ASU News - Arts / Culture

Clarinetist earns note for novel research approach

msjps — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:40:25 -0600

Imagine that you’re a clarinet player, faced with a long string of flagged black notes in your music. There is no curved mark under or over them, so this means that they must be “tongued” – the tongue must touch the reed for each note – to demarcate them one from another.

For clarinetists, the more notes to tongue, particularly at a fast tempo, the more difficult it is to make the music sound as the composer intended.

And with more and more such passages being written in modern music, it is a growing problem for clarinetists, says clarinet doctoral student Joshua Gardner, illustrating his point with a copy of recently composed music for solo clarinet.

Gardner is studying an advanced but controversial technique for faster tonguing, called “multiple articulation,” in which clarinetists place the tongue in different positions in the mouth as they articulate each note, as his doctoral research project.

When people say the syllable “doo,” they can feel that their tongues are in a position to touch the reed, and thus interrupt the sound, or “tongue” the note, Gardner says. But say the syllable “goo,” and the tongue replicates the motion of the tongue touching the hard palate.

“When we put these two articulations together (one on the reed, one off the reed), we are multiple articulating,” he says.

But is this most effective way to teach clarinet students to articulate faster? And what is the tongue really doing when the “doo” and “goo” sounds are being made?

Gardner realized that, to do his research, he would have to find a way to observe the tongue in action while a clarinetist is playing – and tonguing.

The possibilities included X-ray, which Gardner says is “not the most healthy manner of research”; a laryngoscope (a fiber-optic scope that goes into the nose or the side of the mouth); and ultrasound.

His search led him to the Dental School at the University of Maryland, and its device called the Head and Transducer Support System, or HATS.

“This is a device made to immobilize the head,” he says. “You sit in a chair and a clamp goes around your head. A robotic arm holds a transducer under the chin and sends images from under the mouth. They use it for speech research.”

Gardner visited the Dental School’s Vocal Tract Visualization Lab, with his clarinet in hand and one big question to ask of director Maureen Stone: “Is this going to work with a clarinet?”

It did work, and Gardner now has ultrasound images that show the contour of the tongue, back to front.

“We’re going to image the syllables and compare them,” he says. “We hope to learn how the tongue motion that we use to teach compares to the tongue motion used in performing.”

Gardner hopes to learn “if we are teaching students correctly, and if we could potentially make it more accurate,” he says. “Or find different syllables, or find something else.”

Stone says that although the lab looks at some unusual things, such as Zaghareet (the sound Middle Eastern women make with their tongues at happy and sad occasions) and clicks from African click languages, Gardner was the first to ask about clarinet music.

“When Josh approached me to study tongue motions during clarinet playing, I thought it was a great idea, though I didn’t realize that there was a whole lot of tongue motion during clarinet playing,” Stone says. “I should have known, because I’ve seen harmonica-players’, flute-players’, and singers’ tongues. I was also impressed with his resourcefulness. He found us online, came to check out whether the equipment would be suitable to his study, and got his research funded.”

So far, Gardner has only made an ultrasound of himself playing the clarinet, but he hopes to find other clarinetists to participate.

“There are not many people who do multiple articulation,” he says. “I will try to use professionals who are proficient with it.”

Gardner acknowldeges that, to some musicians, the technique is controversial.

“Some people say it ruins your articulation, but having this tool makes it easier to play and make a musical statement,” he says. “You don’t want to be hindered by technique – then it loses something.”

Gardner hopes to see multiple articulation become a standard tool in the clarinetist’s repertoire.

“The sole purpose for my research is to help make this technique more accessible – to help find it a spot in standard clarinet performance practice,” he says.

ASU art exhibits explore cultural identity

lccampb — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:16:41 -0600

ASU’s Museum of Anthropology is featuring two new concurrent exhibits – “Mosaic: Cultural Identity in America” and “Fuse: Portraits of Refugee Households in Metropolitan Phoenix.”

Through the artwork of local artist Eliza Gregory and selected student artists, these exhibits explore questions of identity and cultural experience in the largest urban center in the Southwest. Although the exhibits focus on two distinct topics, their approaches and themes complement each other, with both exploring contemporary regional, social and political relationships.

In “Mosaic: Cultural Identity in America,” jury-selected student artists explore questions of national identity. Sarah Elsasser, the guest curator and a student in Barrett, the Honors College, has asked students to express, through a variety of artistic media, how they understand and identify with being American. “Mosaic” contextualizes American identity as a diverse and changing ascription, based on ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation. This exhibit presents positive and negative takes on American culture and invites visitors to engage emotionally with the artwork.

