The exhibition will include pieces from the ongoing Space Field series, as well as work from Japan, Paris, Turkey, Mexico and Alaska. It will also feature work from several collaborations between Raphael and other artists.

Victor Raphael (born 1950) works in a wide range of media, spanning painting, photography, filmmaking, printmaking and digital technology. He creates complex and beautiful images that expand conventional views of time and space. For the past three decades, Raphael has produced a unique body of work by merging traditional media such as painting, photography and printmaking with modern electronic media, including video, digital printing and interactive technologies. In addition to his central themes of the exploration of the cosmos and aspects of travel — through space or time — and their visual records, the artist has developed an important body of paintings, in which water and its protean and timeless qualities form an important part.

Raphael's photography process of digitally manipulating NASA photographs of planets and other natural celestial phenomena into Polaroid prints, and next altering them by hand with metallic paints and gold and metal leaf, earned his work inclusion among the 50 best examples of Polaroid photography in Polaroid 50: Art and Technology, a 1996 international touring exhibition that commemorated the company's 50th anniversary.

Related Events

October 15
Songs in the Earth and Air, a concert of vocal improvisations inspired by Raphael's work.

October 23, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Artist talk. Raphael will discuss his body of work. Refreshments will be served.

October 29
Videos by Victor Raphael, a screening of six Raphael videos, and a discussion with the artist and David Wilson, director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Weekly: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat 09/09/2009 - 12/19/2009; 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM

University Park Campus USC Fisher Museum of Art Harris Hall

Array

Smith was the silver medal winner in the 2004 USA International Harp Competition. She made her National Symphony Orchestra debut in 2003 and has been honored in numerous competitions throughout the country. She performs as both an orchestral musician and concert artist.

Monday 11/23/2009: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

University Park Campus Ramo Recital Hall

Array

Author Russell Banks and filmmaker Atom Egoyan discuss the challenges and excitement of using history as a subject for literature and film.

Russell Banks is a novelist whose work spans the bleakest of contemporary stories (The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction) and a dazzling piece of historical recreation, Cloudsplitter, his novel recounting John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Banks’ novels turn on the understandings and misunderstandings brought by time, as characters challenge each other’s versions of the truth. Atom Egoyan’s films powerfully evoke the treachery of memory. His eerie and haunting visual style, particularly in his stunning adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter, uses our confidence in what we see to make us doubt what we know. Where Banks plays with the voices of four narrators, each undoing what came before, only to be deconstructed in turn, Egoyan, in films like Calendar, Exotica and Ararat, obsessively transforms vibrant images into memories before our eyes, moving us in and out of time, bringing the dead back and making the old young, just for a moment. 

Bringing these two geniuses of time construction together will open a new conversation about how we learn, forget and lie in time — and how history returns only to mock and mourn for us all.

The two will speak about their individual work, and then we will open a larger conversation about the particular challenges and excitement of using history as a subject for both literature and film and moving between the two media.

Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Monday 11/23/2009: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

Array

On November 24, 1859, the world changed. With the publication of a small volume, the modern world unfurled its banner.

Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species sold out instantly, and it has never been out of print since. It is that rare book to be celebrated in everything from T-shirts to bumper-stickers to "monkey trials."

Join USC College faculty and graduate students to celebrate the publication of The Origin of Species with cake, speeches, poems. Perhaps read your own favorite passage from Darwin, or your own favorite modern rewriting. And by all means, wear your Darwin T-shirts!

To RSVP, visit www.usc.edu/esvp and enter the event code "CC1124".

Tuesday 11/24/2009: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library LiteraTea Teahouse

Array

USC College's Laurie Brand and other Middle East scholars explore the meanings of charisma and liberation in the Muslim world.

The Arabic word for charisma, baraka (the source of our president's name), refers to a god-given power to lead people on a holy struggle for liberation. While Islamic liberation has reached the West primarily as a war against "American imperialism," it is also present in such disparate practices as Sufi dances and whirling dervishes, the spiritual quest for transcendence.

Tuesday 12/01/2009: 12:00 PM

University Park Campus University Club

Array

A conversation about texts and power in the Ottoman, Habsburg, Holy Roman, French and Russian empires.

Moderated by the USC College’s Robert English (International Relations) and Sarah Pratt (Slavic Languages and Literatures), this event offers a unique intra-USC colloquium that brings together faculty and graduate students from three different College departments. They will discuss texts and types of discourse that elucidate ambiguities of power and subordination involving the Ottoman, Habsburg, Holy Roman, French and Russian empires.

How do these struggles continue to shape our world?

Speakers will include Azade-Ayse Rorlich (associate professor of History and Slavic Languages and Literatures), Mehmet Sinan Birdal (International Relations graduate student), Antonia Szabari (assistant professor of French and Italian and Comparative Literature) and Yuliya Ilchuk (Slavic Languages and Literatures graduate student).

