The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 3B
My Manic Pixie
Dream Girl
Jean Leverich is the director of the Living Arts Community, which will bring together creative students from different academic fields.
Uniting disciplines with
new Living Arts program
North Campus plays
home to an artistic
living-learning
community
By ANT MITCHELL
Daily Arts Writer
Creativity is not an academic
interest in and of itself, but an
attribute that can be applied to
disciplines ranging from music
and English to engineering and
math. Starting next year, there
1 will be a place on campus for
creative thinkers of all academic
interests to come together and
share their love of creativity and
the arts.
Next fall, North Campus is
introducing the Living Arts Com-
munity, a new housing opportu-
nity in Bursley Hall. Living Arts
will require participants to take
a one-credit class discussing cre-
ativity across the disciplines and
would encourage students to take
the creative process class, which
was the inspiration for the pro-
gram and is collectively taught by
the four North Campus schools,
if the students' schedules have
room.
Living Arts will also give stu-
dents the opportunity to work
together on largely student-cho-
sen projects. While the program
director and others may offer
suggestions - for instance, a cel-
ebration of the anniversary of the
University Symphony Band's trip
to Russia during the Cold War - it
will be largely up to the students
to decide what their involvement
will entail.
Jean Leverich, the director of
the Living Arts Community, has
the kind of enthusiasm for the
program that cannot be manufac-
tured.
"It's a dream job," Leverich
said of working with such a small
group of students so closely.
Though she explained her role
as simply "providing the sand-
box and some parameters for
play" along with a bit of friendly
nagging, her intense passion and
insistence on creating a program
developed mostly by students is
what gives the Living Arts Com-
munity steam.
"I really want to leave it to the
students," Leverich said.
In the fall, she will be ask-
ing the program's enrollees what
they envision or aspire to create,
allowing for, as she put it, "lots of
free-form jamming."
"How would it really be about
creative process if I was dictat-
ing, 'You will be creative in the
following ways?' " Leverich said,
explaining that this oversatura-
tion of structure is exactly what
the program is attempting to bat-
tle on North Campus.
Leverich explained that one of
the consequences of this overly
structured curriculum is that
students find themselves shuf-
fled away into studios due to the
focused nature of their programs
and are never given the opportu-
nity to work with students from
other fields.
Nathan Zukoff, a senior in
the interdisciplinary Engineer-
ing Program and head of the idea
organization, is familiar with such
a feeling. The idea organization is
a student-led, arts-inclined group
that arranges visits from notable
people and group projects facili-
tating and coordinating interdisci-
plinary efforts.
"I felt pigeonholed right away,"
Zukoff said. "Had I been a fresh-
man ... I would have signed up (for
the Living Arts Community), no
problem."
Leverich stressed "cross-field
fertilization and collaboration"
as a major goal of the Living Arts
Community. This allows for a
more open process that accepts
diverse methods for creative
problem solving.
Theresa Reid, executive direc-
tor of the Arts on Earth Program,
is entirely on board. Arts on Earth
is a larger-scale organization that
includes the Living Arts Commu-
nity and idea. It states its mission
as "integrating art-making and
the arts into the life of the Univer-
sity" so as to "educate, create and
collaborate." And although Liv-
ing Arts faced many difficulties
at first, whether monetary prob-
lems or just the lack of a certain
"spark," now things are finally
falling into place.
"I think that it's really in the
water in a way," Reid said. "The
deans just ... clicked, and this is
part of the fruit of that."
David Munson, the Robert
J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering,
described the collaborative effort
of the "merry band" of North
Campus deans as "trying to cre-
ate ... a special environment for
our students (through) legitimate
intersection between the disci-
plines."
At first, the emphasis of engi-
neering in the Living Arts Com-
munity may seem like an odd duck
when juxtaposed with things like
Art & Design and Architecture.
However, nothing could be fur-
ther from the truth, according to
Munson.
Munson described engineering
as the process of "creating new
things ... that didn't exist before."
