Feb 27: Response to Director's Forum
Dear Selection Committee,
Before explaining why I think Dr. Tulis should be chosen as the new director, I would like to bring your attention to a particular concern that I have. The Plan II Student Association recently wrote a letter endorsing Dr. Sosa as the next Plan II director. Every member of the P2SA board certainly seems to have a strong opinion about this matter. However, I feel that it is inappropriate for the board to endorse a candidate, regardless of the consensus of the group. The P2SA appears to be a representative organization for the students within Plan II, although this is not the case, especially for such political matters. In addition to the fact that a large majority of Plan II students do not vote during P2SA elections, the representatives are elected for their ability to fulfill certain administrative duties, not to politically represent the Plan II student body. I think that the P2SA endorsement letter could easily be misconstrued as a more general consensus of the Plan II students but should not be given any more weight than a letter from any individual.
As the historian of the P2SA, I have been involved in the voting process to endorse a candidate. This process has revealed a distinct bias for Dr. Sosa that I am concerned about and that I hope is not an attitude shared by the selection committee. This bias was first evinced by the kinds of questions that were asked and whom they were directed toward at the forum last week. I feel that Dr. Sosa was allowed too often to make vague remarks with no resulting criticism. On the other hand, during Dr. Tulis’s speech, his consistently concrete and thorough remarks were continually questioned and barraged by further skeptical inquiry. After the forum, the bias for Dr. Sosa was even more obvious. Students who admitted that Dr. Tulis’s presentation was excellent compared to that of Dr. Sosa continued to support Dr. Sosa—an opinion they held before meeting Dr. Tulis.
I am afraid that this opinion is entirely a result of the students and faculties’ past interaction with Dr. Sosa. The opinions generated based on this interaction are certainly genuine but altogether too inflexible and do not account for the administrative aspects of the position. This bias has been so pervasive that negative rumors have arisen about Dr. Tulis's character, which students in his class have strongly objected to.
Students, in particular, emphasize “face time” as a primary duty of the new director, and assume that Dr. Sosa will excel in this area. Though I do not think this should be a required duty of the Plan II director, I question the legitimacy of Dr. Sosa’s plan to incorporate a weekly “cookie hour” into his schedule. I have discovered, through talking to past office workers, that Dr. Sosa was rarely present in the office. I think Dr. Sosa’s promises of “face time” are generally unrealistic since his position would be very time consuming. I think Dr. Tulis would be just as available to students as Dr. Sosa, but he realizes that he will need to be out of the office for days at a time.
As a person who didn't know any of the candidates before this forum, I think that Jeff Tulis was overwhelmingly the strongest candidate based on the presentations made last week. His accurate description of the Plan II’s strengths was compelling and revealed his insight into the program. This ability to speak about the program so cogently would be inspiring for potential students as well as future donors. Although I have much respect for Dr. Sosa, I do not think that he has the same ability to vocalize the strengths of this program. I also do not feel that his “abstract” vision for Plan II is compelling or particularly coherent, and potential students and donors might not respond to it as strongly as to Dr. Tulis’s concrete ideas.
I think Plan II is an outstanding program, but should not be content with the status quo. Dr. Tulis clearly understands the level to which Plan II can ascend. His ideas about the new fiscal campaign and for attracting a more geographically diverse student body are visionary and ambitious, but also reasonable and concrete. He seems to have both the ideas, foresight, and experience necessary to accomplish the goals that he proposed. I think Dr. Sosa’s failed to acknowledge the program’s future potential. This attitude will ultimately be detrimental to Plan II’s success.
I appreciate the selection committee’s dedication to this process. Thank you for reading and considering my opinions during this process.
Sincerely,
Brian Dillon
Apr 28: Focus on Photography-Lorie Novak
Lorie Novak is a 21st century artist who uses non-traditional digital techniques to alter her photography. She began her career by taking photographs of light projections that she projected on landscapes and interiors. The colored light that she projected into rooms served to alter the moods of her photographs and add a sense of mystery to them.
Self Portrait (Ellis Island), 1988
This is an example of a light-projection of herself projected onto an interior. She often featured doors in her photographs because they represented an entry into the unknown. This photograph also highlights the artist's exploration of herself. Many of her pieces include images of herself from both past and present. The following picture illustrates her facination with representing time and memories in her photography through her juxtaposition of images from the past and present.
Clutching, 1994
Lorie's use of her personal family photographs revealed her facination with memory. In Clutching she projects the images of her past onto an image of her face. The photograph shows her childhood self clutching to her face in a way that appears to be tugging at her skin.
I found Lorie Novak's love/hate relationship with family photographs to be particularly interesting. She at once valued and despised the ideal family that they tend to depict. She commented on the subjectivity of photography that could sometimes be deceiving. However, she also noted that family photographs sometimes displayed a glimmer of truth in their small imperfections. She provided an example of an image of her and her mother in which she looked like she was about to cry. As an artist, she sees this rare image of truth to represent photograpy's triumph over other art forms. These represent memories that haven't been revised and reinterpreted by careful composition and affected smiles.
Lorie continued her series of light projection photographs in nature. She began projecting images of family portraits into trees and hillsides, producing an effect that was both monumental and intimate at the same time. She said that nature became the spiritual base for images because it was a "larger world that our images exist in."
Black Spring, 1990
This picture of a landscape projection illustrates Lorie's goal of such nature photography. She wanted to represent how nature embodies our photographs and how our memories are both contained within and projected onto nature.
In the early 90's, Lorie began creating multimedia installations. In her earlier peices, she began integrating found photographs from large events covered by the media such as World War II and the holocaust into her own personal photographs. She projected the photographs as slides that would either fade into each other or change rapidly. These installations were meditations on memory, and referenced the idea of a collective memory that all people share. She focused on the idea that our memories are shaped by the images we see in the media, but also by the common family portaits we see throughout our lives. Even though everyone's family portraits are unique, they all share a common set of ideals that also integrate into our collective memories.
These installations were accompanied by audio tracks that were always changing. The audio sampled radio stations and changed every thirty seconds. The effect of these audio tracks was particularly moving. You would first her "oldies that brought you back like that," and then a current news report that would bring you to the present once again. The audio assisted the photography in creating a dynamic experience in the collective memories of the viewers.
Her latest project is called collected visions. In this project she is trying to collect family pictures from people around the world. She also allows people to write about their family portraits and even write about other family portraits. Lorie Novak is certainly an outstanding artist who explores the meanings and effects of family photographs and cultural images. Her attempt to archive the collective memory is a daunting, but intriguing task.