“Fuse” is a portrait exhibit of the complex worlds of resettled refugees in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It fosters critical thinking on who refugees are and how, through sharing experiences, the Valley community can seek common ground. The photographs validate the struggles and triumphs of these families, portraying them in a way that fosters a deeper sense of belonging in the community.

The exhibition was developed in collaboration with Community Outreach & Advocacy for Refugees (COAR), a youth-led nonprofit organization based in Tempe that works with refugees and local artist Eliza Gregory, a member of the eye lounge artist cooperative on Roosevelt Row.

The exhibits are on display through Oct. 3. The Museum of Anthropology is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. when school is in session. An artist panel discussion will be held at noon, April 29, in the Museum of Anthropology in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change building.
For more information about the exhibits and upcoming events, contact the museum at (480) 965-6224 or visit the Web site http://shesc.asu.edu/asuma.

Enrollment begins for summer arts classes

lccampb — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:44:02 -0600

Herberger College at Large & for Kids has opened enrollment for its summer camps, classes and workshops.

The program, which is part of ASU Herberger College of the Arts, offers classes for aspiring artists – from serious high school arts students to adults and kids preschool to teen. Aspiring artists of all ages are encouraged to express themselves through classes in art, digital art, dance, music and theater. ASU employees and their family members receive a discount.

Peggy Balaberda, systems analyst for the Applied Learning Technology Institute, studies digital art to experiment with her creativity.

“I’m a very technical person, and Herberger College at Large offers me a safe environment to start being creative,” Balaberda says. “I’m learning more about my camera, photo composition and lighting, and ways to enhance, change and create new images.”

ASU employees can take advantage of other Herberger College at Large classes for teens and adults in art, dance, music and theater, as well as private instruction in all areas.

Herberger College for Kids provides preschool classes in art, dance and music, as well as classes in art, dance, music and theater for children ages 5-14. Children are grouped by age, and private instruction in all areas also is offered.

Elaine Jones, administrative associate for development in the ASU Herberger College of Art, has been sending her grandsons to the Herberger College at Large & for Kids summer programs for years.

“The Herberger College for Kids summer program has greatly enriched my two grandsons’ educational experience and enlightened their lives,” Jones says.

Her 16-year-old grandson, Nicholas, participated in the Herberger College at Large Latin Jazz Workshop last year. She says he called it the best music experience in his six years of playing the trumpet. Another grandchild, Jacob, age 11, will be returning for his fourth summer in the Herberger College for Kids art program.

“Jacob loves art, and he chooses the Herberger College for Kids art camp as his number one choice over other summer camps he might attend,” Jones says.

Summer registration continues through the first day of class as space is available. To find out more, and to take advantage of the discount for ASU employees and their family members, call Herberger College at Large at (480) 727-0700, or visit the Web pages http://herbergercollegeatlarge.asu.edu and http://herbergercollegeforkids.asu.edu.

Laura Toussaint-Newkirk, laura.toussaint@asu.edu
(480) 965-8796
Herberger College of the Arts

ASU to celebrate The Bard's 444th

msjps — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:08:07 -0600

Best-selling author William Shakespeare is having a birthday April 23 – he’ll be 444.

Well, of course The Bard, who wrote what have been described as “universal plays with timeless themes,” won’t be here to celebrate, but Arizona State University is going to have a party for him that day, nonetheless.

Sponsored by the Department of English, the events will include scenes from his most famous love story, a panel discussion, and readings of his erotic poetry complete with Renaissance-themed sweet treats.

Star-Crossed Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet in Scenes, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., The Secret Garden (located between Dixie Gammage Hall and West Hall). Students from El Dorado High School, Highland High School, and New School for the Arts and Academics perform scenes from Shakespeare¹s most famous love story back-to-back to create a full production. (Bring a picnic lunch.)

Sensual Shakespeare: Poetry and Dessert, 2-3 p.m., Durham Language & Literature Building room 316. The English Club performs readings from Shakespeare¹s erotic poetry and serves Renaissance-themed sweet treats in an audience-judged bake-off.

“Civil Shakespeare,” 3:15-4:30 p.m., Durham Language & Literature room 316. A panel discussion featuring panelists Jean Brink (Professor Emerita, English), John Ratliff (Professor Emeritus, English), Margaret Knapp (Professor, Theatre & Film), and Ayanna Thompson (Assistant Professor, English).

