The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, February 13, 2015 — 5

Infra Eco Logi 
spans disciplines

Taubman installation 
explores renewable 

energy

By KATHLEEN DAVIS

Senior Arts Editor

Niched in downtown Ann 

Arbor, past the hustle and 
activity 
of 

Main 
Street, 

lies 
the 

Taubman 
College Liberty 
Research 
Annex, 
an 

impressive 
work 
and 

exhibition 
space owned by 
the University. 
Infra Eco Logi 
Urbanism, 
the current installation in the 
space, is a multi-year research 
project-turned-publication-
turned-traveling exhibit that 
highlights a proposal to unite 
the Great Lakes region in terms 
of infrastructure and energy 
resources. 

The project was created by 

research-based 
architecture 

studio RVTR, founded by Kathy 
Velikov, an assistant professor 
at the University, and Geoffrey 
Thün, an associate professor, 
who both work at the Taubman 
College of Architecture and 
Urban Planning. RVTR has 
locations in both Ann Arbor 
and Toronto, but the team is 
currently working locally to 
accommodate with the exhibit 
space. 

Infra Eco Logi Urbanism’s 

research spans over multiple 
disciplines, 
including 

urbanism, ecology and policy. 
The project is an exploration 
of the future of megaregions, 
defined as networks of cities 
and the sprawl between them, 
interconnected by topography 
and environmental systems. 

The exhibit itself is composed 

of several suspended screens, 
each featuring a different facet 
of the design process. The color 
scheme of black, white and 
fluorescent yellow is simple yet 
striking, bringing attention to 
the research more thoroughly 
than one could interpret just 
from the research manuscript. 

Velikov notes that the Great 

Lakes region, one of the most 
diffuse megaregions identified 
as 
the 
sprawl 
between 

Toronto, Chicago and Detroit, 
is rich in the promise of 
renewable energy, thanks to an 
abundance of water and wind 
provided by the lakes. Infra 
Eco Logi Urbanism explores 
how 
renewable 
resources 

could benefit the surrounding 
regions. The project focuses on 
the Great Lakes megaregion, 
and 
analyzes 
its 
potential 

based on a hypothetical United 
Nations-style 
agreement 

between the neighboring areas 
of Michigan and Canada. 

“Questions 
arise 
like, 

who is responsible for the 
algae in Toledo? Things like 
that change how we think 
about 
cooperation, 
politics 

and 
ecology 
regionally,” 

Velikov said. “Our research 
is, essentially, how can design 
approach this question?”

RVTR believes the creation 

of 
an 
area 
of 
suspended 

nationality between Canada 
and the United States would 
help solve these complicated 
issues of policy between the 
megaregion. Part of Infra Eco 
Logi Urbanism’s research was 
anticipating 
policy 
changes 

in 
a 
time 
of 
energy 
and 

technological changes.

“A 
big 
moment 
for 
us 

was 
when 
we 
decided 
to 

incorporate the politics and 
policy, and how that would 
effect 
things. 
It’s 
still 
a 

question that we keep working 
out,” Velikov said. “What is the 
relationship between design 
and politics and policy, that’s 
a really important challenge 
for us. We can conceptualize 
the new technologies, that’s 
almost the easier part, but 
reconceptualizing 
political 

situations 
and 
how 
that 

materializes 
becomes 
one 

of 
the 
more 
challenging 

questions of design and design 
exploration.”

What sets Infra Eco Logi 

Urbanism apart from many 
other urban planning designs 

is the focus on the places 
outside 
the 
city 
that 
are 

still heavily impacted by the 
metropolitan, rather than the 
cities themselves. These areas, 
Velikov 
notes, 
are 
equally 

important 
to 
tackle 
when 

discussing the urban sprawl. 

The process of beginning the 

exhibit began with analyzing 
these regions, which involved 
looking at urban systems as 
networks. The project involves 
a host of mapping, a visual 
resource for visitors to envision 
what 
these 
megaregions 

look like and how they’re 
connected. One of the main 
issues of interconnectedness 
RVTR tackles is the issue 
of current highways, which 
Velikov and her team feel very 
strongly against. 

“The highway is a terrible 

waste of urban space, it leaves 
these ‘orphan lands’ and leaves 
all these vast territories empty 
and useless,” Velikov said. “If 
we were looking at it as a space 
where we could have more 
modes of mobility, more places 
where, say, electric vehicles 
could 
refuel, 
these 
spaces 

could become something more 
for the region as a site for new 
institutions 
and 
resources, 

and could do more for the 
populations 
that 
live 
out 

there.” 

