2B — Thursday, March 10, 2016
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

It’s a crisp afternoon in 

October, and I am sitting on a 
bench near the center of campus. 
I watch a small group of students 
huddled in the center, gesturing 
to different areas on the ground 
below them. Every few feet 
across the Diag, there are long, 
wide strips of plastic bubble 
wrap.

Groups 
of 
students 
slow 

down 
and 
step 
deliberately 

on 
the 
bubbles, 
laughing 

ecstatically with every loud 
pop. When somebody shoots 
by on a longboard or a bike, the 
explosion of plastic sounds like 
machine gunfire. What sticks 
out the most to me, though, 
are the solitary students, the 
random guys stepping gingerly 
on the plastic and smiling a little. 
The simple, small reactions.

This is “Bubbled,” the first 

installation of Art on the Diag, 
or D/ART, a new club on campus. 
Like the Do Random Acts of 
Kindness club filtered through 
an artistic lens, the group plans 
elaborate pieces of art using 
interactive materials. So far, the 
group has only planned one piece 
each semester due to the scale 
and ambition of the projects.

The president of D/ART is 

Daniel Sharp (a junior in the 
Ford School of Public Policy) 
with a minor in Art History. 
Sharp first conceived of the club 
as a sophomore, wanting an 
outlet to explore contemporary 
art in visible areas. Transferring 
to the School of Art & Design 
was one option, but most of the 
Stamps artwork is displayed 
in their own building rather 
than on Central Campus, where 
most students live and work. 
Working at the University of 
Michigan Museum of Art would 
enable him to facilitate or sell 
artwork, but not actually create 
any. None of the arts student 
groups on campus were focused 
on creating large-scale works in 
public spaces, so Sharp and a few 
other friends decided to make 
their own.

“It would hopefully create 

an outlet for any student, in any 
major, to directly practice and 
hone their skills in large-scale 
art creation and facilitation,” 
Sharp said.

There are between 10 and 15 

dedicated members of the group, 
most of whom joined the group 
at Festifall. Several others joined 
after the October installation.

“Bubbled” 
was 
originally 

Sharp’s 
idea, 
but 
it 
was 

workshopped 
for 
over 
two 

months 
between 
Sharp, 
D/

ART 
Vice 
President 
Sarah 

Rusinowski, 
Treasurer 
Holly 

Sterling and Central Student 
Government. 
After 
changing 

the installation’s specifications 
so it complied with fire codes 
and handicap protections, the 
group spent some time applying 
for grants. Once the materials 
were purchased, though, it was 
just a matter of waiting for 6,000 
square feet of bubble wrap to 
arrive at the door.

“Naturally, it arrived when 

I was in class,” Sharp said. “My 
roommate was a bit surprised 
when 
a 
Uline 
bus 
began 

depositing rolls and rolls and 
rolls of bubble wrap on our front 
lawn.”

Now, D/ART ideas go through 

a very collaborative process 
before they come to life.

“Anyone in D/ART can submit 

an artwork idea,” Sharp said. 
“Then, for one entire day, we 
discuss the possible works for 
next semester, tweak or change 
some designs, materials and 
conceptual concepts, and arrive 
at some amazing ideas.”

Rusinowski, a LSA junior, 

emphasized the low stress of the 
club, partly due to its low time 
commitment.

“We meet semi-regularly to 

discuss upcoming projects, but 
involvement usually depends on 
the 
installation,” 
Rusinowski 

said. “In general, D/ART is a 
super low-stress organization 
because 
it’s 
so 
reliant 
on 

collaboration. We all participate 
because it’s fun.”

Creating large-scale public 

installations 
doesn’t 
come 

without its challenges. According 
to Rusinowski, D/ART has been 
able to count on grants from Arts 
at Michigan, a program within 
the Office of New Student 
Programs, and CSG. In addition 
to planning and holding most D/
ART meetings and organizing 
the building and maintenance 
of 
the 
installations, 
Sharp 

finalizes grant applications and 
deals with the purchases and 
reimbursements of art materials.

“We 
actually 
collaborated 

with 
the 
Rackham 
Student 

Government to apply to the 
Michigan Bicentennial Student 
Grant Initiative for next year,” 
Sharp said, explaining his hopes 
for the future of the club. “If we 
win the grant, D/ART’s funding 
will be secured and expanded 
for next year. So expect quite 
the hubbub and excitement next 
year, if this comes to fruition.”

