ASU News - Arts / Culture

Gordon Knox named new ASU Art Museum director

wcraft — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:33:44 -0700

The ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts announced the appointment of Gordon Knox as the new director for the ASU Art Museum. Knox, currently a core collaborator for the Stanford Humanities Lab (SHL) at Stanford University, will begin his duties as museum director on a part-time basis on Jan. 11, 2010, assuming the position full-time July 1.

“Gordon Knox will be a visionary leader for the ASU Art Museum, bringing unique perspectives to the work of redefining the role and purpose of a university art museum” says Kwang-Wu Kim, dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. “Gordon has a track record of conceiving and directing creative, thought provoking, collaborative programs resulting in opportunities to effect social change and to transform our understanding about art and artists.”

Knox, whose work explores the transformative role of the arts in society, was recently recognized by Forbes Magazine for his work on collaborative projects at the SHL that brings together experts in the arts, humanities and sciences and engages them in on-the-ground efforts to effect social change. Knox brings to ASU an extensive background in establishing and developing environments that recognize and foster new talents across all art disciplines and mediums.

"Gordon Knox is deeply committed to engaging with community while connecting the museum to his broad global networks,” Kim says. “Working with our excellent curators and staff, I am confident he will engage artists and audiences in exciting, new conversations about art in the 21st century.”

Knox believes that ASU’s commitment to broad, lateral access to excellence in education defines much of the still to be explored potential of the ASU Art Museum.

“The ASU Art Museum is the right place at the right time to activate a new model of how ideas flow from the past to the present to animate the thinking of today and build the communities of tomorrow,” Knox says. “A museum’s job is to provide public access to the full range of humanity’s thinking; combining that commitment with the radical possibilities of ASU today offers the greatest imaginable opportunity. I am both honored and fully activated by being invited to join the ASU team.”

Previous to the SHL, Knox was the artistic director of the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, Calif., developing ambitious projects such as Edge of Desire, the only West Coast exhibition of a comprehensive collection of recent art from India, and FUSE, a new media collaboration with the CADRE laboratory at San Jose State University. Knox also was the founding director of the Lucas Artists Program, a residency program at Montalvo that identifies exceptional international artists and supports them as they develop new work while in residence in eleven newly designed live/work studios.

During the 1990s as the founding Director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, Knox envisioned and established a center for the arts designed to advance and widen the discourse of contemporary cultural practice by engaging the voices and thinking of practitioners from all parts of the world and providing them with excellent conditions to advance their work. Civitella quickly became a new model for international, multidisciplinary residency programs.

As a part of the transition to Knox’s directorship, current interim director Heather Lineberry has been named Interim Associate Director and Senior Curator, effective on Knox’s arrival. In that role, Lineberry will work closely with Knox as an administrative partner while also continuing to pursue her curatorial interests.

The ASU Art Museum continues to examine contemporary issues through multiple ongoing exhibits, highlighted by the ongoing Defining Sustainability season. Defining Sustainability is a series of dynamic and interactive projects to illustrate sustainability ideas on display at the ASU Art Museum and its Ceramics Research Center through January, 2010. Other featured exhibitions include the latest subject of the Social Studies project, Jillian McDonald: Alone Together in the Dark, and I’m Keeping an Eye On You, a video exploration of the broad and lasting effects of our curiosity in and intrusions upon others.

Comprised of a dynamic combination of disciplines, the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University is at the forefront of the investigation of creativity and creative practice shaping the 21st century. Many of the institute's programs consistently rank in the top ten of national peers and encompass over 45 areas of study within its seven schools: architecture and landscape architecture; art; arts, media and engineering; dance; design; music; and theatre and film. The ASU Art Museum, the Herberger Institute Research Center, and Future Arts Research @ ASU support our research initiatives. The Community School for Design and the Arts and our Community Engagement projects enable students and faculty to interact with the public through meaningful partnerships. To learn more about the institute, visit herbergerinstitute.asu.edu.