Taking into consideration 

how 
transportation 
and 

energy will change in coming 
years, a bulk of Infra Eco 
Logi 
Urbanism 
is 
focused 

on 
retooling 
intraregional 

highways 
to 
accommodate 

ecologically friendly modes of 
transportation, for example a 
wind-powered high-speed rail 
proposed by the project. 

Though 
inching 
into 
the 

utopian, Infra Eco Logi Urbanism 
does a fantastic analysis into how 
renewable energy development 
will change the landscape of 
urban spaces, and has opened a 
fascinating discussion. 

“What we’ve hoped that the 

exhibition would do is to open 
people up to these questions,” 
Velikov said. “When you put 
forth a speculative proposal, 
the goal is to allow people to 
imagine 
something 
different 

and something that might be 
possible. For us, that’s a really 
important aspect of this kind of 
work. It’s not to say this position 
itself as a singular solution, but 
it’s meant to foster discourse 
and debate.”

By AMELIA ZAK

Daily Music Editor

The 
Academy 
Award 
for 

Best Original Song is presented 
annually to songwriters who 
have written and composed 
an original piece for a film. 
This year’s awards ceremony 
contains 
an 
especially 

interesting 
array 
of 
talent. 

Ranging from a surprising Rita 
Ora ballad to Glen Campbell’s 
heart-wrenching 
“I’m 
Not 

Gonna Miss You” to Tegan 
and Sara’s adorably aggressive 
“Everything is AWESOME!!!” 
featuring the silly Lonely Island 
boys, 
the 
nominations 
are 

seemingly sporadic with a few 
possible winners. But who truly 
deserves the golden man? And 
who is the likely victor? Let’s 
break it down: 

“I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” 
written by Glen Campbell 

and Julian Raymond

The 
highly 
celebrated 

country 
singer 
and 
former 

television host Glen Campbell 
captured his final tour this 
past year in the documentary, 
“Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.” 
The nominated song describes 
Campbell’s 
last 
optimistic 

and conscious thoughts as he 
has begun to lose his mind to 
Alzheimer’s disease. “I’m Not 
Gonna Miss You” speaks to his 
wife, “the last person I will 
love,” and the unique last selfish 
act the disease provides him, 
because at least “I’m not gonna 
miss you.” As the relatively 
simple 
music 
protects 
the 

purity and importance of the 
song’s message, “I’m Not Gonna 
Miss You” is working to remove 
the negative, misunderstood 
stigma of the disease. While not 
the first pick of many for the 
Oscar, this song fully deserves 
the attention provided by the 
nomination. 

“Grateful,” performed 

by Rita Ora and written by 

Diane Warren

For Diane Warren, victory is 

an impassable road. This famed 
songwriter, having penned hits 
for J-Lo, Bon Jovi, Whitney 
Houston and the like, has hit 
her seventh Academy Award 
nomination with her addition 

to the “Beyond the Lights” 
soundtrack, “Grateful.” It was 
surely 
Warren’s 
acclaimed 

name and noted songwriting 
talents that allowed such a 
relatively 
uncelebrated 
and 

unimpressive pop song slip 
into the nominations. Nothing 
about this song is new or 
groundbreaking 
enough 
to 

be recognized as the best of 
its kind for the year 2014. If 
possible, could someone even 
scratch out the song title, plead 
forgiveness from Ms. Warren 
and add Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker 
Beat” from “The Hunger Games: 
Mockingjay” soundtrack? 

“Everything is 

AWESOME!!!,” performed 
by Tegan and Sara featuring 
Lonely Island and written by 

Shawn Patterson

Here’s another song that may 

not be a top pick to represent the 
music of the movies we enjoyed 
in the year 2014. Maybe it is for 
those who drank a Red Bull and 
chased it down with an entire 
box of Nerds, but otherwise 
the stimulation that this song 
provides is far too aggressive 
and, at times, frightening. Andy 
Samberg, the former Saturday 
Night Live stud and Lonely 
Island 
founder, 
spurts 
out 

random gibberish in between 
the recurring “Everything is 
AWESOME!!!” 
declaration 
of 

the 
chorus 
with 
comments 

like, “I feel like an awesome 
possum.” Comparing oneself to 
extraordinary mammals? I guess 
that’s relatable for the viewers 
of a cartoon film. Should it win? 
No. Could it win? Yes. Would it 
be incredibly amusing to see it 
take home the little golden man? 
Absolutely. 