All events are free of charge and open to the public. For more information, contact Bradley Ryner, (480) 965.4182, or bradley.ryner@asu.edu.

Parking is available for $3 per hour in the Fulton Center Garage, College Avenue and University Drive.

Free park and ride for the Orbit bus system also is available at the Big Lots parking lot, McKellips Street and Scottsdale Road (Earth Route) and at Grace Community Church, Dorsey Lane and Southern Avenue, Tempe (Jupiter Route).

Museum of Anthropology features 2 new exhibits

chughes3 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:50:41 -0600

The Arizona State University Museum of Anthropology is featuring two new concurrent exhibits – Mosaic: Cultural Identity in America, and, Fuse: Portraits of Refugee Households in Metropolitan Phoenix.

Through the artwork of local artist Eliza Gregory and selected student artists, these exhibits explore questions of identity and cultural experience in the largest urban center in the Southwest. Although the exhibits focus on two distinct topics, their approaches and themes complement each, both exploring contemporary regional, social and political relationships.

In Mosaic: Cultural Identity in America, jury selected student artists explore questions of national identity. Sarah Elsasser, the guest curator and a student in Barrett, The Honors College at ASU, has asked students to express, through a variety of artistic media, how they understand and identify with being American. Mosaic contextualizes U.S. American identity as a diverse and changing ascription, based on ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation. This exhibit presents both positive and negative takes on American culture and invites the visitor to engage emotionally with the artwork.

Fuse is a portrait exhibit of the complex worlds of resettled refugees in the Phoenix metro area. It fosters critical thinking on who refugees are and how, through sharing experiences, the Phoenix metro community can seek common ground. The photographs validate the struggles and triumphs of these families, portraying them in a way that fosters a deeper sense of belonging in the community. The exhibition is being developed in collaboration with Community Outreach & Advocacy for Refugees (COAR), a youth-led nonprofit organization based in Tempe that works with refugees and local artist Eliza Gregory, a member of the eye lounge artist cooperative on Roosevelt Row.

The exhibits are on display through Oct. 3. The Museum of Anthropology is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. when school is in session. For more information about the exhibits and upcoming events contact the museum at 480-965-6224 or online: shesc.asu.edu/asuma.

The ASU Museum of Anthropology is located in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Anthropology Building, Room 240 on ASU's Tempe Campus. A map of ASU’s museum locations is online at: asu.edu/museums/map.htm.

Rebecca Howe, Rebecca.Howe@asu.edu
480-727-6577
School of Human Evolution & Social Change

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honors McNally

msjps — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:05:30 -0600

“I was in Paris, staying at hotel behind the Cathedral St. Sulpice, when I was visited by an old girlfriend. I was sitting naked on the bed, a white cotton spread, fresh from the bath because earlier that morning I had been caught in the rain.”

Sounds like an innocent Parisian tryst – until you learn in the next sentence that the man’s wife was out shopping for a new Parisian hat for the couple’s 3-year-old daughter.

With just two sentences, T.M. McNally, a professor of English, draws the reader into a story of possible deception, certain love – and a lifetime of memories.

The Parisian encounter is the centerpiece of McNally’s story, “The Gateway,” which is the title story of his newest collection of short stories. The book, “The Gateway: Stories,” has just been named a 2008 finalist in the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

McNally, who was one of four finalists for the prestigious award, will win a cash prize of $5,000 for his efforts. The award will be presented May 10 at the 28th annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony, which will take place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

The PEN/Faulkner Award, founded in 1980, is the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States. Judges for this year’s competition were Molly Giles, Victor LaValle and Richard Bausch.

Judges considered nearly 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the United States in 2007. Nominations came from more 70 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. McNally, who says he did not know “The Gateway: Stories” was being considered, was surprised and pleased to learn of the award. With typical McNally humor, he says his notification came “out of the blue. Wooooosh.”

When asked if there is a “moral” or “message” in the stories, McNally replies, in mock horror, “God, no. Oh, dear, oh, dear, God, no!”

“The stories, as a group, all do explore the intersections between the ideas of ‘home’ and ‘body,’ where we all start from, that particular crossroads,” he says. “And I suppose, too, they all address in one way or another the redemptive power and nature of love.”

Several of the seven stories are set in Phoenix. The first story is about a middle-aged son who visits the French countryside where his father was wounded in World War II and pursues his father’s ghosts – and some of his own.

In another, a young woman named Natalie overcomes her own demons and learns to reach out to others.

In “Given,” a widower decides to help his daughter escape from a marriage that was a mistake.

