ARC Blog Archive

This an archive from the ARC website blog that was active from 2010-2024. Most of the posts coincided with an event – the ARC staff is in the process of updating the information below, cross referencing to events, and including appropriate dates. We have about 500 to still add. Please check back!

News

February 29, 2024

Embodied Excavations: Tanya Lukin Linklater at BAMPFA

Alutiiq artist and scholar Tanya Lukin Linklater’s 2023 residency with the Arts Research Center was a gift. Tanya traveled to Berkeley with dance artists Ceinwen Gobert and Ivanie Aubin-Malo to explore her current choreographic work in progress, Ewako ôma askiy: This then is the earth. Open rehearsals were held at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive between November 1-4, 2023. It was an honor to bear witness to Tanya’s practice, which is intricate and intentional.

February 22, 2023

Review: Dillon Chitto in Conversation with Laurie Arnold

Spring 2023 Artist in Residence Dillon Chitto held a conversation on February 6th, 2023

The full recording of the event is viable for viewing on ARC’s YouTube channel.

January 22, 2023

ART/CITY: Zach Pine

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “ART/CITY” on March 16, 2012. Participants have been invited to respond to the prompt “in relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Zach Pine, organizer of Soul Sanctuary Dance in Berkeley.As an artist whose work primarily consists of engaging people in participatory collaborative events, how can I best use public places in my work?

ART/CITY: Mary Lou Breiman
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “ART/CITY” on March 16, 2012. Participants have been invited to respond to the prompt “in relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Mary Lou Breiman, retired educator and Berkeley resident.
This effort you are spearheading is one that is very important and, as we see in Berkeley to date, a real change agent.

January 18, 2023

Occupy as Form: Evan Buswell

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Evan Buswell, graduate student in Cultural Studies at UC Davis.

Keyword: Consensus

Occupy as Form: Lily Alexander

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Lily Alexander, PhD student in History of Art and Visual Culture at UC Santa Cruz. 

Occupy as Form: Joseph Thomas
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Joseph Thomas, graduate student at California College of the Arts.
Keyword: Movement
Occupy as Form: Shane Boyle
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Shane Boyle, graduate student in Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.
Keyword: Direct Action
Occupy as Form: Yasmeen Daifallah

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Yasmeen Daifallah, PhD candidate in Political Science at UC Berkeley.

Occupy as Form: Judith Butler
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012.The following is an excerpt from an essay written for Occupy Theory by Judith Butler, Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. The rest of the text will be shared with working session participants.
Keyword: Demands
Occupy as Form: Catherine Ming T’ien Duffly

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Catherine Ming T’ien Duffly, lecturer in Theater, Dance & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

Occupy as Form: Amanda Eicher
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Amanda Eicher, lecturer in Art Practice at UC Berkeley.
Keyword: Tactics
Occupy as Form: Dee Hibbert-Jones
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Dee Hibbert-Jones, Associate Professor of Art & Digital Arts New Media and Co-Director of The Hub: Social Practice Arts Research Center at UC Santa Cruz. 
Keyword: Class
Occupy as Form: Erin Johnson

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Erin Johnson, graduate student at UC Berkeley.

Occupy as Form: Cheryl Meeker
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Cheryl Meeker, artist, activist, art writer and co-founder of stretcher.org.
Keyword: Horizontal
Making Time at Human Resources: Shannon Jackson

Coinciding with the annual meeting of the College Art Association in Los Angeles, The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is hosting the offsite working session “Making Time at Human Resources” on February 22, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by ARC Director Shannon Jackson.

Making Time at Human Resources: Simon Leung

Coinciding with the annual meeting of the College Art Association in Los Angeles, The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is hosting the offsite working session “Making Time at Human Resources” on February 22, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by UCI professor and artist Simon Leung.

Occupy as Form: Dalia Anani
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Dalia Anani, graduate student in Social Practice and Studio Practice at California College of the Arts.
Keyword: Mic Check (The Human Microphone) 
Making Time at Human Resources: John Spiak

Coinciding with the annual meeting of the College Art Association in Los Angeles, The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is hosting the offsite working session “Making Time at Human Resources” on February 22, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Grand Central Arts Center Chief Curator, John Spiak.

Occupy as Form: Geoffrey Wildanger

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Geoffrey Wildanger, graduate student in Art History at UC Davis.