“Lost Stars,” performed by 

Adam Levine and written by 

Danielle Brisebois and Gregg 

Alexander 

John Carney took his time 

in completing another musical 
drama. Following the 2007 hit and 
“Best Original Song” Academy 
Award win from his Irish film 
“Once,” high expectations were 
left for Carney’s most recent 
project. “Begin Again” was a 
subtle 
recreation 
of 
Carney’s 

well-conceived 
personal 
film 

landscape to create a movie where 
the storyline is fueled by the love 
or creation of music. “Lost Stars,” 
in its performance by pop star 
Adam Levine, exists as the musical 
and cinematic crescendo of this 
simple film. Yet its lyricism is at 
times awkward, i.e. “Yesterday I 
saw a lion kiss a deer / Turn the 
page, maybe we’ll find a brand new 
ending / where we’re dancing in 
our tears. ” This is concurrently 
too empty and too full. The 
songwriters, Gregg Alexander and 
Danielle Briesbois, are reflected 
in the growth of this four and a 
half minute song. Insertions like 
the climatic yelps of the Levine’s 
recognizably high-pitched vocals 
reflect the sonic inspiration two 
former members of The New 
Radicals can only provide. While 
the lyrics remain convoluted at 
parts, and though the popularity 
of the movie never mounted that of 
Carney’s previous work in “Once,” 
“Lost Stars” is another respectable 
option for the Academy this year. 

“Glory,” written and 

performed by John Legend and 

Common

Legend and Common’s R&B 

and slow jam rap creation rings 
up as not only the strongest 
contender 
for 
the 
Academy’s 

award, but the most likely and 
predicted winner. Their song, 
“Glory,” maintains a collaboration 
of current social emphasis and 
talented musicianship that should 
act as the proud musical marker 
of the Academy for the year 2014. 
While the musical dexterity of 
“Glory” is relatively limited, the 
lyrics and vocal emphasis that the 
distinct voices of John Legend and 
Common provide convey a level of 
fervor that was surely present at 
the Selma to Montgomery voting 
rights marches of 1965, and even 
more recently on the streets of 
Ferguson, Missouri.

EVENT PREVIEW

Infra 
Eco Logi 
Urbanism

Until Feb. 22

Taubman 

College Liberty 

Research Annex

Free

FILM COLUMN

AKSHAY 

SETH

M

arion Cotillard cries. 
She bends over, she 
presses her hands 

on her knees, she tilts her head 
down and 
she patiently 
awaits the 
shudders, 
which come 
in quick 
spasms like 
an alcoholic’s 
post-Denny’s 
nausea. She 
vomits emo-
tion. She 
wraps her 
arms around 
her shoulders to cradle each 
tremor. She teeters through 
every gulp of air. She weeps into 
a pillow. She gazes forlornly out 
of windows. She forlornly gazes 
the shit out of windows. She 
melts those goddamned win-
dows. Then, a few scenes later, 
she cries some more. 

And we’re still transfixed. 
Watching Marion Cotillard 

cry — with all those little tour-
niqueted tics and red-faced con-
vulsions and mascara-streaked 
paroxysms — is a mythical thing, 
kind of like witnessing Tom Brady 
connect on a 60-yarder while 
being thronged by three J.J.Watt-
sized tissue boxes. It’s the ham-
mer she uses while nailing any 
attention span to any frame the 
second she steps through it, and 

ultimately, one of the many rea-
sons her name, over the last 10 
years, has become synonymous 
with scene-stealing, bravura act-
ing. 

Scene-stealing can’t be the 

right word. Can it? Most of the 
parts she’s taken since 2007 have 
had first or second billing, so in 
every sense of the term, she is the 
consummate leading lady; you’d 
expect her to be the one with her 
hands on the reins. She doesn’t 
steal scenes so much as over-
power them, crushing whoever’s 
sharing screen time underneath 
the weight of a giant tear duct. 
They set her up, she spikes some 
snot right back in their blank 
face, probably whispering “watch 
what’s about to happen, bitch” 
in a soft French accent into their 
ears, right before the cameras 
start rolling. But when one takes 
a step back, when one distances 
oneself from the emotional water 
fountain that is Marion Cotillard, 
then one realizes that this woman 
is also, perhaps, the only screen 
presence — male or female — to so 
perfectly embody despair, in all 
its nuance, in over a decade.

She’s made a career of it, to 

the point that watching her per-
formances can be an interest-
ing dissection project — one that 
gives us a glimpse at the anatomy 
behind effectively playing sad-
ness on film. What lets great 
actors pull off weepy? What 

makes their emotional heft reso-
nate across the screen? And what, 
specifically, allows us to pin our 
own thoughts, as wide-ranging 
and ephemeral as they may be, to 
what’s often nothing more than 
just a brief closeup of another 
human being’s face? The first step 
to these answers lies in the role 
that earned Cotillard an Oscar, 
thrusting her into the Holly-
wood limelight from which she’s 
methodically slunk in and out of 
consideration ever since.

