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Jubilee Hall, Fisk University

A recent score arrival highlights an interesting musical connection between Stanford and Fisk Universities. Salute, a fanfare for four b-flat trumpets and optional percussion by the American composer Walter Piston (1894-1976), was written for the Thirteenth Festival of Music and Fine Art at Fisk University in Nashville, held in 1942. The piece was commissioned by Harold C. Schmidt, Director of Choirs and Chair of the Music Department.

Edgard Varese

The Archive of Recorded Sound has recently processed two notable collections, covering very different musical genres. 

Albers interaction of color

The current "Higlights from the Marmor Collection" exhibition, "Josef Albers: Interaction of Color," closes June 15 at the Cantor Arts Center. The exhibition displays prints by Albers from the "Homage to the square" series in the Marmor Collection alongside a selection of plates and the Text and Commentary books from the Art & Architecture's copy of Alber's Interaction of Color (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963). The Interaction of Color presents Alber's rigorous examination of color's ability to deceive us, with numerous comparative color experiments shown via 150 silkscreen plates, the two text volumes outlining the step by step color examinations. Heavily used by classes in art history, design and photography, the Interaction of Color is one of the hallmark publications of design pedagogy. One of the great masters of 20th century art, Albers taught at the Bauhaus schools in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin from 1923 to 1933, at Black Mountain College from 1933 to 1949, and at Yale University from 1950 on. This is a unique opportunity to see Alber's artwork displayed next to a sampling of the Interaction of Color. The exhibition is curated by Colleen Stockman, Assistant Curator for Special Projects.

Headed away from the Farm for summer break? Before you catch that plane, ride, train, or bus be sure and return or renew your library books. Use My Account to make sure everything is returned, renew materials you choose to take with you, pay fines and fees, or cancel holds or recalls on materials you no longer need.

Therapy dog

Love Dogs? Need a study break? Come meet Lou and Duke, certified therapy dogs, in the Science and Engineering Quad between Y2E2 and Huang today June 4 from 2:30-4:00pm and Monday, June 8 from 2:30-4:00pm. For more information contact Helen Josephine.

Richard Engel

Stanford's 2015 Commencement speaker is journalist -- and Stanford alumnus -- Richard Engel. You can read about him and about Commencement Weekend both in this article from the Stanford Report and on the 2015 Commencement website. Commencement will take place in the Stanford Stadium on Sunday, June 14.

Richard Engel graduated from Stanford in 1996 with a BA in International Relations; he is currently the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News. You can check the SearchWorks catalog for titles by Engel available in the libraries. You can also view further biographical information about Richard Engel in the Biography in Context database.

Sometimes the very data we map can get in the way of our understanding the phenomena we are visualizing.

In the case of bird sightings for the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, the typical approach to adding points over a map might have shown us where in time and space the birds were while on their annual migration, but the result would have also obscured the terrain over which they fly.

Using a creative visualization method of subtractive rather than additive symbology in mapping observations, John Nelson of IDV Solutions found a great way to reveal rather than hide the landscape these birds travel through. Instead of adding points for observations over a detailed map background, John used a masking technique to reveal the underlying map showing us the world the birds see as they migrate while still revealing the overall patterns in the data.

Shu-Wen Lin

The Stanford Media Preservation Lab and the Department of Special Collections are delighted that Shu-Wen Lin is spending the summer with us in Redwood City interning as a media archivist. Leveraging her interest and background in the arts, Shu-Wen will help to process and preserve several media-based collections, including the archives of visual artist Carolee Schneeman and the archives of Telling Pictures, a prominent Bay Area film production company. Shu-Wen's first day is June 1.

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