Occupy as Form: Megan Lavelle
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Megan Lavelle, graduate student in Social Practice at California College of the Arts.
Keyword: Consensus / Consentio
              Agreement / Feel better
Occupy as Form: Byron Peters
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Byron Peters, graduate student at California College of the Arts.
Keyword: Time

January 17, 2023

Occupy as Form: Kate Mattingly

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Kate Mattingly, graduate student in Theater, Dance & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

Occupy as Form: Betti-Sue Hertz

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Betti-Sue Hertz, Director of Visual Arts at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Keyword: Publics

Occupy as Form: Ilyse Magy

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Ilyse Magy, a first-year MFA student in CCA’s Social Practice program.

Keyword: Share

Occupy as Form: Amanda Verwey

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Amanda Verwey, Development Assistant at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Occupy as Form: Chiara T. Ricciardone

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Chiara T. Ricciardone, graduate student in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley.


Occupy as Form: Andrew Weiner

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Andrew Weiner, lecturer in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts.

Keyword: Autonomy

Occupy as Form: Scott Tsuchitani

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Scott Tsuchitani, artist and co-lecturer in “Socially Engaged Art and the Future of the Public University” at UC Berkeley.

More on the Art of Occupy
Gregory Levine, Associate Professor of History of Art at UC Berkeley, recently posted his own reflections on the art of Occupy Cal:
Occupy as Form: Gina Acebo

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Gina Acebo, a first-year MFA candidate focusing on Social Practice at California College of the Arts.

Occupy as Form: Tirza Latimer
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by artist Tirza Latimer, Associate Professor and Chair of Visual and Critical Studies at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Occupy as Form: Kevin Smith

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Kevin Smith, graduate student in Anthropology and Critical Theory at UC Davis.

Occupy as Form: Laurel Butler

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Laurel Butler, Education and Engagement Specialist and Youth Arts Manager for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Occupy as Form: Sara Kimberlin

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Sara Kimberlin, PhD student in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley.

Keyword: Solidarity

Occupy as Form: Ken Goldberg

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Ken Goldberg, craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media, IEOR and EECS, College of Engineering and School of Information, UC Berkeley.

Keyword: occupation

Occupy as Form: Thien Lam

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Thien Lam, Visual Arts Curatorial Assistant at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Occupy as Form: Zoe McCloskey
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Zoe McCloskey, artist and MFA candidate at California College of the Arts.
Keyword: Desire
Occupy as Form: Seth Holmes
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Seth Holmes, Assistant Professor of Health and Social Behavior at UC Berkeley.
 
Keyword: Health
Occupy as Form: Lauren Taylor
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Lauren Taylor, artist and graduate student at California College of the Arts.

 

Occupy as Form: Shannon Jackson
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This posting is by ARC Director, Shannon Jackson.
Assembly/Assemblage
1) A bringing or coming together;
2) A gathering of persons for the purposes of deliberation and decision;
Occupy as Form: Julia Bryan-Wilson

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This posting is by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Associate Professor of History of Art at UC Berkeley.

Occupy as Form: Erika Langer

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session “Occupy as Form” on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Erika Langer, a doctoral candidate in History of Health Sciences in UCSF’s Department of Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine.


Keyword: Speech

January 9, 2023

SITUATED: Art +
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “SITUATED: Time-Based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies” on October 10, 2011.  ARC Director Shannon Jackson discusses the event and the research projects it grows out of on the SOTA (State of the Art) blog:
Post-SITUATED
Like so many others who attended SITUATED on Monday, I returned to the mayhem of other responsibilities, but I found myself returning again and again to the ideas shared and questions explored.Here are some of my reflections, and I would love to hear what is preoccupying you.
The Art of Occupy
A guest post by ARC Associate Director Michele Rabkin.

January 8, 2023

Understanding Market Street, by Will Thacher
On September 12, 2011, the ARC will be hosting a retreat and working session to discuss sustaining the arts in the Central Market district in San Francisco. Participants have been invited to submit guest posts to this blog to promote discussion.
Will Thacher is President & CEO of Market & Turk Company.
Our Powerhouse Year on Market, by Ivan Vera
On September 12, 2011, the ARC will be hosting a retreat and working session to discuss sustaining the arts in the Central Market district in San Francisco. Participants have been invited to submit guest posts to this blog to promote discussion.
Ivan Vera is the Community Arts Program Manager at Central City Hospitality House.
SITUATED: Allison Smith
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “SITUATED: Time-Based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies” on October 10, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by artist Allison Smith, Chair of the Sculpture program at California College of Arts in San Francisco.

