UC Berkeley NewsCenter » Arts & humanities

Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors

Yasmin Anwar — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:27 +0000

Whether we’re listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from UC Berkeley. For instance, Mozart’s jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

From fascist Europe to Berkeley: Students help uncover a history of intellectual migration

Carol Ness — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:05:56 +0000

Students digging through Magnes Collection archives stored at the Bancroft Library discovered a world unknown to many these days: The lives of 70 professors who fled Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1930s and made their mark on UC Berkeley. "J Weekly" explores their findings, which were made through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship program and will be part of an exhibit at the Magnes in 2014.

Two faculty named Guggenheim Fellows for 2013

Public Affairs — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:23:37 +0000

Two UC Berkeley faculty — improvising pianist and composer Myra Melford and English literature scholar Joanna Picciotto — have been named Guggenheim fellows for 2013, an award conferred for both achievement and promise.

Emoticons get more emotional, thanks to Berkeley psychologists

Yasmin Anwar — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:30:19 +0000

Emoticons not expressing the full complexity of your feelings? UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and his team at the campus’s Greater Good Science Center can help. They have assisted in creating a nuanced Facebook sticker package based on a character named “Finch,” inspired by scientist Charles Darwin.

Ten Berkeley faculty named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Robert Sanders — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:17:28 +0000

Ten Berkeley professors have been named members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a prestigious 233-year-old honorary society of national leaders from academia, business, public affairs and the humanities.

Cal Performances kicks off 2013-14 season

Public Affairs — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:36:06 +0000

Next week: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Handel and Haydn Society.

From high school dropout to U.S. Gates Cambridge scholar

Kathleen Maclay — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:44:54 +0000

Justin Park dropped out of high school, but he never lost his love of literature and learning. After 20 years as a bartender, bike messenger and military man, Park returned to school at UC Berkeley, graduated — and now has been selected as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, a top world honor.

Cal Day open house promises laughs and learning aplenty

Roibín Ó hÉochaidh — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:45:11 +0000

With more than 300 free events and activities — shoehorned into one unforgettable day of arts, music, dance, science, games and fun — UC Berkeley's annual open-house is the place to be April 20.

Contest winners shine new light on Fiat Lux

Steve Hockensmith — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:00:57 +0000

The Fiat Lux Remix contest invited students, faculty and staff members to revisit images of UC campuses commissioned in the mid-1960s by then-President Clark Kerr and taken by legendary photographer Ansel Adams – and published in the book Fiat Lux – and give them their own spin.

Biblical scholar on his latest translation, Ancient Israel

Public Affairs — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:03:37 +0000

Biblical scholar Robert Alter considers himself a "literary archaeologist." He discusses his latest Hebrew Bible translation, an award-winning work on the ancient Biblical books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, on KQED radio's "Forum with Michael Krasny."

#GlobalPOV: Art, videos and Twitter take poverty curriculum to the world

Carol Ness — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:59:15 +0000

Three Cal alumni and teachers — a live-action sketch artist, a social-media proselytizer and a brilliant professor who is also an unapologetic Bono fan — have teamed up to create artful, provocative videos and brought Twitter into the classroom. The goal: to extend the teachings of Berkeley’s biggest minor, Global Poverty and Practice, online. The project could be a model for a new kind of public scholarship and online education.

From ‘Beat Street’ to Berkeley

Steve Hockensmith — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:35:09 +0000

A visiting assistant professor in the music department, J. Griffith "Griff" Rollefson has carved out a unique specialty for himself in the world of musicology. He's not just a go-to guy when it comes to the study of hip hop and its cultural impact. He's the go-to guy in the field of European hip hop.

Early phases of construction begin for BAM/PFA

Aimee Chang — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:28:18 +0000

Work is underway on the future home of BAM/PFA in downtown Berkeley, marking a milestone for the new visual arts center.

Scientists create automated ‘time machine’ to reconstruct ancient languages

Yasmin Anwar — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:00:15 +0000

Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, UC Berkeley scientists have created an automated “time machine,” of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.

Exploring the world of silence, charted or not

Barry Bergman — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:00:57 +0000

Drawing its inspiration from John Cage, a six-week OLLI course delves into art, music, film, neuroscience, bliss, edginess, paradox and more in what Susan Hoffman, OLLI's director, calls "an experiment" in experiential learning.

Townsend Center: incubating inspiration in the humanities, for 25 years

Carol Ness — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:45:08 +0000

Celebrating its 25-year annniversary, UC Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities is igniting free-ranging conversations among faculty and students, across multiple disciplines, that open new dimensions in academia, new ways to solve social problems, or simply serve to reinvigorate, to stretch human minds in new directions, says the center's new director, Alan Tansman.

Playwright/alum Stan Lai to discuss creativity, theater

Kathleen Maclay — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:10:24 +0000

The prolific director/playwright Stan Lai comes home to the Berkeley campus to talk about contemporary theater, culture and creativity in Asia and the United States -- and what the world would be like without theater.

Berkeley 2012 – the year in pictures

Public Affairs — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:21:27 +0000

New faces, new vitality, reflection and celebration — 2012 brought all that, and more, to UC Berkeley. Here's a glance back at the year, in pictures.

It’s time to submit apps for library’s undergrad-research prize

Cathy Cockrell — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:00:26 +0000

Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 Library Prize for Undergraduate Research. The annual award comes with bragging rights as well as green: $750 for lower-division winners, $1,000 awards for upper-division students.

In downtown Berkeley, new crop of utility-box artworks

Cathy Cockrell — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:50:47 +0000

Streets Alive!, a downtown Berkeley beautification project, showed off 11 new pieces of utility-box art during a tour Friday. Among them, a new work at Oxford and University, sponsored by the Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund.