November 2014

It's Science! It's Magic! It's Science-CADABRA! 

An Afternoon with John Underkoffler 

Remember the data interface from Minority Report? Well, it's real, and John Underkoffler invented it. Underkoffler led the team that came up with the point-and-touch interface called g-speak - and it is going to change the way we interact with data. His company, Oblong Industries, was founded to move g-speak into the real world. Oblong is building apps for aerospace, bioinformatics, video editing and more. But the big vision is ubiquity: g-speak on every laptop, every desktop, every microwave oven, TV, dashboard. Underkoffler worked on human machine interfaces at MIT's Media Lab for over two decades, spending his pre-Hollywood years as a Researcher at MIT's prestigious, multidisciplinary Media Lab. There, he toiled on a myriad of intellectually minded projects encompassing everything from holography to computer graphics to electronic publishing. In addition to his work on Minority Report, he also served as a Science and Technology Consultant on Ang Lee's comic-book opus The Hulk. John Underkoffler's lecture will take place at 4:00 p.m. on November 7 in deSalle Auditorium at Cranbrook Art Museum. Lecture is free to ArtMembers and students with identification, and included with Museum admission for the general public.  

Artist Linda Huey Presents Dark Garden 

at Cranbrook Institute of Science 

The Institute of Science hosts a lecture by clay artist Linda Huey on November 11 at 7:00 p.m. Huey will discuss her installation, Dark Garden, which is currently on view in the lobby of the Institute of Science. 

Dark Garden addresses environmental issues and reflects our culture's ambiguous relationship toward nature, and questions what we want to see versus what we don't want to see. A garden is normally a place of beauty and refuge that draws us in, but upon closer inspection problems are revealed in this somber garden. Caged birds, broken antennas, barbed wire, skeletons, leaves infested with cars, decaying gnomes, bat-like fairies, and actual nails and bolts fired into the plants envision a future Earth covered with artifacts from our disposable economy that eventually become fossils millions of years from now. Linda Huey's lecture and Dark Garden are free.

 

Linda Huey has an MFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and makes both pottery and sculpture. She also teaches workshops, and maintains studios in Boston and in rural western New York State. Her work is included in public and private collections. Additional information on the artist is available at www.lindahuey.com. 

In 1899, Dr. Clarence Hemingway and his wife Grace Hall Hemingway purchased property on Walloon Lake near Petoskey and constructed a summer cottage. Their son Ernest would make the people who lived in and near the cottage, as well as the surrounding lakes and communities, internationally famous through the stories and books he wrote. But before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and before he published his first story, "Ernie" spent all of his summers "Up North" as just another summer person. Listen to Frank Boles, Director of Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, tell the fascinating stories of those summers, as well as more about the "Up North" experience the family lived from 1900 to 1921, all of which forevershaped one of America's most celebrated authors. Lecture takes place in the deSalle Auditorium at Cranbrook Art Museum, on November 13 at 7:00 p.m. Admission is free for Friends of the Center and members of Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook House and Gardens Auxiliary, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and full-time students with ID. Admission is $10 for non-members. Tickets are available at the door.

Are you looking for a unique holiday gift? This is your chance to give Cranbrook Art to someone special or even to yourself. Over 400 limited edition cups will be available for purchase at $25 each. The sale takes place on November 16 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. and on November 17 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the Ceramics Department on the main floor of The New Studios Building. 

Join us in welcoming the holiday season with the grand finale of Holiday Tables, the annual fall fundraiser for Cranbrook House and Gardens Auxiliary. Since 1975, this holiday tradition has graced the community with some of the most finely decorated tablescapes from designers and other local exhibitors. Holiday Tables will once again feature many of its original highlights for its final year, such as a formal buffet tea in the dining room of Cranbrook House and decorated tables in The Oak Room. New in 2014 is a festive Holiday Tables cocktail party at Cranbrook House from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. on November 21. Wine and spirits, a strolling dinner surrounded by musical entertainment, and the dazzling array of unique table designs make for a perfect way to celebrate the grand finale of this annual fundraiser. 

 

Please visit our website or call 248 645.3149 for more information on the cocktail party, formal buffet tea, or general admission, and to make your reservation. Special thanks to Coldwell Banker Weir Manuel for sponsoring this year's Holiday Tables fundraiser. Proceeds support the preservation and restoration of Cranbrook House and Gardens.  

New Exhibitions at Cranbrook Art Museum 

Three exciting exhibitions are set to open in November at Cranbrook Art Museum. Join us for this groundbreaking debut at the ArtMembers' Opening Reception on November 22 at 6:00 p.m., featuring live Detroit Music. Not a member? Purchase a membership at the front desk the night of the opening at half-price! Visit our website for more details. 

 

Theater of Mind

November 23, 2014 - March 29, 2015

 

The Cranbrook Hall of Wonders: 

Artworks, Objects, and Natural Curiosities

November 23, 2014 - March 22, 2015

 

Iris Eichenberg: Bend

November 23, 2014 - January 25, 2015

It's Science! It's Magic! It's Science-CADABRA! 

After Thanksgiving, join Cranbrook's resident scientists and magicians to discover how math and science create illusion and mystery in Science-CADABRA! A complement to the Institute-produced exhibition The Science of Sight, Light & Illusion, the secrets behind "magic" will be revealed and our "Scienti-gicians" will even show you a few tricks to amaze your friends. Science-CADABRA! is free with admission November 28-30 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. each day. Daily planetarium and bat shows will be available at an additional charge.