IU News Room

Research & Creative Activity, April 2006

Research & Creative Activity Magazine

Read the latest issue of Research & Creative Activity, which focuses "On the Human Condition."

IU acquires nation's fastest supercompuer

Indiana University officials recently announced the acquisition of the nation's fastest university-owned supercomputer and largest disk-based research storage facility.

Ardizzone audio highlight

IU Professor Tony Ardizzone recently edited an anthology of "Best Stories" from the past 25 years of the graduate creative writing program at IU Bloomington. The Habit of Art reflects Ardizzone's philosophy of nurturing and instilling in his students an ongoing process -- or a habit -- of writing. A highly accomplished novelist and author of short stories and past director of the Creative Writing Program, he described his own writing process during a lecture in Bloomington last spring. Listen to Ardizzone discuss how the writing process begins in "The Germ of the Story." The audio requires RealPlayer.

Events at Indiana University

See unique glass works at IU Southeast
June 15 (special reception from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.), IU Southeast Library, New Albany -- The new exhibit "Glorious Glass" will showcase artist John Guenther's latest work. The IU Southeast professor of fine arts has produced many beautiful and unique clay pieces. A strong mastery of technique and design have enabled Guenther to exhibit his work extensively in some of the most prestigious galleries in the nation. The campus community and general public are invited to attend this free reception.

IU Summer Music Festival set to begin

Rich with a fine array of standout musicians and showcase events, IU's annual Summer Music Festival at the Jacobs School of Music will begin Sunday (June 18). This year's festival will feature violinist Joshua Bell with the IU Festival Orchestra; the debut of the IU Summer Music Festival Jazz Orchestra; the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra; concerts by the Beaux Arts Trio, American Chamber Players, Penderecki Quartet and Sequenza Trio; world-renowned conductors Michael Stern and Leonard Slatkin; Gilbert and Sullivan's exotic opera The Mikado; and much more.

For new musicals, help is on the way

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Writers and composers of new musicals face many challenges including growing production costs, skeptical producers and a dwindling number of venues. Though a few festivals and projects in major cities have stepped up to help, the future of new musical theatre might be found many miles from the bright lights of Broadway, in places such as Indiana University Bloomington. This summer, the university will seek to help raise the fortunes of one such aspiring musical as it launches a New Musical Development Workshop.

Q&A: IU student actor John Armstrong on acting, singing, playing music

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John Armstrong, a master of fine arts acting candidate in the IU Bloomington Department of Theatre and Drama, speaks to "Live at IU" about his numerous and diverse summer and fall projects. He is currently performing in the toe-tapping family musical Smoke on the Mountain at the Brown County Playhouse in Nashville, Ind., and next month will participate in IU's inaugural New Musical Development Workshop, which will provide support for new musicals that otherwise might never get produced. In the fall, he will star as one of dramatic literature's most legendary characters -- John Proctor -- in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, to be performed at IU Bloomington in November. In this interview, he talks about the challenges of creating and switching roles, singing gospel tunes, taking part in a national tour and learning -- for the first time -- to sing and play an instrument simultaneously.

Home is where the "art" is

Tim Kennedy lectures on painting, drawing and design at the Indiana University Bloomington School of Fine Arts. An accomplished and award-winning artist, he recently staged a solo exhibition of his paintings, "Inside/Outside," at First Street Gallery in the historic Chelsea area of New York City. The gallery is one of New York City's oldest artist-run galleries. Kennedy's "Inside/Outside" exhibition reflects his fascination with the Craftsman bungalow in which he lives and its surrounding neighborhood. The paintings showcase intimate interiors and yard landscapes, as well as people involved in everyday domestic activities. In an essay about the exhibition, Kennedy discusses how the home and its many pleasures have become central to his art.

A completely different approach

IU Southeast Professor Dru Pilmer is one of fewer than 140 designated Linklater Voice teachers in the world. "I am endlessly fascinated with the connection of the moment, when someone is allowing the breath down into their belly -- which means to the bottom of their lungs -- for the first time in years," Pilmer says.

Snapshots of history: The Cushman Photograph Collection

In the fall of 1999, an IU archivist came across several suitcases -- hidden in the university's archives for 23 years -- containing a treasure trove of photographs taken by IU alumnus and amateur photographer Charles Weever Cushman (1896-1972). Included in the collection that Cushman bequeathed to IU: 14,500 Kodachrome slides taken between 1938 and 1969, during which time he extensively documented the United States as well as several other countries. The images are infused with rich, vibrant colors and document a time in history that most Americans can only picture in black and white. Said one fine arts professor of the collection, "This is the kind of things historians dream about."

The art of jazz

James McGarrell's musical obsession dates back to his days as an IU undergraduate, when he hosted a popular student radio program and hitchhiked more than 830 miles to see a show in a New Orleans dance club. Now one of the most influential figural painters of the postmodern movement of the 1980s and 1990s, McGarrell incorporates musicians and the language of music into his work, now on display at the IU Art Museum. His method is as swinging, freewheeling and improvisational as his jazz counterparts.

Previous issue of "Live at IU"

Follow this link for the previous issue of "Live at IU," which featured the Science Olympiad National Tournament, held last month at IU Bloomington, and IU Kokomo's "Semester of Shakespeare." The issue also included profiles of IU alumnus and award-winning opera star Lawrence Brownlee, Professor David Hertz and his efforts to break down the barrier between classical and popular culture, and Margaret Dolinksy, a professor of fine arts who is creating virtual reality environments.

IU visits Statehouse

AFL HHE Photogal

2006 Little 500

AFL PG 2006 Little 500

2006 Commencements

2006 Commencement

Campus Images

Campus Images

Bush domestic spying program to be tested in fed court in Detroit

Paying to prevent diabetes is cost effective

Not good at saying (or hearing) "no"

IU and BioCrossroads unite to harvest life sciences technologies

Indiana University President Adam W. Herbert today (May 30) announced creation of a partnership between IU and BioCrossroads that will help the university move laboratory discoveries to the marketplace more quickly.

For "sin" companies, diversification may make sense, study finds

Photo by: George Vlahakis

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Diversification, long derided as a poor strategy for companies seeking to maximize shareholder return, can actually help firms preserve their assets -- at least those companies threatened by litigation or regulation, according to a new study of tobacco company diversification activity led by Professor Messod Daniel Beneish of IU's Kelley School of Business.

Older Americans targeted by speculators in life insurance

A professor emeritus in IU's Kelley School of Business has raised concerns about a sales practice targeting many older Americans, "speculator-initiated life insurance," where they are asked to take out new policies for investors, not family members.

For new musicals, help is on the way

Print-Quality Photo

Writers and composers of new musicals face many challenges including growing production costs, skeptical producers and a dwindling number of venues. Though a few festivals and projects in major cities have stepped up to help, the future of new musical theatre might be found many miles from the bright lights of Broadway, in places such as Indiana University Bloomington. This summer, the university will seek to help raise the fortunes of one such aspiring musical as it launches a New Musical Development Workshop.

Juneteenth celebration to feature AfroPop artist, parade

Indiana University and its Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center will present the eighth annual Juneteenth Freedom Celebration on June 24 in Bloomington, featuring internationally acclaimed Nigerian musicians Toby Foyeh and Orchestra Africa.

Featured Links

Around 50 faculty and students from Indiana University campuses in Bloomington and Indianapolis, including IU's School of Medicine, participated in approximately 30 poster presentations, symposia and clinical workshops at the annual conference of the American College of Sports Medicine, May 31-June 3 in Denver. Read a sampling of the research that was presented.