The installations themselves 

involve 
the 
whole 
team’s 

collaboration on the day they go 
up.

“We 
always 
have 
D/ART 

members present,” Rusinowski 

said. “We have to take care of 
setup and tear-down because 
our installations typically only 
stay up for one day.”

“The day of the installation 

went by in an instant,” Sharp 
said. “Everyone was absolutely 
excited, running on adrenaline 
and amazed at how many people 
— at least eight for me — came up 
and told us how much popping 
bubble 
wrap 
turned 
their 

day around. It was absolutely 
rewarding in the end to see how 
a specific, niche organization 
could still impact a wide range of 
people.”

D/ART has also had to deal 

with the absence of Sharp this 
semester, as he studies abroad 
in Berlin, meaning the group is 
only doing one instead of two 
installations this semester.

However, the “D/ARTboard” 

has a number of members who 
have stepped up to the plate in 
Sharp’s absence, and Rusinowski 
and LSA freshman Anne Tsaloff 
have played a major roles in 
putting 
together 
D/ART’s 

second big installation, “Mirror 
Mimesis,” which will come to 
fruition on March 17. For the 
installation, D/ART will put 
50 reflective cubes on the Diag 
open for anyone to tear down 
into different shapes and sizes. 
Passersby can build the cubes 
into structures or deconstruct 
them in creative ways.

“We 
want 
to 
start 
a 

conversation 
about 
what 

constitutes 
art,” 
Rusinowski 

said. “Just because we put 
bubble wrap on the ground 
and call it art, does that make 
it valid, or is it just garbage? 
Art is always constructed, and 
for so long I didn’t get that. 
There is no real explanation for 
valuing a prestigious symphony 
performance that costs $50 to 
attend over a talented street 
performer. I think starting that 
conversation has been one of 
my favorite things about being 
involved with D/ART.”

As the team started to clean up 

the bubble wrap at the end of the 
first installation, Sharp looked 
out at the Diag and beamed.

“I just wanna give people art,” 

Sharp said. “I just wanna give 
people weird-ass things that are 
super fun.”

As I sat and looked at the joyful 

reactions of random passersby, 
the wild bursts of laughter and 
the tentative grins, I knew that 
D/ART was accomplishing just 
that.

To get involved with D/ART, 

e-mail sjrusino@umich.edu or 
request membership on Maize 
Pages.

Additional reporting by Sam 

Rosenberg.

DIAG
From Page 1B

By HANNAH SPARKS

Daily Arts Writer

“Chic” and “comfort” are 

two words that describe 
Chloé’s latest collection 
perfectly. The first look to 
grace the runway was a huge 
poncho. I’m not quite sure 
how anyone under 5’8” would 
look in this. For someone 
of my short stature, it may 
appear like I’m drowning, but 
you know what? I don’t care 
because the poncho is flawless.

Not everything was made 

with comfort and flattery 
in mind. Within the first 
minute, a full-on leather zip-
up jumpsuit came down the 
runway. This was slightly 
unflattering on the stick figure 
model, so I try not to picture 
myself in this garment. The 
idea of this piece is great, super 
chic with an edge.

Oversized ponchos and 

capes seemed to be a big theme 
throughout the show, if you 
haven’t caught on already. 
Whether they were worn 
on top of a beautiful chiffon 
dress or paired with cropped 
leather pants, they were 
certainly a dominating factor. 
These capes and ponchos 
were truly inspiring, bringing 
the oversized look into high 
fashion this season. I’m not 
exaggerating when I say 
this: immediately following 
the show, I went to my dad’s 

closet looking for oversized 
sweatshirts. Maybe, just 
maybe, they could somehow 
resemble this look to a fraction 
of a degree. I can try, can’t I? 
Many of the fashion-obsessed, 
such as myself, would truly try 
anything to look Chloé-esque.