Tuesday 12/01/2009: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Social Sciences Building 250

Array

About Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008

Seven years of filming, five Olympic stories, one nation's preparation for the biggest sporting event in the world. The crew of Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008 took seven years to research, investigate, pursue and film five Olympic stories, leading to China's first Olympic Games.

About Gu Jun

Gu Jun graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1991. With a strong interest in anthropology and sociology, Gu took on a directorship position at China Central Television in 1993 and focused on documentary filmmaking. As she researched, interviewed and filmed people, places and events, her knowledge on social practices and social investigation increased. When it was announced in 2001 that the 29th Olympic Games had been awarded to Beijing, Gu began to divert her attention to the impact of the Olympics on Beijing; she dedicated herself to up-close research and investigation, documenting preparations for the Games.

For more information, please contact the USC East Asian Studies Center at (213) 740-2991 or easc@usc.edu. Please RSVP with your name and number of guests to eascrsvp@usc.edu.

Tuesday 12/01/2009: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

University Park Campus Leavey Library Auditorium

Array

Braided Sorrow had its world premiere at El Centro Su Teatro in Denver, was developed at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and [Inside] the Ford Summer Reading Series, and won the UC Irvine Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama.

Another Trevino Orta play, American Triage, was commissioned by the Marin Theatre Company and received a workshop production last year.

Currently, Trevino Orta is a resident playwright at the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco. She has taught playwriting at the San Francisco School for the Arts and holds an M.F.A. in Writing with a concentration in Poetry from the University of San Francisco.

Tuesday 12/01/2009: 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM

University Park Campus Waite Phillips Hall 206

Array

James G. Ellis is holder of the Robert R. Dockson Dean's Chair in Business Administration at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Panelists

• Warren Bennis, Ph.D., University Professor and distinguished professor of business administration; founding chairman, The USC Leadership Institute; author of The Essential Bennis and the forthcoming Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership
• John Hope Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE Inc.; vice chair, U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy; author, Love Leadership
• William G. George, professor of management practice, Harvard Business School; former chairman and CEO, Medtronic; author, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis

8 a.m. Breakfast reception and book signing. (Books will be available for purchase.)
8:30 a.m. Program and Q&A
9:30 a.m. Book signing and event conclusion

Due to limited space, RSVP is required by November 30. USC students, free; click here to RSVP. General public, $20; click here to RSVP.

Wednesday 12/02/2009: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM

University Park Campus Town and Gown

Array

Dr. Larabee oversees student organizations, leadership programs, the GPSS, the USG, the Program Board, and campus traditions like Conquest!, Homecoming, and the Order of the Torch. She has spent more than half of her career at USC, where she earned her doctorate in educational leadership. Larabee's extraordinary dedication to USC earned her the Student Affairs division award for Outstanding Dedication and Service.

Wednesday 12/02/2009: 12:00 PM - 12:50 PM

University Park Campus Ground Zero Performance Cafe

Array

A daring Indonesian film about a couple separated by their differing names for God.

Directed by Sammaria Simanjuntak
Written by Sally Anom Sari and Sammaria Simanjuntak

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Simanjuntak.

Admission is free and open to all.

About Cin(T)a

Cina (Sunny Soon), an 18 year-old college freshmen, is ready to conquer the world with a strong yet naive faith, since it has never been tested by failure. Annisa (Saira Jihan) is a 24-year-old college senior whose education was held back because of her career in the movie industry. Her fame and beauty leave her so lonely that she draws a sad face on her finger to serve as her companion. One day, another "finger" comes, and she is no longer lonely.

(T) is the most unpredictable character. Everybody tries to describe Him. Everybody thinks they know Him. Every art tries to represent Him. But nothing is really like Him... or Her? (T) loves Cina and Annisa, but Cina and Annisa can't love each other because they call (T) by different names.

The growth of Indonesian filmmaking in recent years has seen the theme of love reduced to a level that is too often exploited and simplified. With a love story that is seen through a different lens, Cin(T)a serves up a menu of various dialogues that peel apart the differences with honesty and wit. In reality, it is the acknowledgment and working through of our differences that spur our world to move forward; our differences must not be a reason for us to obstruct each other. Screenwriters Sammaria Simanjuntak and Sally Anom Sari have created a story that is simple, yet evocative of the multicultural conditions of Indonesia.

Provided courtesy of Semilan Matahari Film. Not rated. Running time: 79 minutes. In Indonesian, with English subtitles.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.

About Sammaria Simanjuntak

Simanjuntak was born in Bandung, Indonesia. She grew up in various places in that culturally diverse country, which exposed her to the beauty of differences.

Simanjuntak went to architecture school. After enjoying a year of a secure life as an architect, she realized that moviemaking was her personal destiny. She decided to give faith a fighting chance and pursued her dream.