 

SITUATED: A Rite to Heal
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “SITUATED: Time-Based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies” on October 10, 2011, organized in part around the premier at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts of red, black & GREEN: a blues, a collaboration between Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Theaster Gates, and Michael John Garces. ARC Director Shannon Jackson was commissioned by YBCA to write an essay on the piece, in which she explores many of the issues that will be taken up at the SITUATED symposium:
Curating People: Erin Boberg Doughton
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Erin Boberg Doughton, Performing Arts Program Director at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA).
Curating People: Kristan Kennedy
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Kristan Kennedy, Visual Arts Curator at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.
Confessions of an Artist/Artist-Curator/Curator of Artists
Curating People: Michele Rabkin
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Michele Rabkin, Associate Director of the Arts Research Center.

 

Curating People: Leigh Markopoulos
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Leigh Markopoulos, Chair, Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, California College of the Arts.
Curating People: Constance Lewallen
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Constance Lewallen, Adjunct Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum.
Curating People: Susan Miller
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by independent curator Susan Miller, currently Associate Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media and formerly Executive Director of New Langton Arts.
Top Ten Things Every Curator Should Know about Supporting Experimental Work
Curating People: David Henry
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by David Henry, Director of Programs, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
A hybrid inside the gates: confessions of an artist/curator/educator/administrator/curator/artist
Curating People: Post-Show Paraphrase
My own notes are my personal interpretations of points raised by our speakers, but here is an attempt to share a few paraphrases of some of the things that made me do some extra scribbling.  Others should feel free to add phrases and paraphrases that they remember—or correct mine.
Angela Mattox: how can different organizations make use of each others’ resources to support an artist?…there is an art to the practical…
ARC: Launching the 2011/2012 Academic Year!
Hello Friends,
While campus was calmer during the summer months, we have been hard at work planning a number of research projects, retreats, and public symposia for the upcoming academic year.  Check out a preview of Fall events in the works so far.
Sustaining Central Market Arts
This coming Monday, September 12, we will be hosting a retreat and working session devoted to Sustaining the Arts in the Central Market district of San Francisco.  With seed funding from UCIRA, ARC is working to build artistic partnerships between the UC system and arts organizations of Northern California.  One of our tasks is to think long-term about the role of the arts in Bay Area neighborhoods—as a means for building community, as a force in local economies, and as vehicles for provoking critical and imaginative reflection.

January 7, 2023

ARTS ELSEWHERE and in BAY AREA: STAN LAI
As noted in another post, in September, I finally had the chance to meet Stan Lai—the great Taiwanese playwright, theatre director and Berkeley grad— as part of a Berkeley-Taipei celebration.
BAY AREA ARTS: PAI and Pocha Nostra
Last week offered the chance to experience two important time-based art initiatives in one evening.  The Performance Art Institute, initially conceived with Marina Abramovic and now led entirely by her co-founder Stephen Tourrell, has an absolutely incredible space (I should say spaces) on Sutter Street.
CHARETTE: Ken Goldberg
Continuing our practice of providing UCB faculty with an opportunity to share work-in-progress, ARC hosted a Charrette for Ken Goldberg who is preparing a new work to open at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum in the spring.
BAY AREA ARTS: The Brother/Sister Plays
This fall, three Bay Area theatres joined forces—and resources—to co-produce the incredible Brother/Sister trilogy of plays written by the incredibly gifted Tarell Alvin McCraney.
SALON: Ed Campion
We had the opportunity to hold another ARC Salon to celebrate the work of UCB faculty composer, Ed Campion, when Cal Performances featured the performance of his work by the stunning Paris-based group Ensemble Zellig.
Curating People: Lisa Wymore
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Lisa Wymore, Assistant Professor of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts.
Confessions of an experimental artist who has also become an academic and a dance/performance educator and mentor
ARC EVENTS: Conjoined Histories
Yesterday, we were privileged to host an extraordinary group of scholars and artists at a symposium that responded to the themes and histories addressed in Philip Kan Gotanda’s new play, I Dream of Chang and Eng.  This play received its nonprofessional premiere here at UC-Berkeley, a story that is itself a tale about the role that a university as a laboratory for new artistic work, as well as the role that the arts can play in disseminating the intellectual life of the campus to a wider public.