New College offers wide variety of Winter Session classes

mattcrum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:35:20 -0700

World politics, abnormal psychology and leadership in group communication are just a few of the courses that will be offered in the Winter Session from Dec. 2 to Jan. 14 by Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Other classes focus on writing for the professions, popular music, religions around the world and more.

Twenty classes total are scheduled. Three are in-person classes to be held at ASU’s West campus in northwest Phoenix, while the other 17 will be taught online.

“These course offerings provide an excellent opportunity for students to complete a three-credit course in a short time period,” says Rob Taylor, director of graduate studies and special programs in New College. “Doing so can help lessen a student’s course load during the upcoming spring semester.”

Taylor says students planning to take a Winter Session course should be prepared for a demanding, fast-paced academic experience. “These are not ‘watered down’ courses – they are taught by full-time faculty and cover the same breadth and depth of material as courses taught during a regular semester,” he says.

The 17 online courses offer time flexibility while still providing plenty of interaction with one’s professor and fellow students, Taylor says.

Freshman through senior-level courses are among the offerings. Many of the courses fulfill ASU General Studies graduation requirements.

Registration for the Winter Session is now under way. A full listing of the 20 courses offered through New College is available at http://newcollege.asu.edu/classes/. Academic advisers may be reached at (602) 543-7000.

Headquartered at ASU’s West campus, the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences offers 18 bachelor’s and five master’s degrees. Academic programs blend theory with experiential learning to prepare students for the social, economic, political and cultural challenges they will face in a diverse and rapidly expanding global marketplace.

ASU grad wins prestigious writing prize

msjps — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:32:12 -0700

Michael Cunningham, Kim Edwards, Tobias Wolff.

We know their names, and we’ve devoured these bestselling authors’ books.

Now, we can add Adam Johnson to the list.

Johnson, an ASU graduate and author of the novel “Parasites Like Us,” has been selected as one of 10 young writers in the United States to receive a 2009 Whiting Writers’ Awards – and a $50,000 cash prize.

Past winners have included Cunningham, Edwards, Wolff, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Mary Karr – all of whom went on to become acclaimed, bestselling authors.

The Whiting Writers’ Awards have been given annually since 1985 by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation to writers chosen for their “extraordinary talent and promise.”

That Johnson would win an award is not as surprising as the fact that he is a writer at all.

Ron Carlson, former professor of creative writing at ASU, who now directs the writing program at the University of California, Irvine, recalls the start of Johnson’s writing career:

“This tall kid appeared in the back of my English 210 class years ago; he looked like Elvis, the smart-aleck lip and the shiny hair, and he started right out writing stories with an edgy vividness that is unusual for undergrads.

“He must have been what, 20? He could write closely so that you felt the heat of the construction site in his story or the claustrophobia of the drivers' training classroom, and finally at the end of the semester I asked him who the heck he was.

“He smiled and said he was enjoying the class very much but he had taken it by accident, meaning to take poetry which he had heard, from an unreliable fraternity brother, was easier.”

Johnson picks up the story:

“I was an engineering major before. I took creative writing because I wanted to take an easy class. There was a brand-new fiction-writing teacher named Ron Carlson. He was an electric, radioactive teacher who converted me to be a fiction writer.”

Carlson said a poetry class might have been easier for Johnson, but it was fortuitous that he stumbled into Carlson’s fiction-writing class.

“I was glad to meet him and I invited him into a very small independent study section I was running that Spring and he took that and wrote more of these compelling stories, warm as life and clogged with convincing detail.”

Johnson said, “I would do independent studies with Ron. We’d meet at Chuckbox or Bandersnatch. He’d help develop my stories. Rarely do you meet someone who has so much to give. I started writing short stories, even though they were horrible. I look back know and realize that Ron was doing an act of charity, but he saw that I had something to develop.”

Carlson added, “That was the start, and following his stories and fiction through the years, it has shown gargantuan growth. He isn't a smart aleck, but he's ambitious and talented and it is paying off. I'm using one of his stories in a graduate seminar this winter.”

