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r VOLUME 15, ISSUE 25
MARCH 27, 2014
ChoreoLab returns to Reynolds Theater Duke dance program showcases vast array of dance
Divergent
MFA|EDA exhibition
Recess reviews, pg. 4
Experimental documentary, pg. 5
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editor’s note ss recess r
R recess editors march sadness...
The way we, as college students, consume television is seemingly contradictory. Never before has there been such an undeniable sense of urgency to keep up with TV shows. Spoilers will be on Twitter and Facebook within minutes—if not seconds—of an episode airing, followed closely by headlines on our favorite websites. On the other side of the coin is bingewatching, facilitated by Netflix, Hulu and a variety of other sites. But what are “kids these days” really doing? Are we tweet-obsessed fans with a compulsive need to comment and have our voices heard to prove we watched and instantly evaluated an episode? Or are we bedridden zombies who forsake all outside stimulation to watch an entire season (or more) of a TV show into the wee hours of the morning, only to talk of nothing else for the following week? Curious about the answer, I decided to conduct a completely unscientific study based on a totally nonrandom sample of 24 students in my selective living group. Before I go too deeply into my findings, I think it’s important to know a few things about me, the researcher. I won’t bore you— or shame myself—with a list of all the shows I watch, but they span a massive range, from gruesome dramas to heartwarming comedies to classless reality shows (whoops! There I go, shaming myself). I’m definitely abnormal when it comes to television, especially
Lauren Feilich [editor]........................................................................ sobbin on the low Eliza Strong [managing]...................................................... to premed or not to premed MC Bousquette.[music]............................................................................. bruce 4 ldoc Megan Rise [film]....................................................................................... highest ppr Kathy Zhou [arts].................................................................................................... >:) Eliza Bray.[photo]............................................................................................... senior Prashanth Kamalakanthan [online]............................................ never turning 21 again
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for a student. Back home, we still get mailorder Netflix and only subscribed online for a month to watch “Arrested Development.” My parents would be surprised not to see me sitting on the couch, staring at the television. At school, my friends would be surprised not to find me sitting in my bed watching TV on my laptop. In that way at least, I’m a pretty average college student. One aspect of my friends’ television habits is pretty definitive. We don’t watch TV on TV. Unless we’re talking about sports, it would be rare to see people gathered around the common room television. Watching shows “live” has taken on an entirely different meaning than it had just five years ago. I’m not talking about live TV, like the American Idol results show. I’m talking about the novel idea of watching a TV show when it’s actually airing. Weird, right? Apparently, it’s just not a thing anymore. One of my anonymous respondents put it best: “Computers are the actual televisions.” But the thing is, computers can do so much more than televisions. We can pick up our laptops and bring them anywhere. We take them to dinner, we take them to class, we take them to our tents in K-Ville and bemoan our loss of battery. It’s sometimes as if we’re worried our hands will get lonely if they aren’t constantly touching a keyboard. So it’s no wonder that when we watch TV on our computers, we multitask in turn. My survey was mainly about Netflix. People told me how ingenious the instant play of the next episode in a series is and how much they love the original programming like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.” But surprisingly, as much as people talk about Netflix, only about a third of the people in my sample actually subscribe. Some vow to purchase it once they become “real people” while others had parents who revoked their access for the school year in order to promote a more studious lifestyle.
