Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Faculty High Tech Happy Hour (HTHH)
Far from the sound of hammers ... join the CDLR, President Veitch and your faculty colleagues for convivial discussion of the McKinnon Family Center for Politics and Global Affairs, its associated teaching/learning spaces, and future programming possibilities.
Come meet:
Hagy Belzberg, the architect
Second Story, our creative partners on the Digital Crossroads project
the LPA classroom design team
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Margaret Livingstone - "What Art can Tell us About the Brain"
Artists have been doing experiments on vision longer than neurobiologists. Some major works of art have provided insights as to how we see; some of these insights are so fundamental that they can be understood in terms of the underlying neurobiology.
For example, artists have long realized the color and luminance can play independent roles in visual perception. Picasso said, "Colors are only symbols. Reality is to be found in luminance alone." This observation has a parallel in the funcional subdivision of our visual systems, where color and luminance are processed by the newer, primate-specific What system and the older, colorblind, Where (or How) system. Many techniques developed over the centuries by artists can be understood in terms of the parallel organization of our visual systems. I will explore how the segregation of color and luminance processing are the basis for why some Impressionist paintings seem to shimmer, why some op art paintings seem to move, some principles of Matisse's use of color, and how the Impressionists painted "air". Central and peripheral vision are distinct, and I will show how the differences in resolution across our visual field make the Mona Lisa's smile elusive, and produce a dynamic illusion in Pointillist paintings, Chuck CLose paintings, and photomosaics. I will explore how artists ahve intuited important features about how our brains extract relelvant information about faces and objects, and I will discuss why learning disabilities may be associated with artistic talent.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Then you might be interested in learning more about Cupcakes for Children, a new service organization that will be supporting the nonprofit Mama Hope<http://www.mamahope.org/our-projects/>'s fundraising projects.
If you think you can come, or even if you can't but are interested in learning more about the club, fill out this<https://docs.google.com/a/oxy.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkeydHNoOXUtR2Y0MlpndkhLbzdYWGpZQ0E6MQ>survey
at your convenience and join the Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/groups/482419461791843/> group!
If you can't make it to the meeting, but still want cupcakes, stop by the quad between 12-2 pm on Tuesday. We'll be selling cupcakes (including gluten-free and vegan options) for $1.50, or $5 for two if you want to charge to your student account.
Feel free to email avamartinez@oxy.edu with any other questions!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
"Brother Outsider" and "Ain't Scared of Your Jails"
You are invited to the weekly flim showings sponsored by the Movements for Social Justice class.
"Brother Outsider": During his 60-year career as an activist, organizer and 'troublemaker,' Bayard Rustin formulated many of the strategies that propelled the American civil rights movement. His passionate belief in Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence drew Martin Luther King Jr. and other ealders to him in the 1940's and 50's; his practice of those beliefs drew the attention of the FBI and police. In 1963, Rustin brought his unique skills to the crowning glory of his civil rights career: his work organizing the March on Washington, the biggest protest America had ever seen. But his open homosexuality forced him to remain in the background, marking him again and again as a 'brother outside.' "Brother Outsider: the Life of Bayard Rustin" combines rare archival footage - some of it never before broadcast in the U.S. - with provocative interviews to illuminate the life and work of a forgotten prophet of social change.
"Ain't Scared of Your Jails": is a documentary on the courage displayed by thousands of African-American people who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it a new direction. Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South. 'Freedom Riders' also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they travel.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 - Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Bengal Bus shuttle to polls
Bengal Bus is extending its shuttle hours to make it easy for everyone to get to the polls and vote.
The shuttle will be making trips to the polling places at the Greater LA Agency on Deafness at at 2222 Laverna Ave. and the residence garage at 1915 N Avenue 52. As always, meet at the fountain. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more info, call Bengal Bus at (323) 259-2990.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
"Art & Public Diplomacy" - Karen Graciela Calderon
Karen Graciela Calderon is a second year Master of Public Diplomacy student at the University of Southern California.
Karen will discuss her previous and upcoming research trip to Cuba.
Her main focus is on human rights and the role of art and transnational actors in Latin America. In 2008, she received a Bachelor's Degree in Diplomacy and World Affaris from Occidental College. For her senior thesis, she presented her documentary film on the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles, which addressed the origins and use of liberation theology and discussed the needs for immigration reform. Karen currently serves as the Marketing and Communications Intern for the USC Shoah Foundation, assisting with ed-tech marketing research for I-Witness, a virtual archive with holocaust testimonies. In May 2012, Karen traveled to Havana, Cuba, where she focused on art and public spaces for a class project. In December 2012, she will return to Cuba to conduct her practicum research on art and public diplomacy, exploring state propaganda art, non-state art, collective art and dissident art in Cuba.