S
The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Daily Arts
guide to the best
upcoming events
- it's everywhere
you should be this
weekend and why.
IN STYLE
Kerrytown fashion
stop V2V will host a
"transatlantic" party
tonight.featuring fashion,
music (courtesy of
Ghostly International)
and art from local as well
as European contributors.
The event is open to the
public, 18+, is free and
starts at 8:30 p.m.
A variety of works from the newly renovated galleries at the Detroit Institute of Arts
BREAKING GROUND
By CAROLINE HARTMANN
Associate Arts Editor
With more than 120 years of his-
tory, the Detroit Institute of Arts has
alot to live up to. Which is why, when
the museum took on a massive $158
million renovation project, it had to
be done exactly right. The building's
infrastructure was seriously dam-
aged in some areas, galleries needed
expansion and the creative vision
struggled to captivate the average
visitor.
"We have been catering to our fel-
low specialists for over a hundred
years and allowing the rest of the
5 world to make their way the best
they can, and we've reversed that,"
DIA director Graham Beal said.
After nearly seven years of blan-
keted scaffolding and thematic
installation experiments, the muse-
um will open its doors to the public
next Friday in a 32-hour-straight
opening with free admission and
special events.
The physical renovation of the
building itself, executed by designer
Michael Graves, appears somewhat
inconsistent in its efforts to fuse the
traditional museum aesthetic with
more modern structures. But the
gallery space is no longer the laby-
rinth it once was, and the addition of
a "main drag" where art can also be
displayed has eliminated a consider-
able amount of confusion in navigat-
ing the museum.
Butthe buildingis merely home to
the artwork within and secondary to
the DIA's vision of how each gallery
was restructured.
"Shorthand for what we're doing is
treating our great permanent collec-
tion as if it was a special collection,"
Beal said. "And an exhibition, by its
very nature, has to tell a story."
A
rer
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teamst
mission
or "big
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big ide
the rev
to the f
tangible
experie
Visitors may browse a gallery,
even pausing occasionally, but very
Exclusive: rarely do people actually stop and
interact with the art on display. Beal
preview of admitted the DIA "wasn't being
very effective in getting the power
the newly of art across to the general visitor,"
so he oversaw a variety of changes
iovated DIA, with this framework in mind.
Captions, for one, were changed
drastically. "Out of necessity we
have to use clear, straightforward,
n the project started, three simple - but not simplistic - lan-
of non-experts were com- guage. We have to avoid terminolo-
ed to develop these stories, gy and jargon," Beal said. The word
ideas," as the foundational limit was knocked down to a pithy
:s behind the permanent 150 words, rather than the usual
on. Though only a small three stocky paragraphs (which few
age of the original pool of people finished reading anyway).
as has been implemented, Though it may seem like the
iew process was invaluable curators are watering down the
final outcome and provided material, Beal prefers to regard it as
e insight into the museum "havingsmartened up." After all, it's
nce. far more difficult to write a concise,
accessible message than relying on
arcane, stylistic approaches to art
history. It's art for real people.
Various other elements - such
as pull-out maps to see a changing
Rome over time or panels with hints
to trace the light in a Gentileschi
painting - posit questions and sug-
gestions to viewers for maximum
engagement with the works. "The
individual is then encouraged to go
find out for themselves; they're in
control, it's their experience," Beal
said.
The Italian collection has been
converted into a Grand Tour
installation to accomplish just
that. In the same way an 18th-cen-
tury intellectual or tourist would
embark on a tour through Italy in
place of what we would consider
a collegiate education, visitors
can explore the gallery as if they
See DIA, Page 4B
AT THE DUDE
University Prof. and
former Martha Graham
dancer Peter Sparling
introduces "Allegorica," a
video presentation of nine
improvisations, tomorrow
at the Duderstadt with
a public reception at
6 p.m. There will be
screenings every hour
from noon until 7 p.m.
A new'Rocky
Horror' vision
AT THE PIG
The Bang! - an all-out
rock'n'roll dance party at
the Blind Pig - happens
regularly enough. There
are costume-party
Bang!s and Halloween
Bangls, but only once
will there be a sixth
anniversary Bang! DJ
Jeremy Wheeler's funky
dance freakout celebrates
its birthday this Saturday
night. Doors are at 9:30
p.m., and cover is $8 for
those 21+ or $11 for 18+.
By WHITNEY POW
Daily Arts Writer
This is not your "South
Pacific" or your "My Fair
Lady" - this is a rock con-
cert. A rock concert rife with
tight gold speedos, legs for
days tangled in fishnet stock-
ings and belted-out songs
about sex. "The Rocky Horror
Show" is not so much a piece
of classical theater as a rock
musical.
"Come to the performance
expecting to have your ears
ringing when you leave," said
Benton Whitley, the show's
director and a senior in the
School of Music, Theater &
Dance. "This isn't for the 70-
year-olds, our grandparents.