December 29, 2022

SALON: Joe Goode
At ARC, we have begun a series of “salons” in which we celebrate work of UCB’s artists and scholars on the Bay Area cultural scene.  Our first gathering coalesced this summer around the work of choreographer Joe Goode whose extraordinary piece, “Traveling Light,” animated the historic Mint Building of San Francisco.  Colleagues and Bay Area arts supporters gathered afterward to share some wine and speak with Joe about his process.  The decision to make a precariously balanced piece of choreography in the Mint obviously had incredible resonance during a precarious economic time.
ARTS ELSEWHERE: Berkeley-Taipei Forum
Our colleague YEH Wen-hsin helped to engineer an incredible memorandum of agreement between UC-Berkeley and Taiwan’s educational ministry.  To celebrate, the university organized the Berkeley-Taipei Forum in which two distinguished alums and Taiwanese citizens—Stan Lai and Kris Yao—were invited to speak about their work in theatre and architecture respectively. Along the way, they chronicled the impact of what they referred to as “the Berkeley Spirit” on their art practice.
ARTS Elsewhere: Performance Matters
London-based performance scholars and overall rainmakers Adrian Heathfield, Gavin Butt, and Lois Keidan of the Live Art Agency received a generous grant from the U.K.’s arts and humanities research council to fund a wide-ranging three-year research project.    It was inspiring to be a part of their first symposium on why PerformanceMatters, though it was also poignant to be with a wide network of U.K.
ARC Director Shannon Jackson

n/a

Curating People: Erika Balsom
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Erika Balsom, a Townsend post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Film & Media Studies at UC Berkeley.
Curating People: Shannon Jackson
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This first posting is from ARC Director and symposium organizer Shannon Jackson.

 

Curating People: Betti-Sue Hertz

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “Curating People” on April 28 and 29, 2011. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Betti-Sue Hertz, Director of Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.

May 20, 2021

Poetry & the Senses Spring 2021 Fellows Reading

You listened well – Ramona Naddaff
to witness the miracle of your heart on the outside. – Ken Ueno
I have never known myself any other way – reelaviolette botts-ward
What does it feel like to stretch without longing? – Vethea Cerna Cole
Fire makes a bad lover, the rumor goes – Sara Mumolo
and yet, you are still here – Elizabeth Zhiying Feng
I experience grief in space – Maw Shein Win
I put you down in the poem. – Noah Warren*

April 12, 2021

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Natalie Diaz, and Aja Monet

Poetry Reading featuring Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Natalie Diaz, and Aja Monet

How does my body make room for
another who perceives my senses?
—Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

A video call screenshot showing six people waving and smiling, with backgrounds including bookshelves, shoji screens, and modern wall art.

February 5, 2020

Celebrating Poetry and the Senses

Poetry & the Senses has launched!

May 22, 2019

ARC Fellows: Sound Reproduction as Biological Reproduction

When we talk of the reproduction of sound, or of music, we usually mean either a musical score–perhaps in the Western script of five-line staffs, clefs and bars–or a sound recording, whether analogue (on an external support like a disc, cylinder, tape) or digital recording. We don’t usually consider sound “reproduction” in relation to biological reproduction–the sort involving, for example, sex, embryos, mothers, fathers, to say nothing of the asexual reproduction of cells, bacteria, and viruses.

ARC Fellows: And What’s More, a Performative Audiobook

AW:Claudia La Rocco’s And What’s More is the third installment of her science-fiction Olivia Trilogy, a literary, performance, art, and sound project that plays with traditional audience/maker/doer relationships. I was one of four artists commissioned by La Rocco to “read” And What’s More in and through their respective art forms.

March 26, 2018

Tech Landscapes as Art and Research: by Marcus Owens and Louise Mozingo

Until recently, Silicon Valley was known as a diffuse agglomeration of unprepossessing office parks stretched out along the freeways extending some 100 miles down the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. This amorphous place began to take a decisive form following WWII, when land rich but cash poor Stanford University sought new means of generating much needed income—they could not sell any of the 6000 acres they owned.

October 12, 2013

Creative Time: Cheryl Meeker
Keyword: Equity | Choosing a term buried within one of the summit themes, inequity, I choose to isolate part of that word for the keyword “equity.” In light of the current massive world debt bomb, preceded and/or partially precipitated by the financial meltdown, derivatives explosion and off budget U.S. war spending, the term equity creates an association first with financial equities (stock equities,) home equity (depleted,) and secondarily to the concept of equity in human terms: fairness.
Creative Time: Ranu Mukherjee

Keyword: Expectations | I have been thinking a lot about expectations lately- as a mutable, sliding scale barometer for how things are going. They seem to be an ever present but difficult to acknowledge measuring device used by all on a daily basis. Are they being met, exceeded, upended or not met at all. What can we expect as a public?

