August 16, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: Creating Alternative Worlds, Bulrusher, Final Week of James Coupe: Exercises in Passivity and more!
In the arts, celebrate the accomplishments of the 2019 Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities program’s undergraduate researchers in “Creating Alternative Worlds,” attend Bulrusher – an Intiman Theatre production directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton at the Jones Playhouse, drop into the Library for the Fourth Wednesday Concert Series featuring Brian Schappals and more!
Creating Alternative Worlds | 2019 Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities
Celebrate the work done by the 2019 Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities program’s undergraduate researchers!
Worlds in Progress Exhibition Reception
August 21, 5 to 9 PM |Artefact (619 Western Ave, Suite 500)
Free | More info
Symposium
August 23, 9:30 am to 4:00 PM | | Allen Library Auditorium
Free | More info
Bulrusher
August 20 – September 14 | Jones Playhouse
Intiman Theatre, in partnership with The Hansberry Project, presents Bulrusher, by Elise Davis, directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, School of Drama Head of Directing Program.
Set in 1955, Bulrusher is an orphaned multi-racial girl who was found floating in a basket on the river as an infant in the town of Boonville, north of San Francisco. She is now 18 and struggling to find her place. Her gift of clairvoyance and her race have made her an outsider in this predominantly white town. Just when she thinks this small world might stifle her, a mysterious and alluring Black girl from Alabama arrives. Soon, the secrets and racial tensions that have been simmering beneath the surface of the town will be exposed, and Bulrusher will discover an entirely new place in her identity. This passionate and humorous coming of age story is filled with magic, live music and lyrical prose.
Advance tickets will include subsidized pricing, starting as low as $15, with full price admission ranging from $30-$50. Intiman guarantees that there will be free walk-up tickets at all performances, and will be Free for Everyone. These free tickets will be distributed on a first come first serve basis, up to 2 tickets per person, starting 1 hour before curtain.
Tickets are $0 – $50 | More info
Final Week: Exhibition | James Coupe: Exercises in Passivity
August 1 – 24 | Jacob Lawrence Gallery
“I’m not a robot.” Check. Now click on all the boxes with traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, or shop fronts to prove it, while your answers help train an algorithm for a self-driving car. Unlike the Turing Test, which asks computers to convince us they are human, today, humans are perpetually asked to convince computers that they are not robots. The specter of full automation has finally arrived. In 2013, Amazon patented a design for a mobile “worker cage” that would protect warehouse employees from hazardous encounters with their robot colleagues. Five years later, they disabled the “laugh” command for Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, after a series of troubling incidents. Meanwhile, over six million songs currently posted by users on Spotify have never been played by a human listener, and half a million people perform “Human Intelligence Tasks” on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdworker platform. What remains for us — and who does “us” include? Exercises in Passivity is an exhibition of new work by James Coupe that asks what makes us human in a post-AI society by examining the impact of automation on labor, affect, empathy, and instrumentalization.
Free | More info
Fourth Wednesday Concert Series: Brian Schappals
August 28, 12:30 PM | North Allen Library Lobby
Brian Schappals will perform in the North Allen Library Lobby. This free monthly lunchtime concert series is co-hosted by the School of Music and UW Libraries.
Free | More info
The American Superhero: A Portrait & Storytelling ProjectPhoto by Nate Gowdy
Exhibition | The American Superhero
July 25 – October 4 | UW Tower Mezzanine Lounge
There is a superhero within us all, regardless of our nation of birth, beliefs, orientation, gender identity, race, abilities, or family makeup. This collection of portraits and stories celebrates those differences, highlights our commonalities, and embraces what makes us each uniquely American.
Inspired by New York City-based cartoonist, speaker, and performance artist Vishavjit Singh, aka Sikh Captain America, Nate Gowdy, Vishavjit Singh, Christie Skoorsmith, Gregory L. Evans, and Stephen P. Smith present 35 American superheroes whose stories of resilience and tenderness exemplify life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Included in the collection are Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and activist Aleksa Manila.
Free | More info
Articles about project:
Crosscut: Americans assemble: Meet the artist capturing the superhero in all of us
The Seattle Globalist: “An American Superhero” explores the diverse origin stories of everyday people
Real Change: American Superhero: Sikh Captain America is enlisting more champions