He elaborated that engineering
wasn't about "just understand-
ing the world, but rather once you
understand the world, the physical
world, what can you do with that."
He added, "In (the College of)
Engineering, most of our students
actually are musicians. Funda-
mental math and science (are) not
sufficient to be an engineer."
Munson expressed a hope that
the Living Arts community will
serve to attract the kinds of stu-
dents who possess a variety of
interests with diverse ways of
thinking.
Jill Bender, an incoming fresh-
man interested in industrial
design, engineering, biology and
the arts, is just the sort of student
Munson speaks of.
Drawn almost immediately to
the program, Bender said she has
been talking about Living Arts
"non-stop since (she) found out
about it."
She described the community
as "somewhere where I know that
I'll fit."
But the Living Arts Community
is about more than sharing inter-
ests with your fellow students.
It's about finding the creative out-
lets on campus to explore those
interests and discover unfamiliar
methods of creativity.
......... ........
S I've never stalked any-
one in my life before (not
even on Facebook; in fact,
I recently
disabled my
account, soI
am now 100
percent stalk-
free), butI
suppose at
some point in
a person's life,
she can make JENNIFER
an exception. XU
There's
this girl who
lives in my dorm - let's just call
her Zooey, after Zooey Descha-
nel - who has the best wardrobe
ever. She's just this everyday
girl: straight brown hair, straight
brown bangs, normal height, nor-
mal weight. But for some unfath-
omable reason, I adore her. I
don't know her, and she definitely
doesn't know me, but I cannot
describe the mixture ofjealousy
and admiration I feel whenever I
pass her on the street.
I'm not going to say this isn't
creepy, because it is. And I really
hope she doesn't read this.
Not that I follow her around or
anything like that. But I've kept
a running tally in my head of the
things she owns that I love. She
has these slouchy brown bots -
the kind so buttery and rich you
could spread them on toast - and
two coats, one fluttery red and
one forest green with toggles.
She wears gorgeous chiffon
dresses, colored tights and hair
bows atop her head. (I need to
stop before I get carried away)
If anyone else saw her walking
across the Diag, they'd just con-
sider hera pretty, well dressed
individual and move on. But to
me, she's that girl.
That girl, the kind of girl I
wish I could be, living the life I
wish I could live, dressing howI
wish I would dress. I know that's
such a MySpace thing to say,
but you know what I mean. The
kind who you watch from afar
and secretly admire. The kind
who wears the clothes you wish
you could wear, probably has the
conversations you wish you could
have. It's not even about who
she really is. I don't particularly
want to meet that girl. It's about
the way you see her through your
own distorted lens, the screwed-
up perceptions that you super-
impose upon her. This particular
girl might not be your that girl,
but you do have one, whether you
realize it or not.
When was the last time you
jealously listened in on a conver-
sation in the Union and wished
you were part of it? When was
the last time you passed someone
on the street dressed so amaz-
ingly well and wished not only
that you owned her skirt, but
her entire outfit and her entire
closet? All of these elements fac-
tor into your image of that girl,
the kind of person you dream to
be. That girl is not a celebrity,
but she's somehow tangible, even
though she's a complete stranger.
And the greatest thing is, it
doesn't matter what she's really
like. The thing she represents
- that's greater than the person
herself.
Contemporary cinema has
an explanation for this sort of
ridiculousness. It's called the
Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a term
coined by A.V. Club critic Nathan
Rabin as "that bubbly, shallow
cinematic creature that exists
solely in the fevered imaginations
of sensitive writer-directors to
teach broodingly soulful young
men to embrace life and its infi-
nite mysteries and adventures."
You know what kind I mean. She
has no dimensions save for being
extraordinarily cute, well dressed
and cultured. Natalie Portman in
"Garden State." Zooey Descha-
nel in "(500) Days of Summer."
Rachel Bilson in "The D.C.," pre-
environmentalist-Brown-student
craziness. Gorgeous wardrobe,
awesome taste in music, film,
whatever.