Creative Time: Aimee Chang
Keyword: Creativity | I recently read an interesting paper that included a short description of an experiment.  People who were asked to recall three recent creative experiences before participating showed a reduced tendency to view others stereotypically versus those that were not asked to recall recent creative experiences.  I found this very interesting especially compared with other possibilities presented in the experiment including ones designed to shift attitudes, i.e. when I think about smoking I will chew gum.
Creative Time: Hentyle Yapp
Keyword: Occupation | Occupation connotes not only space, but also work.  The Occupy “Movement” reminds us of the former, where groups enter a public space and live, exist, eat, celebrate, agitate, and protest.  Occupation also reminds us of work, vocation, and an identity – what’s your occupation? what do you do?  I’m curious how these two connotations intertwine.  Of course, class disparities between different vocations or the have/have nots of an occupation lead to the current iterations of the Occupation of space.
Creative Time: Ana Labastida
Keyword: Tactics | I propose that we consider the work of Donna Haraway on interspecies relations as a viable theoretical framework from which to elaborate strategies. Haraway defines “the world as a knot in motion” in which the interactions between species at all levels shape the world. I find that this perspective can provide a great tactical advantage: we can see ourselves within a pattern of relation. This calibrates our perception of our role in this planet.
Creative Time: Annice Jacoby
Keyword: Making | Sweet etymology reveals that the root of Poet is a Maker. In the historical sweep of what we say and do, this linguistic link from the practical to the lyrical, embraces our survival, management, creativity, resourcefulness, connections, communications and all that jazz broadly labeled “culture”.  Art, as everyday ecstasy, ingenuity, occupation and pre-occupation, is a basic activity that, like language, belongs to all, but alas exercised in a inexhaustible variety of ways, delicious to disruptive, dismal to dynamic.
Creative Time: Dee Hibbert-Jones

On Inequities, Occupations, Making, or Tactic | As the anniversary of the start of the Occupy movement rolls around and becomes historicized in exhibitions (at least at YBCA, San Francisco) a feeling of overwhelm overcomes me, which is almost, but not quite hopelessness. There is something overwhelming about the idea of shifting past the initial enthusiasm of utopian possibilities, the desires to increase freedoms. And I start to wonder as a good idea gets older how do we push on through inertia, the uphill struggle to sustain, establish and forge possibilities?

Creative Time: Ryoko Imoto
Keyword: Inequities | “Can inequities be a path to equity in the society?” is a question on my mind when I think of the movement among some of the most affluent people in the world, allocating large portions of their personal funds toward philanthropic works and businesses. 
Creative Time: Anuradha Vikram
Keyword: Occupations | What is an Occupation? The word’s connotations are phenomenological, political and cultural in their scope. The Occupy movement has come to symbolize widespread dissatisfaction with the corporatization of democracy throughout the Western World. This dissatisfaction is no doubt shared by many in the Global South, particularly in the large democracies of Brazil and India.

September 19, 2012

Location/Translation: Mihnea Mircan
In 2004, a small wing of the House of the People in Bucharest was rudimentarily converted into a National Museum of Contemporary Art, and I began work as a curator under circumstances that were an apotheosis of the local. Built during the ‘80s, the edifice was to converge the archaic strata of the collective psyche and the political destiny of the Romanian nation, in other words to bring a propagandistically deformed past into an unlikely future of anonymous collectivism and amputated souls. The House of the People was (is?
Location/Translation: Sanjit Sethi
A few years ago the Center for Art and Public Life facilitated a collaboration between a ceramics course and the design group Rebar to create nesting modules for a species of concern on an island off the coast of Santa Cruz, California. The project was very specific in nature. The birds: Rhinoceros Auklet. The concern: nests being crushed by large elephant seals and sea lions. The material of choice: the pliant and durable medium of ceramics. The location: Ana Neuvo Island.
Location/Translation: Apsara DiQuinzio
When I first moved to San Francisco, over six years ago, for a job at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the recurring refrain I often heard from people living here and working in the field of contemporary art was that the region’s art scene tended to be rather “provincial.” I found this pejorative qualifier highly problematic, and in many ways it remains a perception artists living in the Bay Area struggle to overcome.  For example, an artist I know recently appeared in a major national exhibition, and on his wall label in the exhibition he had been described as a “San Francisco-bas

June 21, 2012

The Seven Recurring Puzzles of Equity in Place-making
The Arts Research Center recently participated in a convening at YBCA organized by Emerging Arts Professionals / SF Bay Area which, among other goals, allowed participants to connect, share knowledge, and examine opportunities and pitfalls when working with hybrid arts and neighborhood revitalization projects.

