NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 42, No. 28
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014
nyunews.com
Memorial honors Triangle Shirtwaist By KAVISH HARJAI
JONATHAN TAN/WSN
Students gathered at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in an event sponsored by Workers United, Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition and the Service Employees International Union. The fire that broke out in a garment factory in the Asch building in 1911, killing 146 people, raised awareness of workers’ rights and working conditions. The location of the fire is now NYU’s Brown Building. Héctor Figueroa, president of SEIU affiliate 32BJ, said the annual event is a way to remember the deceased and examine current labor conditions. “Our members took part in the event today both to honor those who died in a horrible and preventable workplace accident 103 years ago and also to call attention to the fact that workers continue to labor in unsafe conditions,” Figueroa said.
People gather to remember the 146 women who passed away in the 1911 fire, which happened in NYU’s Brown Building.
By CASSANDRA CASSILLAS
The Student Labor Action Movement attempted to deliver a letter to NYU President John Sexton on March 24 regarding what it views as a loophole in the changes NYU has recently made to its student apparel licensing contracts. NYU wrote to all of its licensees on January 15 stating that, as of March 1, the university would require all licensees to sign the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. The accord was drafted to protect workers from preventable building collapses, fires and other accidents after the collapse of a factory in Savar, Bangladesh, that killed over 1,100 and injured more than 2,500 in April 2013.
JanSport, which is owned by VF Corporation, currently produces apparel for NYU. According to the Collegiate Licensing Corporation and the Worker Rights Consortium, JanSport has never had a factory in Bangladesh, but other subsidiaries of VF, which has not signed the accord, have produced apparel there. The letter asked the university to respond next week regarding its ties with JanSport. “We, along with worker organizations in Bangladesh, are calling on NYU to cut ties with all VF brands, including JanSport, unless VF Corporation takes responsibility for worker safety in Bangladesh by signing the Accord on Fire
SLAM continued on PG. 3
By WARD PETTIBONE
Uncertainty is at the core of “Jim Campbell: Rhythms of Perception,” a major survey exhibition of the San Franciscobased artist’s work at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. An MIT alumnus who started in film — and who holds more than a dozen patents in the field of video image processing — Campbell has spent the better part of his artistic career creating hightech, low-resolution works, often incorporating custom-built electronics. But to focus on the technology is to miss the point because his work is much more absorbing than a simple exploration of the topic. Many of Campbell’s works play with the distance be-
Exhibit features Bill Cunningham VIA FLICKR.COM
INSIDE THIS
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Artist Jim Campbell makes NY debut
The famous photographer’s work shows the development of New York City and fashion. CUNNINGHAM on PG. 4
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Letter to Sexton no SLAM dunk
MEMORIAL continued on PG. 3
tween viewer and object, usually by becoming clearer as the viewer steps farther away. In addition to “Home Movies 1040,” a giant grid of LEDs, there is “Shadow for Heisenberg,” a statue of Buddha encased in glass. As one steps closer, the glass fogs until only the shadow of the statue is visible. As one steps away again, the glass clarifies. It seems magical and is also somewhat frustrating, which is the whole point. Other works are more abstract, sometimes to an absurd degree. “Color By Number” consists of two projectors displaying a pair of images, one pixel at a time. One is a self-immolating monk and the other is a flower, but all viewers see is a solid panel of pink, then green,
‘Les Mis’ returns to Broadway The musical relies on actors who are not household names to bring the classic tale to life. MISERABLES on PG. 5
then gray and so on. Behind the panels are the original pictures, with a marker tracing across them to indicate which pixel is currently being projected. Campbell’s piece “The End” is a cathode ray tube showing every image it is capable of displaying. At this point, the screen is still mostly blank, with two pixels cycling through various colors. Theoretically, it will be billions of years before all the possibilities are exhausted, according to the museum. This display is Campbell’s first solo exhibition in New York. The pieces span 29 years, from an early experimental film to a recent self-portrait, which is carved in resin and illuminated
CAMPBELL continued on PG. 5
Anniversary serves as reminder Workplace safety is brought back into the limelight. HOUSE on PG. 7