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eMotion: The 2009 Summer Arts Festival

The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (Photo courtesy of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet)

Rolling onto Dartmouth’s campus next week will be a Play Cube, a mobile exhibition space that also facilitates innovative gaming, and the Porta Hedge, a mobile observation lab constructed from recycled artificial Christmas trees by Justin Shull ’04 that will be parked on Mass Row. These are just two components of eMotion, the 2009 edition of Dartmouth’s annual Summer Arts Festival, sponsored by the President’s Office and organized by the Leslie Center for the Humanities.

This year’s festival committee sought artists, including undergraduates, whose work engages with motion so the Dartmouth community can explore the mobility of art and the emotions movement evokes. “We’re trying to draw the whole campus into a dialogue about art. And it doesn’t all fit into traditional notions of what art is,” says Adrian Randolph, the Leon E. Williams Professor of Art History and director of the Leslie Center, which has overseen the festival since 2005. “The performances, films, games, new media installations, and works like the Porta Hedge and the Play Cube will engage viewers publicly in an exchange about creativity, emotion, and movement.”

Some highlights of the festival are below. See the Leslie Center's website for more information.

Feed the Cube

The mysterious Cube will debut July 3 and pop up in various campus locations throughout the summer. The mobile exhibition space features games, performances, and alternative media events. To learn more and “communicate” with the Cube, e-mail THECUBE@dartmouth.edu.
Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4

Porta Hedge

A mobile observation lab by Justin Shull ’04
Monday, July 6, and Tuesday, July 7 • Mass Row • 646-0896

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet

Classical ballet gets an adventurous update in the work of the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. The company will present contemporary ballet works from 1975 to the present, by dance legends Twyla Tharp and William Forsythe and new stars Jorma Elo and Cayetano Soto. Before the July 9 performance, come to a public discussion with Thalia Wheatley, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, and Ford Evans, Hopkins Center dance director, about Wheatley’s research into the ways people associate movements with emotions.
Performances: Thursday, July 9, at 7 p.m., and Friday, July 10, at 8 p.m. • Hopkins Center, Moore Theater • General admission $26, Dartmouth students $10, 18-and-under $14—Dartmouth employees may purchase two tickets for the price of one for a single summer season show • 646-2422

Discussion: Thursday, July 9, at 5:30 p.m. • Hopkins Center, Faulkner Auditorium • 646-2010

Campus Sculpture Walking Tour

Students from Professor Angela Rosenthal’s “Sculpture” course will be stationed at sculptures across campus to give brief talks.
Saturday, July 25, from 3–5 p.m. • pick up tour map at the Hood Museum of Art’s main entrance • 646-0896

Charming Augustine and Shadow Land Or Light From The Other Side

These three-dimensional, stereoscopic 16mm black and white films by Scottish filmmaker Zoe Beloff are meditations on film, history, and emotion.
Friday, July 24 • call for location and time • 646-0896

By BONNIE BARBER