April 19, 2012

Making Time: Sabine Breitwieser

Time based art is when the artist has the control of a certain choreography of a sequence of images and/or live events and determines how the audience is encountering it. It usually also involves a number of media and is rather organized cross-media or inter-media.

Making Time: Mark Franko

The debate over Michael Fried’s “Art and Objecthood” some time ago raised an awareness that sculpture could be a time-based art, and that the time of art belonged principally to the beholder in a situation of viewing that Fried characterized negatively as “theatrical” but that was also reclaimed positively by others. Since then I think the term “theatricality” has given way to the term interdisciplinarity.

Making Time: Malik Gaines
Visual art and performance are in a classic bad relationship.  Art stays for the sex, the good times, the feeling of being alive.  But art will belittle performance in public, will call it late at night but won’t let it stay over, doesn’t really believe what performance does is valuable.  Art’s esteemed family only barely tolerates the relationship.  Performance stays with its more powerful partner for the money, for the stature, the trips to Europe, for feeling like it belongs to something, for fear of having to go back to that old senile boyfriend, the Theater.  How else can it support
Making Time: Liz Kotz
I’m not sure how useful the concept of “time-based art” is. It lumps together things that have nothing in common, and artificially separates things that do.
Making Time: Laura Richard
As a description, “time-based art” has always struck me as a bit off. But not so much because its baggy scope enables a sometimes arbitrary and lazy lacing together of dizzyingly disparate works across media. In fact, this ruled but unruly interdisciplinarity seems mostly a virtue, the whole point: to think through dance, film, visual art, music, theater and performance adjacently and synchronically.
Making Time: Afterwords and Images
“Such an engaging conference”… “A really rich event”…“Thank you for inviting me to be part of your extraordinary ‘Making Time’ symposium. It was a real pleasure to hear from all those brilliant thinkers….”
Making Time: Lawrence Rinder

To me, time-based art could be anything that is art and takes time. Time-based art could include video, film, performance, net art, etc. These are a diverse array of practices and I’m not sure that they have anything particularly meaningful in common. Time itself is not a clear differentiator since even static works take time to view. So time as part of any art experience is inescapable.

Making Time Now Viewable Online
In April 2012, the Arts Research Center presented Making Time: Art Across Gallery, Screen, and Stage, a three-day symposium that featured keynotes by curators Sabine Breitwieser (MOMA) and Jens Hoffmann (CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art) and choreographer Ralph Lemon, and conversations with the artists Daniel Joseph Martinez and Allan de Souza.
Making Time: Joe Goode
Dance has been traditionally perceived as a time based form. The conventional wisdom is that a dance should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Merce Cunningham disrupted this to some great degree by corrupting the linearity of sequence in his dances. Chance processes allowed shards of the dance to appear and disappear at different times. He also went a great distance to getting dance out of the proscenium box and into spaces that were more level with the viewer (museums, warehouses, studios).
Making Time: Shannon Jackson
I come to the questions of Making Time from the field of performance–and before that, the field of theatre.  This is to say that, for a long time, the term “time-based art” did not mean that much to me.  It sounded confusing, or maybe even redundant.
Making Time: Ferran Barenblit
I have been using the concept expanded event for some years as a way to refer to time-based art. With this concept I have referred to those works, mostly shown in exhibitions, which experiment with some kind of change during the time they stay on view to the public.
 
Making Time: Darsie Alexander

The phrase “time-based art” suggests a bygone era when ephemerality, duration, and process were the attributes of a radical new art that found its outlet through performance and its documentation through the camera. “Time-based” conjures the live experience attempting to find a permanent form in something tangible (and also, preferably, “time-based”) like a photograph or raw video footage.

Making Time: Jens Hoffmann

I would like to offer another mode of thinking about performance and the exhibition that is less involved with the various structures of the art world and more in consideration of the experience of the exhibition and the artwork itself. This is to say my thinking around the subject of the conference is informed by a set of parameters located quite specifically within the exhibition itself and my practice has very much developed in consideration of what kind of experiences can be made possible within that space.

Making Time: Jonah Bokaer

The Greek language refers to choreography as “dance writing” from the words χορεία (circular dance) and γραφή (writing). I have come to understand that choreographers practice the art of designing movements, in some specified form, through time. 

