Artscope Magazine: Amy Arbus, "After Images"

I had the honor to interview the talented photographer Amy Arbus, daughter of the iconic photographer Diane Arbus and celebrated actor/photographer Allan Arbus ("M*A*S*H.")

Read an excerpt below, and check out more of her work here. 

After Images

The woman, eyes closed, body tinged an earthen orange-red, gently caresses the breast of an attendant crow cradled in her hand. It is a tender image, for she and the (stuffed) bird appear in repose and adoration, content with one another’s company.

But for the classic art literate, there is something hauntingly familiar here, a shadow, a gossamer memory. Only upon reflection does one realize it is a living homage to Pablo Picasso’s “Woman with a Crow,” crafted toward the end of the artist’s “Blue Period.”

Titled “Nina/After Crow,” it is one in a series of portraits by Amy Arbus — she of a dynasty of photographers of both the odd and the everyday — that literally bring to life the works of some of the world’s most beloved painters.

The traveling exhibit and accompanying book, “After Images,” to be on display through May 24 at Mitchell•Giddings Fine Arts in Brattleboro, is both surreal and visceral, a loving tribute but also a commanding re-interpretation of classic portraiture.

“It was a very concentrated project,”said Arbus, who lives in New York City and partners most prominently with the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, which is collaborating with the Provincetown Art Association and Museum to present the exhibition at PAAM this fall.

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WPI Daily Herd: France's Let's Pix to investigate Robert Harvey's "Miralin"

French TV at Library
Posted April 21, 2015 in "Gordon Library"

French television visits Gordon Library, shoots segment on Robert Harvey Collection

Producer Julia Montfort and journalist Guy Lagache of Paris-based production company Let’s Pix speak with Jess Colati (center) at the Gordon Library about WPI’s extensive Robert J. Harvey collection.

“Success” and “failure” are two labels we often hear in various contexts. Both are loaded terms, intensely subjective, and, very often, interdependent.

Serial entrepreneur and WPI alum Robert Harvey (PhD ’70) experienced both—and, more important, learned from both.

One of his deemed “failures,” an artificial sweetener called Miralin that he attempted to bring to market in the 1970s is to be the subject of an upcoming French investigative documentary.

Earlier this month, a film crew from the Paris-based production company Let’s Pix spent a day at the Gordon Library, culling through WPI’s extensive Robert J. Harvey collection and shooting segments for the film.

“They were so excited when we opened the boxes—’This is what we’ve been looking for!’” recalls Jess Colati, the library’s assistant director of curation, preservation, and archives.

The roughly 45-minute documentary, hosted by French journalist Guy Lagache, is still in production and is expected to air as part of a larger 90-minute piece later this year, according to Colati. The core focus will be on Harvey’s development and marketing of Miralin, what he deemed a “miracle fruit” natural sweetener, which never came to market because it was ultimately denied FDA approval.

Harvey, a Pittsburgh native, West Point graduate, and Korean War veteran, received his PhD in biomedical engineering from WPI in 1970 (WPI boasted one of the few biomedical programs in the country at the time). Beyond his development of Miralin—the subject of his thesis—he also designed the first nuclear-powered artificial heart, which he received a patent for in 1968. The latter took up the bulk of his career; he co-founded the Thoratec Corp. in California, whose Ventricular Assist Device was implanted in patients awaiting heart transplants.

After his retirement in 1996, Harvey returned to WPI to serve as an entrepreneur-in-residence, teaching a course in business that dissected his successful and not-so-successful endeavors. “He had a lot of connections to WPI over a 40-year period,” Colati says.

Harvey’s collection, which was donated after his death in 2012 by his son, Brian D. Harvey, and is permanently organized and housed in the library’s Fellman Dickens Reading Room, is partly digitized and includes extensive records of his entrepreneurial pursuits, papers, theses, lab reports, company records, promotional materials, articles, correspondence, and photographs. According to Colati, it is one of roughly 70 personal papers collections at the library.

“It’s a trove of records related to really what we’d call ‘startups’ today,” she says. “Here was a man who was successful and at times unsuccessful in business. He clearly had some interesting ideas and innovations.”