Almost every piece, aside 

from the classic leather 
ensembles were oversized 
and feminine. So if you are a 
couple of pounds over your 
“summertime goal weight,” 
it won’t matter in these free-
flowing Chloé pieces. Another 
theme of the show was the 
scarf tied tightly around the 
model’s neck. If you can picture 
the Pink Ladies from “Grease” 
and the scarves they wore on 
their necks, that’s what these 
Chloé scarves resembled. It’s 
no wonder the fashion world 
has been favoring scarves as 
of late. Think about it: you can 
literally wear a scarf like this 
with anything, and your outfit 
will be effectively 10 times 
cooler (don’t believe me? Try 
it). Almost everything in this 
collection was constructed 
from soft colors and loose 
edges, which lent a sense of 
boho-chic. Carefree and cool 
vibes radiated off of each 
garment, perfectly curated for 
this collection.

Surprisingly, no handbags 

came down the runway with 
any of the models. This was 
disappointing; the world has 

never seen a Chloé bag that it 
wasn’t immediately impressed 
with. Most of the shoes in the 
show were boots; most boots 
had a high shaft, above the 
ankle but still below the knee 
for more wearability. They 
came in different colors, such 
as black, brown and tan.

However, the coolest 

piece of all came out nine 
minutes into the show. It was 
a multicolored, oversized coat 
that stopped at the knee. Made 
of a thick wool-like material, 
the coat was completely and 
unapologetically fringed. This 
jacket was by far the biggest 
statement piece of the show 
this season.

To sum it up, I basically 

want everything that came 
down the runway. The 
oversized and free-forming 
designs bring about a pure 
form of femininity, which is 
something I can get behind. 
These high-end fashion 
garments are something that 
you can wear out to a gala, or 
wear inside when you’re alone 
in the apartment eating your 
leftover Chinese food. Now, 
that’s versatility at its finest. 
This collection receives an A 
from me. The designer really 
had every kind of woman in 
mind while creating these 
pieces, and I know I am among 
the many women who hope to 
be lucky enough to wear them 
one day. 

Chic comfort key at 
Chloé runway show

FASHION RECAP

By DAYTON HARE

Daily Arts Writer

The early and middle 20th 

century was a period of profound 
darkness. The spasms of war 
wracked the whole of the spin-
ning globe, 
washing 
the world in 
blood as vio-
lence spread 
like a con-
tagion. The 
carnage of 
the Second 
World War 
shattered 
nations 
— human-
ity heard 
“Rolling 
Thunder” in 
the distance 
and saw 
an “Iron 
Curtain” 
descend-
ing. And 
of course, after a fateful August 
morning on Honshu Island, the 
world came to live with the omni-
present menace of Oppenheimer’s 
monster.

While this temperament is 

present in visual arts, dance, 
music, poetry, literature and other 
areas, it is perhaps most noticeable 
in theatre. Starting around World 
War II, existentialism and absurd-
ism began to surface in dramatic 
art. In France, Sartre’s “Huis Clos” 
explored a personalized existen-
tialist Hell of people and Albert 
Camus’s “Le Malentendu” probed 
the depths of the absurd. The 
Irishman Samuel Beckett incorpo-
rated both Sartre’s existentialism 
and Camus’s absurdist outlook 
into his masterpiece “Waiting for 
Godot.” But in English language 
arts, the culmination of absurdist 
theatre is possibly Tom Stoppard’s 
“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 
Are Dead,” a tragicomedy first 
staged in 1966 in Edinburgh that is 
coming to the Arthur Miller stage 
in Ann Arbor this weekend.

“Because it’s absurdist theatre 

at its heart it doesn’t have the arc 
to it that people often expect from 
theatre. And the characters by the 
end aren’t necessarily changed 
by it — Rosencrantz and Guilden-
stern never escape their fate,” said 
David Widmayer, the director of 
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s pro-
duction of the play, in an interview 
with the Michigan Daily.

Widmayer started acting in 

eighth grade, and continued 
throughout high school. As a stu-

dent at the University of Michigan 
— though not a theatre major — he 
joined the improv group Witt’s 
End in its inaugural year. Fol-
lowing his time at the University, 
Widmayer auditioned for a role in 
“The Tempest” at the Ann Arbor 
Civic Theatre, where he has been 
working ever since. “Rosencrantz 
and Guildenstern” will mark Wid-
mayer’s directorial debut at the 
Civic Theatre.

“I’ve always loved it. I first saw 

scenes from it in high school,” 
Widmayer said of his decision to 
stage Stoppard’s work. “It’s very 
much about sort of discovering 
the play.”