Johnson and Carlson developed such a close relationship over the years that Carlson performed the ceremony when Johnson married his wife in 2000. “He followed me, and I followed him,” Johnson said of his mentor.

Johnson, who went on to earn his doctoral degree from the University of Florida and now is the Senior Jones Lecturer in creative writing at Stanford University, said he knew of the Whiting Writers’ Awards because one of his friends had won one last year.

But he never dreamed he’d hear his own named called. “You don’t enter or apply. You don’t even know you’ve been nominated. It’s all private. They won’t reveal anything,” he said.

Johnson dared to hope when he received a cryptic e-mail saying, simply, “Call us tomorrow.”

“I was worried,” he admitted. “Maybe I’d dinged the door of a writing donor. I didn’t want to let myself think that it would be actually winning this prestigious prize.”

The Whiting Awards were presented during a ceremony in New York City, attended by “a who’s who of the publishing world,” Johnson said. “Margaret Atwood gave a heartfelt talk. It was an utterly amazing event.”

In addition to his book of short stories, “Emporium,” and his first novel, “Parasites Like Us,” Johnson has had stories published in magazines such as Esquire, Harper’s and the Paris Review. He won a California New Book Award and a Discover a Great New Writer Award from Barnes and Noble for “Parasites Like Us,” published in 2003.

“Parasites Like Us” is the story of Hank Hannah, an anthropology professor at a small college in South Dakota. Hannah’s specialty is the Clovis people, the first humans to cross the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia approximately 12,000 years ago.

Hannah’s life story is interwoven with the story of extinction, and is written as a record for future anthropologists to study. As the Clovis eradicated 35 species of large mammals with a spear point they invented, so did modern man wreak havoc with his world, bringing it to a new point of destruction.

“Parasites Like Us” is part romance, part mystery, part allegory reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” and part horror. Johnson places artifacts along the way as both symbols and markers to the road ahead. A rose-quartz Clovis spearpoint, ancient popcorn sealed in a ball, boxes of research notes, a Corvette and a beautiful Russian scientist all are key elements of the tightly woven story.

It’s a book that’s hopeful, but not yet optimistic. The reader will be kept guessing until the very last page. It is, as Carlson would say, a story that is “warm as life and clogged full of convincing detail.”

ASU professor discusses African American hair culture

jnewberg — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Comedian Chris Rock takes on the business of hair straightening in “Good Hair,” a new movie that examines the multimillion dollar industry that targets African American women.

Many African Americans still refer to straighter hair as “good hair,” and it’s a cultural phenomenon that ASU professor Neal A. Lester, English Department chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has studied, taught and lectured about for more than 20 years. He is a recognized expert on African American hair and has been interviewed recently about Michelle Obama’s hair and the hairstyles of her daughters. He was also a guest on “The State of Things,” a Chapel Hill, N.C., national radio program, which dealt with hair and stereotypes.

“Attention to the Obama females’ hair choices reminds us that we don’t just have any family in the White House. The Obamas offer a specific cultural and ethnic context,” Lester says. For instance, had Michelle Obama sported cornrows or dreadlocks during Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency, Lester feels that would have complicated his campaign. Even an alleged “satirical” cartoon of a “militant” Michelle Obama with an afro generated some public suspicion on the July 21, 2008 cover of the New Yorker magazine.

“Straight hair is still more mainstream and what people expect,” he says. “By and large, straight hair remains the ideal for African Americans and non-African Americans.”

It’s the ideal and it’s not cheap. African American women who opt for hair weaves, hair pieces and extensions can spend hundreds on their hair, sometimes putting hair on layaway in order to afford it, according to Rock’s documentary. Hair straightening creams and the stove-heated hot comb are other options African Americans have used to achieve the temporary straight look.

“There is a whole industry locked into black people and their hair, and it’s an expensive one,” Lester says. “If weaves can cost up to $3,500, it’s not perceived as excess; it’s perceived as an identity complement, as completing one’s sense of self.”

