Spring 2013
Schedule of ATLAS Black Box theater events
produced by the ATLAS Center for Media, Arts and Performance (CMAP)
Performances are free and open to the public. The venue, the ATLAS Black Box theater, is located downstairs, lowest basement level B2 in the Roser ATLAS building. Seating is limited and first-come, first-served. It is suggested that audiences arrive 15 minutes before show time.
Previous events
SuperCollider 2013 Symposium
The SuperCollider Symposium is an international event for musicians, artists, researchers and coders working with SuperCollider software. It features a technical conference, introductory workshops and a diverse program of music and art. Stay in touch with the symposium website for a detailed schedule of events as they are updated.
Monday, May 20, downstairs Black Box theater
The Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts (CMKY) features Brain Pulse Music by Masaki Batoh
This popular annual festival will feature Brain Pulse Music by Masaki Batoh, a performance that will use live, human brainwaves in real-time to create sound. See the article in Wired magazine about his work.
Note: Due to limited space, CU-Boulder students, faculty and staff with valid campus ID will have admittance/seating priority over the general public. Stay in touch with the CMKY website for a detailed schedule of festival events.
7:45 p.m. Friday, April 26, downstairs Black Box theater,
level B2
Two choreographers. Two dance shows.
One evening with a synthesis of Hip Hop, psychology and theater.
Enjoy an evening of multimedia dance performed by 14 dancers choreographed by CU BFA dance student Skye Hughes and Charlie Dando, founding dancer/choreographer of Boulder’s award-winning Break Efx dance company.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, April 5 & 6, downstairs Black Box theater
Brakhage Center Symposium
The Brakhage Center Symposium is a forum to discuss and explore contemporary experimental film. Since 2005, it has brought together contemporary filmmakers, scholars, critics, curators and members of the public annually. Through screenings and discussions, the symposium will explore art practices and assumptions about cinema art, the historical avant-garde and the media arts. Admission is free, but due to limited seating, registration is recommended. Contact
Eric Coombs to register. Stay in touch with this Brakhage Symposium Web page for a detailed schedule of events and locations as they are updated.
Saturday & Sunday, March 16 & 17, downstairs Black Box theater
and downstairs in the Visual Arts Complex next door, room 1B20
The Boulder Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk)
Enjoy a variety of original pieces under the direction of John Gunther, an assistant professor of jazz studies at CU. BLOrk is an eclectic ensemble of musicians equipped with laptops, hemispherical speakers, traditional instruments and MIDI controllers.
7:30 p.m. March 2, Saturday, downstairs Black Box theater
Pendulum New Music
The Pendulum New Music concert series, now in its 12th season, presents the best of new music with CU faculty, students and guest artists. Stay in touch with the Pendulum website for more details, a list of performing artists and their pieces as they are confirmed.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, downstairs Black Box theater
Canvas – multimedia concert by Cole Ingraham
CU College of Music doctoral student Cole Ingraham will present a live solo concert surrounded by floor to ceiling screens filled with his original animated video paintings and 8.1 surround-sound – an immersive environmental experience for the audience. The performance will be created and controlled live on an iPad and Moog Guitar.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Feb. 15 & 16, downstairs Black Box theater
Boxes – multimedia theater debut walks the boundary between abstract and real
Boxes, written and directed by Raechel Sherwood, is a show that walks the line between the real and abstract while it examines the boxes and limitations we create for ourselves and others. It explores ideas put forth by chaos theory that suggests long-term prediction is impossible; there is no order to things; nothing is fated or preordained. Interestingly, the play includes two characters who move forward in time, two who move backward and two characters who do not exist in time.
A 12-piece orchestra will bridge the moments between scenes and serve as a musical backdrop. Dancers will illuminate and amplify particular moments. CU doctoral music candidates Cole Ingraham will design the graphics for the show that will fill the theater’s walls and Hunter Ewen will supervise the technical elements of the show. Hugh Lobel helped compose the electronic music.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Feb. 1 & 2, downstairs Black Box theater
For a video excerpt of this performance, click here.
ATLAS Speaker Series: Digital Media and Music as an Instrument for Social Change
Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) will discuss his recent work exploring digital media, music and the ways that art can open minds and help people gain new perspectives on issues like climate change. He will perform his mix of electronic compositions (using his own DJ app) accompanied by CU students on violin and cello. Miller is a multimedia digital artist, author
of “The Book of Ice” and the first artist-in-residence at NYC’s Metro-
politan Museum of Art. His visit is sponsored by ATLAS Institute, the
President’s Fund for the Humani-ties and the Program for Writing
and Rhetoric. The ATLAS Speaker Series is made possible by a generous donation by Idit Harel Caperton and Anat Harel.
Visit http://www.djspooky.com.
6-7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6, downstairs Black Box theater
For a video of this event, click here.
[ABSURDUS] corpus –
interdisciplinary dance performance
[ABSURDUS] corpus, produced and choreographed by CU's Nathan Blackwell, is an exploration of the gay male within society and his relationship to the female body and Western religious institutions. The shifting world of gender and religion will be explored and physicalized through abstract movement, film and music.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Jan. 18 & 19, 2013, downstairs Black Box theater
For a video excerpt of this performance, click here.