The Chronicle However, Netflix users are certainly loyal. While most people seem to use some combination of Hulu, network television sites and other streaming sources, Netflix users almost always refuse to use anything else. One friend told me that there are some shows he would watch, but they aren’t on Netflix. “Too much effort,” he reported. That’s a fidelity I don’t think I’ll ever understand. Sometimes I use Amazon Prime’s instant video (along with no one else), but I can’t see myself committing fully to it and settling down. I can engage in a long-term relationship with a television program. I’ll suffer through an especially rough season because I remember the good times we had. Some shows provide me with a new reason to love them every episode. But a streaming service? Maybe someday, once I find the right one. It seems that Netflixers may be more committed to the medium than to the actual programs themselves. Unfathomable to me was that some people in my study “save up” episodes just to binge watch them later. They’ll watch a few episodes of a show, then wait a few weeks for more to air before doing a mini-binge of those. I had always thought binge-watching was to catch up with everyone else, but the idea that you should leave yourself deliberately behind seems incongruous. What is it about the Netflix mentality that makes it so alluring? I suppose once you’ve experienced the ease of your episodes queued up without commercials, it’s hard to turn back. Contrary to what Buzzfeed and Slate tell us, binging and mini-binging have taken precedence over keeping up with the Joneses, or the Kardashians, in real time. We like to be in charge of our own schedules. College students are busy, and we want to take solace in a few uninterrupted hours of television. And if that’s really the case, I think Netflix is missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. -Megan Rise
The Chronicle
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Colloquium opens dialogue on careers in the arts By Megan Rise The Chronicle
On April 16 and 17, the Duke Colloquium, a program established in 2009, will continue its mission to inspire student leaders and provoke thoughtful discussion. With workshops, interviews and visiting scholars, the Colloquium aims to promote thought on multidisciplinary and multicultural ideas in the professional world. Past topics have ranged from medicine to education, but this spring the Duke Colloquium is focusing on the arts as a career. “One of the main topics for the Duke Colloquium is bringing high-level professionals in specific fields to Duke to foster intelligent conversation,” said Benton Wise, one of this year’s student directors. This year, the Duke Colloquium will bring Duke alumna Valerie Hillings, associate curator and manager of curatorial affairs for the Abu Dhabi Project of the Guggenheim Foundation, as the keynote speaker on April 16. Hillings studied art history as an undergraduate at Duke and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Hillings describes her career as somewhat accidental. She came to Duke intending to study public policy to become a lawyer and signed up to take a course in legal writing. Somehow, the computer knocked her out of the class, and she took an art history course with Kristine Stiles instead. Of Stiles, Hillings said, “She really inspired me to continue in art history.” After taking her course, Hillings later became Stiles’s research assistant. Her interest in international studies and public policy spurred her to conceive of art as a global career. “My career hasn’t been just about ob-
jects and artists; it’s been about seeing the world, meeting a lot of interesting people, and trying to figure out how culture can carry other ideas and experiences,” Stiles said. Hillings recalls being uncertain about which path she wanted to pursue. “My experience at Duke made me think I wanted to be a curator, but then I taught at New York University, and I was torn,” Hillings said. She relates that experience to those of her students today who are driven toward the arts but unsure how to navigate the field. “There are so many careers in the arts that are not just art or art history. The quick assumption in the arts is that you’re going to be a curator, an artist or a professor. But there are many other things you can do, even if it’s just making art a part of your life,” Hillings said. Wise hopes that the Colloquium will “tap into that relevance for Duke students” and help students “engage and connect with the professional elements of an arts career.” In addition to Hillings’s keynote address on April 16, the Colloquium will include an event at the Nasher Museum of Art and a panel of four student directors on April 17. Wise said the students will speak about “how we can navigate and integrate art in our lives, and possibly pursue art as a career.” The Duke Colloquium is an opportunity for students to engage with ideas that are relevant to them, either professionally or in their everyday lives. “Students who attend will be rewarded with highly reflective, intellectual conversation that can be carried back into their
Duke lives. It’s a conversation that doesn’t end,” Wise said. In her experiences with students and in her own life, Hillings noted that Duke is an institution with multidisciplinary interests. She is interested in the unbounded nature of the arts and how it intersects many areas of people’s lives. “The arts forced me into areas I wasn’t so comfortable with, areas I didn’t understand. I think it’s that willingness to fol-
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low that simple phrase that I was taught early on in my years at Duke. To ‘always stay hungry’ and to always want to know something new and fresh, always want to question things, even to embrace the things that you don’t like or understand,” said Hillings. The Duke Colloquium presents Series VI: Art as a Career with Valerie Hillings, Ph.D. on April 16 and 17. Specific event information is available at colloquium.duke.edu.