About Outside the Box (Office)

Outside the Box (Office) is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases, highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Friday 12/04/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus George Lucas Instructional Building Albert and Dana Broccoli Theatre

Array

Dr. Gonghuan Yang presents on China’s new disease burden and the shift from infectious disease to a global chronic disease epidemic.

Dr. Gonghuan Yang, deputy minister of Health at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is a pioneer in China’s work on tobacco control and its chronic disease transition. She earned her medical degree from West-China Medical University in 1982, and studied epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1987 to 1988. Yang has published more than 70 academic papers in international and national journals and has written more than 10 monographs and books.

December 8
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

December 9
University Park Campus, Davidson Conference Center

Dates: 12/08/2009, 12/09/2009: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

Dr. Judith Mackay discusses the epidemic's challenges, successes and future direction as they apply to emerging world health threats.

Dr. Judith Mackay, visiting USC as part of the Provost Distinguished Visitors Program, is known for her personal charm and fervor. She was named one of Time’s 100 People Who Shape Our World for her tireless efforts on the global crusade against smoking. Dr. Mackay is senior adviser to the World Lung Foundation/Bloomberg Initiative To Reduce Tobacco Use; director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, and senior policy adviser to the World Health Organization. She earned her degree in medicine from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has lived in Hong Kong since 1967, initially working as a hospital physician and later concentrating on broader issues of public health, especially tobacco control. Dr. Mackay has authored and published atlases on tobacco, cancer, and human sexual behavior, among other works.

January 19
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

January 20
University Park Campus, Town and Gown

Hosted in partnership with the USC U.S.-China Institute and the School of Social Work 

Dates: 01/19/2010, 01/20/2010: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

Explore the music of the African diaspora in this entertaining, informative evening of music and conversation.

Scholars, students and celebrity guests will come together to present the historical evolution of bebop, doo-wop and hip-hop, three genres that emerged from the black experience.

Take a musical journey as students perform compositions from the three genres, including songs by the fathers of bebop, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie; the vocal-based R&B stylings of doo-wop; and contemporary selections of hip-hop.

Discussions will be interspersed throughout the night, exploring the unique and powerful history of these musical traditions. The evening will culminate in a rousing performance of an original composition incorporating aspects of all three genres.

Thursday 01/21/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

Array

A moving and provocative event explores the legacy of the Vietnam War, through two new Vietnamese films.

Schedule

2 p.m. Screening of Don’t Burn!
4 p.m. Panel Discussion
4:45 p.m. Reception
5:15 p.m. Screening of Oh, Saigon!
6:15 p.m. Discussion with filmmakers Doan Hoang and Dang Nhat Minh and author Andrew X. Pham

Join us for a screening and discussion of two new Vietnamese films, Don’t Burn! by Vietnam’s most acclaimed filmmaker, Dang Nhat Minh, and Oh, Saigon! by award-winning documentary filmmaker Doan Hoang. 

Don’t Burn! is based on the Vietnamese best-seller Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram, written by a young female doctor from North Vietnam who was killed during the war. The film tells the moving story of her personal experiences as well as the tale of how her diary, discovered by an American serviceman, narrowly escaped burning and was eventually returned to Vietnam, where it became an international publishing sensation. This is the first Vietnamese film shot in part in the United States. 

Oh, Saigon! tells another side of the war story, focusing on a Vietnamese family who fled Saigon on the last civilian airplane to leave in 1975. After 30 years in the United States, the family returns to visit relatives, some of whom fought on the other side of the conflict, and to make amends with one daughter left behind.

A discussion about the legacy of the Vietnam War will feature filmmakers Dang Nhat Minh and Doan Hoang and author Andrew X. Pham. Minh, Vietnam’s premier film director, has made more than a dozen films, featured at festivals throughout the world. Hoang is a Vietnamese-born filmmaker whose film Oh, Saigon! won the Best Documentary award at the Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles. Pham is the Vietnamese-born author of two acclaimed memoirs, Catfish and Mandala and The Eaves of Heaven, and translator of Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. 

Organized by Janet Hoskins (Anthropology) and Viet Nguyen (English and American Studies and Ethnicity). Co-sponsored by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, Asian American Studies, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Center for Trans-Pacific Studies.

Saturday 01/23/2010: 2:00 PM - 6:45 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

Array

Burtynsky is one of Canada’s most respected photographers, and an advocate for sustainable living practices.

Burtynsky’s remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of more than 50 museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His numerous distinctions include the TED Prize, the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles, three honorary doctorate degrees, and Canada’s highest civil honor: Officer of the Order of Canada.

Burtynsky takes us around the world in photographs, revealing places rarely seen. He makes beautiful yet terrifying images that illustrate a vital discussion about the colossal effects of economic and industrial growth upon our planet.

