In fall 2007, the IPRH will host the Madden Lecture Series. These lectures will spotlight the research of the U of I faculty members in the arts and humanities who were designated as Madden Fellows in Technology, Arts, and Culture for the 2006-2007 academic year.

The Madden Fellowship program was a joint initiative of the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It was funded by the Madden Initiative in Technology, Arts, and Culture, which is the result of a generous gift by Mr. Dean E. (class of 1943) and Mrs. Marilynn A. (class of 1944) Madden. The principle objectives of the Madden Initiative were to examine current technologies as well as those envisioned for the future; to assess their relevance and usefulness to teaching and research programs, especially in the social sciences, humanities, and arts; to work to understand the impact of technology on society; and to study the way in which those effects will have the most beneficial outcomes possible. The Madden Initiative provided a meeting point for interdisciplinary engagement between the sciences, technology disciplines, humanities, social sciences, and arts to explore the importance of technology to culture and society and to the university as an institution of learning. The Madden Initiative also funded the interdisciplinary initiative, “Silicon, Carbon, Culture: Combining Codes through the Arts, Humanities, and Technology,” which provided support for more than thirty faculty and student projects, courses, performances, exhibitions, conferences, and symposia from fall 2002 through spring 2004.

The lectures will be held in the Humanities Lecture Hall at the IPRH building, 805 West Pennsylvania Avenue. Each lecture will be followed by a reception. The Madden Lecture Series is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Madden Project Coordinator Christine Catanzarite at catanzar@uiuc.edu.

Schedule of Madden Lectures

October 3
John Toenjes (Dance)
Recent Works in Interactive Movement-Based Performance
7:00 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall
There will be a reception following the lecture

John Toenjes is the Music Director of the U of I Department of Dance, and the President of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance. A composer and performer, his eclectic career has included concentrations in baroque harpsichord music, musical theater, computer multimedia, and ballet and modern dance scores. His current works are computer-assisted interactive performances and installations, including the interactive dance Leonardo’s Chimes, premiered at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in 2006; the Interactive Painting Station, experienced last winter at the Krannert Art Museum; and Ease of Water, a dance installation premiered in June at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

October 10
Gabriel Solis (Music)
Our Law: Aboriginal Knowledge, Technology, and the Problem of the ‘Traditional’ in Contemporary Australia
7:00 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall
There will be a reception following the lecture

Gabriel Solis is Assistant Professor of Music. Before coming to the U of I, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in St. Louis, where he received his Ph.D. in musicology and ethnomusicology. He is the author of articles on jazz and American popular music in Ethnomusicology, The Musical Quarterly, The Journal of the Royal Music Association, and The Journal of Popular Music Research, among others, and Monk's Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making, to be published by the University of California Press in late 2007; along with Bruno Nettl, he is editor of Musical Improvisation: Society, Art, and Education.

October 24
Lillian Hoddeson (History)
Analogy and Cognitive Style in the History of Invention:  alternative energy technologies
7:00 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall
There will be a reception following the lecture

Lillian Hoddeson’s historical research encompasses the history of solid-state physics, electronics, particle accelerators, atomic weapons, “big science,” and memory. The author or editor of eight books, including True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen, she holds the Thomas M. Siebold Chair in the History of Science. Her professional honors include Fellow of the American Physical Society and Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.