2008 Woodie Awards
Web Extra: Meeting looks for ways to strengthen arts and humanities
Kate Augusto
Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: News
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Strengthening the Arts and Humanities at Northeastern is one of the administration's goals for the future of the institution. As part of the Academic Initiative Plan, a plan in progress that aims at raising Northeastern's status in the collegiate world, the committee appointed to address arts and humanities took greater strides in accomplishing their mission last Wednesday.
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The Creative, Aesthetic and Ethical Dimensions Committee brought David Wessel, director of the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California-Berkeley, to campus to discuss his experience with interdisciplinary work between the arts and sciences and attempted to show how this can be done better at Northeastern. Â
Since high school, Wessel said he has been interested in both the sciences and arts. His research at UC-Berkeley brings the sciences and arts together by taking musical problems and providing scientific solutions to them. For example, speakers diminish the range of sounds that can be heard from them because of their flat surface. His team created a speaker which looked like a sphere to give full dimension to the sounds projected from it.
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About 30 people, mostly professors, attended his talk.
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Anthony DeRitis, a member of the committee and chair of Northeastern's Department of Music, said combining multiple areas of study is a fundamental aspect of the committee's work.
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"One thing we're looking at as we move forward is … embracing the notion of art … in all aspects of the institution," DeRitis said. "[Wessel] comes from a background [in the sciences] but found inspiration and innovation working between different fields." Â
DeRitis said art provides students and professors ways to express themselves, and a connection between art and science brings a new perspective to each area. Â
"We're already doing this very well," DeRitis said. "And as we move into the future we want to bridge the gap between [this idea] and practice, because that's what leading institutions do."
     Â
The Creative, Aesthetic and Ethical Dimensions Committee brought David Wessel, director of the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California-Berkeley, to campus to discuss his experience with interdisciplinary work between the arts and sciences and attempted to show how this can be done better at Northeastern. Â
Since high school, Wessel said he has been interested in both the sciences and arts. His research at UC-Berkeley brings the sciences and arts together by taking musical problems and providing scientific solutions to them. For example, speakers diminish the range of sounds that can be heard from them because of their flat surface. His team created a speaker which looked like a sphere to give full dimension to the sounds projected from it.
     Â
About 30 people, mostly professors, attended his talk.
     Â
Anthony DeRitis, a member of the committee and chair of Northeastern's Department of Music, said combining multiple areas of study is a fundamental aspect of the committee's work.
     Â
"One thing we're looking at as we move forward is … embracing the notion of art … in all aspects of the institution," DeRitis said. "[Wessel] comes from a background [in the sciences] but found inspiration and innovation working between different fields." Â
DeRitis said art provides students and professors ways to express themselves, and a connection between art and science brings a new perspective to each area. Â
"We're already doing this very well," DeRitis said. "And as we move into the future we want to bridge the gap between [this idea] and practice, because that's what leading institutions do."
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