Making Time: Rebecca Schneider
For me, it’s hard to imagine a work that does not include time as material. Perhaps timeless masterworks once existed? Of course, to say that they used to exist would imply that they existed, once, in time. It was the claim of “ruin value” that a work would endure to such an extent that it could be, or at least seem, timeless. But this claim is clearly, itself, time-based.

April 16, 2012

ARC Welcomes Sabine Breitwieser to Berkeley
The Arts Research Center is pleased to welcome Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at the Museum of Modern Art, for a week-long residency at UC Berkeley as a 2012 Regents Lecturer.

March 16, 2012

Art/City: Sue Bell Yank
In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is whether it’s possible for arts organizations and artists to willfully create the conditions for long-term civic redevelopment and permanent social change on a large scale.
Art/City: Kathleen Reinhardt
In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is… how engagement-based practices through an anchoring of the artist in the community and space-making through art can occur and why. I am focusing on several projects by black artists (Wangechi Mutu, Edgar Archeneaux, Rick Lowe, Theaster Gates) committed to creating sustainable cultural moments, and how these cultural moments can be of importance not only for the community they are created in, but also for an art audience.
Art/City: Noah Simblist

What is the role of the university in a city? Are we, as an institution, cultural producers providing the city with content such as exhibitions, lectures, or public projects? Are we organizers, facilitators or interpreters of civic life? Or is our primary role to train students to be cultural practitioners that can either act as cultural workers in our city or elsewhere? This last question can often become a significant choice between encouraging students to stay and act locally within Dallas or to travel to major global cultural centers such as New York, Los Angeles, London or Berlin.

Art/City: Suzanne Tan
 “In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…”  how can smaller organizations like Berkeley Art Center continue to play an important role in the civic dialouge in connection with and collaboration with larger arts organizations and other multi-disciplinary organizations, in a way that encourages collaborative and community input and a sense of belonging in one’s own community–our city being one that is highly unique, educated, and creative.
Art/City: Susan Medak
“In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” what is the future of ‘place based’ arts when the concept of community is being to radically redefined. So much artistic creation has, historically, been informed by a specific location, a relationship with a specific geographic community, and a very real sense of presence and live engagement.
Art/City: Kim Anno
In relationship to arts and civic life, what I am struggling with is how to create a more mutually cooperative relationship between all stakeholders of the city, university, citizens, youth, government, schools, etc. regarding arts and culture. We have a rich area, that is unmatched in intellectual and creative individuals and organizations. Arts and culture can provide a more nuanced and long lasting education and economic benefit to all citizens in our area.
Art/City: Larry Rinder
BAM/PFA has just completed a new five-year strategic plan. The plan’s goals are meant to define who we will be a year after moving to our new downtown Berkeley location—on Oxford Street between Center and Addison Streets–in 2015. The very first goal reads as follows: 
“BAM/PFA is a uniquely dynamic, diverse, and engaging cultural ‘town square.’”
Art/City: Annee Knight
“In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” is connections between city committees and city officials.  There is a disconnect between information channels, also raising awareness of the Public Art Committee’s role in the community at both city and citizen levels is necessary.  Also, I am interested in how the energy for interesting/innovative projects can be maintained once a program becomes mainstreamed…
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “ART/CITY” on March 16, 2012.
Art/City: Shannon Jackson
Reading the blogposts of ART/CITY’s incredible interlocutors, I am struck both by the investment in broadly resonant macro-issues about the conjoined future of the arts and cities and by participants’ willingness to share highly local stories of the puzzles that they are encountering at their own institutions.
Art/City: Laura Inks
We are working with a group of citizens and the Mayor’s office, to examine an area in town called the Funk Zone. It has been designated an arts, marine and tourist district and is one block from the beach and our main tourist area, the wharf and State Street. Developers are buying up huge plots of land and are raising the cost of living in an area traditionally known for being a cheap rent arts neighborhood. While the developers would also like to keep the funk in the zone, it must pencil out for them and their investors.
Art/City: Lisa Bullwinkel
How to create more vibrant downtown districts in light of retail jumping to the Internet and leaving vacant storefronts?  Bring in the arts!  Fill those empty spaces with visual and performing artists who are clamoring for space.  The landlords need to become involved in creating a simple process to allow this to occur.
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “ART/CITY” on March 16, 2012.
Art/City: Michael Caplan
In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is how best to generate the next generation of funding for emerging arts projects around the City – and how best to leverage that funding for maximum impact.
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “ART/CITY” on March 16, 2012. Participants have been invited to respond to the prompt “in relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” in advance of the event.
Art/City: Jonathan Green
 “In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” …how to continue to move artistic inquiry into a central position as an essential component of civic investigation and discourse in Riverside California, a city where 17% of the population have less than a high school education, only 22% have a Bachelor’s degree, where the medium income is $31,000, and where 59% of the freshman class at University of California, Riverside, are the first in their family to attend college.
Art/City: Plinio Hernandez
In October of 2011, I was asked to come on board as the public relations manager for a urban renewal pilot project called popuphood. This project gave six months free rent to five local groups of people to start businesses in previously empty storefronts located in the historical Old Oakland neighborhood, a few blocks south of downtown Oakland. Through a cross sector partnership (civic, private and community based) as well as a rebranding and marketing plan for the neighborhood and groups of stores, popuphood has become one of Oakland’s homegrown jewels.
Art/City: Mary Ann Merker
“In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is…” leveraging funding due to the budget problems currently in place with local governments. The silver lining in this money challenge is the new partnerships we have been able to forge with community agencies that are not the “usual suspects.”
Art/City: John Spiak
Can an institution expand upon its current, more traditional, institutional structure – a structure in which community members must physically enter its doors to engage – to create a new vision that breaks down the barriers, creating an institution that considers its entire community as its activation space.
Art/City: Harris Steinberg
In relation to the arts and civic life, the question I am wrestling with right now is how to balance support for the organic growth of a grassroots art culture and arts organizations with traditional institutional art venues, offerings, management and support.We are currently conducting a study for the William Penn Foundation that investigates the impact that a contemporary performing arts festival has had on neighborhood revitalization in Philadelphia.  The Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival have been successful over the past 15 years in helping to create an identity for Philadel