References to straightening African American hair can be found in all manner of literature and, on a more personal level, within the minds of children who do notice that the popular definition of “good hair” isn’t necessarily what’s on their heads. Talk show host Tyra Banks recently explored that issue with young African American females with hair extensions or processed hair who were as young as 3 years old.

Lester gained first-hand knowledge of the issue when his naturally curly haired and biracial daughter, Jasmine, was growing up. During most of her elementary school years, Lester combed and braided her hair. When Jasmine was 13 and wanted straight hair, they ended up at a black hair salon.

“Her hair was ‘relaxed’ with the popular lye-based chemical,” Lester says. “The whole process took from two to three hours. Her hair was straight but had the pungent smell of burning hair in the end. She loved her straight hair and it blew in gentle breezes because it was straight. She went to school and became kind of a show-and-tell piece for her white teachers and white school mates who loved her hair. At age 20, Jasmine alternates between curly and straight.”

Rock decided to examine the issue after his daughter asked him about her hair.

“He’s pointing out that we as a larger society haven’t come as far as we think we have in getting people to accept ourselves as we are,” Lester says. “There are media images and perceptions that I suspect this comic movie documentary will challenge.”

It also calls into question the lengths that women historically will go to while they pursue a perceived beauty ideal. Just as hair is damaged during straightening procedures, women have historically undergone other “beauty” strategies such as wrapping feet, wearing painfully high heels, taking out ribs to make waists smaller, or either not eating adequately or overeating and then vomiting to achieve a perceived idea of beauty.

“We as a society and as a nation need to look at what is motivating people to do that,” Lester says.

Hair straightening isn’t exclusively a female phenomenon. Men, including Lester, singer James Brown and the Reverend Al Sharpton have straightened their hair, but not to the same extent as women.

“Men do it, and have done it. African American women, however, have made beauticians richer,” Lester says.

Lester, who wears his hair in dreadlocks, hopes that the movie will spur dialogue among blacks and non-blacks about hair and identity issues.

“I hope that people look at this as an opportunity to have a good, honest discussion,” Lester says. “It’s a conversation that still needs to be had and that can benefit us all when we consider the sometimes subtle nuances of diversity and difference.”

ASU doctoral candidate Thompson pays tribute to Levi-Strauss

rhowe — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:13:08 -0700

Claude Levi-Strauss, who died at the age of 100 on Oct. 30, 2009, is being remembered as a pioneering social scientist, whose work was imparted as foundational in anthropology classrooms around the world.

Archaeologist M. Scott Thompson, an Arizona State University doctoral candidate in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was one of many inspired by Levi-Strauss’ work.

He is quoted in a Nov. 4 CNN article about the influential anthropologist.

In the piece, Thompson—whose research interests include complex societies, Mississippian archaeology and chiefdoms—provides his take on Levi-Strauss’ contributions to the field of anthropology and stresses the importance of his ideas in understanding the formation of cultures.

'Canalscape Exhibition' unveils bold plans for Valley's canal system

chughes3 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:18:39 -0700

As builders, designers and architects from around the world arrive in Phoenix for the 2009 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, the Arizona State University Art Museum is unveiling a radical rethinking of the Valley's canal system. The Sonoran Desert metropolis, better known for freeways and mountain ranges, is also home to 181 miles of canals.

Beginning Nov. 9, visitors to the ASU Art Museum in Tempe can discover a host of ideas intended to transform underutilized pathways alongside the ribbons of water stretching across the city. The "Canalscape Exhibition" showcases ideas from students and professionals to create park space, community gardens, bike paths, public art and prime spots for mixed-use development including housing, shops, cafés and other businesses.

Canalscape is a project developed by the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It focuses on creating vital urban hubs where canals meet major streets throughout the Phoenix metropolitan region. Each hub will be unique, responding to the needs of surrounding neighborhoods, while forming part of a larger network along the canals that adds to metro Phoenix's quality of life. The goal is to transform canals into amenities, making Phoenix a more interesting and sustainable city, according to Nan Ellin, associate professor and planning program director in the school.

