Arts Division Newsletter

When senior Film student, Jazmine Noguera (Porter ’25, film and digital media), first applied to UC Santa Cruz she was waitlisted, and planning on attending another university. But once she was officially accepted she made it her job to participate on campus and build her community. “After doing some research, I found out they had this Filipino organization called Bayanihan, and then I knew,” says Noguera.

Jeppe Ugelvig, a third-year Ph.D. student in HAVC, has published his second monograph, Commodity Ecumene: On the Art of Nina Beier. The short book offers an engaging exploration of the work of Danish artist Nina Beier, who calls attention to the esoteric nature of everyday consumer products, who’s symbolic and material lives go largely unexamined. Drawing on the theories of Roland Barthes and Arjun Appadurai, Ugelvig examines Beier’s use of discarded commodities—from marble countertops to equestrian figurines—and the materialist narratives embedded in them, which prompts a reflection on the global exchange systems that shape and make up our frenzied world of commodities.

Professor Michael Chemers has recently edited The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre: Further Readings on the Aesthetics of Disqualification along with Analola Santana. Bringing together international perspectives on the figure of the “monster” in performance, this edited collection builds on discussions in the fields of posthumanism, bioethics, and performance studies. The collection aims to redefine “monstrosity” to describe the cultural processes by which certain identities or bodies are configured to be threateningly deviant, whether by race, gender, sexuality, nationality, immigration status, or physical or psychological extraordinari-ness. Professor Chemers was also recently profiled in The Jewish News and talked about another very successful Monsters Festival which took place at UCSC last month. He also adapted the play The Inspector General that runs through November 24th in the Mainstage Theater.

After graduating from UC Santa Cruz a year ago, Alexia Lomeli (Merrill ‘23, psychology) is back on campus as part of our beloved staff. As an undergraduate advisor for the department of Film and Digital Media (FDM) she works part time and helps guide students through their college experience. With a BA in psychology working with undergrads connects to her desire to help people.

Five years after graduating with a Master’s in Digital Arts & New Media (DANM) Jordan Magnuson (M.A. ’19, DANM) won a Fulbright scholarship to continue his work on video game poems. Now living in Bergen, Norway with his family, Magnuson is flexing his creative skills and teaching.

This systemwide council will support the Asian American and Pacific Islander presence at UC and efforts to improve AAPI faculty and staff advancement and retention. The council will also promote awareness of AAPI diversity and provide opportunities for networking, mentoring, and professional learning. Dean Celine Parreñas Shimizu and the other council members, comprising of senior administrators from across the UC system, will serve as liaisons to their respective campus leaders, informing them of and engaging them in UC AAPI Leadership Council activities, providing data and analysis about trends in AAPI participation at the University of California, and inviting their perspectives on actions that will maximize the advancement of AAPIs at UC.

Cherokee Nation citizen and filmmaker Joseph Erb, Associate Professor Film and Digital Media at UCSC, is giving insight into his next film project that blends artificial intelligence with an Indigenous perspective. The film has a working title of Redbird and the Robot and includes an elder played by renowned Cherokee actor Wes Studi who is assigned an Indian Health Service AI robot. Shot entirely in the Cherokee language, the film explores the relationship between the elder and the robot. Humor and traditional knowledge are used to educate the robot about Indigenous values leading to a transformation in the robot’s operating system.

Russell C. Rodriguez delivered the Phillips Barry Lecture at the 2024 American Folklore Society annual meeting, a significant honor within the field of folklore and music studies. The Phillips Barry Lecture is a prestigious event, named for Phillips Barry, a key figure in the study of American folklore, especially for his work with traditional songs and ballads. Barry’s influence in these areas has shaped much of the way folklorists approach the study of vernacular music and its role in cultural transmission. Rodriguez’s invitation underscores his own contributions to these fields, marking him as a prominent scholar whose work is valued both in academic circles and within broader cultural conversations about folklore, music, and heritage.

The Interrogative Design Symposium is being organized as a celebration of the artistic and intellectual legacy of Krzysztof Wodiczko, with the launch of the book Interrogative Design, published by the MIT Press, edited by Ian Wojtowicz with contributions by Warren Sack and many others. The book and the symposium, happening December 5 and 6, examine the role of art and design in activating the public sphere and enriching public discourse through the production of critical questions.

The online publication 48 Hills has profiled an exhibition at / (Slash) Art in San Francisco that includes work by UCSC Film and Digital Media lecturer (and MFA/Ph.D. alumnus) Dr. Abram Stern. Stern's project Operational Character Rendition works upon a collection of hearing-related documents published by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The article notes that, “Stern’s application reveals the slow, labored process of machine ‘reading,’ the artist also prompts viewers to consider the opacity of governmental agencies and processes.” The durational installation transforms documents into kinetic poetry and metadata. The exhibition, Fictions of Presence, is curated by Assistant Professor of Art and Creative Technologies, Dorothy R. Santos, and is open through December 14.

Several students from the Music Department placed in the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Classical auditions for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (SFBAC NATS) on November 2. In the upper college treble division, Kristiana Budke took first place, Maddison Ramirez placed second, and Err Shirley received the Honorable Mention. In lower college treble, Chloe Blue won second place, and in upper college TBB, Andrew Palacios also won second place. All are students in the voice studios of lecturers Sheila Willey and Emily Sinclair.

Professor Michael Chemers, Department of Peformance, Play & Design, who also directs the Arts Division’s Center for Monster Studies, interviews Oscar-winning director, animator, writer and Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, Pete Docter. Docter wrote and directed many popular Pixar movies including Inside Out, Up, Soul, and, discussed in detail here in the interview, Monsters, Inc.

Film and Digital Media (FDM) Ph.D. student Hannah Jayanti and her co-director Alexander Porter have received production funding for their documentary film Badlands from the 2024 Sundance Institute Sandbox Fund. They are one of 15 projects receiving support from this highly competitive fund. The fund provides grants to projects in any stage from development to post-production, providing filmmakers with opportunities to explore the link between science and culture through nonfiction storytelling.

Film and Digital Media Graduate Programs Coordinator, Michael Lindsey has a chapter that appears in a new volume titled Frontier Ethnographies: Deconstructing Research Experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is available through Berghahn publishers. In it, he discusses his fieldwork approaches and methodologies for studying music with hereditary musicians in Kabul's old city. He details his navigation of social and cultural norms that helped him establish intimate relationships with his musical contacts to facilitate access to privileged information and networks. His chapter also provides a unique perspective into the musical scene in Kabul during a time when music was not outlawed by the Taliban.

Michael Fischer-Haagens, who is graduating at the end of fall quarter 2024 with B.A. in Music, Contemporary Practices Concentration, and Honors, was awarded the Hortense Zuckerman Prize for outstanding performance and scholarship. His Spring 2024 Capstone project included his concert premiere performance and discussion of his original three-movement solo piano composition Out of the Blue, under faculty advisor Assistant Professor of Music James Gordon Williams.