Colati says she first received contact from Let’s Pix’s researcher-producer Julia Montfort last fall. She was told they were looking for locations that were “key to the Miralin story.”

They arranged to arrive on campus on April 6, and spent about 12 hours in the archives, poring over and filming digitized and as-yet-to-be digitized materials, including Harvey’s papers, FDA reports, early promotional paraphernalia, lab reports, and photographs of greenhouses where the actual “miracle fruit” was being grown.

The goal was to have host Lagache “discover the records, get those moments on film,” Colati explains. “It was a dual purpose of filming and discovering additional information.”

The intrigue is ultimately in Miralin’s demise. Harvey founded the Miralin company to test and market the product, and initially it was supported by the FDA because it was all-natural, says Colati. However, as it proved to be more and more successful, the process lagged; the FDA began to require significantly more testing than it initially indicated would be required, indicating that there might have been some backdoor lobbying or pressure from other artificial sweetener and sugar industry interests, she says.

Before folding the company, Harvey wrote in correspondence about how he was feeling pressured and being “unduly targeted,” says Colati. “He was suggesting that there’s something amiss at the FDA.”

After their visit to WPI, the Let’s Pix crew headed to Washington, D.C., to speak with FDA representatives, and planned to make a few other stops in the states for interviews and research. In the meantime, until the documentary airs, the collection is open to anyone looking to find out more about this unique and innovative WPI alum.

“He had some interesting vision, and he was able to act on it,” says Colati. “He was clearly a very dedicated person—he clearly wanted to help people.”

- BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link. 

WPI Daily Herd: Restoring a Masterpiece

Restoration of Adam
Posted on March 26, 2015 in "Students"

WPI student and professor assist Metropolitan Museum of Art in restoration of 500-year-old sculpture of Adam

It seemed a catastrophe. A classic, priceless piece of art and history nearly demolished.

A little after closing time on a Sunday in October 2002, a plywood pedestal supporting a life-size Renaissance-era marble statue of Adam collapsed, toppling the sculpture by Tullio Lombardo. It shattered into hundreds of fragments, an essential 500-year-old crime scene scattering the floor of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But hope, patience and meticulous contemplation eventually prevailed.

Dozens of experts from a variety of disciplines came together to accomplish the painstaking, 12-year-long task of literally piecing the artwork back together.

Among them was WPI civil engineering graduate student Jessica Rosewitz, under the tutelage of her thesis advisor, assistant professor Nima Rahbar.

“The great part of engineering,” Rosewitz says, “is the combination of mechanics of materials and design theory, and the ability to adapt these sciences to any situation.”

In her case, that meant performing what’s known as finite element analysis. The computational method simulated physical load tests (that is, applying pressure, observing, and measuring response) on 8-inch-tall, 6-inch-diameter marble cores. The cores had been cut at 45-degree angles, drilled and then pinned back together, with a half-dozen different pinning materials assessed.

The simulations used the same dimensions as physical tests, whose results were used to validate Rosewitz’s results.

But beyond matching simulations to physical tests, she explained, the goal was to gain a deeper understanding of failure mechanisms inherent in using a pin to secure two halves of stone together, and to answer the question of whether different pins would cause damage to marble when placed under pressure.

Ultimately, researchers came to the conclusion that fiberglass pins caused the least damage; in the end they were used in both of the statue’s ankles and its left knee, according to materials from the Met, whose conservators documented the entire process.

As Rosewitz notes, using engineering helped develop a deeper understanding of this particular project’s failure mechanisms. That is, “internal densification damage by compression and splitting by tension in the marble around the pin hole,” she explains, “and that a weaker pin such as fiberglass is a better choice than the traditional steel pin.”

The statue depicts “the first man,” as described in the Bible, naked but for a fig leaf, left arm holding aloft an apple, right arm subtly rested on a tree trunk. It was crafted by Lombardo for the tomb of Andrea Vendramin, who served as doge, or chief magistrate, of Venice in the 1470s.

In its unfortunate collapse, it split into 28 larger fragments and hundreds of smaller bits and shards; according to the Met, those were plotted on a grid and photographed, then the statue was reconstructed from the bottom up using 3-D imaging, pins, and specially designed, reversible adhesives. Once assembled, it was cleared of built-up dirt and cosmetically fixed, then returned to public view on Nov. 11.

