13, 2014 the b-side

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

NICHOLAS WILLIAMS/Daily
LSA Senior Isabella Achenbach and LSA junior Allisanne Meyers serve on the leadership board of Helicon.
Helicon shows of
student-made art

Like for most Michigan Theater films, The Barton Organ is used to bring out speakers in the ST/

STAMPS
From Page 18
The committee takes
nominations for speakers
online. Anyone may fill out
the form; it is not limited to.
Art & Design students, or
even University students.
Nominations include a
description of the nominee's
werk and why they would be
a good choice for the speaker
series.
"Then it's a game of who
can we reallyget. Alotof times
people want to do it but their
calendar doesn't line up with
the date we have available,"
Hamilton explained. "We
can go through a lot of people
very quickly. It's a weekly
series that happens on a
fixed calendar so it can be
quite challenging to actually
confirm people for it."
Bringing speakers to the
series is not the only challenge
faced by the series and its
administrators. The lectures
answer to a higher social duty
beyond their responsibility
to the areas within art and
design.
"You have to represent
these basic human ideals, like
common sense," Hamilton
explained. "Common sense
doesn't change that much
over time but the decisions
you have to make with that
common sense, those issues
of the day are changing
constantly."
The issues of the day
dictate which nominees the
committee chooses to invite
to present their work in Ann
Arbor.
"The series is trying to, at
the same time, speak to the
integrity or integral (part) of
human experience," Hamilton
said. "Us as humans, our
perception are not changing,
but the things we are
perceiving are changing all
the time."
The series continues
to expand the range of
speakers brought in. From
photographers and designers,
to actors and social activists,
the subjects addressed by the
speakers are never repeated
due to the endless diversity
within the art and design
community.
"The series brings in a lot
of different people coming in
from different areas of media
and design using different
tools and approaching things
from different perspectives,"
Hamilton said. "Students get
a wide variety of perspective,

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e people who have all The series serves not only to
different paths to find educate, but also specifically
lace in the world and to inspire students looking
eir success." to prosper in the fields of art
ently, the series hosted and design. Some speakers
n feminist punk-rock also collaborate with students
Pussy Riot, whose beyond their lectures,
tation was so popular participate in discussion
me students and Ann panels, present performance
tes were left outside an pieces or create exhibits.
city theater. "People always need
t typically only role models and this series
s when there's provides students with a
e of international wide variety of role models.
or a really hot issue No one of us fits into some
y, or someone who is pre-prescribed mold, so it's
ted beyond the art and an opportunity to see a lot
community," Hamilton of people who took a lot of
different journeys to find
crowding is not an their success," Hamilton said.
for students of the The journeys shown
of Art & Design. They throughout the lecture series
uaranteed admission are constantly changing and
h a line separate from evolving because the world is
the general public and doing the same. What worked
for the series one year, will
most likely not work for the
- 1 next based on climate change
ie sries haIs within the community.
irthered its "It is always really difficult
to look backwards because I
Cess over its am always looking forward,"
Hamilton said.
year history. With constant innovation
among a board of students
and faculty, it's no wonder
why the series has continued
and furthered its success
t & Design students. over the course of the past
es are mandatory for 10 plus years, however it's
& Design students for still looking to further its
irety of their time as reach within the University
raduates. The series and greater Ann Arbor
as one academic credit community.
tester for them. "I constantly run into
s amazing how many people who don't know about
lished artists come the series or are coming
nd we have the chance for the first time. I always
ract with them," said think it's great to get people
Design junior Cara to know about it and come
. "We want to see their because they are free events
are artists and visual for the community," Hamilton
so it's nice when they said. "It's a great place to
n and really show us spread some interesting ideas
ork and tell us their that can help move society
forward."
series also serves as Tonight at 5:10 p.m., the
enge to the Michigan series will host Anab Jain,
r. They often host designer, filmmaker and
after speaker founder of the design studio
ations, so the theater Superflux at the Michigan
tust work quickly to Theater. Superflux's work has
necessary work done won awards from Apple, the
and after lectures so Ann Arbor Film Festival and
may be screened or a handful of other respected
vents can run the same organizations. Other
the Penny W. Stamps upcoming speakers include
uished Speaker Series. The New Yorker's arts editor
organize the technical Frangoise Mouly and artist
on for the lectures. Seth Ellis.
mes that is very simple, "I feel like there is always
mes it is complicated," room for more people to come
said. "I don't want to to the series," Hamilton said.
y our role. We are the "It's such a wonderful place
nd we are very happy for people to gather around
e venue, but it's really ideas so the more the merrier."
ool's event."

