Thursday March 6, 2014
thelantern www.thelantern.com .com
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Off the Grid to create dance party at Wexner Center ANDREW ZISTLER Lantern reporter zistler.4@osu.edu The Wexner Center for the Arts is gearing up the dance floor for this year’s Off the Grid contemporary art party. As a part of the continuing exhibition, “Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil,” this year’s theme is set to borrow from Brazilian art, with bright, loud colors and florid art exhibits. Set to take place Saturday and featuring catering from local restaurants and music from Columbus and abroad, the fifth annual Off the Grid is set to bring a fusion of dance and art to Ohio State. Adam Vincent, the administrative assistant in performing arts and film at the Wexner Centersaid Off the Grid is a way for patrons to enjoy themselves and give back to the arts. “It’s definitely a party. There is a big social aspect to it,” Vincent said. “The galleries are open, we have food from a bunch of local restaurants, people come, hang out, they eat, they enjoy themselves, then they get down. It’s meant to be a party, something for people to enjoy while their giving back to the arts.” Vincent said the Off the Grid program has been successful in the past. “We’ve sold out every year,” he said. Amanda Potter, educator for Public and University Programs at the Wexner Center, explained how the Off the Grid party hopes to inspire a new generation of museum lovers. “We have a few different objectives: reach out to people through their friends, hopefully developing the next generation of museum visitors and donors, getting them engaged while they’re young, so they can see the variety of things we’re doing — that museums can be fun places,” Potter said. Potter also spoke on why the ticket price is a little higher compared to that of other dance parties around Columbus, explaining 100 percent of the proceeds go back to the community. General
Admission tickets cost $60 in advance and $70 the day of the event. VIP tickets cost $100. “It is more expensive than your average dance party. But it is chance for people to give back.” Potter said. “The proceeds all benefit the education programs. We have a really wide range of programs, covering all areas the Wexner does. We have programs in performing arts and film, we engage with exhibitions, we really like to work with teaching artists.” Potter said through the proceeds raised by these programs, the Wexner Center is able to serve more than 27,000 people a year in its educational programs, from kindergarten to college. The featured artist for this year’s Off the Grid is Brooklyn’s Cosmo Strauss, better known by his stage name, DJ Cosmo Baker. Strauss said he has been involved with music since he was a child. “I’ve been a DJ for 20 years. When I was younger I started at an early age, I took violin lessons, I took piano lessons and drum lessons during grade school,” Strauss said. “Eventually I fell into my niche, the turntables. I let everything go after I fell into my niche. I took to it like a fish to water. It sunk in quick. It became an obsession with me.” Strauss said he particularly enjoys playing Columbus shows, and said he was thrilled to be performing for an art party. “The idea of me performing at the Wex is really exciting for me. I expect a really amazing crowd, people who are in tune with art. Those crowds are really open to things which may be foreign, so I can just branch out and do my thing,” Strauss said. “I hope to see everybody out, and I hope that everybody is ready to have a great time, get sweaty and lose their s---. Columbus is a wonderful city, and I always love coming back.” Off the Grid is scheduled to take place Saturday at the Wexner Center. The doors are set to open at 8 p.m. for VIP ticketholders, and 9 p.m. for those with general admission tickets. The event goes until 1:30 a.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Wexner Center website. Admission is 21 and up.
Courtesy of Dan Raff
Cosmo Strauss, also known by his stage name DJ Cosmo Baker, is set to perform at the Wexner Center’s Off the Grid art party March 8.
Student film to depict int’l student experience AMANDA ETCHISON Lantern reporter etchison.4@osu.edu
Courtesy of Shawn Brackbill
Electronic music composer Dan Deacon is scheduled to play Rumba Café March 11.