In “La Vie en Rose,” Cotillard 

plays 20th century musical icon 
Edith Piaf, and for most of the 
film, that’s all she does — perfect-
ly mimicking mannerisms, cap-
turing the singer’s slight posture 
or her imposing voice. She’s the 
sponge sitting at movie’s center 
in the way so many other actors 
have sat the center of so many 
other biopics about so many other 
celebrated luminaries: what Dan-
iel Day-Lewis was to “Lincoln” or 
David Oyelowo to “Selma,” Cotil-
lard is to “La Vie en Rose.” She’s 
there in virtually every single 
frame, the gravity around which 
the scenes coalesce and the script 
revolves. Still, I’m sure some 
corny acting handbook some-
where expounds the reasons why 
“mimicry can never mimic great 
acting” — you need vulnerability 
for that — and it isn’t until the lat-
ter half of the film that we get a 
thorough first stab at those ques-

tions I posed earlier. 

When Piaf, after years of 

attachment issues, learns of her 
husband’s 
death, 
she 
breaks 

down. It’s an obvious response to 
an obvious, time-tested develop-
ment, yet how Cotillard embod-
ies it is nothing short of brilliant. 
Basic logic suggests she could 
have gone one of two ways with 
it. A: balls to the wall wailing. B: 
catatonic sorrow. But Cotillard 
is smarter than that. She incor-
porates shades of the melodrama 
and confusion that have been col-
oring the film thus far, so what we 
see on screen is that much deeper, 
that much more poignant than an 
“obvious” choice.

It may seem like plain sob-

bing, but what’s truly intrigu-
ing about the portrayal are her 
hands, though more so, her big, 
doe-like eyes. The hands shud-
der, vibrate with an intensity 
that evokes a woman in maudlin 
shock, or to some degree, rifling 
through some long-lost collection 
of memories. Her eyes accompa-
ny this point and move through-
out the frame, searching for what 
they know is gone. The result is 
a potpourri of instinct that feeds 
on open nerve endings and raw-
ness, melodrama and confusion. 
It’s the work of someone not just 
pulling off weepiness, but owning 
it without even an inkling of res-
ervation. It’s as cathartic as act-
ing can hope to be.

Cotillard sheds the brashness 

of that performance five years 
later in “Rust and Bone,” a film 
in which she’s cast as an orca 
trainer who loses both her legs 
after an on-the-job accident. 
It’s the type of role you’d expect 
the actress to shine in. Impos-
sible odds? Check. Top billing? 
Check. Room to experiment? 
Check. Crying? Check, check, 
check. What you don’t expect 
is silence, and that silence is 
exactly what Cotillard uses to 
bookend each of her scenes.
In the hospital room, after she 
learns about the amputations, 
we see her sobbing, then lulled 
into a blissful, resigned sleep 
that carries over her demeanor 
across the movie. Sitting across 
from a friend, discussing what 
used to be her sex life, Cotil-
lard takes pains to ensure that 
same silence is evident — a sort 
of stressed fortitude that feels 
almost dozy next to her work in 
“La Vie en Rose.”

The scene works because 

Cotillard’s face feels blank. The 
half-open eyes, uncurved mouth 
and pupils that feel lost in rev-
erie are anything but — they 
click in harmony to let the audi-
ence project onto them. When 
watching the exchange, it’s not 
so much as waiting for the spe-
cific, delineated response we’ve 
been trained to look for as it is 
letting our own thoughts wash 

over the screen. 

The key to depression, and by 

extension the key to despair, is 
numbness, a vacuum of person-
ality that Cotillard can balance 
with virtuoso emoting seem-
ingly at will. That tight-rope 
strings together the entirety 
of “Two Days, One Night,” in 
which her character struggles, 
heaves between two worlds, the 
first marked by tearful sobbing 
and the second by an acceptance 
withheld until the film’s final 
moments. 

The movie is a conduit of 

dualities. The frames are often 
obviously divided down the 
middle by a line to separate 
Cotillard and the person she is 
talking to. The dialogue itself is 
repetitive so audiences can eas-
ily chalk out the delineations 
between “saying” and “feeling” 
that the filmmakers intend for 
us to cling to. The central per-
formance becomes a combina-
tion of the actress’s work in “La 
Vie en Rose” and “Rust” — we’re 
walking toward the silence, but 
through a minefield of instinct, 
a river of apathy. Our guide is 
Marion Cotillard, the woman 
who’s made a career out of this 
journey. The ambassador of 
despair.

Seth is looking at videos of 

women crying. To send him 

yours, email akse@umich.edu.

Cotillard cries 

“The exhibition 
will open people 

up to these 
questions.”
This year’s 

awards contain 
an interesting 
array of talent.

Best Original Song?

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

As long as Rita Ora doesn’t win.

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