“During the course of my work — as the years have turned to decades — it has become clear to me that the plant, animal and mineral resources of the earth are overwhelmed by the robust wheels of economic progress. Cheap fuel in the form of oil, coupled with the internal combustion engine, has begun to tear at the edges of nature’s envelope. As my ideas have evolved, I’ve looked at railcuts, mines, quarries, oil fields and refineries, homesteads, farms, animal husbandry, taxidermy — all in search of images that describe our changing and complex relationship to nature.” — Edward Burtynsky

Organized by the USC Fisher Museum of Art

Thursday 01/28/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Harris Hall Gin D. Wong FAIA Conference Center

Array

A lecture by Dr. Derek Yach, who has spearheaded several major efforts to improve global health.

Throughout his career, Dr. Yach has worked to place tobacco control, nutrition and chronic diseases prominently on the agenda of governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. He currently serves as senior vice president of Global Health Policy at PepsiCo, where he leads the internal Global Human Sustainability Task Force responsible for engagement with major international policy, research and scientific groups. Dr. Yach holds a degree in medicine from the University of Cape Town Medical School and a Master of Public health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

During his visit, Dr. Yach will outline his vision of the role of corporations in global health.  Prior to joining PepsiCo, he had headed global health at the Rockefeller Foundation and was an executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO). While at WHO, Dr. Yach led development of WHO's first treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and the development of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health.

February 9
University Park Campus, Town and Gown, Ballroom

February 10
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

Hosted in partnership with the Marshall School of Business

Dates: 02/09/2010, 02/10/2010: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

How can museums attract the public today? Join us for an important conversation featuring several star museum professionals.

With multimillion-dollar blockbuster shows a dying species due to the economic crisis, how can museums attract the public? Who will go to them, and why should they bother?

This talk will delve into the subject of the new book Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values, edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Alvarez. Three museum professionals will join Holo and Alvarez to discuss the crisis in museums today and the opportunities to rise above it.

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and one of our most dynamic and creative art museum leaders, will discuss the transformation he is leading to make LACMA more relevant to a vital contemporary life in Los Angeles. Donny George Youkhanna, who served as director of the Baghdad Museum during the American invasion of Iraq and was witness to the looting of some of civilization’s keystone culture monuments, will share his thoughts about archaeology collections and their future in an ever more globalized world. Dr. Jorge Wagensberg, scientific director of the Foundation “la Caixa” and creator of CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, one of the world’s most exciting science museums, will contribute his idea that, unlike any other institution, museums can provide an experience of authenticity — a way of learning that emanates not from the word, but from the world.

The event will be moderated by Selma Holo, director of USC’s Fisher Museum and its new International Museum Institute. It will also include remarks by Mari-Tere Alvarez, project specialist in the department of education at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Holo and Alvarez’s new book, Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values, examines what museums — whether devoted to art or science or history — must do to be indispensable to society today and in the future. Their book is changing the conversation in the museum world from “How many came to the show, and how much money did we make today?” to “How did our museum serve and change society today? How did it help to make society better, smarter, more tolerant and more creative?”

Please join us and be a part of this new conversation.

A reception and book signing will follow.

Thursday 02/11/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 240

Array

Family physician Dr. Howard Brody discusses the ethical implications of the widespread implementation of electronic medical records.

Touted as a prime tool to prevent medical error and cut health care costs, the electronic medical record (EMR) has been attacked by some as cumbersome and likely to cause — rather than prevent — errors. Professionalism requires that physicians put the interests of their patients ahead of profit-making. Dr. Brody, a bioethicist, considers how the EMR may enhance or detract from the physician-patient relationship.

Dr. Brody is director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and author of The Future of Bioethics. Previously, he was the University Distinguished Professor of Family Practice, Philosophy, and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing. Dr. Brody has written numerous articles on medical ethics, family medicine and the philosophy of medicine. His current research interests include the importance of an interdisciplinary humanities base for bioethics, ethical issues in primary care, community engagement in bioethics, and professional integrity in both medical practice and clinical research.

A reception will follow in the Hoyt Gallery.

Friday 02/12/2010: 3:00 PM

Health Sciences Campus Mayer Auditorium

Array

C.E.B. Reas gives a lecture and workshops exploring the history of Processing, the programming language he co-developed.

Lecture
Wednesday, February 17, 6 p.m.
Kerckhoff Hall

Workshops
February 19, February 26, March 5, 12-3 p.m.
Egg Company Building, Institute for Multimedia Literacy, Blue Lab
Reservations are required.

In 2001, C.E.B. Reas and Ben Fry developed a free, easy-to-use programming language called Processing, which allows artists and designers with little background in coding to experiment with the programming of images, animation and interactivity. The result has been an explosion of moving-image artworks and a community devoted to Processing’s use.

This series will explore the history and development of Processing with a presentation by Reas and several workshops designed to allow USC students and faculty to explore Processing as a kind of software sketchbook.

Based in Los Angeles, C.E.B. Reas focuses on defining processes and translating them into images. He is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Design and Media Arts at UCLA. Reas has exhibited his work internationally at institutions, independent venues, galleries and festivals, including LAboral (Spain); the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (New York); the National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design (Oslo); Telic Arts Exchange (Los Angeles); <>TAG (The Hague); Egopark (Oakland); Bitforms (New York); [DAM]Berlin; Sónar (Barcelona); Ars Electronica (Linz); and Microwave (Hong Kong). With Ben Fry, Reas published Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, a 736-page comprehensive introduction to programming within the context of visual media.

Wednesday 02/17/2010: 6:00 PM

University Park Campus

Array

A look at filmic works from Japan, by some of the most creative and accomplished filmmakers working today.

The recent Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Departures, directed by Yojiro Takita, has given new international visibility to the rich and dynamic history and tradition of Japanese cinema. Often overshadowed by the celebrated directors of the past, such as Ozu Yasujiro and Akira Kurosawa, contemporary Japanese filmmakers in fact are among the most creative and accomplished practitioners of the art. Filmmakers like Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinji Aoyama, Nobuhiro Suwa and Takashi Miike have established themselves as unique within a highly diverse film culture, reflecting changes in Japanese art, culture and society.

This festival will showcase a selection of these works and will include discussions with invited scholars and filmmakers.

Daily: Friday 02/19/2010 - Sunday 02/21/2010; All day

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

Array

Dean Qingyun Ma leads a conversation with city planners and administrators from four landmark cities: L.A., London, Mexico City and Shanghai.

As the world moves toward a global urbanism and centers issues of sustainability and international collaboration, cities are not so much planned as re-planned and reborn.

Qingyun Ma, dean of the USC School of Architecture, will moderate a conversation with city planners and administrators in which they discuss the present and future of urban planning in the flux of unpredictable, migrant forces and the shaping of iconic, livable cities. From the sprawl of Los Angeles to the expanding megacities of Mexico City and Shanghai, the juxtapositions of cultural, political and spatial differences will demonstrate how creative agents can transform a city physically and socially.

Wednesday 02/24/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

Array

Magician Ricky Jay and USC professor Howard A. Rodman come together for a dialogue on deception in magic, film and real life.

They will entertainingly explore many of the themes of Mr. Jay’s work, including the selective unreliability of memory; the ways in which the mechanisms of perception allow us to misperceive; and the cognitive and psychological bases of con artistry and magic.

One of the larger foci of the conversation will be what Mr. Jay calls “The Big Con” — the ways in which our own agendas create conditions of non- and misperception. This con is at the heart of most magic tricks, much governance and every Ponzi scheme, and is also the perceptual and narrative basis for cinema.

Mr. Jay and Prof. Rodman will explore the ways in which the human capacity for self-deception is at the heart of much that is enjoyable and essential in modern life (literature, cinema), and much that is execrable (e.g., Bernie Madoff). It is not always possible to know, in the moment, which of our self-deceptions are salutary and which are malign. More often than not, we are unaware of our own self-deception or, worse, eager participants in it.

This delightful and compelling conversation will parse these various cons, illuminating the fields of magic and screenwriting and some of the more bizarre and omnipresent aspects of contemporary life.

While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists, his career is further distinguished by a remarkable variety of accomplishments as an author, actor, historian and consultant. His one-man show Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants was directed by David Mamet and garnered Lucille Lortel and Obie awards for outstanding achievement. His most recent show, Ricky Jay: On the Stem, also directed by Mamet, just closed a seven-month, critically acclaimed run in New York. As an actor, Mr. Jay debuted in the Joseph Papp production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in the David Mamet films House of Games, Homicide, Things Change, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main and Heist. He can be seen in many other films, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Tomorrow Never Dies. He has contributed to many publications and written several books, including Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women and Jay’s Journal of Anomalies, both of which were named “Notable Books of the Year” by The New York Times. He has hosted television specials for CBS, HBO and the BBC, and was the host and narrator of the first documentary miniseries on conjuring, The Story of Magic, for A&E.

Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, novelist and educator. He is a professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. His films include Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, and August, with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn and David Bowie. His work on Savage Grace was nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. Rodman also wrote Joe Gould’s Secret, and his original screenplay F. was selected by Premiere magazine as one of Hollywood’s 10 best unproduced screenplays. He has worked with numerous filmmakers, including David Lynch, John McTiernan, Rodrigo García, Errol Morris, Clive Barker, Peter Bogdanovich, Maurice Sendak, Michael Lehmann, Chantal Akerman and Steven Soderbergh (who repaid the favor by giving the name Mr. Rodman to two of the sleazier characters in The Underneath and Traffic). His numerous publications include the novel Destiny Express and articles in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles magazine and The Village Voice (for which he was a monthly columnist). He currently blogs for The Huffington Post.

Friday 02/26/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

Array

Alumnus Joe Cerrell returns to campus to share his experiences and views as a leader in global health policy and advocacy.

Cerrell is the director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's leading funders for global health work in low- and middle-income countries. At the foundation, Cerrell oversees the foundation's work in global health communications, public policy and international finance. In this capacity, he manages a policy and advocacy grant-making portfolio, and oversees relations with governments, NGOs, the private sector, multilateral organizations, and other foundations. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, he served as assistant press secretary to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; Cerrell was a senior member of a team responsible for advising the vice president on energy and environmental issues, and was a White House liaison to the media, elected officials, and industry, environmental, religious and labor leaders.

March 2
University Park Campus, Town and Gown, Ballroom

March 3
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

Hosted in partnership with Hollywood, Health and Society

Dates: 03/02/2010, 03/03/2010: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

Gritty short films, music videos and docs from Kourtrajmé Productions, a Paris-based collective of emerging visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians.

“Beautiful women, ugly illegal immigrants, Romanian sneaker pimps, coked-up fashion babes, down-and-out thugs eating shish kebab at 3 a.m. Welcome to our Paris.” — Kourtrajmé Productions, as quoted in Anthem magazine

Kourtrajmé Productions is a collective of emerging French and Francophone visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed directors Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel, this production house and artist collective has garnered increasing attention and acclaim after getting millions of hits on online sites like Dailymotion and YouTube. Founded by Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras and Toumani Sangaré, Kourtrajmé produces playful innovations and cutting interventions in popular culture and society that represent the cultural dreams, lives and crises of transnational urban and peri-urban French youth today.

This is a chance to explore the short films, music videos and documentaries that represent what legendary French filmmaker Chris Marker calls a “nouvelle nouvelle vague” of French cinema. Directors from the collective, including Ladj Ly and Toumani Sangaré, will be on hand to answer questions and discuss the group’s history and work.

Organized by Edwin Hill (French and Comparative Literature). Co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian and French Cultural Services, Los Angeles.

Friday 03/05/2010: 6:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

Array

Dr. Ira Byock, an expert in hospice and palliative care, discusses the responsibilities and challenges of life’s final stages.

Death is central to the meaning and value of human life as experienced by individuals and by communities. While death does not give meaning to life, it does provide a backdrop against which life is lived. Acting on behalf of society, the clinical professions bear critical responsibilities for caring for those who are dying and bereaved. However, over-reliance on professionals as a means of distancing ourselves from death and grief can diminish the fullness and richness of living. Individuals and communities have the capacity to respond to the ultimate problem of death in a creative manner that can reflect and advance values of human work, dignity and enduring connection. Clinical professionals can lead by setting standards for excellence and providing care that is not only competent but unabashedly loving.

These issues will be explored by Ira Byock, M.D., director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and author of Dying Well and The Four Things That Matter Most.

Dr. Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978. At that time, he helped found a hospice-home-care program for the indigent population served by the university hospital and county clinics of Fresno, California. He is a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. During the 1990s, he was a co-founder and principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community-based organization in Montana dedicated to research about and transformation of the end-of-life experience. Dr. Byock has authored numerous articles, and his first book, Dying Well, has become a standard in the field. His most recent book, The Four Things That Matter Most, is used widely as a counseling tool by palliative care and hospice programs, as well as within pastoral care.

Following the talk, there will be a reception in the Hoyt Gallery.

Organized by Pamela Schaff (Pediatrics and Keck Educational Affairs), Erin Quinn (Family Medicine and Keck Admissions) and Hilary Schor (English and Law). Co-sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine’s Program in Medical Humanities, Arts and Ethics and the USC Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics.

Friday 03/12/2010: 3:00 PM

Health Sciences Campus Mayer Auditorium

Array

A satellite broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s unforgettable new production of Hamlet, starring Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay.

This event is part of an ongoing series of broadcasts presented in spectacular HD digital projection and 5.1 surround sound.

Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.

Conducted by Louis Langrée. Presented in French with English subtitles.

The opera will be preceded by a discussion hosted by the USC Thornton School of Music.

The opera is presented as a rebroadcast of a live performance taking place at The Metropolitan Opera in New York at 10 a.m. that day.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts in association with The Metropolitan Opera.

Saturday 03/27/2010: 12:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

Array

By the year 2020, will the seductions of virtual worlds triumph over our desires for communal forms of entertainment?