Dan Deacon set to play on Rumba Café floor MATTHEW LOVETT Asst. arts editor lovett.45@osu.edu Sometime in 2005, New York City’s Apocalypse Lounge hosted Dan Deacon for a show that he said changed his perspective on performing. Partway through the set, the power blew out at the venue and electronic music composer Deacon said he had to act quickly. “I really didn’t want to lose the crowd. I wanted to keep the energy going, so I was just stalling for time while (crew members) were trying to move all of these amps and speakers away from the breaker box so they could turn the breaker back on,” Deacon said. “I just started thinking about the audience differently, because I asked everyone to make a big clearing in the center of the room and everyone was looking towards the center of the room and I just noticed, ‘Oh, this is completely changing the focal point of what this venue is’ … Now everyone is looking in a different direction and that simple action is really resonating with me.” It was at this show that the Baltimore-based musician said he realized the audience was part of the performance, not merely onlookers. He said the people who attend his concerts are actually the element that break up the monotony of a tour — a format where he might often perform the same set of songs in a similar fashion from night to night. Concert-goers might have a chance to be a part of Deacon’s performance when he plays at Rumba Café Tuesday. “Most of that energy and most of the change doesn’t come from the venue, it comes from the audience. So, in my mind, you don’t have a performance without an audience. The audience is the performance, and that’s what makes each show unique and exciting,” Deacon said. “So when you incorporate the audience, you incorporate this element of chance, you incorporate this element of newness that could never be replicated.” However, Deacon did not make an a decision to permanently have himself encircled from that particular New York show on, he said. It
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took time, and the musician said in general, he musician is somewhat hesitant about changing up his live performances too drastically and attempts to be versatile in this setting. “It was a slow progression from there. It’s not like I went home and started sketching out how the audience would be the focal point of my performance, it sort of like organically grew,” Deacon said. “Once you add an element it’s almost like a curse, because it’s always there. You have to keep augmenting and changing it. As soon as you do something unique, if you continue to do that, it becomes old.” One way Deacon might have helped combat a potentially dull concert was the development of his own mobile app, published in 2012, that allowed audience members to interact with his live music on a visual level. According to its press release, the app “turns each phone into a source of synchronized light and sound depending on your location within each venue.” Crafted close to two years ago, Deacon said the app is still used by concert-goers today. Deacon’s upcoming solo show in Columbus comes amidst a tour in support of Arcade Fire, whose North American tour starts Thursday. Deacon is set to open for the band thrice before his Columbus gig. The level of Deacon’s popularity might be small compared to that of the Grammy Award-winners, but he said he is interested to see how his music will go over in the larger, stadium shows as an opener versus the one he is doing in Columbus. “I’m excited to see how it’ll translate or augment and what the challenge or the highlights will be. It will certainly be different than the Rumba Café, which is a space that I’m much more used to,” Deacon said. “But I wonder how that show will feel in the context of this other tour and if it will feel more challenging or more familiar or the opposite.” Instead of performing on a stage at Rumba Café, Deacon said he of artists Benco brings to Columbus. “We do stuff from rock to hip-hop to light country to dance music. We’re pretty all over the place,” Hamilton said. “Dan Deacon is
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Moving away from home, leaving friends and family behind and working to fulfill your dreams — these are challenges that might be faced by many college students as they embark on their educational journey. Yet imagine traveling halfway around the world, coming to a new country and making a life at a large university, balancing studying with friends while immersing yourself in a culture very different from your own. It was these shared challenges that inspired a group of students at Ohio State to create “Table for Three,” a film depicting several aspects of international students’ experiences in the U.S. “This story is reflective of our lives,” said Henry Lu, producer of “Table for Three.” “(What happens in) the story has happened to most students. We all face these challenges.” Lu, a second-year in actuarial science and financial mathematics, said “Table for Three” tells the story of a woman from China who comes to the U.S. to pursue a career in music. “She likes to sing songs, but her parents don’t agree with her following her dreams,” Lu said. “She comes to the U.S. to realize her dreams, but differences develop, like the relationship between her and her parents. And her relationship with her boyfriend in China has also been changed.” Lu, who is from Hefei, China, expects many students will be able to relate to the struggle between parents’ expectations and students’ dreams. “(Students) all have dreams and they want to realize their dreams, but maybe their parents don’t allow them to do this,” he said. “But as teenagers, we want to do this. So this movie is for us.” Lu said he has had the opportunity to realize his dreams at OSU by working on “Table for Three” and serving as president of Echo Studio, the organization producing the film. “I have a dream to work in movies,” he said. “I think Ohio State gives us more opportunities to do what we want to do.” Chloe Wang, a first-year in computer information science and a member of Echo Studio, said the film touches upon the shared experiences of all students, not just international scholars. “Everyone has a chance to dream, (communicate) with family and be in love. I think everyone has these experiences,” she said. Wang is from Hangzhou, China, and is the director for “Table for Three.” Hairan Yu, a fourth-year in finance and an actor in the film, said he called upon personal experience to help him portray his character. Yu plays the role of a Chinese student coming to America for education. “I have experienced similar situations, so I know the feeling when you have to choose between the relationship and your future,” Yu said. Although he did not join the film with any previous acting experience, Yu said the emotion he brings to the character will help the audience connect with the film. “I would expect (the audience) to see my expression and my emotion,” Yu said. “I would like to make them feel like they have experienced similar things and that they know how I feel about this character.” Echo Studio began work on the film in January and plans to present the film in Mandarin with English subtitles in late March, Lu said. Lu also said, “Table for Three” is set to be uploaded to YouTube and similar video sharing sites in China. The Echo Studio team is looking forward to receiving audience reaction to the film, Lu said. “We have come up with a new film and most of us don’t have experience with performing,” Yu said. “I think the directors are very talented and the image is what I expected to see … very beautiful pictures that make people feel warm.” Ultimately, the Echo Studio team wants “Table for Three” to introduce viewers to the lives of international students, Lu said. “We want the audience to know what international students’ lives are like,” he said. “I hope the audience will like our movie and the audience can get (from the film) the same feelings as us.”