How "Dessert and Discussion" Works

Photo credit: Indiana Memorial Union

As Marie Antoinette never actually said, "Let them eat cake!"

Dessert and Discussion is exactly what it sounds like. Students meet in the Tudor Room to enjoy as many desserts as their conscience will allow and to discuss Themester's topic with one of IU's distinguished faculty members. Already this semester students have had the opportunity to discuss the film And the Band Played On with Professor Rega Wood (Philosophy), cognitive networks with Professor Colin Allen (History and Philosophy of Science), and empathy in networks with Professor Fritz Lieber (Education).

The events present a unique academic setting for students. It's an atypical experience to listen as a professor explains something between bites of lemon meringue pie rather than between PowerPoint slides in Times New Roman. There's something different about learning as you slowly enjoy a slice of German chocolate cake rather than hastily scribble notes in a crowded notebook. The result is a conversation that is more comfortable and complicated than anything you'll get in the standard lecture hall.

At these discussions, ideas aren't just passed from professor to student. They are passed back as well, then picked up by another student, then passed around the whole table (along with a cookie or two). Soon everyone has given and gained some perspective on the topic.

At one discussion, for example, Professor Allen got the ball rolling by discussing how a network by itself can be useless, but what we do to the network--in terms of finding patterns, applying algorithms, and looking at movement--can tell us a lot. As students jumped into the conversation, they took this one idea and related it to networks in language learning, spying with metadata, and a spectrum of other subjects.

This is how a typical Dessert and Discussion goes. When we run out of time, everyone heads out with food for thought and thoughts of food.

Click here to register for the remaining discussions.



Ryan Myers
Themester 2013 Intern

Flashback: A Look at Themester Events So Far

Creativity and Collaboration in the Arts Series
Irish Music and Dance Workshop
Photo credit: Sarah Boyum

Themester has seen a wide variety of events so far. This season's line-up has included dance workshops, plays, lectures, film screenings, and art exhibits, all of which explored a diverse range of networks.

We kicked off the semester with two exhibits in the Grunwald Gallery. Imag(in)ing Science featured collaborative work that combined the efforts of artists and scientists, while Geist und Form featured the work of of ten Berliner artists who represented and discussed the rising art capital.

"The Top 1% of Neurons in the Brain
and Why They Do Most of the Talking"
John Beggs (Indiana University - Physics)
Photo credit: Alex Hughes

Our film series began with The Social Network, a fictionalized account of Facebook's origins. It was followed by And the Band Played On, which reveals how networks operated in and influenced the AIDS crisis. The Hunt showed next, a film that illustrates the drastic, damaging effects of a single lie within a small-knit community. Our latest installment in the series was Margin Call, a dramatized version of the 2008 economic crisis.

The season has also featured two theatrical productions thus far. Cardinal Stage Company's production of Lord of the Flies examined how connectedness is lost and changed in a group of stranded young boys. Bloomington Playwrights Project just wrapped its production of Sequence, which explored debates between luck versus fate, coincidence versus predetermination.

Imag(in)ing Science at the Grunwald Gallery
Photo credit: Alex Hughes

Lecturers and panels have discussed connectedness and networks as they pertain to romantic attraction, disease, international relations, and much more. Vincent Hendricks, for example, gave a series of lectures covering social epistemology, game theory, and financial crises. The Framing the Global Conference discussed evolving research in global studies.

We're only half way through the semester. There is plenty still to come! For a full list of our future events, refer to Themester's official calendar.



Amber Hendricks
Themester 2013 Intern

Grunwald Gallery: Interview with Betsy Stirratt

Betsy Stirratt, Director of the Grunwald Gallery of Art, discusses two Themester-related exhibits currently showing in the gallery: Geist und Form: Ten Painters from Berlin and Imag(in)ing Science.

Entrance to Geist und Form.

Photo Credit: Geist und Form

1) How do these exhibits engage "Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World"? What does the work suggest about connection and networks?

Imag(in)ing Science includes work made by teams of scientists and artists. Faculty members at IU have collaborated to make pieces that would not have been possible without their connectedness. Each of the artist-scientist teams was created by knowing and becoming familiar with the work of the other person, so that the teams were developed by both social connectedness as well as connections in a professional and academic realm.

Geist und Form contains work by ten artists who have emigrated from other countries to Berlin. They traveled to Berlin because it is an art center at this time, and many visual artists from all over the world have found success and connections there.

An interactive piece featured in Imag(in)ing Science.
Photo credit: Alex Hughes

2) Imag(in)ing Science achieves one of Themester's greatest goals: to combine disciplines. Can you say more about this marriage of science and art? Its challenges and successes?

The most successful of the collaborations utilize research from both parties to create an entirely new final product. These works are visually successful, engaging the viewer to try to find out more about the work, and scientifically successful by imparting information about the science behind the final work.

3) Geist und Form is the product of a strong artistic network. How does such a network become a "cultural center" like Berlin?

