Visual Arts Program

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

265 Massachusetts Avenue, N51-328
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Phone: +1 (617) 253-5229
Contact: Ed Halligan
vap@mit.edu

visualarts.mit.edu

Application Deadline: December 15, 2008
Supporting materials due January 2, 2009

The MIT Visual Arts Program (VAP) seeks committed, curious and creative students for the 2009-2010 academic year. This selective two-year program grants successful participants a Master of Science in Visual Studies (SMVisS) degree. Positioned within the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, the VAP offers a wealth of exploration and research opportunities in transdisciplinary relationships with programs and labs in the MIT community.

The Program

The MIT Visual Arts Program operates as a critical production- and education-based laboratory within the context of an advanced technological community. The program explores the role of art in society and considers artistic practice as knowledge production, thus promoting an approach that challenges traditional genres and the limits of the gallery/museum context. Studio investigations and artistic research are realized through performance, sound and video, photography, interrogative design, as well as through experimental media and new genres. The program also emphasizes art that engages public spheres, the production of space, networked cultures, and questions relating to the environment, gender, and social stratification. Students are encouraged to work individually or collectively to develop their own vision of artistic practice. Extra-curricular activities include a cross-disciplinary lecture series, field trips, workshops, studio visits, and public presentations.

VAP Faculty

Instructors are world-renowned, with active, international careers and a strong interest in cross-disciplinary debate, research, and modes of production. VAP Director and Associate Professor Ute Meta Bauer directed SITAC VI 2008 in Mexico City, co-curated Documenta11 and was Artistic Director of the 3rd Berlin Biennial. Professor Joan Jonas participated in this year's Biennales in Sidney and Sao Paulo, and the Yokohama Triennale. VAP Professor Krzysztof Wodiczko is the Director of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies. In 2008 he completed a major public projection for the city of Warsaw to commemorate the 1968 student uprising, and the War Veteran Projection Vehicle for the city of Denver, during the Democratic National Convention. Newly appointed Associate Professor Gediminas Urbonas and his partner Nomeda Urbonas were awarded Honorable Mention for the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007. Visiting Professor Antoni Muntadas represented Spain at the Venice Biennale 2005. Lecturers Andrea Frank (Photography), Amber Frid-Jimenez (Participatory Media), Joe Gibbons (Video), Wendy Jacob (Autism Studio), Jae Rhim Lee (Environmental Studies), and Joe Zane (Mixed Media) are prominent practitioners in their fields.

Apply

Artists/cultural producers with diverse backgrounds and experience interested in innovative transdisciplinary artistic practice and research at the intersection of art, culture, and technology are encouraged to apply. The application deadline is December 15, 2008. Supporting materials will be accepted until January 2, 2009.

Applicants are encouraged to seek diversity resources and funding or contact Robbin Chapman, Manager of Diversity Recruitment, at rchapman@mit.edu.

OPEN CALL FOR FILMS

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, 2010 – Seattle, Washington USA
CALL FOR WORK: the April 17-25, 2010 Langston Hughes African American Film
Festival, an annual presentation of the Langston Hughes Performing
Arts Center in Seattle, Washington, USA invites independent film entries
of any length. Genres/subject areas: narrative, documentary, children's,
youth-made movies, shorts, lesbian/gay/transgender, animation, experimental. Filmmakers do

not have to be Black, but films should include a significant amount
of content involving people of African descent. Films are reviewed by
a jury process. Entry fee: $25 USD; please make checks payable to
"LHPAC". Please include a postage paid envelope if you want your work
returned. All preview copies must be marked with your name and
contact information. A $50 honorarium is paid for films accepted and
screened. You will be notified by email if your film is accepted. Please notify us if you

have simultaneously submitted your film to other Seattle-area festivals.

Please send preview copies in NTSC format on DVD. Films originating in languages other

than English must have English subtitles.
Mailing address: LHAAFF, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, 104 - 17th Avenue South,

Seattle WA 98144 USA. An entry form is available here:

http://www.langstonarts.org/2010LHAAFF_EntryForm.pdf. Please visit

www.langstonblackfilmfest.org or http://lhaaffbside.blogspot.com/ for more information

about our event.
Awards: the $500 local filmmaker award (filmmaker resident of Washington State); the $750

Audience Award; and the $750 Jury award.
Deadline: December 30, 2009.

Call for Papers: Directory of World Cinema: Africa (deadline: n.d.)

Intellect Books (Bristol) is launching the Directory of World Cinema, which aims to bring a new, accessible dimension to the academic study of film. The Directory of World Cinema: Africa will provide an insight into the cinema of many African countries through reviews of significant films and case studies of leading directors, alongside explorations of the cultural and industrial motivations of key themes and genres.

Contributions will be first posted on a website and later collated into a hard copy version, to be updated every second or third year. The first edition will attempt to apprehend African reality in self-representation. Chapter headings will address the changing public sphere, Africans at work (including the rapport to money and the economic and political role of women), multiple aspects of migration (rural exodus, economic migration, refugees, diasporas), culture and religion, magic, representation of children, the choice of music and languages, symbolic representation. The films from the different regions, which are usually defined by their official languages (anglophone, francophone, lusophone), will be entered under the selected themes or genres subheadings in order to avoid the partition between the linguistic regions. New genres (TV films and series, African made documentaries, musicals, independently produced films etc.) are welcome.

Interested people can contribute film reviews in English or French (800 words or more) or longer essays (in English) on a theme, genre or a representative director. There is no remuneration for contributors. The rewards will be exposure and a free copy of the volume.

For general information, consult the publisher’s website:
http://www.worldcinemadirectory.org (in particular ‘Contribute’)

If you want to write film reviews or to coordinate a chapter for the African volume, please contact Blandine Stefanson , editor of the volume on Africa.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008