In the end, all of the characters find a place of refuge from their past.

McNally wrote the stories in “The Gateway” over a 10-year period, beginning in the spring of 1993.

“Skin Deep” came after he finished his first novel.

“Lacy, who tells the story, was also in that novel, and I wrote the story to find out Lacy’s story,” McNally says.

The story “Open My Heart” came to him in a burst of creative outpouring, he says, adding: “I wrote the initial draft in a single setting, two days, without moving: a sudden and pure blast of inspiration.”

“The final story is my most recent, ‘The Gateway,’ and I wrote it over the course of six or seven months as a way of saying everything I might possibly say about the nature of the short-story form,” he adds.

Where did he get the ideas for the characters?

“Oh, I guess the world; I guess myself,” McNally says. “They’re all me, even those most unlike me, and those most like. The people I write about are always much easier for me to locate than the settings and the conflicts they inhabit. The looking for particular subjects and ways to approach – for me, that’s the part that takes real digging.”

McNally earned his master’s degree at ASU in 1987, and lived and worked in Europe before returning to join the ASU faculty in 1999.

Art project links Tempe with communities around world

mattcrum — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:42:27 -0600

As a verb, “tie” can mean to physically fasten or attach, or to establish in relationship. As a noun, it refers to something that serves as a connecting link.

On Sunday, April 6, the word tie will be spelled on the streets of Tempe and several other cities around the world. “The goal is to get people out in the streets ‘tie-ing’ together, to make friends, to interact with the community, to talk, walk, observe and play,” says Arizona State University alumnus Eric Scott Nelson, who originated the project.

Participants will use string, ribbon, rope, clothing and other materials they choose to spell “tie” in an area adjacent to the western edge of ASU’s Tempe campus. The area is bounded by Mill and Ash Avenues to the east and west, and by University Drive and 13th Street to the north and south.

The event begins at 3:00 p.m. on April 6, with the resulting work on display through April 12. Members of the public are invited to watch, and help in, the assembly process.

Other participating cities are Providence, R.I.; Baltimore; Denver; Augusta, Ga.; Portland, Ore.; Taipei, Taiwan; and Seoul, South Korea.

“We’re working to recruit people in additional cities who are interested in making new ties and making old ties stronger,” says Nelson, who received his B.A. in interdisciplinary arts and performance from ASU’s West campus in 2007.

Nelson, a Valley native who currently lives and works in Seoul, originally submitted the “tie” project as a proposal to an April 6 art festival in Baltimore. A friend of his subsequently moved to Baltimore and is now the point person to “tie” that city. Nelson decided he wanted to “tie” Seoul on the same day and to get other cities involved.

“I sent out hundreds of emails and reconnected with old friends, some for the first time in years,” Nelson says. “Friends of mine are now tied together with other friends. Also, complete strangers contacted me about the project.”

Nelson has established a “tie” web site: http://www.makegroup.org/ericscottnelson/tie.htm. It shows maps of how “tie” will be spelled in each city. Later the site will display documentation of the project, including photos and video.

What are Nelson’s expectations for the project? “I really don’t know what to expect, because everyone is free to do as they please,” he says. “After all, it is just as much their project as it is mine. But I do think that all of the tied things will be so beautiful.”

ASU’s bachelor’s degree program in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance (IAP), from which Nelson graduated, is the only one of its kind in the Southwest. The program, in ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, incorporates a variety of media in the arts world. Majors take course work in digital media arts, music and electronic sound art, performance studies, theater/performance arts, digital graphics, and more traditional visual arts.

“We are proud to have one of our graduates spearheading this creative project that encourages a spirit of cooperation and artistic expression literally around the world,” says Robert Taylor, IAP director of entrepreneurial initiatives.

For more information about the IAP program, located on ASU’s West campus, visit http://newcollege.asu.edu/programs/interdisciplinary_arts_performance/index.shtml.

Exhibition, symposium explore Mojave Desert urbanization

lccampb — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:14:42 -0600

The landscape of the Mojave Desert in southwest Nevada has been celebrated for its beauty by artists, mined for its resources by industrialists and deployed by the military as a weapons test site. These days, it is being paved, plumbed, wired and landscaped by production home builders and resort developers as the urban edge of Las Vegas moves ever outward.

The urbanization of the Mojave outside Las Vegas is the theme of “Sites of Transition,” an exhibition of 60 photographs by Ralph Stern, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and Nicole Huber, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Washington–Seattle.