Many factors came into play to make Berlin one of the visual art capitals of Europe. After the wall came down, artists were drawn to the city because it was inexpensive to live there and there was a pioneering spirit that existed. The city was being rebuilt and repopulated, and anything was possible. This is the kind of environment that artists have been drawn to for a long time, because space for working is available, and they could exist financially without too much worry. As more and more artists moved there, a momentum was created that drew artists and galleries from all over the world.

Panel discussion with five artists featured in Geist und Form.
Photo credit: Sarah Boyum

Both exhibits will continue to show through October 11.

Gallery hours are from 12-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.

(Closed on Sundays and Mondays).

Grunwald Gallery will also host four more discussions about Imag(in)ing Science.

For dates and times, refer to Themester's event calendar.

Amber Hendricks

Themester 2013 Intern

Lord of the Flies: Interview with Ellen MacKay

Ellen MacKay, an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department , discusses Cardinal Stage Company's upcoming production of Lord of the Flies. MacKay served as the production's dramaturg.

Nathan Robbins (Jack) and Nat Zegree (Ralph).
Provided by Cardinal Stage Company.

How does this play contribute to Themester's discussion on networks and connection?

Lord of the Flies is about remaking the social fabric from the ground up. I don't think I am giving away anything by saying that it's an experiment that doesn't go well. But in keeping with the grand tradition of utopian and dystopian writing, Lord of the Flies is a meditation on the ties that bind us together, their fragility, and the horrors that result in their absence.

Is there a loss of connection in this play? If so, what sort of connection is lost?

Well, the Island is a unique social environment in that it lacks the diversity of our global, multicultural world. In fact, it lacks every social type aside from school-aged, middle class, British boys. There are no adults. There are no women. There are no girls. There are no families, schools, churches, or social structures. So many of the connections that would suture the social fabric together are cut. Yet the boys find a way of organizing themselves, and they police that system ferociously. The chaos that results is not just the effect of cut connections, but also the effect of this strangely homogenous and too-tightly bound society.

Provided by Cardinal Stage Company.

Does the network developed between the boys in this play fail completely or run a natural course?

Any answer would depend on what you take to be humankind's natural condition. If the play follows the course of nature, then it's the nature that Thomas Hobbes describes, in which life is nasty, brutish, and short. According to John Locke, the human state of nature is a peaceable, sociable one. He would say that the disaster of Lord of the Flies is the effect of a corruption of nature and not natural at all.

To purchase tickets for Lord of the Flies, visit the Cardinal website:

http://www.cardinalstage.org/plays/2013-2014-season/lord-of-the-flies/overview/

Location:
Buskirk-Chumley Theatre

Showtimes:
Wednesday 7:30 p.m. (preview)
Thursday 7:00 p.m.
Friday 7:00 p.m.
Saturday 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Sunday 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Amber Hendricks
Themester 2013 Intern

God of Carnage: Dispensing with Civility

IU Theatre’s production of God of Carnage, directed by graduate student Lee Cromwell, showcases the worst in humanity in the most hilarious of scripts. Two couples meet to discuss the bad behavior of their children. One child has knocked out the other’s two front teeth with a stick. The adults present a false, civil front in their meeting and engage in pleasantries. As the play goes on, all courteousness drops and the characters reveal the very worst in their characters. The room is destroyed. Relationships between all of the characters seem beyond repair. The characters experience a complete transformation.

“There is a character that does not change over the course of the play,” said Cromwell. “People will be surprised who they like in the beginning of the play and who they like at the end.” A character named Alan remains honest and stays true to his “core self.” He exhibits bad behavior unabashedly and demonstrates very little of the civility the others seem keen on retaining. He instead retains his “bad” nature. The audience will watch as the polite characters around Alan become monstrous towards one another. Audience members might ask themselves: Is this the result of repressing bad behavior? “The other characters are allowing culture and civility to force them to pretend to be nice,” said Cromwell. The ways in which these characters present themselves are mediated by societal expectations. They allow themselves to be controlled by these expectations, whereas Alan seems less inclined to conform.

Is it better to follow his example? Or is it better to dispense with all civilities, as the other characters do, and act on honest impulses? Is the world these characters create a better world? “It’s not necessarily a better world,” said Cromwell, “but rather an honest, unfiltered look at the world.”

The New York Times called this play “a study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct.” Is bad behavior instinctive? Are we not naturally good? The audience, watching this play, might wonder if we force ourselves to exhibit good behavior, if civility is unnatural. What they might discover is that it’s necessary for the good of the group, for the good of society. Civilization moves forward because individuals can delay their gratification and move past their impulses to benefit the group.

If people were to behave impulsively, to act on individual desire rather than consider the good of the whole, society would likely collapse. This is represented in the destruction of God of Carnage. Children and marriages are forgotten as these characters succumb to their impulses and individual desires, and things fall apart.

SHOWDATES:

November 30,
December 1, 4-7, 2012 @ 7:30 p.m.
December 8 @ 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

 
Wells-Metz Theatre

Amber Hendricks

Themester 2012 intern