Phoenix's vast network of canals, initially constructed by American Indians almost two millennia ago, attracted the first settlers to the area and inspired the name Phoenix. These canals are the Valley's lifeline, supporting agriculture and providing drinking water.

"Canalscape builds on this legacy by envisioning the canals as shady linear parks, corridors for biking and running, vital urban hubs and an opportunity for alternative-energy generation," Ellin says.

The "Canalscape Exhibition" is at the ASU Art Museum from Nov. 9-Dec. 1, with an opening event on Nov. 10 from 6-8 p.m. The ASU Art Museum is located in the Nelson Fine Arts Center, Tempe campus, on the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street. For hours and additional information, visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu. For more information about Canalscape, visit http://canalscape.asu.edu or contact Ellin at (480) 965-6160, nan.ellin@asu.edu.

Award-winning photographer from Ground Zero to speak at ASU

icsea — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:28:48 -0700

In an image-focused world, we are all photographers, says Joel Meyerowitz, acclaimed photographer who gained unlimited access to Ground Zero to create a record in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack.

Meyerowitz will give the public a fascinating “Look Behind the Lens” at a free presentation at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in Katzin Concert Hall in the Music Building, Arizona State University Tempe campus, as the 2009 Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecturer.

As an award-winning artist and Guggenheim Fellow, his work has appeared in more than 350 galleries and museums around the world. He is the author of 16 books, including “Cape Light,” considered a classic work of color photography.

In his programs, Meyerowitz often shares selections of audience photography along with some of his own work, to illustrate the increasingly blurred lines between professional and amateur photography.

Tickets for the free event are available at the front office of Barrett, the Honors College, and also a limited number at the door. Meyerowitz will be at ASU all week, speaking to photojournalism and honors classes, and to the student photo club.

His book, “Aftermath: the World Trade Center Archive,” features 400 images as well as an engaging account of his experience during recovery efforts. Through persistence and determination, he was the only photographer given access to the site. An exhibit from the archive has traveled to more than 200 cities in 60 countries.

In the latest phase of his career Meyerowitz turned his lens onto nature, commissioned by the city of New York to document, interpret and celebrate one of the city’s greatest legacies: nearly 29,000 acres of parks. The resulting 90 photographs are now on view in an exhibition and accompanying book, “Legacy: the Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks,” in the Museum of the City of New York

Through a stunningly rich archive of parks, shorelines and forests, his exhibit transports the viewer into the heart of a lush wilderness which is a key part of New York City life.

Meyerowitz is a street photographer who began photographing in color in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of color during a time when there was significant resistance to the idea of color photography as serious art. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1959 with a degree in painting and medical illustration but took to the streets with a camera shortly thereafter.

His talk is presented by Barrett, the Honors College. This is the 20th year for the annual lecture which was established by an endowment from the Flinn Foundation, to bring some of the world’s most influential intellects to campus.

The ASU Music Building is at Gammage Parkway and Mill Avenue. Parking is available in ASU’s lot 16, at the southeast corner of Mill and University.

Rover goes green: ASU designs sustainable doghouse

skeeler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:21:13 -0700

The doghouse is getting a makeover for the 21st century, and you can bet your pooper-scooper that Rover has never seen anything quite like this.

Architecture and landscape architecture students from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts have teamed up with PetSmart to create a prototype doghouse that is better suited to your pooch’s needs and is earth-friendly, as well.

The challenge: design a dog house that incorporates recycled materials, can be easily constructed and transported, provides sufficient ventilation and insulation, and can be easily cleaned. Oh, and it must be a place in which a dog wants to dwell.

The designers are first-year graduate students in the advanced studio design course taught by Jason Griffiths, an architecture professor at Arizona State University. The students took into consideration canine lounging behavior, the natural elements, the American human-dog relationship and research that shows 81 percent of dogs don’t actually sleep outside – but they love to be outside.

