Vanishing Ice in Greenland

October 3, 2008
7:00 pmto9:00 pm
7:00 pmto9:00 pm

Dr. Sebastian H. Mernild, a post-doc fellow at the International Arctic Research Center and Water & Environmental Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is in Santa Fe this weekend. The internationally renowned researcher will join Frito Friday for a casual and informative discussion on his research on the Greenland Ice Sheet in a climate perspective. Read more

Architecture for Humanity

October 1, 2008
6:00 pmto8:00 pm

A New Chapter Is Beginning!

10.01.2008
Santa Fe Complex
6:00 PM

If you are interested in design &/or building, sustainable design, if you are design professional and want to give back to your community, if you enjoy helping people, if you appreciate good design, art, and community, or enjoy learning about these topics, we want you!

3 SLIDESHOW PRESENTATIONS :
Alexaner Dzurac of Autotroph Design
Joel Glanzberg of Regenesis Group
Alfred Von Bachmayr of The World Hands Project

and

Lindsey Love of AOS Architects
to introduce
Architecture for Humanity and the new local chapter

visit: http://www.architectureforhumanity.org-chapters for more information

Design Like You Give A Damn

Handicapping the Horserace

September 30, 2008
6:30 pmto8:00 pm
October 7, 2008
6:30 pmto8:00 pm
October 14, 2008
6:30 pmto8:00 pm

It’s human nature: Elections and disinformation go hand-in-hand. We idealize the competition of ideas and the process of debate while we listen to the whisper campaigns telling us of the skeletons in the other candidate’s closet. Or, we can learn from serious journalism to tap into the growing number of digital tools at hand and see what is really going on in this fall’s campaigns. Join journalist Tom Johnson for a three-part workshop at Santa Fe Complex to learn how you can be your own investigative reporter and get ready for that special Tuesday in November. Read more

Scanning the Horizon and More

September 24, 2008
6:00 pmto8:00 pm

Three-dimensions are the rage in this fall’s movie line-up. They’re also increasingly important in historical, archeological and paleontological research, as we’ve seen in three prior blenders at Santa Fe Complex. We continue our series on Stereo-Computational Photography with an in-depth look at 3D laser scanning in modern research. Read more

Rewrite History

September 15, 2008
6:00 pmto8:00 pm

We can expect the electoral campaign season to be filled with the usual rewrites of history, similar to the recent New York Times story on the rewrite of Sarah Palin’s wikipedia page. WikiScanner creator Virgil Griffith (also known as Romanpoet in the hacker community) will offer his analysis of the various ways people and corporations try to rewrite history–or, at least, their Wikipedia pages–on September 15 at 6:00 at Santa Fe Complex. Admissionis free but a $5.00 contribution is suggested to help defer the costs of the event. Read more

Youth Mapping Project

What if there was a map of Santa Fe that showed you what is happening, where it is happening, and how to get there – for parties, concerts, sporting events, and whatever you are interested in?

This map could show your favorite places andactivities: youth friendly cafes, skateboard parks, soccer fields, basketball courts, etc. The possibilities are endless!

And what if that map was created by youth for youth? Click here for details.

Symphony of the Solo String

September 27, 2008
7:00 pmto10:00 pm

Musician, ethnologist and traveler Robert Bassara brings his instruments and music to Santa Fe Complex this Saturday night, September 27 at 7:00 pm for an extemporaneous Symphony of the Solo String to explore the songs inherent in the instruments he brings from his global travels.

“This music is about singing and talking with and through musical instruments,” he says. “This necessitates a certain comportment, demeanor and respect for the instruments.”

“Mastery is not necessarily the objective,” Bassara continues. “The objective is partly to ignore the bias and restrictions that define animate and inanimate: the dogma of division. Musical instruments are not inanimate. The subtlety of merging with an instrument, a kind of communicative tactility, defies logical thinking for what occurs is a reciprocal recognition. To establish this threshold is the primary objective. This aim heightens the senses and mental images and contributes extensively in developing an awareness and openness which allows this reciprocal element to happen in repetitive instances.”

Bassara has traveled through North Africa, Central Asia and South East Asia to collect and study the numerous traditional uses of tribal instruments. He also seeks to define the origins and practices of construction of some of the simplest and most ancient instruments in the world, especially the bronze prayer chimes of Burma, the Kyi-Tzi; bamboo and metal Jews Harps from numerous cultures; and the frame drums of North Africa and central Asia. As a result of these interactions with both traditional craftsmen and musicians, Bassara has designed and crafted a variety of unique instruments that he will include in his performance. They include:

  • The Bird Flutes: tiny bamboo and wooden whistles used to communicate with birds.
  • Breath Flutes: fabricated from long lengths of bamboo and consisting of one hole, the breath aperture, used for practicing breathing techniques utilizing sound.
  • Winged Thing: which are whirled overhead to produce unearthly sounds.
  • Additional traditional instruments such as the Birembau of Brazil and the Ecktar of India, which he has modified structurally and developed new techniques for playing.

    • Bassara will be joined by Peter Halter, Steven Harkless, Paul Elwood, Will Tarble and Ben Wright in his attempt to meld these instruments and others into the Symphony of the Solo String.

    Robert Bassara on the Solo String
    Equally important is to travel to various countries to not only collect instruments but to observe how the originators of these instruments play them and in what context/enviornment. But an even more interesting possibility is to attempt to play with these musicians. Occasionally through this latter type of engagement, it is possible to establish that they understand that you understand something they understand. This understanding by its very nature is beyond language. For who you are is how you play, who you touch the instrument.

    Naturally vocalization/singing in all probability superseded the fabrication of musical instruments. Many early instruments were used to primarily accompany and/or mimic singing. In classical Indian music, a solo stringed instrument serves to maintain the tonal rhythmic underpinning for soloist whether they be instrumental or vocal. There exists a direct correlation between simplicity of design and the relative ancient ancestry of an instrument. Certainly Neanderthals did not have saxophones but this does not preclude their ability to create complex patterns, rhythmically or otherwise, with their voices and extremely simple instruments such as a blade of grass or a leaf. Naturally there are limitations — simple instruments obviously do not have the range of more developed instruments. Once in Cambodia, I was able to record a young man playing a leaf with his mouth and the resulting sounds were fused with a strong sense of melancholy beyond what I thought possible .

Vasulka-Squared

August 27, 2008
6:00 pmto8:00 pm
September 3, 2008
6:00 pm

Woody Vasulka finishes his retrospective at Santa Fe Complex with the second conversation on the changing relationship between art and technology over his 40-year career, each decade of which represents a distinct phase in the evolution of that relationship, says Vasulka. “It has been a dialogue with the machine that began in the political environment of the 60s with a time of continual interaction within an art community,” he explains. The first conversationwill occur at Santa Fe Complex at 6:00 on August 27. Vasulka will return for the second talk a week later on September 9. Read more

Cafe Scientifique Comes to sfComplex

August 28, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm
September 25, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm
October 2, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm
October 16, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm
October 30, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm

Café Scientifique will hold its Santa Fe meetings at the complex beginning with a café on Thursday, August 28 and a Youth Leadership Team meeting on Thursday, September 4. The youth education program’s Santa Fe meetings will continue on a monthly basis through the 08-09 school year. The August 28th meeting features Dr. Joseph Martz of Los Alamos National Laboratory discussing whether science can end the nuclear race? The September 4 meeting follows that topic with a hands-on discussion session by the teen participants. Read more