Inspiring Creativity is a short film created by Liberatum, directed by Pablo Ganguli and Tomas Auksas, and presented by illy, featuring 21 artists and cultural figures from art, fashion, film, design, technology and music. The film is an insider's perspective on inspiration from the minds of leading creative personalities including: Diana Picasso, Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Academy Award nominee James Franco, Joan Smalls, Johan Lindeberg, Jonas Mekas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nico Muhly, Karen Elson, Karim Rashid, Klaus Biesenbach, Academy Award nominee Lee Daniels, Lola Montes Schnabel, Marilyn Minter, Mark Romanek, Tracey Emin, Moby, Paul Schrader, and TED founder Richard Saul Wurman. Through the authentic interpretation and responses from these individuals, the overall project communicates what inspires creative thinking and behaviors for nurturing inspiration, while provoking thoughts on how culture, society, and technology continue to affect creativity.
Playing around with cinemagraphs!
A Photography 1 class created their first cinemagraph on Monday. A cinemagraphs is a still photograph where just a bit of repeated movement occurs. They can give the illusion that the viewer is watching a video. Check it out below. More to come in the future!! Thanks to Pavel Artemov '15 who created the first image. The second image was a class effort!
Workshop in Bronze Sculptures
Gabriela Spector works with TASIS students sculpting in wax before sending the pieces to the foundry.
In late April, Gabriela Spector, an internationally recognized sculptress, led a workshop in the Ferit Sahenk Fine Arts Center, where IB Visual Art students had the opportunity to find out how to make their very own bronze sculptures. Students learned about a process, perfected during the Renaissance and which initially involves sculpting in wax. The wax models TASIS students made in this workshop found their way to the Perseo Foundry in Mendrisio where they were cast into bronze. Below are photographs of students sculpting in wax and also a number of the final bronze castings.
Vitra: A Swiss Family Business
On Thursday, May 1, Rolf Fehlbaum spoke to the TASIS Architecture and Design and Economics classes in the Palmer Cultural Center. Mr.Fehlbaum is on the board of directors of the company his father founded in 1950. The Vitra furniture manufacturing company is located in Basel, Switzerland, and the Vitra Design Museum is located just across the border in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany. The TASIS Architecture and Design classes travel up to Weil each year in October and in January to increase their understanding of contemporary design and architecture.
Mr. Fehlbaum’s talk was inspirational, as he recounted growing up in the midst of some of the greatest designers of the 20th century: Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, and others were personal friends of his parents, and members of the Vitra company’s private “stable” of furniture designers. Mr. Fehlbaum also spoke about his passion for contemporary architecture, and the close correlation of architecture with design. Finally, Mr. Fehlbaum addressed the issue of business and profit making. Here, too, his remarks were direct and clear, targeting students whose careers will most likely include business involvement.
The most memorable thing he advised them was to remember that businesses are not just profit-making concerns, but rather, the most successful ones exhibit a deep knowledge of their craft. In the case of Vitra, this means a thorough understanding of chair making, but the same advice goes for any business. His example was of a bakery in Paris where people line up daily to buy bread. “Why do they do this?” he asked. The answer was that the bread is produced by bakers whose detailed, artisanal knowledge of the craft enables them to make the very best bread available. “Of course a business must be profitable”, he said, “but the money is not the only thing that counts.”
Attention to detail, commitment to excellence, deep knowledge of the field, and a commitment to contemporary culture: these principles are all characteristic of the Vitra company, and indeed of Swiss contemporary design.
Rolf Fehlbaum speaks to students and faculty in the Palmer Center.
TASIS students visit Vitra in October 2013.
Busy days in the TASIS art studios
All parts of the Ferit Sahenk Fine Arts Center were humming before Spring Break! Second year IB students were completing their interviews of their work and getting ready to upload their workbook pages, the AP students were finishing up their portfolios for a May 2nd deadline, and all other students are readying work for the May Spring Arts Festival.
Click on the image above to view TASIS students at work during the class day.
Photography and Words - Powerful Companions
Images and words can awaken our emotions, quicken our minds,and tell the stories of our lives.
While each trip returns from Academic Travel with a collective story, it is the individual stories and perspectives that make this experience so special. After a week in far-flung places around the world, students and teachers linger in the De Nobili dining room discussing their memories. Most advisors open their Monday advisor meeting with “Well, how was your trip?”
Photos help everyone remember both collective and personal memories. During last month’s trips, Photography 1 students were asked to be thoughtful with a few of their images, focusing on composition whether using a DSLR or their smartphones. Once back in class, students created a picture-story, or pictory.
The pictory concept began in December 2009, when graphic designer Laura Brunow Miner created the website Pictory to showcase photo stories – remarkable images and poignant words – based around various themes. Photographers from around the world sent in submissions which Miner curated into group essays. The 40+ Photography 1 students drew on the archives of this site for inspiration, and some of their work is included in the Academic Travel Spring 2014 ebook.
Click here to see the 2014 Academic Travel ebook.
Portrait Exhibition
An new exhibition is now in place in the Ferit Şahenk Fine Arts Center. The show is comprised of work from the current classes plus those from the TASIS Fine Art archive/collection.