“It was impressive to say the least,” Rosewitz says of the rehabilitated sculpture, which she viewed in person along with Rahbar in December. During that trip, she also presented her preliminary results to lead members of the restoration team, who, she says, were pleased with her work.

She began working on the project in the summer of 2014, following her first semester back to school after seven years working in consultant bridge design. She is basing her master of science thesis on the project.

In addition to learning that simulations are highly dependent on many variables, Rosewitz says that she also recognized there’s a strong need for more engineers in historic preservation.

“The conservators have taught me that it is worth asking the question ‘What was the artist’s intent?’ she says. “In their case it was used to decide whether to restore the statue or leave it broken. I believe this question can be applied to an engineering situation, and especially can assist architects and engineers to work better together.”

- BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link.

Photo credits:

Preparing to attach the head to the torso, (Left to right) Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas P. Campbell with Conservators Michael Morris, Carolyn Riccardelli, and Lawrence Becker. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph Studio/Christopher Heins.

Tullio Lombardo (1455-1532) marble sculpture of Adam 1490-95, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph Studio/Joseph Coscia, Jr.

WPI Daily Herd: Dr. Who, Upstream Color and Doing the Right Thing

Budding Journalists
Posted April 2, 2015 in "Students"

Two WPI students among Worcester’s budding writers published in The Worcester Journal

Alexandra D’Ordine ’17 is an unabashed, self-described “Whovian”–that is, she “absolutely loves” the enduring television show “Doctor Who.”

On the air for more than five decades in numerous iterations, she acknowledges its “endearing cheesiness,” but also points out how universal and influential it is.

“The stories have a deeper meaning if you’re willing to look for it, yet it’s entertaining on the surface,” she says.

The 19-year-old biochemistry and professional writing major expounds on the show’s history, impact on popular culture, and universality at length in her well-researched article “The Doctor Is In” in the latest edition of the online literary magazine, The Worcester Journal. Launched in September by WPI instructor and prolific writer James Dempsey, it provides a showcase for budding young writers from greater Worcester.

D’Ordine and Warren “Michael” Singh ’17 represent WPI’s writing talent in the magazine’s second edition.

Singh, a chemical engineering major, contributed two critical essays to the Journal–one a review of the complex and existential 2013 film Upstream Color, the other an analysis of James Stein’s The Right Decision, a self-help book of sorts based on decision theory.
“Really, what appealed to me was that it seemed like an outlet for writing that didn’t fit into what is usually accessible to students on campus,” Singh, who enjoys writing but acknowledges that he doesn’t always have the “focus or intellectual impetus” to sit down and do so, says of contributing to the Journal. “That is, it wasn’t campus newspaper writing, which didn’t interest me in the slightest—and it wasn’t classroom writing, which meant that I could think about things to write about and just go for them at my own pace.”

D’Ordine, meanwhile, who has taken Dempsey’s Introduction to Journalism course, applauded the Journal’s diverse nature.

“I thought it was a good idea to represent college writers from Worcester in general, instead of one particular university,” she says.

With an emphasis on creative nonfiction, the magazine presents a menagerie of memoirs, poems, essays on history and pop culture, book and movie reviews, and photos and illustrations from local high school and college students.

In D’Ordine’s piece, she dissects the recent popularity of the reinvigorated “Doctor Who” franchise, which chronicles the exploits of a “Time Lord” and his living time machine, Time and Relative Dimension in Space (or, more popularly, T.A.R.D.I.S., housed in a telephone callbox).

“I enjoy writing because, even though I’m personally not a public speaker, I can organize my thoughts in writing and communicate with many others,” says D’Ordine, who plans to continue study of molecular biology and biochemistry in graduate school. “I want to use the writing skills I’m learning in conjunction with research to facilitate scientific communication among scientists and with the general public.”

Meanwhile, in his review of the high-concept, not-easily-defined “Upstream Color,” Singh describes the movie by Shane Carruth as “rife with alternative approaches to direction, narrative, writing, and sound,” and “definitely a film that is on the outer side of the artistic envelope.