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ChoreoLab 2014 showcases diverse
DaYou Zhou/the chronicle
DaYou Zhou/the chronicle
By Kathy Zhou THe CHrONICle
This Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the reynolds Industries Theater, audience members will have the opportunity to see six individual creative visions all in one night. Choreolab 2014 will provide the platform by which the community can enter into the minds and hearts of dancers and choreographers from Duke as they put on spring’s main stage dance performance.
DaYou Zhou/the chronicle
The Duke dance program has worked to promote a diverse array of dance styles on campus, ranging from ballet to jazz to African techniques. Choreolab celebrates these myriad dance styles and makes it more accessible for dancers to generate and participate in quality choreography. In addition, students are offered the distinct opportunity to submit their original choreographies for adjudication by professors. Junior Jennifer Margono, along with
DaYou Zhou/the chronicle
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FILM
Divergent
Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate Directed By Neil Burger
by Jamie Kessler THe CHrONICle
“Divergent” is the latest in a string of young adult books to produce a movie franchise. essentially, the movie can be summed up as “The Hunger Games 2.0.” Unfortunately, I mean that in the same way that the “The Amazing Spider Man”
sophomore Maurice Dowell, choreographed and will perform one of these pieces. Their contemporary number is inspired by Plato’s dialogue in which he stated that humans, originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces, were split apart and condemned to spend the rest of their lives in search of their other half. The piece draws on human elements, eliciting such universal sentiments as feeling alone in an experience and too lost to connect fully with someone.
“We really wanted to play with this idea that we were the same thing but split apart at some point,” Margono said. “The piece focuses on how our realities are parallel and we’re finding a way to search for someone that we’re able to relate to in the world.” Margono continued to explain the process of choreographing a number, which has proved both rewarding and challenging. “On the one hand, creating choreography is amazing because you get to create this
DaYou Zhou/the chronicle
(Andrew Garfield/emma Stone) is “Spiderman 2.0” (Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst)—it’s too soon and the audience is inevitably forced to compare the two. And for these two, “The Hunger Games” is head and shoulders above its reboot. The flick is about Tris (Shailene Woodley), a young girl born into a dystopia where the motto is “faction before blood.” The factions in “Divergent” equate to districts in “The Hunger Games”—it’s how the society is divided. And yes, you guessed it, Tris just does not fit the mold—she’s a “divergent,” she “diverges” from the norm, and if two paths “diverged,” I bet she’d take the one less traveled. Basically, in this world, children are born into factions, and then at age 16 they’re subjected to a test that identifies which faction the children should join based on their personalities. A dangerous rarity is being divergent: not fitting a faction. Beatrice keeps this result a secret and chooses the Dauntless faction:
the brave warriors who protect society. Chaos ensues. The story is not inherently bad, but some pieces simply do not come together on screen in the way an audience needs. Firstly, without reading the books, it is impossible to understand the significance or definition of being divergent. Does it mean intelligence? Physical skill? Two hours into the movie, the audience still does not know. Perhaps confusion is one way to get them back for the second installment. Also, the storytelling feels choppy. Tris needs to go through a “Mulan”-style, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” montage. She does start that process, but she basically goes from terrible to still pretty terrible to suddenly really great. Those jumps also steal from the audience small moments of triumph that would help them root for her character. Also, someone should have told Shailene Woodley to hit the gym because she seems as much as of a weakling
as when she was on ABC Family. That leads to the next problem: the cast. “Divergent” stars the aforementioned Woodley, Theo James and Kate Winslet. Woodley, bless her heart, is no action hero. She should stick to her wheelhouse. “The Spectacular Now” and “The Fault in Our Stars” are where she belongs. Theo James is beautiful. No issues there except that he appears a million years older than prepubescent-looking Woodley, but really, that’s as much her doing as his. As for Kate Winslet, this feels very outside her canon of films. She’s an Oscar-winning actress; she does a good job, but why is she here? “Divergent” is at an immediate disadvantage—it’s not “The Hunger Games.” But on the bright side, it’s way better than “Twilight.” If the “Divergent” team gets a new director and a new writer, like “The Hunger Games” did for its sequel, then “Insurgent,” slated for March 20, 2015, could have a much better chance.