The exhibition, sponsored by ASU’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL), will be on view through April 5 at the College of Design Gallery in Tempe.

Stern and Huber’s photographs accomplish an extraordinary feat, as they reveal the everyday, little-known world of one of the most famous – and most photographed – cities on the planet.

“In a generation, Las Vegas has transformed itself from a desert resort to an urban center,” says Stern. “Our photographs document a world beyond the casinos – a world of infrastructure and power grids, of trailer parks and planned communities, that is hard to reconcile with the famous spectacle of the Strip.”

While focusing on the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas, “Sites of Transition” holds up a not-so-distant mirror to Phoenix and the urbanization of the Sonoran Desert. In doing so, it prompts difficult questions about the market-driven transformations of fragile landscapes that many argue cannot sustain much development.

These questions will be explored in a symposium that PURL is sponsoring – in partnership with F.A.R. (Future Arts Research) @ ASU, the ASU School of Art and the ASU Art Museum – from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 5, at the ASU Art Museum. In addition to Stern and Huber, speakers include Matthew Coolidge, director of the Los Angeles-based Center for Land Use Interpretation; art writer Lucy Lippard, whose recent books include “The Lure of the Local”; and photographer Mark Klett, ASU Regents’ Professor, whose projects include “Third View: A Rephotographic Survey of the American West.”

The symposium is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Web site www.design.asu.edu/purl/SitesSymposium.shtm or call PURL at (480) 727-9880.

Nancy Levinson, nancy.levinson@asu.edu
(480) 727-9890
PURL

Enjoy the outdoors at Rock Art Expo

rhowe — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:32:52 -0600

Did you know that ASU has a nature preserve, archaeological site and museum rolled into one? Under the auspices of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, the Deer Valley Rock Art Center is just such a place, and on March 29, it will play host to visitors from all over the state with its major event of the year—the free, family friendly Rock Art Expo.

Offering musical performances, agave tasting, ancient spear throwing, a Lakota storyteller, artists’ exhibits and more, including unique kids’ activities like a mock archaeology dig and face painting with natural pigments, this year’s Rock Art Expo is expected to be the biggest and best yet. Food vendors will be on site, and an awards ceremony recognizing artwork from around 170 local K–8 students will kick off the event.

Located in the Northwest Valley, the center comprises over 47 acres of pristine desert, a hill of basaltic boulders covered in upwards of 1,500 ancient petroglyphs, an ethnobotanical garden, a museum, native wildlife and, at this time of year, copious wildflower blooms.

“It’s the perfect time of year to visit,” says Kim Arth, the center’s executive director. “The weather is great, and people are looking for things to do outside. They should keep us in mind. There is something for everyone here.”

An incredible variety of desert plants are found throughout the grounds and along the ¼-acre trail that winds past the petroglyphs. There are also roadrunners, bobcats, quail, squirrels, javelinas, lizards and hawks. Signage informs visitors of the identity of plant species, and the center’s longtime educator, ranger and naturalist, Desert Little Bear Gonzales, boasts a wealth of knowledge of the center, its flora and fauna and the cultural significance of the site, which is linked to the Hohokam and Patayan peoples of ages past.

The center’s main goal is to protect and preserve the petroglyphs of the Hedgpeth Hills, but it also aims to educate the public and provide a means for visitors to connect with the past and its peoples. As Gonzales explains, the site is linked to the Hopi, Yavapai and O’odham tribes, but should be of import to everyone because “it is a site for all of us, a place occupied by people who were here long before Columbus arrived. It is part of our heritage as human beings.”

In addition, the museum currently houses an education/lecture room, a small theater, a permanent exhibit, an award-winning photography exhibit, a gift shop and the American Rock Art Research Association Library, featuring collections and archives open to the public by appointment. Outdoors, picnic tables and an amphitheater area offer ideal places for picnicking.

The Deer Valley Rock Art Center’s 2008 Rock Expo will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m., March 29. The event is free. The center’s normal operating hours through April are 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday; noon–5 p.m. Sunday. Regular admission is $7/adults; $4/seniors and students; $3/children 6–12; children 5 and under free. The center is located at 3711 W. Deer Valley Road in Phoenix. For more information, call (623) 582-8007.

ASU artists earn state arts commission grants

ckussala — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:45:29 -0600

The Arizona Commission on the Arts has awarded 10 out of 17 Artist Projects grants to ASU artists. Seven award winners are ASU professors, one is a university employee, and three are alumni.

