Get Inside Cars with writers, filmmakers, and car designers
Road Scholar Talk
Andrei Codrescu
Hunting the Nauga: Confessions of a Shameless Passenger
Saturday, October 5, 7:30 p.m.
Ted Mann Concert Hall, West Bank, University of Minnesota
$16/$12 Weisman members, MPR members, students, and seniors
Call 612-624-2345 for tickets. Advance purchase is highly recommended.
Author Andrei Codrescu narrates his own American road trip-invoking the
womb-like poetry of car interiors and the mysteries of naugahyde. Codrescu
has been in nearly perpetual motion since leaving his native Romania in
the mid-sixties. His book and film Road Scholar established Codrescu's
insightful probing of the American terrain. Reborn in a car in Detroit,
he tells and retells his New World origins, but never in the same way.
This rare Twin Cities appearance is presented by the Weisman Art Museum
in conjunction with the exhibition Inside Cars/Surrounding Interiors.
Andrei Codrescu is a regular commentator on National Public Radio, editor
of Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters & Life, and author
of numerous works, including poetry, memoirs, fiction, and essays. He
recently published a new novel, Casanova in Bohemia. A work in
progress is Fleeing the Restoration: A Novel with Architecture,
in part about American road architecture, the highways that are the capillaries
of America, and the horror of standing still. Codrescu is also a professor
at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more information visit www.codrescu.com.
VROOM-The Future of Car Design and Car Culture
November 8 & 9
VROOM With a View: Dream Cars, Interstates, and Inner
States
Phil Patton
Friday, November 8, 7:00 p.m.
Weisman Art Museum, reception follows program, Free
Keynote speaker Phil Patton writes on design and is the author of Bug:
The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile and Open
Road: A Celebration of the American Highway.
Saturday, November 9, 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Rapson Hall Auditorium, Architecture Building, 89 Church Street SE, Minneapolis
$15 General/$10 WAM Members/Free Students with ID, call 612-626-5302 to
make reservations.
1:30 p.m.
Outside and Under the Hood: New Directions in Car Body and Engine Design
Dan Sturges, Mobility Lab, Boulder, CO, car designer, creator of
the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, entrepreneur working with cities to
rethink transportation systems
Phil Patton, New York, author and design critic for Esquire and
the New York Times
Laurens van den Acker, Chief Designer, Advanced Design, Ford Motor
Company, Irvine, CA
3:00 p.m.
Inside Cars: Media, Comfort, and Privacy in Car Interior Designs
Anne Asensio, Executive Director of Design, Interior Design, Quality
and Brand Character, General Motors Design Center, Warren, MI
Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa, co-founders, Antenna
Design New York, designers of new New York subway trains and advanced
in-car interactive media systems
Lynn Spigel, professor of film and media studies at Northwestern
University, author of books on television, feminism and suburbia
4:15-5:00 p.m.
All Hands on the Wheel
Round-table discussion moderated by Janet Abrams, Director, Design Institute
VROOM is presented by the Weisman Art Museum and the Design Institute
at the University of Minnesota. For more information, call the Weisman
at 612-625-9494 or the Design Institute at 612-625-3373.
Weisman Film/Video Series
Cruising Inside Cars and Springsteen
All screenings are free and take place in the Shepherd Room at the Weisman.
Thursday, October 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Wild Wheels, Directed by Harrod Blank, 1992, 64 minutes
Wild Wheels is filmmaker Harrod Blank's comic and revealing exploration
of art cars and their creators.
Driving the Dream, Directed by Harrod Blank, 1998, 29 minutes
Harrod Blank's follow-up to Wild Wheels focuses on the personalities
behind spectacular art car creations.
Thursday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Road Scholar, Directed by Jean De Segonzac & Roger Weisberg,
1992, 82 minutes
Andrei Codrescu, émigré Romanian poet and nondriver, heads
for driver training school and then takes to the road for a 4500-mile
journey of discovery across America. Andrei Codrescu will speak October
5th at the Ted Mann Concert Hall! See the program description above for
more details.
Sunday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m.
Annie Leibovitz: Celebrity Photographer, Directed by Rebecca
Frayn, 1993, 51 minutes
This star-studded video documentary surveys Leibovitz's career and working
style as a leading portrait photographer. Leibovitz has taken many key
images in Bruce Springsteen's career and nine images are featured in the
Weisman exhibition, but unfortunately, Springsteen does not appear in
this video!
Thursday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m.
Lowriders: The Real Story, Directed by Gregory A. Thomson,
1995, 28 minutes
This documentary examines the activities of "lowriders"-hobbyists
who customize their autos with hydraulic technology. The film also challenges
a prevailing media stereotype of lowriding as a gang-related activity.
Motorist, Directed by Chip Lord, 1989, 69 minutes
This fictional narrative follows the driver of a 1962 Thunderbird from
the Southwest to Los Angeles, all the while commenting on the road and
his personal history. Lord juxtaposes idealistic 1950's media imagery
with updated banal road vistas-tracking the end of an American dream as
viewed by the "motorist." Chip Lord has worked with video since
1971, first as a partner in the alternative media collective Ant Farm,
and since 1978 as an independent artist/producer. See Ant Farm's Cadillac
Ranch Show and Media Burn below.
Thursday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
Cadillac Ranch Show, Made by Ant Farm members: Chip Lord,
Doug Michels, Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier, 1975 (1981 edit), 14
minutes
This video documents the 1974 installation of Cadillac Ranch, in Amarillo,
Texas (and the subject of Bruce Springsteen's song by the same name).
The artists buried ten Cadillacs in a Route 66 wheat field as a monument
to the rise and fall of the Cadillac tail fin.
Media Burn, Made by Ant Farm members: Chip Lord, Doug Michels,
Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier, 1975 (1981 edit), 23 minutes
Media Burn documents a live Ant Farm performance in San Francisco.
This spectacle staged for the camera culminated in the 4000 pound "Phantom
Dream Car," a customized Cadillac Eldorado, crashing through a pyramid
of TV sets to the cheers of the audience. A Media Burn clip appears
in the music video of Bruce Springsteen's song, "57 Channels."
Greetings from the Parking Lot: The Springsteen Fanomenon,
Directed by Mike Sodano, 1999, 70 minutes
Another installation in the popular "parking lot" genre, this
documentary explores the passionate fandom of Springsteen's followers.
Interviews with fans were shot in the parking lot of New Jersey's Meadowlands
stadium in 1999.
Oak Street Cinema Films October 11-31
Driving the Dream
In conjunction with Inside Cars and Springsteen: Troubadour of the Highway
Oak Street Cinema
309 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, Phone: 612/331-7563 or 612/331-3134
$7/$4.50 WAM members, Oak Street Discount Card Holders, children, seniors
For show times and film details, go to the calendar at oakstreetcinema.org.
October 11-13
American Graffiti
Rebel Without a Cause
October 14, 17
Bonnie and Clyde
Badlands
October 18
Lost Highway
Raising Arizona
October 19
Raising Arizona
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Bonnie and Clyde
October 20
Raising Arizona
Lost Highway
October 21, 22
Gun Crazy
Thunder Road
October 23, 24
Thelma and Louise
The Rain People
October 25-26
Duel
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
October 27
The Grapes of Wrath
October 28, 29
Easy Rider
Electra Glide in Blue