By DANIELLE
RAYKHINSHTEYN
DailyArts Writer
Walking into the basement of
420 S. Division St., you duck your
head to avoid hitting it on the top
of the doorway. At the bottom of
the stairs, you find yourself in a
dark room, illuminated only by a-
film projected on the stone wall
and a light fixture in the corner.
Walking closer to the film,
created by Art & Design senior
Hanna Sakakibara, you see
different forms of light flitting
on screen. You're watching the
screen, but you're hearing music
from School of Music, Theatre &
Dance junior Isaac Levine, DJing
his performance piece in the next
room.
You then mosey over to the
lamp, realizing that it is in fact,
part of the exhibit. It's a laser
cut, acrylic piece byArt & Design
sophomore Zach Kolodziej. It
almost looks like a crepe paper
ball that you hang from the
ceiling at birthday parties. Its
mixture of pink andwhite shades
give off a purple-y hue.
On Friday Helicon will be
presentingLuminosity, astudent-
curated student art show, from 9
p.m.to midnight.
This is the third annual art
show for Helicon, the history of
art undergraduate society at the
University. LSA senior Isabella
Achenbach, president of Helicon
and a former Michigan Daily
staff member, said the club aims
tobringmoreattentionto student
art and allow viewers to have
more conversations about the
pieces.
"The goal is for people to
come and actually see what
other students are working on,"
Achenbach said. "There are so
many people on this campus that
their work - so much of it just
goes unseen. People do work,
they submit it for a grade, and
then it's done."
Whenyouturnyourheadtosee
if the lamp is hiding more colors
on the other side, the corner of
your eye catches a glimpse into
the next room of the basement,
and you find yourself passing
through an open doorway into a
slightlylargersquareroom. Here,
you find Levine DJing.
This is the second year Helicon
has had the show in an off-
campus house. While Achenbach
said the club is working towards

getting a more secure and
professional gallery space for
the spring, she also said she
appreciates the accessibility of an
off-campus location.
"Doing it in an off-campus
house makes it so much more
accessible to students," she said.
"People,tobe honest,really aren't
that inclined to go to something
on campus, ina campus building
where you have to be out of it by
like 9 p.m. It's not that fun."
Moving through the second
basement room,you notice avery
small roomonthe farside. Yougo
inside, overcome with curiosity.
You find yourself surrounded by
fog, projected images swirling
all around you, playing a cat and
mouse game with the smoke.
It's an installation piece by Art
& Design junior Jay Moskowitz.
You can still hear the music from
Levine; you can see Moskowitz's
images; you can touch the fog.
Achenbach said she feels a
student art show is so important
because art is indicative of
the culture of the time. While
Helicon is an art history club,
part of art history is studying
currenttrends.
"Art is culture. It's education.
It's communication. It's an
experience," she said.
Coming back out of the
basement, you make your way
around to the front of the house.
You go in the front door to find a
jazz bandensemble playingtothe
photos and paintings hung on the
walls.
The first piece you see is by
LSA , freshman and Helicon
member Olivia Kinker. Keeping
with the luminosity theme, it's a
drawing of a chair illuminated by
a lamp in her dorm in EastQuad.
"When you turn off all the
other lights, it's just this focused
light on this chair," Kinker said.
"I was looking around for things
to draw, and I saw that image
with the chair. I'd left a sweater
on it, and it looked like this image
of my life right then."
Further along, there's a photo
by LSA sophomore Cellik Adams.
It's a simple shot of the most
recent full moon; a moon Adams
said symbolized a changing time
and astepping-stone in his life.
"Every full moon - I take it
as a new beginning," he said.
"There's a new month, new time,
new period."
You see a painting from
Art & Design sophomore Mia

Massimino: a lamp sitting in the
middle of a desk, surrounded
by perfume and pictures,
with jewelry hanging over its
shade. There's a digital print of
chandeliers from LSA senior
Rachel Cole, the fixtures in
varying shades of yellow. Then
you spot a three-photo series by
LSA sophomore Eliza Cadoux.
The series, titled "dzef,"which
means"truly,reallyor extremely"
in Arabic, features three black
and white photos taken in
Morocco in 2013. Cadoux said
the photos all represent aspects
of her time in Morocco that she is
grateful for.
"They're three black and
white photographs that were
taken in an extremely colorful
place," she said. "Black and
white photos, inthis day and age,
become interesting ways to think
about memory and the textures
and pigments that are lost over
time, and how even experiences
so vivid as my time there lose
dimensions."
The first photo is a shot from
the Atlas Mountains, looking
down into the Sous Valley.
"It encompasses an awareness
of the land and the physicality
of the country, instead of the
cultural implications one often
thinks of when traveling and
experiencing new culture," said
Cadoux.
The second photo is of a
donkey, and Cadoux said it
captured the essence of the farm
work she was doing while in the
country.
The third photo features the
matriarch of the family Cadoux
was staying with.
"She was absolutely terrifying,
and she had this enormous
presence," she said. "I managed
to take a photo of her lounging,
and to me that was really the
pinnacle of experiencing an
entirelydifferentculturalrealm."
You turn around, retracing
your steps out of the house.
You pass by Achenbach on the
way out, and she thanks you for
coming. You tell her how much
you enjoyed the show. She asks
you what your favorite part was,
and you dive into a pleasant
exchange with her before
headingon your way.
With student artists as
the celebrities of this exhibit,
Helicon's Luminosity aims to
present just that - the brightness
of the stars.

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