The Albuquerque Museum of Art & History
PROGRAMS: Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art
All programs are free with museum admission, unless otherwise noted.
Sunday, August 29: Opening Day Talk
1:00 p.m.
Sharyn Udall
Join us on Opening Day for "Making Sense of Synesthesia,"a lecture by guest curator Sharyn Udall. This talk will discus themany ways American artists have used theirsenses to enlarge their experience of the visual world.
Sharyn Udall is an Art Historian, author, and independent curator who has written, taught and lectured widely on the art of the Americas. Dr. Udall’s books include Modernist Painting in New Mexico (1984); Contested Terrain: Myth and Meaning in Southwest Art (1996); and Carr, O’Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own (2000), as well as many catalogs and scholarly articles. Her latest exhibition project is Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art.
Sunday, September 12: Talk
1:00 p.m.
Experiencing Painting through Music and Movement
Oliver Prezant
How do paintings sound? How do they move? Learn to experience paintings in a new way with conductor and arts educator Oliver Prezant. This enjoyable, interactive talk will explore the relationships between between painting, music, and movement.
Oliver Prezantis the Music Director of the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, a lecturer and educator for The Santa Fe Opera, and a Teaching Artist in the ArtWorks program. He has also presented programs for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and the New Mexico Art Educators Association, and was on the faculty at the College of Santa Fe for many years.
Saturday, October 16: Family Day
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Sense-sational Art!
Come learn how to create art using different senses, see Wise Fool perform amazing aerial stunts, and take a sense-sational family tour of the Sensory Crossovers exhibition.
Performance by Wise Fool in the Museum’s Outdoor Amphitheater at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 24: Performance
1:00 p.m.
Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters
Performed by Kristen Loree
Visualization by Jack Ox
Artist Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate is one of the sound poems to emerge from the experimental art movements of the early 20th century. Structured in the form of a sonata, the work breaks down words and reconnects them into disjointed syllables and phonemes. Vocalist Kristen Loree performs the complete text against a backdrop of projections by visual artist Jack Ox. The images are derived from Ox's translation of the poem into a series of paintings that run continuously for 800 feet.
Kristen Loree has been studying creativity, performance, and vocology her entire life. She has performed locally and nationally on stage, in concert halls and in film. Kristen has been teaching voice and performance techniques at UNM and privately for the past 13 years. She also works with the Santa Fe Opera in their Student-Produced Opera Program. She is a founding member and Artistic Coordinator of Sol Arts in Albuquerque.
Jack Ox has been engaged in the practice of music visualization for over 30 years, with a distinguished history of international exhibitions. Her work includes visualizations of Stravinsky, Gregorian chant, and Debussy. During her six-year stay in Germany she made an 800 square foot visualization of Kurt Schwitters' sound poem, the Ursonate. Ox is currently a visiting artist and professor at the University of New Mexico.
Wednesday, November 3: Gallery Tour
11:00 a.m.
Andrew Connors, Curator of Art
Come to the museum for a special tour of Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art by the Museum’s own Curator of Art, Andrew Connors.
Sunday, November 14: Concert
1:00 p.m.
Onomatopoeia
The premiere of Onomatopoeia, an original composition for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, and cello by composer Jonathan Chenette. Inspired by Signe Stuart’s scroll of the same name, the music explores the synesthetic process she used to create it. Both Stuart and Chenette will be on hand to discuss the project and her work in the exhibition. Chatter, a local chamber ensemble, will perform the piece.
Jonathan Chenette is Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Music at Vassar College in New York. His compositions have appeared on the ISCM World Music Days in Amsterdam and on a national radio broadcast by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His music appears in publications by Boosey & Hawkes, Theodore Presser, and Fish Creek Music and in recordings on the Innova, Riverrun, Fleur de Son Classics, and Capstone labels.
Signe Stuart was born in New London, CT, and currently resides in Santa Fe, NM. She received her M.A. from the University of New Mexico. She makes elegant scroll paintings that explore ways that language, from music to mathematics, can order perception and meaning. In her abstract works, she tries to convey the resonance of nature.
Chatter was founded by David Felberg, violinist, and Eric Walters, cellist, to perform musical works for chamber ensemble and chamber orchestra composed in the 20th and 21st centuries. Its repertoire has included influential works by John Adams, Pierre Boulez, and Michael Torke, as well as major works by earlier composers
Sunday, November 21: Lecture
1 p.m.
Strange Horizon: Where the Senses Meet the Screen
Jennifer Barker
How does visual medium affect a person’s other senses? What techniques do filmmakers use to elicit these responses? Discover how movies and synesthesia overlap as Dr. Jennifer Barker lectures on some popular films and filmmakers.
Jennifer M. Barker is Assistant Professor of Moving Image Studies in Georgia State University's Department of Communication, where she teaches courses on cinema and the senses, cinephilia, documentary, and intersections between film and the other arts. She is the author of The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (University of California Press, 2009) and essays on synesthesia and the senses, cinematic spectacle, acting, documentary, and experimental film.
Wednesday, December 1: Gallery Tour
11:00 a.m.
Andrew Connors, Curator of Art
Come to the museum for a special tour of Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art by the Museum’s own Curator of Art, Andrew Connors.
Sunday, December 19: Lecture
1 p.m.
Creativity, Synesthesia, and the Brain: Mixing Metaphors
Dr. Rex Jung
How does an artist’s brain work? Dr. Rex Jung will explore the subjects of how creativity and synesthesia work in the brain. He will also discuss examples of people who have synesthesia and its affect on their lives.
Rex E. Jung, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, a Research Scientist at the Mind Research Network, and a practicing clinical neuropsychologist. His research relates behavioral measures including intelligence, personality, and creativity, to brain function and structure. He has published over 40 research articles across a wide range of disciplines including traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, intelligence, and creativity.