 - 8 pm

**Snacks and wine will be served**

"This talk suggests some new possibilities for ecological critique by revisiting the familiar, gently antiquated concept of the Romantic imagination. Through readings of William Cowper, Dorothy Wordsworth, and the late-Romantic artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, I propose a return to literary and aesthetic questions about how we imagine, represent, and make sensible phenomena which are intermittently or not at all available to the senses." 

- Anahid J. Nersessian