Works In Progress

Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK is a GPS-enabled work of public sound art that gives users a customized soundtrack for their walk. Subtly shifting compositions change along with users’ paths to reflect their environment.  

SOUNDWALK's creator is the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and sound artist Ellen Reid. UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance presented the Griffith Park version of the app.  

In an interview with the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Reid explains how she made SOUNDWALK, how walking and jogging are part of her composing process, and what makes LA a great city in which to compose music. 

In the late ‘90s, Fulton Leroy Washington, also known as Mr. Wash, was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense and sentenced to life in prison. He has always maintained his innocence. He served 21 years, until President Obama granted him clemency and commuted his sentence in 2016. 

Washington learned how to paint in prison. Several of his teardrop paintings – which show photorealistic portraits of people with big tears rolling down their faces and miniature scenes inside the teardrops – are part of the Made in L.A. 2020 biennial, now on view at the Hammer Museum and at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Washington will deliver the commencement keynote address to the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture graduating class of 2021 on Saturday, June 12. The self-taught artist and social justice advocate will share anecdotes from his journey and lessons learned along the way.

He joined the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress to discuss his extraordinary life and the evolution of his work.

The vast majority of UCLA's research budget, which topped $1.4 billion last year, is spent in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math to develop vaccines and robots as well as break new ground in agriculture, chemistry, nanoscience, and other fields.

Although the arts and humanities historically receive considerably less research funding than the STEM fields, they are just as vital to UCLA’s research environment, said Roger Wakimoto, UCLA’s vice chancellor for research and creative activities.

For this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Wakimoto discussed the importance of arts-related research on campus, his own creative interest in photographing tornadoes, and how his office is promoting diversity and inclusion in research at UCLA.

These are polarized times. Fights over masks and vaccines, the debate over policing, immigration reform and the border situation – even in this new political era, partisan divides feel as wide as ever.

For Janet O’Shea, fighting may be the solution. She’s a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and focuses on critical dance studies, performance, and the social and political contexts of martial arts.

In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, she talks about her own martial arts training, the value of competitive play, food politics and veganism, and her forthcoming book about physical risk and social justice.

The rise of blockchain-enabled NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, to buy and sell artwork has created a boon for digital artists, who have long struggled with selling works that can be infinitely reproducible. 

In this episode of Works In Progress, faculty and alumni of the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts weigh in on the potential for NFTs to empower artists, connect them directly with fans and collectors, and build demand and appreciation for digital art. They also consider the carbon footprint of the blockchains that power NFTs, and whether an NFT bubble is likely to pop anytime soon. 

This episode includes UCLA faculty Casey Reas, Refik Anadol and Rebecca Allen, and alumni Nate Mohler and Adam Ferriss.

Three alumni of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design have teamed up to design an art gallery housed in an industrial stretch of Historic South-Central Los Angeles.

Kevin Sherrod gave Works In Progress a tour of Gallery 90220, which he – along with fellow UCLA architecture alums Chris Doerr and Wayne Thomas – hopes will become a hub of community and inspiration, to be led by and primarily serve an audience of color. 

“What I'm really interested in is changing the way we understand the memory of Black and Brown people and displaying that architecturally. That's really what this gallery is about," Sherrod said.

When Susan Leigh Foster gets in front of an audience, she doesn’t spend much time standing behind a podium or pointing at slides. The choreographer and scholar dances freely around the stage, her movements underlining and sometimes building on her words.

"I needed to provide the audience with an example of what I was talking about, and also an example of why it's so difficult to talk about," she said. “I also wanted to offer them the opportunity to reflect on the fact that all lectures are performances, and the best lecturers are people who know that.”

At the 129th Faculty Research Lecture, titled “What Dancing Does,” Foster, distinguished professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, will describe some of the ways dance functions in our individual lives and within society. The talk will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14.

She joined Works In Progress for a preview.

The Hammer Museum at UCLA plans to reopen April 17, allowing the public to finally see Made in L.A. 2020: a version, the acclaimed biennial that spotlights emerging Los Angeles artists and, for the first time, extends to galleries at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino.

“We’re not allowed to have big gatherings or big crowds,” said Connie Butler, the Hammer’s chief curator. “It will be quiet and a really nice time to be in the galleries.”

Butler, who co-curated the second iteration of Made in L.A. in 2014, says the biennial “proves … that Los Angeles is such a deep and vast art community right now — actually, it’s many different art communities — and it can really support a show that is a core sample of contemporary art in L.A. every two years.”

In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress, Butler reflects on the Hammer's resilience during a year of challenges, and what the future holds in store for the museum.

Before the pandemic, downtown L.A. was in the midst of a renaissance, with the steady opening of new bars, restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings.

Architect and UCLA alumna Karin Liljegren has been a leader in that effort. Over the past 20 years, she has overseen or consulted on more than 400 adaptive reuse projects, mostly in downtown’s historic core. Last year, the American Institute of Architects named Liljegren to the College of Fellows, considered one of the architecture world’s highest honors.

Liljegren joined the UCLA Arts podcast Works In Progress to talk about downtown's post-pandemic recovery, her own path to becoming a leader in adaptive reuse, and the pleasure of visiting spaces that she has designed.

A student-conducted survey from across the School of the Arts and Architecture found that the pandemic is having a profound impact on students' mental and physical health, and "Zoom fatigue" is a major factor.

In this episode of the UCLA Arts podcast "Works In Progress," Joy Chen, a second-year design media arts student, breaks down the findings; Victoria Marks, associate dean of academic affairs, shares what faculty are doing about it; and Dr. Drea Letamendi, head of the UCLA RISE Center, provides solutions for minimizing burnout from all that screen time.