Undergraduate Students in Music and Studio Art

Featured Guests
Lina Bahn, violin
Kate Vincent, viola

Campus Collaborators
Robin Hill, professor of studio art
in the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program

Kurt Rohde, professor of music
in the Department of Music

Stacey Parker, director of public horticulture and engagement
at the Arboretum and Public Garden

Artistic Guidance
Marie Lorenz, visiting artist
in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies

Professors Rohde and Hill describe how it works—

“Using the guided tour for prospective students as a frame, our piece includes site-specific and collaborative sculptural work, live performance of interstitial instrumental music, sonic improvisations, a boat landing from an unknown land, and pseudo-documentary film footage.”

>> Those experiencing the performance should plan to be on the North side of Lake Spafford (across the lake from the Wyatt Deck) by 8 p.m. and should be prepared to walk approximately a quarter mile while being led by student “tour guides” during the sequential event as the sun is setting. The event will conclude at the East end of the redwood grove.

“A BowerHaus for a Post-Anthropocene World,” a novel musical and visual work devised by student artists together with visiting artists seeks to address the urgency of habitat remediation and protection. The work uses an imagined narrative of the arboretum before humans, during humans (the “Anthropocene”), and after humans. 

“Framed as a tour of the Arboretum, in the habitat of the fictional Arboretum Bowerbird, ‘A BowerHaus for a Post-Anthropocene World’ takes the bowerbird as a case study to examine our impact on the environment and its occupants,” said Rohde and Hill, who have together created upper-division courses for the project in order to create the piece from the ground up.

Free and open to all.

Anthropocene (n.)
a proposed “age of humans” to be added to the geological time scale and dating roughly from mid-20c., by 1996, based on Holocene, etc. 

Bower (n.)
The modern spelling developed after mid-14c. The sense of “leafy arbor” (place closed in, shaded, or sheltered by trees) is attested from 1520s. Hence, too, Australia’s bower-bird (1847), so called for the ornamented play-houses it builds.

Haus (n.)
Old English hus ”dwelling, shelter, building designed to be used as a residence,” from Proto-Germanic *hūsan (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian hus, Dutch huis, German Haus), of unknown origin, perhaps connected to the root of hide (v.) [OED].

   —excerpted from the Online Etymology Dictionary

Development Goals Advanced

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 14: Life Below Water
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

About the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

A set of broad yet ambitious goals that address the universal need for sustainable development, the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) were adopted by all UN member states in 2015 as part of the 2030 “Agenda for Sustainable Development.” The 17 goals — such as ending hunger, ensuring clean water, and combating climate change — provide a common global framework to achieve sustainable development across economic, social and environmental dimensions.

About the Global Affairs Grant

Global Affairs at UC Davis offers grants for “Advancing Sustainable Development Goals” as a part of a partnership with Grand Challenges, Sustainability and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These team-focused grants fund global and multidisciplinary programs that enhance UC Davis’ connections to the SDGs.

On campus and around the world, UC Davis faculty, students and staff are addressing all 17 SDGs in various teaching, research, and service activities. The grants for advancing SDGs support work already underway and spark new partnerships. Four selected campus projects contribute to 13 of the 17 SDGs both locally and globally, which bring together more than 15 faculty, researchers and artists to collaborate with communities, government organizations, and academic institutions worldwide.