This is 'Rocky Horror."'
The production will debut
at the Power Center tomor-
row at 8 p.m. and continue
Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday
afternoon at 2 p.m. The show
is produced by MUSKET, a
student-run theater group
that produces musicals every
semester.
Those familiar with "Rocky.
Horror" culture will know
there's a fine line between fas-
cination and obsession. The
production began as a musical
written for the stage, Whitley
pointed out, butits cult follow-
ing was fueled by the film of
vaguely the same title (1975's
"The Rocky Horror Picture
Show"). The film featured
young, sultry versions of Tim
Curry and Susan Sarandon as
well as a garbled, sex-riddled
plot centered on aliens, trans-
vestites and sexual awaken-
ing. The play itself is about
the de-virginizing of Brad and
Janet, a naive young couple
who stumble into the dark lair
of Dr. Frank-n-furter, a stilet-
to-wearing mad scientist from
Transvestite, Transylvania.
The musical itself has
fueled a fishnet-wearing cul-
ture that flocks to midnight
showings of the film, creating
with ita unique audience-film
interaction.
"Something that you can't
avoid when you're doing
'Rocky Horror' is the cult fol-
lowers who stand in the audi-
ence and scream at the screen.
They yell back 'slut' and 'ass-
hole'; they throw rice, throw
toast and squirt water guns,"
Whitley said. "You have to
acknowledge this interac-
tion, because that's part of the
magic and beauty of 'Rocky
Horror.' "
MUSKET's production
pays homage to the musical's
cult following and film-relat-
ed roots by having the first
musical number pre-filmed
and played on an actual screen
in the Power Center, re-creat-
ing a cinema on stage. Mem-
bers of the ensemble (called
See HORROR, Page 4B
COURTESY OF CARLO ALLE(
Davy Rothbart reads some of his FOUND findings. Tomorrow night, he'll do the same alongside PostSecret founder Frank Warren.
From strangers, unlikely tokenS
By NORA FELDHUSEN
Daily Arts Writer
When University alum Davy Roth-
bart found a note mistakenly placed
on his windshield a
few years ago, he got Found vs.
an idea. A glimpse
into the lives of two PostSecret
strangers, the let-
ter led Rothbart and At the
some friends to rally Michigan
in the basement of Theater
his Kerrytown home Tomorrow, 8p.m.
and create a'zine out $15 $9 students,
of various "found" $40 VIP
items with scissors
and glue. .'ickts canbebought
Thus was the at Shaman Drum,
beginningofFOUND VaultofMidnightThe
Magazine, founded NeutraZone and 826
in 2001. Today there Mich'an"or""l"ne
are five issues of
FOUND, which include submissions
from people all over the world. The
movement has since blown up, and
Rothbart will stop by The Michigan
Theater at 8 p.m. tomorrow as part
of a 65-city tour to promote the latest
magazine.
Rothbart will share the stage with
Frank Warren, founder of the Post-
Secret blog and book series, as the
historic venue hosts a bevy of cre-
ativity, spontaneity and randomness
wrapped in the non-profit and grass-
roots production of FOUND Maga-
zine, PostSecret, 826michigan and the
Neutral Zone. Warren is summoning
us to reexamine the "poetry, humor
and humanity that goes unseen in the
world every day."
Warren will join Rothbart in 13 cit-
ies, including tomorrow in Ann Arbor.
Warren is just coming off the tour for
his most recent publication, "A Life-
time of Secrets." PostSecret started
in 2003 while Warren was in Paris,
when he' had a vivid dream about
sharing secrets visually, publicly and
anonymously. The next day he began a
project that would lead to PostSecret
- a community forum in which anyone
can submit a four-by-six-inch postcard
relating a personal secret through
image and text. Warren chooses cards
to post weekly on the blog, and others
are included in his books. The secrets
range from the sexual ("Reading the
directions for condoms turns me on")
to borderline silly ("I don't care what
you say ... I still think RLS [restless leg
syndrome] is bullshit") to the utterly
depressing ("The next time I get can-
cer I'm not going to fight it").
The proceeds from tomorrow's
event will benefit two local non-profit
organizations, 826michigan and the
Neutral Zone Teen Center. 826 is a vol-
unteer-drivenlocal chapter of a nation-
al organization created by author Dave
Eggers. The Neutral Zone is an organi-
zation started and run by youths. Both
have tutoring and creative writing
workshops, as well as dance, theater
and other wacky events.
The outrageous spirit of each
See FOUND, Page 4B
IN STYLE
University of California
at Irvine Prof. Jeff
Wasser and University
of Michigan Prof. Ching
Kwan Lee, authors of
"China's Brave New
World - and Other Tales
for Global Times" and the
study "Against the Law:
Labor Protests in China's
Rustbelt and Sunbelt,"
will answer this question
and more at Shaman
Drum Bookshop Saturday
at 3 p.m. The talk is free.
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