His review of The Right Decision came about as part of a larger contemplative process. A bibliophile who describes bookstores as his “Kryptonite catnip,” Singh had been mulling the process of decision making, odds, and outcomes after reading a number of books and articles.

“The book was really fun and helpful in that it took techniques and analytical approaches from a quantitative field of study—game theory—and applied it to real life,” he explaines, noting the commonalities of both, including incomplete information and nebulously defined probabilities. “It was fantastic to have this concrete methodology with which to approach making good decisions.”

However, he says, it was also a reality check, because in life, outcomes are uncertain, “correct” actions aren’t guaranteed to lead to good results, and good things can happen to bad people (and vice versa).

“A’s (and success) really aren’t awarded for effort,” says Singh. “But knowing how to make good decisions makes it much more comforting. You’re able to say to yourself, ‘even if things turned out badly, I did everything I could with what I had at the time.’”

Dempsey was integral to the pre-writing process, he says—a trusted mentor to bounce ideas off of.

D’Ordine, meanwhile, says that she applied feedback learned throughout Dempsey’s journalism class to her revision process. “By the end of the class I felt like I was on my way to developing a more journalistic voice to use in the future.”

A copy editor for The Towers, she says she generally likes to write about campus events, particularly those related to music. She also tutors at WPI’s Writing Center with a goal to “help others discover not only the practicality of writing, but how it can be a great way to find their voice,” she says. “Everyone has their own nuances and style.”

D’Ordine’s "The Doctor Is In."

Singh’s Doing the Right Thing. 

Singh’s Upstream Color. 

BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link. 

WPI Daily Herd: The Innovators of Tomorrow (The winners!!)

Mass Academy Repeats

Posted Mar 18, 2015 in “News”

Mass Academy of Math and Science takes top honors at Worcester Regional Science and Engineering Fair

Identity theft is an all-too-common side effect of 21st century conveniences—according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 16.6 million people were victims in 2012 alone.

When it comes to our Smartphones, 17-year-old Yashaswini Makaram knew there had to be a better—and more convenient—method than simple password protection. So the analytically minded student at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI set about to experimenting.

The result is her project, “The Phoney Lift: Using Accelerometers to Identify People,” which placed No. 1 in the 60th annual Worcester Regional Science and Engineering Fair, held at WPI on March 13. Her ongoing endeavor makes use of accelerometers, gyroscopes, hundreds of measurements, and trigonometric computations, ultimately determining nine observations that define a person.

“I like the area that I’m working in right now,” Makaram said. “I want to do something closer to the edge, mixing the different fields of science.”

Makaram’s work was chosen from among 126 projects by 163 area high school students, with awards given out following a keynote by President Laurie Leshin. Now Makaram and five other top finishers will go on to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh in May. Forty-two other students were given honorable mentions, qualifying them as regional delegates to the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair, to be held May 1 and 2 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mass Academy dominated Friday’s fair, claiming five of the top six awards.

“Every year they seem to outdo themselves,” Mass Academy director Mike Barney said as the winning students mugged for photos on the Alden Hall stage nearby. They typically start brainstorming in August, he said—a full half-year ahead of time—and all their work is from scratch. “All this is original research. The students work so hard.”

The regional competition is open annually to students in 9th through 12th grades from numerous public, private, parochial, charter, and home schools in Central Massachusetts. The middle school division of the fair is to be held at WPI on May 5.

Projects were displayed all day Friday at the Odeum at the Campus Center; the hall was abuzz with conversation by budding scientists and engineers and their mentors, future instructors, and curious onlookers.

The works covered a wide swath of disciplines and topics—circadian rhythm disturbances on cricket neurodegeneration; affordable lower-limb prosthetics in developing countries; the effects of therapy dogs on human blood pressure; preventing concussions in contact sport collisions; light-following robots; electricity-generating backpacks; the benefits of volcanoes; electrolytes in drinks; and the spectrum of plant growth.

Roughly 100 judges from numerous fields—representing EMC, National Grid, Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, and U.S. Army Natick Soldier RD&E Center, among others—critiqued students on criteria such as originality, feasibility, clarity of oral presentation, application of quantitative and statistical tests, and effectiveness of visual display.