The Chronicle
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e dance styles and choreographies This Is Our Youth
Dayou Zhou/The Chronicle
organic movement that fits your own body,” Margono said. “But you are responsible for communicating your idea, and sometimes when you’re trying to choreograph your own piece, the image in your head might not always translate to the audience.” The second student-choreographed number, by seniors Zsofia Salta and Bonnie DeLaune, is a ballet piece that follows a group of ballet dancers who, upon arriving at Duke, are exposed to new dance styles and vocabularies. The number explores and breaks away from traditional ballet movement in an effort to explore the myriad ways by which the body can move. Along with the student numbers are four pieces choreographed by professors, with pieces that showcase dancers in ballet, modern, African and dance theater repertories. Barbara Dickinson, professor of the practice of dance, chose to choreograph her piece to “Liquid Prisoner,” a work by Jennifer Fitzgerald, a graduate student who passed away in 2007, two years after completing her Ph.D. in music composition at Duke. Dickinson, noting Fitzgerald’s distinct and “wonderfully created” musical voice, decided she wanted to choreo-
graph a work to celebrate Fitzgerald’s life. The music is contemporary classical, providing new challenges and stretching the limits of our conceptions of classical music. It flows directly into the second section of Dickinson’s choreography, which features a different track and provides a more direct remembrance of Fitzgerald. The stage will be left entirely bare, such that even the wings could be seen all the way to the back wall. “I thought about what would happen if these beings only existed in this area—this stage—and if all of our emotions and thoughts and ideas and inspirations, everything that we expend as human beings, were somehow caught in that atmosphere, caught in that place within you,” Dickinson said. “Would that potency in human beings take on a life of its own?” Professor of the practice Ava Vinesett remarked on the support and intensity of her dancers, who represent a “diverse group of performers with an enormous range of abilities.” Her piece, “CuleBra II,” is an ensemble work that completely revises “CuleBra,” a 2001 work that was originally performed by 33 dancers.
Victor Ye/The Chronicle
This week in Brody Theater on East Campus, the Duke Players present their spring production, “This is Our Youth.” Written by American playwright Kenneth Lonergan, the play follows Warren Straub as he runs away from home after stealing $15,000 dollars from his wealthy father. The production is directed by Trinity junior Kelly McCrum. Admission is free. Performances are Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., and Sun. at 2 p.m.
“In ‘CuleBra II,’ 13 performers weave together music and dance from Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian and Haitian Rada rites…emphasizing both the power of the drums and the dancer’s ability to communicate with the divine,” Vinesett said. Thomas DeFrantz, professor of African and African American Studies, will also weave in a variety of elements for his work, “I Wish I Never Met You.” In this piece, DeFrantz incorporates the intersections of performance and technology with a “phase mirror.” This device, while still in development, was created by SLIPPAGE with professors Martin Brooke and Tyler Walters. DeFrantz will navigate these many media to examine the emotional space and leftover debris from a relationship gone bad. “Sometimes we wish we never met people because the circumstance gets so hard to bear,” DeFrantz said. “But we have to find
ways to persevere, and sometimes we find that through dance.” Each individual involved in this production, to whatever capacity, emphasized the work and creativity necessary to create a refined and cohesive dance work to share with their audiences. “People talk about choreographing and putting steps together,” Dickinson said. “It’s not just that. You have to use your physical knowledge, your intellectual knowledge, your sense of what you feel, to bring out of nothing a very structured, very integrated work that has a consistency and an internal logic but comes from a limitless possibility…It’s an investment of all parts of yourself.” ChoreoLab 2014 will take place March 28 and 29 at 8 p.m. in the Reynolds Industries Theater. Admission is $15 with student pricing at $5. Tickets are available online or at the box office. For more information, visit the Duke dance program’s website.
