News
Briefs
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Volunteers needed for Special Olympics
UB will host the 2012 New York Special Olympics Summer Games this June and volunteers are needed for a variety of activities.
Nearly 1,500 athletes and coaches are expected to travel to Buffalo from around the state to compete in seven Olympic-style sports, including track and field, aquatics, basketball, bowling, power lifting, tennis and volleyball.
The opening and closing ceremonies and several sporting competitions will be held at UB. Other competitions will be held at AMF Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga and at the Buffalo Niagara Court Center in West Seneca.
The opening ceremony will be held on June 15; athletic competition will take place on June 16 and the games will end with a closing ceremony on June 17.
Volunteers are needed to staff the opening and closing ceremonies and all sporting venues, as well as help with setup and breakdown at all venues and food and drink distribution. Volunteers also are need to cheer on the athletes at the various competitions.
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit the New York Special Olympics website.
Those interested in volunteering can download the volunteer application.
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March against gender violence
“Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,” the annual community march against gender violence, will begin at noon on April 28 at Crisis Services, 2969 Main St. at Hertel Avenue.
Proceeds from the one-mile walk down Hertel to the North Park Theater will benefit Crisis Services’ Advocate Program, which provides confidential response and support services for survivors of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, family violence and elder abuse.
To register for the walk or to sponsor a participant, visit the Crisis Services website.
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Installation artist to lecture
Internationally prominent Dutch installation artist Marnix de Nijs, whose work in interactive electronic media investigates the impact of technology on society, the urban fabric and the built environment, will speak at 11:30 a.m. April 30 in the Screening Room, 112 Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is presented by the Deparment of Visual Studies. Co-sponsors are the departments of Architecture and Media Study, and the VS/DMS Emerging Practices Graduate Program.
De Nijs focused his early career on sculpture, public space and architecture. Since the mid 1990s, he has been a pioneer in researching the experimental use of media and technologies in art. Propelled by the idea that technology acts as a driving force behind cultural change and is, therefore, capable of generating new experiences in which societal habits and communication are rethought, his work thrives on the creative possibilities offered by new media, while critically examining their impact on contemporary society and human perception.
His work has been exhibited widely at international art institutes, museums and festivals, among them the Maison des Arts de Créteil (Paris 2011), National Art Museum of China (Beijing 2008 and 2011), Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina (Firenze 2008 and 2010) and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid 2010).
His work has been recognized with the Art Future Award (Taipei 2000) and honorable mentions at the Transmediale Award (Berlin 2000), the Vida 5.0 Award (Madrid 2002) and Prix Ars Electronica (Linz 2001 and 2005). In 2005, he received the prestigious Dutch Witteveen & Bos Art and Technology Prize for his entire body of work.
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Flags at half-mast honor fallen soldier
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has directed that flags on state government buildings—including those at UB—be flown at half-mast on May 2 in honor of a New York naval officer who died on April 26 in Afghanistan.
Lt. Christopher E. Mosko of Pittsford died while conducting combat operations in Nawa district, Ghazni province. He was assigned as a Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) platoon commander to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, Afghanistan. He was stationed at EOD Mobile Unit 3, San Diego.
Cuomo has ordered that flags on all state buildings be lowered to half-mast in honor of and tribute to New York service members who are killed in action or die in a combat zone.
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Contemporary dance to be presented
The work of four contemporary choreographers, including that of two UB faculty members, will be presented at “In Motion: A Concert of Contemporary Dance,” to take place at 7:30 p.m. May 5 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
Highlights of the program, which will feature diverse works from emerging as well as established choreographers, include a new solo by Melanie Aceto, UB assistant professor of theatre and dance, that explores a plastic terrain, and “Necessary Grace” by Anne Burnidge, UB assistant professor of theatre and dance.
“Necessary Grace,” developed in collaboration with multimedia artist Samantha Gorman, is a meditative journey of the human soma and psyche, exploring the topography of the human body as a means for seeking grace.
The concert also will feature “Portage,” a complex and lively group work choreographed by Aceto to a score by composer Marc Mellits; James Hansen’s “Lovely,” which blends theatricality and complex partnering sequences to examine traditional roles for women in American society; and “True Love,” a piece by Starr Foster that showcases Foster’s unique humor, inventive partnering and ability to make a statement that evokes subjective thought.
Collectively, the work of these artists has been shown at the prestigious Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass., as well as at venues in Toronto, Guatemala, Chile, Taiwan and New York City.
Tickets for “In Motion” are $15 general admission and $10 for students, and can be purchased at the door and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.
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Nanoelectronics workshop to be held
Experts in nanoelectronics and nanophotonics from UB and several prominent Japanese universities will gather at UB on May 11 to discuss issues at the forefront of the field during a “U.S.-Japan TeraNano Workshop on Nanophotonics & Nanoelectronics.”
The workshop, which is free of charge, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Agrusa Auditorium in Davis Hall, North Campus.
Topics to be discussed include terahertz (THz) microscopy and spectroscopy, THz characteristics of graphene, plasmonics and light in nanostructured media.
For more information, contact Jon Bird, professor of electrical engineering, at jbird@buffalo.edu
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