Serving as further inspiration for the great minds of tomorrow, President Leshin offered her keynote on her NASA work on the Mars rover Curiosity.

As she explained before the crowd of students, parents, and educators, the rover was designed to look for evidence that water once flowed on Mars. Its landing area was the 80-mile-wide Gale Crater, and it touched down at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2012.

“I remember the date extremely well, because it happened to be my birthday,” Leshin said. “It was a pretty good birthday present.”

Still, she and her team only spent a few minutes celebrating, she said; the rest of that night and the ensuing months were dedicated to work on the rover, which is outfitted with numerous cameras, weather instrumentation, spectrometers, chemical sensors, and a drill, scoop, and laser that shoots tiny holes in rocks.

What it has since discovered among Mars’s canyons, enormous volcanoes, and “thousands and thousands of dried-up river beds,” is a rounded pebble conglomerate similar to one that indicates water on earth. It has also photographed elaborate textured layers on rocks, a geometric pattern that tells scientists there were once flowing currents there. The crater that served as its landing pad was probably once a lake, Leshin posited.

“Was there anything swimming in that lake? We don’t know yet,” she said, explaining that the robot’s next mission is to make a slow crawl up the nearby Mt. Sharp.

Overall, “It’s a great mission,” she said, “It’s an exciting time.”

THE FAIR’S TOP FINISHERS:

Georgie Botev, Mass Academy, “Single Track Gray Codes: A General Construction and Extensions.”

Kyle Foster, Wachusett Regional High School, “They Get Knocked Down, But They Get Up Again!”

Marian Dogar, Mass Academy, “Effects of Turine on Memory Retention in D. Dorotocephala.”

Amol Punjabi, Mass Academy, “New Algorithms for Virtual Drug Screening Applied to Cancer.”

Aishwarrya Arivudainambi, Mass Academy, “Effects of Curcumin and Piperine on Development in D. rerio.”

Follow Curiosity on Twitter @marscuriosity or @laurieofmars.

Original link. 

- BY TARYN PLUMB

Boston Globe: Think spring!

Bring spring into your home with bright colors, bits of nature

By Taryn Plumb GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

MARCH 15, 2015

Photos by Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe / Jessica Rinaldi, Globe Staff / Debee Tlumacki

For once, fashion and life are perfectly aligned: Sunshine yellow is a prominent color in home décor this year.

Also pink, berry, emerald green, and overall “more saturated colors,” says interior decorator Shawn Strok of Franklin, while more “painterly, romantic flowers” are emerging in fabric designs.

“After this winter, everybody wants a little color,” agrees Darilynn Evans, owner of the Cohasset boutique Darilynn’s Home Presence.

“You can take an old drab chair and paint it a bright beautiful color for the spring,” says Ida Staffier Bial, owner of the Topsfield boutique Some Like it Old ... Some Like it New.

It’s doubtful that anyone who spent the last two months digging out from Greater Boston’s endless winter will argue for more white this year, either outdoors or in. In fact, decorators suggest a range of flourishes — both subtle and bold — that can help transform your drab winter hideaway into a warm, welcoming spring refuge.

BRING NATURE INDOORS

For starters, it doesn’t get much more colorful than flowers.

“Daffodils can really brighten up your home,” said Strok, with Decorating Den Interiors — Strok Design Team. Her suggestion: Place them in a clear glass vase with a layer of moss. Or display cut grass on a decorative platter; it’s simple yet earthy.

“Just a little bit of green really warms up a space,” said Linda Rubin of Quintessential Interiors in North Easton.

She suggests bamboo shoots, vines, and curly willows displayed in inexpensive glass vases.

Green touches could also be added with cyclamen plants, preserved boxwood, and topiaries.

And tulips, with their array of pastel hues, are an inexpensive way to freshen up a room.

Silk flowers are another option, Rubin said, as are the early-blooming cherry blossoms and forsythia, which, when placed on a mantle, “the color is just going to pop.”

ADD SOME WHIMSY

Other quick and painless ways to rejuvenate your space: Switch out doormats, sheets, accent pillows, shower curtains, table linens, napkins, place mats, and serving and dinnerware. Shedding the darker, heavier accoutrements of winter forthe lighter, brighter ones of spring can provide a surprising lift.