And if guys can dream about
getting the Manic Pixie Dream
Girl, girls can certainly dream
about being her, right?
But really, the concept of
the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is
bullshit. Do guys really think that
if they meet a girl who dresses
a certain way and has the same
taste in music as them that she
is automatically the one? Just
look at poor Tom in "(500) Days"
(despite my gripes about it, I
actually really like that movie).
Was that bitch Summer really,
truly the love of his life? Or was
I want to be
that girl.
she a chick that happened toube
cute and seemed to check all the
requisite "dream girl" boxes?
Conversely, doI automatically
think that if I looked like that
girl, I, too, would lead the perfect
life?
When it boils down to it, we
live in a culture that increasingly
values style over substance. We
want to make automatic snap
judgments about people because
it's easier, and it makes more
sense to like a person based on
the way he or she looks or the
stuff he or she does. If someone
likes the same movies and books
and music as you do, you feel
compelled to like the person.
Never mind if this person is real-
ly an asshole.
It's times like this that I want
to say "Stop. It's not about the
clothes. It's not about the stuff
you like. It's about the person and
the values that are inside." We're
just conditioned to think about
the superficial things that define
us and too lazy to make an effort
to really get to know a person. So
we make up this cheap substitute
to make us feel better. And con-
sequently, we resort to inventing
this ideal person who we want to
look, feel and act like. Frankly,
it's ridiculous.
Yet despite all my heavy hand-
ed moralizing, I can't change. I
refuse to change. Is itso wrong
that I have this vision of the kind
of person I've wanted to become
since I was a little girl? Thatgirl
is merely a fleshed-out version
of that image, and I just can't let
go of it.
I still want tobe that girl.
Xu stole your hip wardrobe while
you were in the bathroom. To get it
back, e-mail jennifxu@umich.edu.
MAX COLLINS/Daly
Living Arts is still accepting students with an interest in joining.
Leverich stressed the impor-
tance of making "Living Arts a
place where students are really
plugged in to all the resources on
campus."
She described the multitude
of resources already on campus
as opportunities waiting to be
tapped into. In addition to pro-
moting attendance at the campus's
many arts events, the Living Arts
Community will give its residents
unique access to guest perform-
ers and visiting speakers from the
Penny Stamps lecture series, the
University Musical Society and
other programs.
Leverich sees herself as "some-
body who's able to help them
navigate those resources and take
advantage of them."
The Living Arts Community
offers many of the same advan-
tages of other living-learning
programs, like shrinking the
sometimes overly expansive
and impersonal University. One
might wonder, with all the avail-
able communities available here
at the University, why Living
Arts is significant. But in fact,
living-learning communities are
scarce on North Campus. This
does not mean, however, that
the program settled for a sub-
par location. The North Campus
location works as an attractive
feature in a number of ways.
"I've heard sometimes stu-
dents want to live in specific
learning communities because
they want to live ... in a specific
location," Leverich said.
These decisions based sole-
ly on location can often lead
to lackluster involvement in a
learning community's programs.
The North Campus location may
act as a filter for those students,
bringing together a group of
eager individuals who truly are
interested in the premise behind
the program.
And, as Leverich pointed out,
"the bus ride is really not that dra-
matic."
According to Reid, the loca-
tion choice was also dictated by
the fact that "this program was
designed and is co-sponsored by
the four North Campus deans,"
and that many of the classes
involved in the program meet on
North Campus.
Reid said the Bursley residence
hall will undergo renovations in
preparation for the new program.
She said the upgrade will create
additional practice rooms and stu-
dios, new performance and collab-
orative spaces and a gallery.
Although the deadline for
returning student housing has
passed, students still interested
are encouraged to contact the
directors if this sounds like a
program they would want to join.
a
w
E-ma
RITE FOR DAILY ARTS.
il join.arts@umich.edu for information on applying.
.5.,