Pamela Z: Works for Voice, Electronics
and the Boulder Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk)
Award-winning composer, performer and multimedia artist Pamela Z will perform an evening of works for voice with live, electronic processing, a gesture-activated MIDI controller and interactive video.
The evening will include existing solo works as well as new works produced in collaboration with CU's Boulder Laptop Orchestra (BLOrk). Pamela Z's residency and performance is made possible through an IMPART grant from CU-Boulder's Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement.
Pamela Z has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe and Japan. Her work has been presented at various venues and exhibitions including Bang on a Can (NY), the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds (SF), the Venice Biennale and the Dakar Biennale. She has composed scores for dance, film, and new music chamber ensembles.
Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Award, The MAP Fund, the ASCAP Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention, the NEA/JUSFC Fellowship and a Djerrassi Resident Artist Program residency. Visit www.pamelaz.com.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, downstairs Black Box theater
Tame Your Man
"Tame Your Man is my first work dealing directly with my sexuality as a gay composer and my experience of masculinity within gay culture," explained director and composer Nathan Hall. "Over the course of the half-hour piece, a pianist will be bound to his instrument and his abilities to use the full range of the keyboard will become increasingly restricted. The performance will explore surrender, pleasure and trust in an abstract, other worldly atmosphere."
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Nov. 9 & 10
Pixels in the Closet
In a unique collaboration between Hong Kong dancer Abby Chan and Denver digital artist Bryan Leister, dance, digital images and sound tell a dark tale from childhood memories. Motion capture technology using infrared cameras, inverse kinematics recognition and Kinect software will allow Chan to control and create music in real-time through her dance movements. The combination of Chinese dance and cultural icons melded with the latest in digital game/controller technology and graphics promises to deliver a powerful theater experience.
The production is supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Oct. 26 & 27, Black Box theater
Concert About Nothing: the Music of John Cage
Part of a week-long CU-Boulder festival, the Concert about Nothing will feature the music of John Cage performed by CU students, faculty and special guests Third Coast Percussion. The Chicago Tribune writes that this quartet, using an impressive array of percussion instruments, combines "the energy of a rock concert with the precision and sophistication of classical chamber music."
Learn more details, http://www.colorado.edu/atlas/newatlas/events/.
7 p.m. & 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, Black Box theater
Americas Latino Festival
Note: All festival events listed below are free and open to the public except for the 9 p.m. concert by Slim Cessna’s Auto Club.
4:30-4:45 p.m. Opening by Festival Director Irene Vilar and Professor Lorraine Bayard de Volo, Director, Latin American Studies Center at CU Intermezzo Grupo Tucandirá, “Ecomusicology and Colombian Llanero Music.”
5-5:30 p.m. Music of the Americas piano concert, Gigi (USA) and Malena Boratgis (Mexico), mother-daughter duo
5:30-6 p.m. Luis J. Rodriguez, bestselling author of “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA”, a New York Times notable book and Carl Sandburg Award winner, will talk about his life, work and the recently published sequel to “Always Running,” “It Calls You Back.” “Hereʼs truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer.” —The New York Times Book Review
6-6:30 p.m. Closing words by Tim Z. Hernandez (American Book Award and Premio Aztlán Award) and Irene Vilar (Latino Book Award and Guggenheim Fellow).
7 p.m. Reception (tapas & drinks), ATLAS Black Box theater lobby
7:30-9 p.m. Grupo Tucandirá concert in Grusin Music Hall, IMIG Music Building, College of Music
9 p.m. Slim Cessna’s Auto Club concert – Tickets: $20, buy them online at www.AmericasLatinoFestival.org. Founding fathers of the Denver Sound, Slim Cessnaʼs Auto Club has released a number of critically acclaimed albums. They have been described as the best live band in America. “What energy and soul!” — Rolling Stone Magazine.
The Americas Latino Festival is dedicated to presenting outstanding individuals in the fields of human rights and justice, conservation, science, literature, music, visual arts and film. The festival producer, Americas for the Arts, is committed to majoritizing minority arts & peoples and promoting cross-cultural understanding. For further information, email info@americaslatinofestival.org, visit www.AmericasLatinoFestival.org or call 303-717-6619.
4:30 - 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, Black Box theater unless otherwise indicated.
The Crane Wife
The Crane Wife is a puppet theater performance for all ages based on a Japanese folktale by the same name. The show features puppets, mystical masks, colorful scenery, shadow movement and live, original music. In this production, Eastern and Western theater traditions come together to tell a touching story of love, trust and greed.
The Crane Wife is funded in part by the Boulder County Arts Alliance/Neodata Endowment, the Boulder Arts Commission (an agency of the Boulder City Council) the Boulder Library Foundation,
the Japan Foundation Los Angeles and the Puffin Foundation.
7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14; 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, Black Box theater
The Ninth Annual Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema
The Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema presents a two-evening program of short films and live multimedia performance. A niche film festival dedicated to works that merge dance and cinematic art forms, Sans Souci will present a wide variety of films from around the world. Visit SansSouciFest.org for more information and to view the demo reel.
The Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema is supported by the Department of Theatre & Dance,
the Film Studies Program and the Atlas Institute's Center for Media, Arts and Performance.
7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, Aug. 31 & Sept. 1, 2012
(Video installation begins at 7 p.m.) Black Box theater
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