Monday, January 1 - Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Olin Memorial Library | Main Stairway, Landing Between 2nd and 3rd Floors
Minute/Year is an automated, process-based, durational work, in which sound is played, recorded, and layered, in a resonant space, for one minute each day. The result that is created each day is then automatically published online. This process occurs daily, but the location of the space in which it occurs alters annually. Over time, this has meant that the work has existed in a variety of public, private, and semi-public spaces. For the entirety of 2024 -- beginning on January 1st, and continuing until December 31st -- it is installed here, in Olin Library, for its ninth annual iteration.
Minute/Year began on January 1, 2016. It has run for one minute every day, ever since. It has no set ending date.
Thursday, March 28 - Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Olin Memorial Library | 2nd Floor Balcony
Known for her resin sculptures and disquieting videos, Kaari Upson (1970-2021) was one of the most significant artists to emerge from the Los Angeles art scene in the 21st century. The two untitled works on display were a gift from the Valentine family and are composed of smoke on oil panel. This donation and installation are the result of collaborative efforts between the Office of Advancement, Facilities, and the Center for the Arts.
Friday, April 12 - Summer 2024
Olin Memorial Library | Lobby
Unissued Diplomas honors the memory of Ukrainian students who will never graduate because their lives were taken by the Russian invasion. The exhibition uncovers the stories of 40 teenagers killed by the war. Exhibition organized by Oleksandra Volakova '27.
Tuesday, September 26 - Sunday, December 3, 2023
Olin Memorial Library | 2nd Floor Balcony
Installed in conjunction with the Zilkha Gallery’s exhibition No Title: Relays + Relations. Works by Renée Green and Sol LeWitt.
Code: Survey (2006) began as a public artwork for the CalTrans District Headquarters in Los Angeles. It examines the histories of development in California, especially the history of landgrabs, redlining, and extraction — the themes so well summarized in Malcolm Harris’ Palo Alto.
Finding the Spirit of Inanga: Project Launch & Listening Party
Monday, November 13, 2023 | 12:10 - 1:00 PM
Olin Memorial Library | Music Seminar Room (327b)
A lunch-time listening party to mark the beginning of Finding the Spirit of Inanga: A Gallery of African Musical Instruments, a project curated by music graduate student Chance Kinyange. A collaborative effort between Providence, RI-based PVD World Music Institute and Wesleyan's World Music Archives & Music Library, Finding the Spirit of Inanga is a series of exhibits and events from now through the spring of 2024, showcasing African musical instruments, audio, video, and related archival materials from Wesleyan University collections.
Kinyange will discuss the project and give an introduction to the inanga, and then spin some LPs of Burundian music from the World Music Archives & Music Library collections. Initial exhibits will be up on the third floor of Olin by the Music Library, and in the AV exhibit space in the first floor east corridor.
Friday, October 27, 2023 | 3:00 - 4:00 PM
Olin Memorial Library | Smith Reading Room
In this performance-lecture, Mohammad Geldi Geldi Nejad (MA '23), an acclaimed indigenous performer and scholar of Turkmen music, will introduce and perform instrumental pieces and songs from the repertoire of that tradition. He will also talk about his fieldwork experiences with Turkmen music masters in northeast Iran in the summer of 2022, and his current work documenting and archiving his field recordings for Wesleyan's World Music Archives.
Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 7:30 - 9:30 PM
Olin Memorial Library | Second Floor Balcony
between systems and grounds is a collaborative, durational performance and installation project by Professor of Music Paula Matthusen and visual artist Olivia Valentine that creates a feedback loop between textile construction processes and feedback-based live electronic music.
between systems and grounds: Chapter Three will coincide with Hidden Volumes, featuring students from MUSC 221 "Live-Electronics for Composition, Improvisation, and Sound Art" plus special mystery guests, taking place throughout Olin Library on the evening of Thursday, October 12, 2023, until 9:30pm.
The first two chapters of between systems and grounds took place in The Russell House in February 2018.
Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 7:30 - 9:30 PM
Olin Memorial Library
Taking place throughout Olin Library from 7:30pm to 9:30pm and featuring students from MUSC 221 "Live-Electronics for Composition, Improvisation, and Sound Art" plus special mystery guests, Hidden Volumes, 3rd edition is a collaborative framework for improvisation within the library, initiated by Paula Matthusen and Terri Hron in 2017, and now expanded to include many members of the Wesleyan musical community. Performances are dispersed throughout the stacks and spaces of Olin Library over the course of two hours. Unusual sonic resonances of the library are explored, as well as the possibility for unexpected musical interaction. All are welcome to come and go throughout the performance, creating their own experience of the event as they wander.
Hidden Volumes, 3rd edition will coincide with between systems and grounds: Chapter Three, located on the 2nd floor balcony of Olin.
The first two editions of Hidden Volumes took place in Olin Library in January 2017 and February 2020.
Thursday, September 14, 2023 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Olin Memorial Library | Smith Reading Room
Join David Rees (Get Your War On, Going Deep with David Rees) and Jon Kimball, hosts of the indie podcast Election Profit Makers, for a discussion of political prediction markets, field recording, tinnitus, Geoguessr and Google Earth, and maybe some other things.*
*Other things, as in, an audio quiz on the history of noise music. With prizes!
Election Profit Makers is a podcast... but also maybe a long-running performance art piece about the podcasting medium? Come find out!
Sponsored by the Apple Pickers Foundation