The title of “Rosencrantz and 

Guildenstern Are Dead” is taken 
from a line in the final scene of 
Shakespeare’s famous tragedy 
“Hamlet,” and the action of Stop-
pard’s play mostly occurs on the 
sidelines of Shakespeare’s, with 
the title characters largely isolated 
from the events of the elder trag-
edy. Woven throughout the play, 
however, are scenes and lines from 
“Hamlet,” interspersed between 
the philosophical contemplations 
of the two title characters.

“[Rosencrantz and Guilden-

stern] move inexorably from the 
start of the play to the end where 
they die, constantly sort of futilely 
fighting against the idea that they 
can’t do anything about their fate,” 
Widmayer said. “It shares a lot in 
common with ‘Waiting for Godot’ 
… because it’s not about the plot, 
it’s about what the characters are 
going through and their internal 
struggle and the way that Stop-
pard uses that to make us think 
about death or destiny or prede-
termination.”

Widmayer and his colleagues 

have approached much of the set 
design for the play with a mini-
malist, abstract perspective which 
lends itself to the somewhat intan-
gible nature of the play’s setting.

“We brought in a minimal 

amount of set pieces,” Widmayer 
said. “Mostly what will occupy 
the thrust stage are very simple 
rehearsal style blocks, which can 
represent tables or chairs, and sort 
of fit the character of Rosencrantz 
and Guildenstern being in a loca-
tion of no particular character.”

The Civic Theatre’s production 

will also use updated costuming, 
eschewing traditional Shakespear-
ean garb for 20th century fashion.

“I’ve got a really great costum-

er, Anni Fox, who has sort of taken 
us in a little bit of a modern direc-
tion,” Widmayer said. “We were 
originally thinking we would go 
with a more Elizabethan feel for 

it … but as she started to develop 
it she pitched to me a little more 
modern feel, with some designs 
inspired by current designers 
making fashion for runways, high 
fashion stuff with deconstructed 
suits and things like that.”

A large portion of the play 

features a group of tragedians — 
ostensibly the same who feature 
in Act III of “Hamlet” — and this 
presented an opportunity for a 
great deal of original music and 
musicians in the cast.

“We wrote all original songs for 

it as a group … singers would go 
off and look at Stoppard’s text and 
also the text from “Hamlet and 
pick out phrases that they liked for 
the lyrics, and the instrumental-
ists would work together on laying 
out a basic instrumental part,” 
Widmayer said. “Then we’d bring 
everyone back together and jam 
it out until we [had our songs] … it 
has sort a modern American folk 
music feel to it, but each song has 
its own character.”

Widmayer and the cast also use 

the music to provide commentary 
on the play, exploring many of the 
questions raised within the script.

“[Listening to the lyrics, one 

will] notice that they either have 
just heard some of the things that 
they’re singing or they’ll find that 
just afterwards the lyrics appear 
in the text … so the songs either 
seem to be echoing something 
that’s just happened or predicting 
something that’s about to hap-
pen.,” Widmayer said. “That’s a 
feel I really enjoy with it, because 
it plays up some of the metathe-
atrical issues that we’re dealing 
with in the show where there’s a 
lot of playing with place and play-
ing with time and playing with 
the idea of ‘has all this happened 
before?’”

By the end of the play, con-

cepts ranging from the differ-
ences between art and reality 
to the extent of an individual’s 
significance are explored, leaving 
audience members with plenty of 
material to ponder.

“There isn’t necessarily an 

answer to the questions raised 
by it — or at least we don’t have 
one answer in mind that we 
want them to come away with,” 
Widmayer said. “What we want 
them to come away with is having 
asked interesting questions, hav-
ing made them think about things 
in a different way, particularly 
about what the value of knowledge 
is — if you had perfect knowledge 
about how everything was going 
to turn out, would that make you 
happier or not?”

‘Dead’ performance

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

By ARIANA ASSAF

Daily Arts Writer

“We had playdates. It was tight,” 

Aseem Mangaokar said in an inter-
view with The Michigan Daily 
of his early days with childhood 
friend turned musical collabora-
tor Chris Gavino. Now producing 
together as DJ duo Hotel Garuda, 
you could say their playdate activi-
ties have progressed beyond swing 
sets and sandboxes to a playground 
of nightclub stages and music fes-
tivals.

