"Basically my work is storytelling, theworld's most
ancient art form." - Laurie Anderson
The Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival presents
Featuring: Experimental Media
April 8 - May 6
Artist in Residence Laurie Anderson
A special series of screenings, panels and master classes presented by the Department of Media Studies and Film Carol Wilder, Chair
Dawnja Burris, Associate Chair
This annual event was established by a bequest from the late Dorothy Hirshon, a trustee of New School University for 61 years, with the mission of promoting excellence and education in the filmmaking arts. This third Hirshon Film Festival is devoted to experimental mediamaking and includes lectures, screenings and master classes with the artist in residence, Laurie Anderson.
Laurie Anderson is best known for her role as a collaborative performance artist armed with her mutated violin that yields shrieking outcries. But that is only one facet of her extensive career. She has shifted in and out of roles, often in a single performance, as visual artist, composer, poet, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, and vocalist. What threads her performances together is her instinctive and progressive use of technology, always employing it to its fullest potential while maintaining full organic control of her art through imaginative storytelling.
She has toured internationally throughout her career, which began in the 1960’s, performing a range of material, all of which highlights her signature use of experimental instrumentation and multi-media theatrics. Her current tour, The End of the Moon, features work she produced during a recent position as Artist in Residence for the NASA Arts Program.
Her work employs the interactions of many meda forms and is committed to experimentation. We are pleased to welcome Laurie as the 2005 Hirshon Artist in Residence.
SCHEDULE OF PRIVATE EVENTS
Monday, April 11
Laurie Anderson Lecture
4:00-5:30pm, Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue
Open to New School Division students and faculty. RSVP required to: (chukn379@newschool.edu)
Please click here (PDF File) for more information. To view the archived webcast of this event click here.
Thursday, April 14
Laurie Anderson Masterclass #1
4:00-5:30pm, Room 1204, 70 5th Avenue
Open to Media Studies M.A. students. Application required. Please click here (PDF File) for more information.
Friday, April 15
Laurie Anderson Masterclass #2
4:00-5:30pm, Room 1204, 70 5th Avenue
Open to Media Studies M.A. students. Application required.
Please click here (PDF File) for more information.
SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC EVENTS
Friday, April 8
ARTISTS’ PRESENTATION
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy
7:00-9:00pm, Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
The McCoys utilize experimental methods of media-making, combining video, data basing systems and sculpture.
They are the 2005 recipients of WIRED Magazine’s Rave Award, honoring outstanding innovators in the arts,
business and entertainment.
In this presentation, the McCoys show slides of their work, which reexamines classic genres and works of cinema,
science fiction and television narratives, and reshapes them into sculptural objects or net art.
Tuesday, April 12
PERFORMANCE AND SCREENING
Laurie Anderson, Herself
7:00-9:00pm, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Laurie Anderson is recognized worldwide for her innovative and groundbreaking work with technologically
vanguard instruments in the arts. As an artist with a vast collection of work, she has published six books,
produced nuberous videos, films and radio pieces, and created orchestral work. She recently collaborated
with Silicon Valley-based Interval Research Corporation to explore new creative tools including the Talking
Stick, a wireless musical instrument that emits sound when touched.
Please join us for a very special evening of her work in retrospect, including a special screening of her latest
media work, Hidden Inside Mountains.
Hidden Inside Mountains, commissioned by EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan, is a high definition film that debuted
on March 25, 2005 in Japan at EXPO 2005 on the largest high definition Astrovision screen in the world.
An original score has been created by Laurie Anderson and mastered in stereo in 5.1. Hidden Inside Mountains
is a film of short stories about nature, artifice and dreams. Located in a fictitious world of theatrical spaces,
the stories unfold through music, gesture, text and the poetry of visual images. The film’s haunting music features
violins, bells, dog barks and melody as well as many electronic sounds. Both joy and loss are caught in this film
in Japanese and English. Running time is 25 minutes.
Written and Directed: Laurie Anderson
Produced: Cheryl Kaplan
Executive Producer: Linda Brumbach
Director of Photography: Maryse Alberti
Hidden Inside Mountains: A production of Canal Street Communications, Inc.
© 2005 Canal Street Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
To view the archived webcast of this event click here.
Friday, April 15
Panel Discussion
"The Aesthetics of Transition: Building Cultural Spaces for New Media Works"
7:00-9:00pm, Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
Moderated by: Michelle Handleman, Video Artist and Media Studies faculty member.
Panelists include:
Les Leveque, Digital Artist and Co-Chair, Dept. of Film, Video and Electronic Media, Bard College
Rebecca Cleman, Distribution Coordinator, Electronic Arts Intermix
Melanie Crean, Moving Image Director, Eyebeam
Filmmakers and artists have begun to expand their practice with works that engage the moving image through multiple technologies. The need to discuss new forms of distribution networks, audience, production tools and the aesthetics of technology is more pertinent than ever. Join us for an evening of discussion of the evolution of the media-making process and its changing modes of distribution.
To view the archived webcast of this event click here.
Thursday, April 21
PERFORMANCE AND SCREENING
Sound and Spatialization
7:00-9:00pm, Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
Hosted by: Barry Salmon, Composer and Media Studies Core Faculty Member.
An evening exploring the experimental uses of audio, featuring performances by and conversations with audio artists:
Alvin Lucier: I am Sitting in a Room
Tom Hamilton: London Fix (Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, 2004)
Chris Mann: dunno how to get there but wouldn't start from here (Commissioned by Berliner Festspiele, 2005)
Friday, April 22
SCREENING
MadCat Films “The Experimentalists”
7:00-9:00pm, Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
MadCat exhibits films and videos by women from around the globe that challenge the use of sound and image and explore notions of visual storytelling. In this series, directors manipulate the medium, creating visual delights in a series of gorgeous 16mm contemporary avant-garde films.
Friday, April 29
SCREENING
New School Experimental Films
7:00-9:00pm, Parsons Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue
Students push the creative and technological limits in an evening of experimental works.
Friday, May 6
SCREENING
The 26th Annual New School Invitational Film Show
7:00-9:00 pm, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Reception to follow
The 26th annual Invitational Film Show, presenting the year’s outstanding New School student films, concludes the 2005 Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival. Films have been selected in a juried competition by a panel of distinguished filmmakers and film industry professionals and represent the exceptional narratives, documentaries and experimental shorts produced in the New School Film Production program.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all public events are free on a first-come, first-served basis.