A panel discussion moderated by Martin Kaplan, director of the USC Annenberg School’s Norman Lear Center, will ask whether people will still go to the theater, movies and museums as home entertainment becomes more sophisticated. In turn, how will this affect the business of entertainment and our culture as a whole?

The discussion will feature Mark Murphy, executive director of REDCAT, an interdisciplinary arts center housed at Walt Disney Concert Hall; longtime Time movie reviewer Richard Schickel; and Tracy Fullerton, associate professor in interactive media at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab.

Organized by the USC Libraries and the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities

Monday 03/29/2010: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 233

Array

Reporter Jon Cohen discusses his work documenting international disease funding and the role of investigative journalism in addressing global epidemics.

Award-winning journalist Jon Cohen has covered infectious diseases for 15 years, traveling extensively through the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and Mexico. In addition to reporting on a wide range of scientific and medical topics for Science, Cohen has done in-depth, investigative stories about the National Institutes of Health, bio defense, tobacco industry funding of science, the vaccine industry, credit battles, the genomics revolution, and the science press itself. He has also written for The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Talk, Discover, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Slate, The New Republic, Surfer and other publications.

April 6
University Park Campus, Davidson Conference Center

April 7
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

Hosted in partnership with the Annenberg School for Journalism and the Center for Health and Medical Communication

Dates: 04/06/2010, 04/07/2010: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

Explore the utopian aspirations — and dreams of transcendence — in ’50s and ’60s automotive design and youth car-mod subcultures.

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Car Show
Trousdale Parkway

3 p.m. Panel Discussion
Alumni Park

Throughout the day, stop by Trousdale Parkway to check out a display of historic automobiles from the golden era of California car culture, including space age concept cars and vintage hot rods.

In the afternoon, join us for a panel discussion with Curtis Marez, professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Cinematic Arts at USC; Leslie Kendall, curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum; and Beth Werling, collections manager of Material Culture at the Museum of Natural History.

In addition, the USC Libraries will present an exhibition of historic photographs showing the influences of futurist design and lowrider, hot-rod and street-racing subcultures on Southern California car culture, immortalized in such films as American Graffiti.

Wednesday 04/07/2010: All day

University Park Campus

Array

A dynamic multimedia presentation explores the exciting possibilities for using art and technology to explore humanity and create community.

The extraordinary work of internationally acclaimed electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is engaging, provocative and beautiful. Born in Mexico City and currently living in Montreal, Lozano-Hemmer develops large-scale interactive installations in public space, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Using robotics, projections, sound, Internet and cell phone links, sensors and other devices, his installations aim to provide, in his words, “temporary anti-monuments for alien agency.” His kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installations and photography have been shown in more than 30 countries, and his work has been commissioned for such events as the United Nations’ World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the celebration of the expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco student massacre in Mexico City (2008), and the Vancouver Olympics (2010).

In this multimedia event, Lozano-Hemmer will discuss his award-winning work.

Organized by Visions and Voices. Co-sponsored by the USC Fisher Museum of Art and the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.

Wednesday 04/14/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

Array

Scholars, musicians and musicologists describe how Wagner's Ring Cycle influences the way we think, feel and imagine the 21st century world.

How have The Ring themes and symbols permeated literature, philosophy, psychology, and even movies and cartoons? In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences presents a panel that will take on the idea of the hero, violence and the cult of masculinity, "the mythic," the development of fascist theories (and governments), the power of the unconscious, the allure of death, and the mob.

No singing required. Mind-opening insights guaranteed.

Moderator

• James R. Kincaid, USC Aerol Arnold Professor of English

Speakers

• Leo B. Braudy, University Professor, Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, professor of English
• Roberto Ignacio Diáz, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature
• John P. Nuckols, vice president, Advancement, L.A. Opera
• John Carlos Rowe, USC Associates Chair in Humanities, professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity
  

Registration will open in Spring 2010.

Thursday 04/15/2010: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

University Park Campus

Array

Join us for a reading and book signing with Robert Pinsky, a world renowned poet, literary critic and translator.

Pinsky’s translation of Dante’s Inferno is among the most praised poetical reimaginings of our time, and his own poetry, including such prize-winning volumes as An Explanation of America, The Figured Wheel and Sadness and Happiness, continues to inspire a wide range of readers. In the book-length essay Thousands of Broadways: Dreams and Nightmares of the American Small Town, Pinsky travels seamlessly from personal history to literary analysis to film. The works of Preston Sturges and Alfred Hitchcock meet up with dazzling insouciance with such writers as William Faulkner, Willa Cather and Thornton Wilder. In his work as U.S. poet laureate and as creator of the Favorite Poem project, Pinsky makes us take literature more seriously and see the way the artistic imagination creates, recreates and transforms the world around us.

In this reading and book signing, Pinsky will bring together his work as a poet and essayist, just as he brings together the very different media of poetry and film, helping us to map the literary terrain of the contemporary world.

Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Co-sponsored by The College Commons.

Monday 04/19/2010: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 240

Array

Preeminent conductor James Conlon explores Wagner’s controversial personality in relation to bigotry, racism and prejudice.

James Conlon, the music director of L.A. Opera, will look at these issues as they relate to Wagner’s time and ours. The event will be presented in conjunction with the USC Thornton production of the Wagner opera Das Liebesverbot.

James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire and has developed enduring relationships with the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974, Conlon has appeared as a guest conductor with virtually every major North American and European orchestra and has frequently been a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to serving as the music director of L.A. Opera, he is the music director of the Ravinia Festival (the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and the Cincinnati May Festival.

In an effort to raise awareness of the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were suppressed by the Nazi regime, Conlon has also been devoted to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe. At both the Ravinia Festival and the L.A. Opera, he continues to program works by these composers, including Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff and Ernest Krenek.

In 2009, Conlon won two Grammy Awards (Best Classical Recording and Best Opera Album) for conducting L.A. Opera’s production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. During the 2009–10 season at the L.A. Opera, Mr. Conlon will conduct Wagner’s Ring cycle, beginning this season with the first two installments of the cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. It will be Conlon’s first time conducting this work in the United States.

Tuesday 04/20/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bing Theatre

Array

This festival will present a wide selection of Corman’s work, interspersed with discussions between directors, producers and actors.

In an extraordinarily prolific career spanning more than five decades, Los Angeles–based independent filmmaker Roger Corman has produced more than 380 motion pictures and television programs and directed more than 50 films. Now in his 80s, he continues to be an active producer, having completed four projects in 2008 alone. Often called the “King of the Bs,” Corman prefers the term “exploitation” to describe his films. Shot quickly with very low budgets and themes ranging from horror to science fiction, nearly all of Corman’s films, he proudly notes, have made money.

In this festival, directors, producers and actors Corman nurtured at the beginning of their careers, along with others from the entertainment industry, will discuss his influence as an independent producer, as well as his successful business model of producing and distributing films throughout the world.

Screenings may include: Little Shop of Horrors (starring Jack Nicholson), House of Usher, Death Race 2000, Piranha, Boxcar Bertha (directed by Martin Scorsese), Caged Heat (directed by Jonathan Demme), Grand Theft Auto (directed by Ron Howard), The Trip (written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper), X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (starring Oscar-winning actor Ray Milland) and Dementia 13 (directed by Francis Ford Coppola).

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts

Daily: Friday 04/23/2010 - Sunday 04/25/2010; All day

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

Array

Acclaimed scholar and lawyer Larry Gostin considers the ethical issues surrounding the health needs of the planet’s poorest citizens.

Professor Gostin teaches Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He holds multiple faculty appointments, including professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University and director of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities — a collaborating center of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gostin is visiting professor of Public Health (Faculty of Medical Sciences) and research fellow (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies) at Oxford University. Professor Gostin is the Health Law and Ethics editor and contributing writer for the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2007, the director general of the World Health Organization appointed Gostin to the International Health Regulations Roster of Experts and the Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health. Gostin currently chairs the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Health Informational Privacy, and has chaired committees on genomics and on prisoner research. The IOM awarded Professor Gostin the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal for distinguished service to further its mission of science and health. Gostin’s recent books include Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California Press, 2nd ed., 2008); Biosecurity In The Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health, and the Rule of Law (Stanford University Press, 2008); Public Health Ethics: Theory, Policy and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2007); and The AIDS Pandemic: Complacency, Injustice, and Unfulfilled Expectations (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).
 
May 11
Health Sciences Campus, Aresty Auditorium

May 12
University Park Campus, Town and Gown, Ballroom

Hosted in partnership with the Gould School of Law and the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Dates: 05/11/2010, 05/12/2010: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Multiple Locations

Array

Professor James Kincaid and guest speakers will lead discussions, small-group work and hands-on activities to explore questions such as: the origin of the Ring cycle story; the operas' political backdrop; literary influences upon Emerson, Whitman, Joyce, T.S. Eliot and others; and Wagnerian intersections with issues of gender, melodrama, anti-Semitism and popular culture.

Guest speakers will include USC faculty members in philosophy, art history, English, comparative literature, Italian and music, as well as representatives from the Los Angeles Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other cultural institutions.

There will be four sessions:

June 7, 7-9:30 p.m.
University Park Campus, Taper Hall

June 12, Time TBA
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Backstage

June 14, 7-9:30 p.m.
University Park Campus, Taper Hall

Monday, June 21, 7-9:30 p.m.
University Park Campus, Taper Hall

Dates: 06/07/2010, 06/12/2010, 06/14/2010, 06/21/2010: All day

University Park Campus Multiple Locations

Array