Even a fresh set of bath or kitchen towels can enliven the atmosphere, Evans pointed out.

“There are a lot of little things, easy ways just to lighten up, add pops of color around your house,” she said.

Evans suggests placing summery-scented candles around a room, creating table centerpieces with clear glass balls or shells, filling hurricane lamps with flowers or candles, and vases with lemons and limes.

Unusual pieces — such as antique bicycles, futuristic-looking floor lamps, and oil paintings by obscure artists — can be found at vintage stores such as Salvage LTD in Arlington.

Owner Ellen Aronson suggested accents such as antique cameras and globes, ceramics, and, of course, art.

“One object can change a room,” she said. “Finding the right painting or print really can change the look of a room and say something about you.”

Strok, meanwhile, said she likes to include elements such as bird statues arranged in a vignette, tucked away for guests to discover. “It adds whimsy to a room,” she said.

GET YOUR PAINTBRUSH

If you’re up for a project, get creative by painting an accent wall in your living room, or lightening up the color of a bathroom (Evans suggests a subtle pink). Or welcome visitors with a front door newly painted with a fun seasonal color (and, of course, along with it, a new welcome mat).

“Paint for anything does wonders,” said Evans. “It’s a very inexpensive fix. Plus it renews your spirit as well.”

You also might try using Chalk Paint, which can be used to coat and ultimately redefine any surface — fabrics, glass, brass, ceramics, wood — with a velvety matte finish. Popular overseas for a number of years and now catching on in this country, the paint brand can be found in 30-plus colors at Some Like it Old ... Some Like it New.

“You can change a kitchen really inexpensively,” said Staffier Bial, who has personally painted redone candelabras, chandeliers, glass vases, a dining room set, china cabinets, and kitchen cabinets (some on display in the store) with Chalk Paint.

DON’T OVERDO IT

Ultimately, when accessorizing, make it a goal to “bounce” a color three times in a given room to maximize its impact, advised Strok. (For example, display daffodils on a table, complementing them with a similarly bright pillow nearby and a splash of yellow on a carpet across the room.)

“We’re coming out of the economic downturn, finally, and people really want to express themselves with color,” Strok said.

But be sure not to overdo it, Rubin cautioned. Work with your existing colors to create a nice palette, and aim for clean lines.

“Enhance what you already have,” she said. “You don’t have to cover every square inch of a table, or a wall, or a mantle.”

Meanwhile, if you don’t feel like spending the money (or already have more than enough stuff), a quick and easy room rearrangement can pay an unexpected dividend.

Simply try changing up the mantel, centerpiece, or coffee table, Evans suggested (definitely removing any remainders of the holidays), swap out pictures, reposition lamps or tables, move artwork from one room to another, put heavy area rugs away.

“Roll it up and just make things simple and clean,” said Evans.

And there’s a reason it’s called spring cleaning. Notes Rubin: “Sometimes just decluttering can give you a breath of fresh air.”

Decorating tips

MARCH 15, 2015

Darilynn Evans

Darilynn’s Home Presence, Cohasset

On plants:

“Have vases of flowers around, tulips especially, because they’re very springy.”

On the dining room:

If you don’t want to invest in a whole new set of dishes, buy one or two accent plates or glasses.

On color:

“Anything white is always good. It makes things look crisp and fresh.”

Linda Rubin

Quintessential Interiors, North Easton

On patterns:

“Geometric is always nice to add — a geometric layered with a floral, or with a solid. But not over the top so your eyes don’t know where to rest.”

On furniture:

Buying just a couple of pieces of furniture in a nice fabric “will really bring the room to another level.”

On color:

“Tangerine is a nice crisp look; you can easily add white accents. It can look very sharp and upscale.”

Ida Staffier Bial

Owner of Some Like It Old...Some Like It New, Topsfield

On projects:

“One very quick-and-easy redo to add color is to paint your furniture.”

On chalk paints:

“They go with pretty much anything and everything,” with the most popular hues “soft greens, blues, neutrals, and gray.”

On general ways to freshen up for spring:

“Transform the living room by updating and adding colorful pictures, pillows, throws, rugs.”

Original story link.

Photo slideshow.