“Each fall we look for a project all students can embrace at the beginning of graduate school, and the doghouse design fit the bill,” Griffiths says. “ASU encourages collaboration with industry, and we want our students to creatively push the boundaries of architecture as well as design more sustainable products – those that are sustainable in both materials and manufacturing processes.”

The students had just three weeks to develop their concept. What they created completely re-conceptualizes the doghouse design that generally has been the same since the 19th century – a structure mimicking a human home with gabled roof.

The students’ models range from classy bamboo abodes that double as human bedside tables, to “living” outdoor structures that use natural plants to provide shade, to chic egg-shaped “dog pods” with removable roofs. There are collapsible tent-like structures, a “bark-o-lounger” and a domed structure with louvered roof that throws shade according to the seasonal shifts of the sun.

Sixty designs were narrowed down to 20 and then displayed as models at the PetSmart headquarters in Phoenix. Employees voted on their favorites, and the votes were taken into consideration by a roundtable of judges that eventually narrowed the designs down to three winners.

The winners were awarded $1,000 scholarships from PetSmart to fund the fabrication of their concepts into professional models that will be displayed at PetSmart’s Greenbuild 2009 expo booth Nov. 11-13, in Phoenix. Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. The School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture also designed the ASU booth for the Greenbuild conference.

The search for a sustainable doghouse coincides with PetSmart’s Think Twice initiative aimed at, among other things, supporting green products and partnerships.

“PetSmart launched Think Twice in an effort to become a more environmentally sustainable retailer,” says Suzanne Lindsay, the director of PetSmart’s sustainability efforts. “This design challenge allowed us to promote Think Twice while supporting our University Relations program. We’re proud to support Greenbuild as a local business leader on our own journey toward becoming more sustainable.”

According to Lindsay, the long-term goal is continuing development of the project in forthcoming design studios at ASU. It is envisioned that this initial competition will lead to in-depth study and full-scale fabrication of a prototype doghouse developed in collaboration with PetSmart.

ASU's West campus hosts traditional pow-wow

mattcrum — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:55:52 -0700

The Fletcher Library Lawn at Arizona State University’s West campus will come alive with the sights and sounds of Native drummers and dancers on Nov. 14, during the campus’s annual Veterans Day Weekend Traditional Pow-Wow. The event, from noon to 10 p.m. at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix, is free and open to the public.

In addition to dance and drum performances, the pow-wow will feature grand entries at noon and 7 p.m., Native arts and crafts, and food booths offering fry bread and more.

“The event’s theme is ‘A Celebration of Native Veterans,’ and American Indian veterans are especially encouraged to attend,” says Heidi Maxwell, West campus events manager. “At 6:30 p.m. they will be welcomed and thanked for their service to our country.”

The day’s schedule is:

• Noon – Grand entry

• 4 p.m. – Dinner break/Performance by Redtail Hawk Singers and Dancers

• 5 p.m. – Gourd dancing

• 6:30 p.m. – Welcome and acknowledgement of veterans

• 7 p.m. – Grand entry

• 10 p.m. – Closing

Participants include Announcer Chuck Benson, Arena Director Donald Sabori, Head Man Dancer Joel Shopteese, Head Woman Dancer Sue Sixkiller, Head Boy Dancer Avery Moore, Head Girl Dancer Christa Lynn Carter, Northern Drum Saste Takoja, and Southern Drum Panther Creek Singers. Performers include the Redtail Hawk Singers and Dancers, Colorado River Group.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs. (Limited seating will be provided for tribal elders.)

The pow-wow is sponsored by several groups and offices at ASU’s West campus, including the Native American Events Committee, Native American Student Organization, Public Affairs Office, Black Student Union, and MEChA.

For more information, call (602) 543-5306.

Big commitment, bigger payoff for ASU marching band

msjps — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:01:35 -0600

James Hudson can spend hours moving uniformed people around a field.

But it’s not what you’d think. He’s not re-enacting the Civil War on a miniature battlefield – he’s plotting the halftime moves for the Sun Devil Marching Band.