February 22, 2012

Making Time at Human Resources: Alexandro Segade

Central to the PoLAAT is a performance lab in which participants are trained in the tactics and techniques of the Post-Living Ante-Action Theater. Classes are comprised of exercises designed to educate the participants in the five principles: 1) Estrangement, 2) Indistinction, 3) Suspension of Beliefs, 4) Mandate to Participate and 5) Inspirational Critique. Songs based on these principles are taught to the group.

Making Time at Human Resources: Carol Stakenas
LACE has been a crucial participant in Los Angeles artistic production for over three decades. One can argue that LACE’s existence emerged directly from the creative intensity generated in Los Angeles in the 1970’s. More specifically, performance art was a driving force behind the emergence of Los Angeles’s alternative spaces, including LACE. At the same time, performance-based activities provided a central platform for three new forms of contemporary practice to emerge:  performance art, video art and public practices.
Making Time at Human Resources: Aandrea Stang
Since 2008 I have been working with a team of colleagues at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) to design and organize the museum’s performative/social practice program, Engagement Party. Engagement Party’s statement is below:
Making Time at Human Resources: Michelle Dizon
I’ve been thinking and teaching a lot lately on the question of what is critique.  Basing my understanding of critique on Foucault has been helpful in resituating the discursive frame of critique, exploding what it is that we do as teacher who lead group critiques, as well as opening the question of criticality for students in a way that understands critique as a practice rather than an object.
Making Time at Human Resources: Malik Gaines
Visual art and performance are in a classic bad relationship.  Art stays for the sex, the good times, the feeling of being alive.  But art will belittle performance in public, will call it late at night but won’t let it stay over, doesn’t really believe what performance does is valuable.  Art’s esteemed family only barely tolerates the relationship.  Performance stays with its more powerful partner for the money, for the stature, the trips to Europe, for feeling like it belongs to something, for fear of having to go back to that old senile boyfriend, the Theater.  How else can it support
Making Time at Human Resources: Ryan Kelly

My collaborative practice with Brennan Gerard has centered around   the production of live performances informed by dance and engaged in a dialogue with the histories and legacies of Minimalism.  In recent work we have interrogated the couple as the hegemonic formation of intimacy.  We approached this problem through a programmatic score-based performance that  produced, over the course of it, new representations of intimacy determined by the logic of the system and not by our individual desires or authorial urges.

February 10, 2012

Occupy as Form: Photo Recap

On February 10, 2012, the Arts Research Center hosted Occupy as Form: A Working Session, an event which explored questions of “formal” concepts related to Occupation, reflecting on the movement’s significance, techniques, and future. We would like to thank all participants for their thoughtful contributions to a stimulating discussion.

The ARC Blog captures arts announcements, research and events supported by ARC on the UC Berkeley campus.