Experimental documentary program produces dynamic showcase By Rebecca Chen The Chronicle
A mixed media installation held in a food truck, a collection of photographs depicting the shrinkage of the United States Postal Service and a film connecting the rare earth elements to the influence of technology— these works and more will be featured at the MFA|EDA 2014 spring exhibition. The exhibition will display projects from the 13 members of the Class of 2014. It is composed of 12 separate events between Mar. 21 and Apr. 18, each of which featuring one or several students’ works. The events are held in buildings on Duke’s campus as well as in theaters and art galleries around Durham. “It’s a chance to share the culminated work of two years with a public audience,” said Tom Rankin, director of the MFA|EDA program. “[I’m looking for] work where an artist really understands their audience and is thinking about how best to speak to their audience.” Teka Selman, Power Plant Gallery director, said the exhibition preparation process begins in the fall of the students’ second year, when they begin planning in earnest for their thesis work. She said she acts as a sounding board for
students’ ideas, helping them find resources and develop approaches. “I’m working at a specific time in their life where they’re beginning to [develop] projects for the first time, like the beginning of their careers, really,” Selman said. “It’s exciting to help them realize their ambitions.” John Rash, a graduating student, agreed with Selman’s assessment. He noted that the exhibition marks the first time he has created a film for a large audience and the first time he has had an entire gallery space to himself. “It really has taught me how to work on a larger scale and how to engage with a larger audience,” Rash said. Rash’s exhibit features a film and gallery installation of photos and video pieces, both of which are about China. He said he was challenged by geographical distance from his subject as well as the procedure of editing. “It was a sort of painful process, editing out some things I really loved to make way for what seems to be the stronger collection of material,” Rash said. Caitlin Kelly, another graduating student, said she also had to cut down the number of photographs she took for her exhibit of wom-
en living with HIV. Additionally, she considered ways to change how her work would be viewed—she decided not to frame her images or encase them in glass because it gave them a greater ability to communicate their meanings. “When you walk into a museum or gallery, and you are approaching a photograph with glass, there is often a specific distance from that photograph that you will take,” Kelly said. “Glass is a barrier. It says ‘Don’t touch. Don’t get near me.’ That idea of saying you should be x amount of feet or meters back, I don’t agree with.” Rash said he wants his exhibit to foster discussion in his audience, a goal similar to Kelly’s. “I would like [my audience] to have questions about what they thought HIV looked like, what it was supposed to be,” Kelly said. “These women…are all complex people. I would like my audience to walk away with a different perception.” The exhibitions have drawn an audience of everyone from Duke faculty and administrators to members of the Durham and Triangle community, said Rankin. “[Last Saturday’s premiere] was incredibly well-attended, with more people than could fit
in the theater for the screening afterwards and a long line for the food truck,” Selman said. “The energy that’s been around the show this year has been so great.” As for plans for his work after the exhibition, Rash said his film has been accepted to two film festivals, one in Durham and one in Seoul, Korea. He and Kelly both want to find galleries in which to display their photographic collections. They also would both like to teach at universities while continuing to work as artists. Selman hopes that through the exhibition, students will learn about what mediums work best for them and how to introduce their works to the public, as well as discovering more of their own voice and artistic identity. “There’s a way in which some folks have been able to embrace themselves as artists,” Selman said. “Being able to say, ‘I made this thing. I’m an artist. I can say something with this work and impact people.’ I hope they take that away—the power of their voices as artists.” Events for the MFA|EDA 2014 spring exhibition will take place between Mar. 21 and Apr. 18. Detailed information on the program’s schedule is available at mfaeda2014.org.