The ASU grant awardees are Julie Anand, Jose Benavides, Eliza N. Gregory, Hilary Harp, Cynthia Hogue, Zachary C. Jones, Jeff McMahon, Dominic Miller, Patricia Murphy and Chris Pexa.

Offered yearly, each Artist Projects grant awards up to $5,000 to artists to help them build their careers through artistic projects. The commission received 134 applications in many artistic disciplines from across the state for the 2008 Artist Projects grants.

The artist projects and grant descriptions include:

• “Between” by Julie Anand. The artist, along with her collaborator, photographer Damon Sauer, will create composite pictures by weaving together strips from two large, original photographs. The weaving will create a series of thousands of tiny intersections that echo the larger intersection of the images seen at a distance. Anand is an assistant professor of photography at ASU, and Sauer is an adjunct professor of photography at Glendale Community College. Both artists live in Phoenix.

• “Lupita” by Jose A. Benavides. The artist will build a 17-foot-long statue-automobile of the Virgen de Guadalupe, called the Lupita Car. The statue will be formed from automotive license plates-mostly from the United States and Mexico. Benavides earned a master’s degree in fine arts from ASU in 1996. Benavides lives in Chandler.

• “Fuse: Portraits of Refugee Households in Metropolitan Phoenix” by Eliza N. Gregory. The photographer will be making portraits of three Liberian refugee families that have been resettled in the Phoenix area. Gregory works for ASU’s University Student Initiatives as a project specialist and photographer. She lives in Tempe.

• “El Dorado” by Hilary Harp. The artist, with collaborator Suzie Silver, will create a 20-minute non-narrative video about a space station where aliens meet in a nightclub. Funding will go toward producing a series of five one-minute, stop-motion sequences. This project is an extension of feminist science fiction, in which criticism of gendered subjectivity leads to the invention of more plural and heterogeneous social relations. Harp is an assistant professor of sculpture at ASU, while Silver is an associate professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Harp lives in Tempe.

• “Voice-Prints: A Katrina Elegy” by Cynthia Hogue. The poet and her collaborator, photographer Rebecca Ross, will do an exploration in words and images of the journey from New Orleans to Phoenix of 12 Katrina evacuees, documenting their individual stories of grief and hope. Hogue is the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry in the Department of English at ASU. Ross is an award-winning photographer whose work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. Hogue lives in Phoenix; Ross lives in Tempe.

• “The Inner Nature of Water: Rendering the Pulse of the Environment” by Zachary C. Jones. The artist and collaborator, Jeannine Davies, will produce sculptural forms, evocative of whirlpools and hurricanes, with electronically mediated controls to guide flows of water. Jones received an M.F.A. degree from ASU’s Arts, Media and Engineering Program in 2007. Both artists live in Tempe.

• “Counter-Indications” by Jeff McMahon. The artist, with collaborator Jacob Pinholster, a media designer, will create an installation-based performance using live and virtual actors to explore the nature of interrogation and disorientation. Through a “fake” intervention-exploration, the artists will investigate how a person can be guided, even coerced, into saying things he or she does not believe, seeing things he or she has not seen, and confessing when no confession is justified. McMahon is an assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Film at ASU, and Pinholster is an assistant professor of media design at ASU. McMahon lives in Tempe.

• “Teeth as White as Bone (Chemotherapeutical Turbine Songs)” by Dominic Miller. The artist, along with collaborator Adrianna Delgadillo, will record the experiences of Navajo uranium miners living on the Navajo Nation that later will be joined with sculptural and installation-based artworks. The artists also will create a Web site where they will make available their research. Miller graduated from the Herberger College of the Arts in 2005 with an emphasis in printmaking. Both artists live in Phoenix.

• “My Brother’s Genius” by Patricia Murphy. The writer will write a memoir about her brother, describing the dynamics of a family of four who survive the implosion of mental illness, addiction and self-destructive behavior. The story will explore how the writer, a socially more compliant student, survived and thrived in school, while her brother, a musical genius, floundered – prescribing their different paths into adulthood. Murphy is a lecturer at the ASU Polytechnic campus where she teaches poetry, fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Phoenix.

• “A Throne of Horses” by Chris Pexa. The poet will produce a book-length collection of prose poems exploring the intersections of family stories and official histories of the Spirit Lake Sioux reservation by imaging the afterlife of a recently deceased tribal elder – the poet’s grandmother – as an escape narrative. As an ASU Department of English alumnus, Pexa received a master’s degree in creative writing in 2003. Pexa teaches English and creative writing at Pima Community College. He lives in Tucson.