Though 
living 
on 
opposite 

coasts — in L.A. and D.C., respec-
tively — Mangaokar and Gavino 
began working together in Janu-
ary 2014. Since then, they’ve made 
a name for themselves putting 
out a variety of remixes — of Lana 
Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness,” 
Chromeo’s “Jealous” and Galantis’ 
“Gold Dust” to name a few — and 
already have a set at EDC Vegas 
under their belts (real talk, I didn’t 
know that until after our interview, 
which is probably good consider-
ing EDC is practically Mecca and I 
don’t know how to process having 
talked to someone who’s reached 
it). Hotel Garuda’s relatively rapid 
rise has most recently landed 
them on their first-ever tour with 
Amtrac, who released his Lost in 
Motion EP about a month ago. A 
six-week engagement, the Lost in 
Motion tour made a stop at Popu-
lux last Friday, drawing crowds 
from the local Detroit area and 
as far as East Lansing — plus Ann 
Arbor …*waves*.

Last summer, Gavino temporar-

ily left D.C. to work on music with 
Mangaokar in L.A., and together 

they’ve set off on a journey away 
from remixes and into the world 
of their own original music. Hotel 
Garuda’s first single began to take 
shape in September, after Gavino 
was already back at school in D.C. 
Working remotely, they completed 
the track by January, but as of now 
it’s still tantalizingly mysterious to 
most of the world.

“There’s a method to the mad-

ness,” Mangaokar said of his agen-
cy’s marketing strategy behind 
new releases. “Now that we’re 
involved with a label, there’s a lot 
more that goes into it than us just 
making a song and putting it up.” 
Luckily, that means tons of sup-
port and industry resources for 
their work which — combined 
with undeniable talent, seems to 
be a recipe for success. The single 
is set to be officially released on a as 
of yet undisclosed date in the near 
future, and I can only imagine it 
will benefit from the hype coming 
off the tour.

Of course, it will also benefit 

from the fact that it’s a total jam. 
That’s right, the Populux crowd 
was treated to an early listen of the 
very first Hotel Garuda original, 
and I must say my ears felt honored. 
Imagine an echo-y, liquid tune that 
quickly opens up to Emily Warren-
esque vocals held together by an 
overall dance vibe that perfectly 
leaves listeners wanting more, and 
you’ll have a sense of the song that 
will (hopefully) hold you over until 
it you can listen for yourself.

Before Hotel Garuda, local duo 

Golf Clap warmed up the room 
with their deep house stylings. 
Apparently I’m totally out of the 
loop because they play at Can-

tina with some regularity and I’m 
embarrassed to say I’ve never been. 
They’ve got plenty of upcoming 
shows scheduled around here—I’m 
particularly excited for the Hash 
Bash Official Afterparty at The 
Blind Pig (who wouldn’t be?). Any-
way, the room continued to fill as 
Hotel Garuda took the stage, and I 
can only imagine that from an art-
ist’s point of view watching people 
flock to your music is as promising 
as watching the sun rise. The set 
that followed was as refreshing as a 
Sunday morning, and as energetic 
as a Friday night in your twenties 
should be.

Characterized by quick transi-

tions and plenty of opportunities 
to sing along, Hotel Garuda estab-
lished a steady flow of house beats 
mixed with fun samples (not the 
kind from pop songs that the radio 
beats to death), creating an envi-
ronment that buzzed like a great 
college house party, but with bet-
ter music and LED lights. Amtrac 
finished off the night, working the 
crowd into a frenzy by letting his 
build-ups simmer until they were 
good and ready to explode; it really 
did have something of a detonative 
quality, like a glitter bomb of music 
raining down over a happy crowd. 

Perhaps one of the most won-

derful things that comes from talk-
ing to an artist about their work is 
the chance to get a sense of their 
passion behind it. Sure, watching 
a DJ rock out in the booth is great, 
but listening to them geek out over 
their own music and that of their 
friends is pretty cool, too. Though 
still in the early stages of his career, 
Mangaokar seems committed to 
keep the good times coming.

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

A

Rosencrantz 
and 
Guildenstern 
are Dead

March 10 7:30 
p.m., March 
11-12 8 p.m., 
March 13 2 p.m. 

Arthur Miller 
Theatre

Students $11, 

Adults $17-22