MUSIC
Special to the chronicle
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Piñata Madlib Invazion
by Gary Hoffman THe CHrONICle
At first glance, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib may seem like an unlikely pairing. From Gary, Indiana, Gibbs seems to have no shortage of tough lines about his rough past. Madlib, on the other hand, has a history of producing introspective beats with likeminded artists such as J Dilla and MF DOOM. Although the two come from different backgrounds, as Gibbs raps about his street persona over Madlib’s dark, unconventional production, it becomes apparent that they share a fierce sense of independence. As a result, their new album, “Piñata,” sounds more like a dialogue between the two artists than a straightforward, collaborative message. The first half of the album features a lot of funk and Motown samples from back in the day. This production is well-suited for Gibbs’s cool, confident delivery. Still, Madlib keeps his presence known with film dialogue samples and artsy pitch modulations. Danny Brown and raekwon are welcome features in this part of the album as they give a break from Gibbs’s technically proficient, yet somewhat cliché, street rap voice. The second part of the album begins with ‘robes.’ It features more jazz-influenced,
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recess soulful samples and a lighter attitude. The end of the tracks have longer, goofier skits and sometimes even some casual dialogue between the artists. There are numerous other rappers featured, including earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul and Mac Miller. earl’s verse contrasts with the other macho, confrontational raps on the album as he reflects on some of his vulnerabilities and insecurities. Mac Miller provides an entertaining closing to the last song while rapping about “reading emerson novels” and “eating some Belgian waffles” in a more nasally voice than his usual lazy drawl. Madlib’s production throughout the album keeps the songs interesting and original. ‘real’ definitely shows this better than any other track on the album. While the beat is creative enough to be interesting by itself, Madlib also speeds up the track at certain points. The effect is unsettling, but it does not seem contrived. Also, for Gibbs, it’s almost impossible to stay exactly on rhythm, so when the track speeds up, he falls a bit behind the beat. Still, the album is lyrically lacking. Gibbs’s verses do not stray far from being violent and getting high, and as a result, many of the featured rappers seem like they would be out of place for divulging more interesting subjects. Also, Gibbs’s tone does not vary much throughout the album. At times, he sounds like a rhythmic drone and more of a contribution to Madlib’s beats than vice versa. Gibbs seems determined to be the selfproclaimed street prophet, but Madlib’s flairs of quirk and playfulness throughout the album hint at something else. It’s as if he’s telling Freddie to calm down because things are not as serious or grim as they seem. Gibbs realizes this in the last track, as the album closes with him joking and singing a cappella with his session mates’ laughter in the background.
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MUSIC Katy b Little Red Columbia Records
by Drew Haskins THe CHrONICle
Katy B’s excellent debut album “On A Mission” came out in 2011 and instantly heralded the new sound of British pop music. Her modern twist on ‘90s UK garage and house music seems prescient in an age where artists like Jessie Ware, Disclosure, and Sam Smith are routinely topping the charts. Her newest album, “little red,” throws in some balladry with her dance floor anthems. It is a major improvement from her previous work. “little red” is a rare and mature album in a genre that traffics in shallowness and debauchery. The closest thing “On A Mission” had to a straight-up ballad was the dubstep/ trap song “Katy On A Mission,” which was still eminently danceable. Here, Katy splits the difference. Around half of the tracks are electronica ballads and
the other half her signature house jams, but the two styles are seamlessly integrated over all of the record’s 17 tracks. UK garage is a constant influence throughout “little red.” even the most mournful of ballads are percussive and restless; the tempo might be slower, but her emotions still percolate beneath the surface of every song. “little red” is, at its core, a breakup album, and the two best songs showcase the results of Katy’s heartbreak while also developing her new sound. ‘Aaliyah’ is a sultry house duet with her stylistic counterpart Jessie Ware, and its lyrical theme can basically be boiled down to ‘Jolene’ at the club. The combination of Katy and Ware is phenomenal. The two have real chemistry that gives the track the perfect amounts of unease and menace. On the slower side of things, ‘Crying For No reason’ is the perfect mix of her balladry and UK garage influence. Katy’s powerful voice propels the track in both its delicate, piano-driven opening and its synth-based climax. This is what Adele (a former classmate of Katy) was aiming for on ‘Set Fire to the rain,’ yet it is clear which song perfected the ratio. While Katy is a less adept vocalist than Adele, her smoky tone and large range allow her to anchor and expand her songs, giving house tracks the same amount of oomph and drama as the ballads. All in all, “little red” is an important artistic statement from a singer who is evolving her genre in an innovative and fresh way.
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