EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 5:10 p.m. nearly every Thursday from mid-September through April

EVENT: The University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design’s Penny Stamps Speaker Series is free to the public.

PLACE: Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor

INFORMATION: http://art-design.umich.edu/stamps

DETAILS: A selection of the world’s most compelling and provocative artists take center stage during the weekly Stamps Speaker Series, featuring a range of artists in theater, photography, installation work, industrial design, interactive design, humor, performance art, sculpture, technology and socially conscious design.

The fall lineup includes:

• Sept. 12: Mary Ellen Mark, one of the most respected and influential image-makers of the past three decades. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and featured in LIFE, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.
• Sept. 19: Simon McBurney, director, writer and actor. One of the most important theatrical creators in Britain today, he founded the radical theater company Complicite that helped bring new levels of physicality, visual complexity and illusion to the stage.
• Sept. 26: Mary Sibande, a rising young artist who constructs elaborate visual narratives to consider race, gender and class in post-colonial South Africa. In addition to her Stamps lecture, Sibande’s Ann Arbor residency includes an original installation at the Institute for the Humanities gallery, an open studio at the Stamps School and an exhibition at Gallery DAAS, U-M Museum of Art and Stamps School Slusser Gallery.
• Oct. 3: Mark Dziersk, an industrial designer. He is an expert in brand management, innovation and creativity, and head of industrial design initiatives at LUNAR, one of the world’s top international Industrial Design firms. His presentation will focus on the fundamentals of creativity and risk-taking involved in design thinking and explore the obstacles that prevent people from reaching their own creative potential.
• Oct. 10: Tribute to Mike Kelley, one of the most significant artists of his generation. Kelley, a Stamps graduate, was an iconoclast who introduced a distinctive Detroit sensibility to the international art world with his references to everything from Soupy Sales to the Vernor’s gnome. He was a founding member of Destroy All Monsters, a collective formed in Ann Arbor in 1974. Mary Clare Stevens, executive director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, will speak and present videos of Kelley.
• Oct. 17: Art is Open Source, featuring Artist Salvatore Iaconesi, engineer, artist, hacker, interaction designer and principal of Art is Open Source. AOS is an international informal network exploring the mutation of human beings with the wide accessibility of digital technologies and networks. He is joined by Oriana Persico for a visual, sonic exploration of new rituals that have radically changed work, relationships, consumerism and emotional experience.
• Oct. 24: Liza Donnelly, cartoonist, columnist and author known for her acute observations on cultural and political issues. Her cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker for more than 30 years. In Donnelly’s view, humor is serious business, helping us laugh at our failings and working to make changes in ourselves and the world. She also is a cultural envoy for the U.S. State Department on women’s rights and freedom of speech.
• Oct. 31: Joseph Keckler, singer, musician, writer and interdisciplinary artist. The Village Voice has called his work “Tantalizing…dynamic…with magnetism and poise so high that he seems to have been born onstage.” Keckler’s performance work incorporates vivid imagery and humor with operatic intensity.
• Nov. 7: Lisa Strausfeld, global head of data visualization at Bloomberg, where she leads a team dedicated to creating consumer-focused interactive data products. In her presentation, Strausfeld will discuss the attributes of successful data visualizations and how can they be generalized to other design media.
• Nov. 12 (special presentation at 7 p.m. at Stamps Auditorium, 1226 Murfin Ave., North Campus): Indira Freitas Johnson, sculptor, cultural worker, peace activist and educator. Much of her inspiration comes from transitory, ritualistic Indian folk art practices, which she uses to address issues of domestic violence, leprosy health education, labor, the environment, gender, peace, nonviolence and literacy.
• Nov. 14: Sputniko! Produced with the investigative cooperation of a range of scientists, Sputniko!’s works explore the relationship among technology, feminism and pop culture, while provoking cultural and ethical implications of new technologies. Sputniko! includes creating songs and music videos about products, which she posts to social networks and online video platforms to encourage broad discussion.
• Nov. 21: Antony Gormley, whose sculptures, installations and public artworks investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the world. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge.
• Dec. 5: John Marshall, a principal in rootoftwo, a hybrid design + art studio that creates hybrid design projects. His work draws on humor, play, interaction and participation. Ultimately, his art is intended to create a condition where the viewer can perceive oneself in the “here and now” and future in a parallel, yet distinctive way.