Now in his fourth year as director of the 340-member band, Hudson is in his element when he’s envisioning a halftime show and then bringing it to life. He arranges the music and designs the formations, and is thrilled that he gets to direct the band.

Marching bands have been a tradition at high schools, colleges and universities since at least the late 1800s, according to various band histories. The first modern halftime show by a marching band at a football game was presented by the University of Illinois Marching Illini in 1907 at a game against the University of Chicago.

“The Marching Illini were the trendsetters for early marching bands,” Hudson says.

Marching bands were inspired by military bands, which were first used to help move troops, and today’s high school and college bands retain the formations and sounds of their predecessors.

There’s almost nothing more exciting than watching – and hearing – the marching band take the field before a football game. A flash of color, a swirl of Sousaphones, the drum roll-off, the “Star Spangled Banner” played by several hundred enthusiastic musicians, the precision of the march.

But it takes a lot of effort – and sacrifice – on the part of many people to bring that spectacle to the field.

Planning begins in the spring for the next fall’s games with auditions for drum majors and selection of music. “This year’s drum majors, or directors, are Greg Mills, James Clemons and Jonathan Saturay,” Hudson says.

“We pick the themes for the next season in April. I pick four and let the band members make suggestions for the fifth.”

Over the summer, Hudson starts arranging the music and plotting the movements, using a program called Pyware for the latter. He tries to vary the music each game and each year, so there will be something for everyone. “We play a lot of rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll – that’s what I like,” he says.

Once he plots the formations, using the yard lines and hash marks as reference points, Hudson makes the charts available to band members through Blackboard so they can learn where they are supposed to be on the field.

When August rolls around, things literally heat up for the band. The musicians, plus the 75 or so twirlers, dancers and color guard, begin rehearsing the week before classes start, “when it was 107 degrees on the field,” Hudson says. “We have to get them conditioned. We give them a lot of water.”

For a single academic credit, the band members fully commit to the band during football season. The schedule makes it difficult for the students to hold jobs, and rehearsals are frequent and demanding.

“We rehearse from 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays," Hudson says. "On game day (Saturdays), we practice from 9 to 11 a.m., then call time is around 4 p.m. They don’t leave the stadium until around 10:30 p.m. Where are they going to work on Saturdays?”

Much is made of how big marching bands are. The Sun Devil Marching Band is at or near-record size this year – but for Hudson, it’s not about how many players march onto the field.

“It’s how good you are,” he says. “There’s a misconception that marching bands play with a thin sound and overblow. We play with a focused, big sound.”

Hudson, a “drum and sax man” who marched with bands in high school and college, says he subscribes to the “three T” goal for the Sun Devils: playing in Tone, in Time and in Tune. “We are one band with one sound. Blend is critical,” he says.

Hudson loves the challenge of blending a large variety of students into a cohesive unit in a relatively short time. The musicians come from a variety of backgrounds and join the band for an equal variety of reasons.

“Some kids love athletics, some are passionate about marching band," he says. "Some are music majors who have to take the class. Your challenge as a director is to make it enjoyable for all the kids.”

Hudson uses the word “love” frequently in his conversations about the band. “I love the games,” he says. “There’s a tightness, almost a fraternal tightness, that a great college band has. I also love writing drill. It’s fun. It’s like a great big toy.”

The word “gratitude” also comes up a lot. Fielding the Sun Devil Marching Band requires the commitment of many people, from students to staff to supporters. Hudson says he is thankful to donors Verde and Kathy Dickey for donating all the new uniforms (that can be laundered) and equipment to the band; and to ASU administrators for their support and encouragement.

Large marching bands face the unusual dilemma of having to do all of their practicing outside, since there are rarely venues where they can all fit. But once a year, the Sun Devil Marching Band takes its show to ASU Gammage, where it reprises the season’s halftime shows and records a CD.

This year’s Pass in Review concert is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in ASU Gammage. Tickets are $10.

CDs from the past three seasons are available from the band’s Web site, http://asubandswag.com or Sparky’s Stadium Shop, www.sparkysstadiumshop.com.