Visual & Performing Arts

Arts & Culture

The Latest

Song of the Trees

It’s early morning and you’re strolling through a grove of eucalyptus trees when you hear the sounds, like bells softly trilling. Or is the wind whispering through the tall branches above? It is not your imagination; you have discovered the “The Wind Garden,” the 19th public art work of the renowned Stuart Collection at the University of California San Diego. In this installation by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams, the leafed choir sings in response to the subtle shifts in light, wind and seasons.

Engineers talk VR, AI and nanotechnology at San Diego Comic-Con

It’s not every day that engineers get to speak side by side with the people behind hit movies and TV series. But that is exactly what two engineering faculty members are doing this week at Comic-Con in San Diego.

UC San Diego Celebrates ‘Science Nonfiction’ at Comic-Con

For the first time, the horde of 100,000+ attendees at San Diego Comic-Con can count a local university among its ranks. UC San Diego’s presence will be seen on MTS trolleys, outdoor boards — even street teams wearing sandwich-boards and aluminum-foil-hats.

UC San Diego Researchers Collaborate to Fool the Eye and the Mind through Touch

UC San Diego researchers are using a Chancellor’s Interdisciplinary Collaboratories Fellowship to explore Augmented Reality. Department of Visual Arts Professor Sheldon Brown and M.F.A. candidate Jon Paden are partnering with scholars in the departments of Neuroscience, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and NanoEngineering on a project entitled, “Tromper soi-même: Fooling the senses with new techniques of combined visual and afferent Augmented Reality rendering of sight and touch.”

UC San Diego’s KNIT, Digital Arts & Humanities ‘Connect the Dots’

Through an initiative called “KNIT,” the University of California San Diego’s Division of Arts and Humanities is crafting collaboration and community on campus — digitally. By offering online tools collectively referred to as a “digital commons,” KNIT will enable university faculty, students and staff to customize websites for courses; research projects or personal academic portfolios; create or join public and private discussion groups devoted to shared interests; and network with communities both on and off campus. In addition to the KNIT online resource, the division has launched a Digital Arts & Humanities website, featuring initiatives of the Institute of Arts & Humanities (IAH) and related projects and resources on campus.

UC San Diego Helps to ‘Create, Refine, Amplify’ at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity

The University of California San Diego’s footprint is growing. This summer it extends to Canada’s Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity where Steven Schick looms large. The distinguished professor of music, Reed Family Presidential Chair holder, and music director and conductor of La Jolla Symphony and Chorus is serving as co-artistic director of Banff Centre’s 2017 Summer Classical Music Series. In the role, Schick, along with flautist Claire Chase, is creating programming under the theme of “Create, Refine, Amplify” that features a strong focus on chamber music plus new approaches to help develop classical musicians’ skills and careers. The program attracts hundreds of individual participants, established groups and renowned composers from around the world.