September 9, 2004
Red & Black UGA Student Newspaper

‘Paradise’ gets some play downtown
By: Sonya Elkins

It’s not all about sex — but almost.
Sexuality, libido, spirituality and love are the themes that drive the avant garde play “Paradise Hotel,” opening downtown on Thursday, said director Joshua Waterstone.

“Sexuality is such a big thing. It’s a part of our daily life,” said Waterstone, a senior from Kennesaw. “I think the play isn’t tame in its presentation, but it’s not that far off from a conversation that girls or guys could have in a bar.”

“Paradise Hotel” mixes stylized, overtly sexual poses and speech, written and pre-recorded dialog, a rotating set and an interactive target to create a unique world.

The play is a work of Richard Foreman, founder of the Ontological-Hysterical Theater in New York City, whose absurdist works reject traditional theatrical “realism.”

Foreman’s play departs from more traditional tactics of creating an emotional connection between the characters and audience and maintaining a suspension of disbelief, said Jennifer Morris, a senior from Savannah acting in the play.

Characters and events are enacted to be judged as a play rather than as a possible “real life” situation. The unique characteristics, its non-linear plot line and its sexual content lend to the controversial nature of the show, Morris said. However, she said she hoped a variety of people would come out to experience the play.

“Athens hasn’t really seen a play like this before,” she said. “It’s controversial, but it’s all in fun. I hope people can take it that way.”

And any type of personal reaction to a performance can teach something valuable to audience members about themselves and “where they stand in human life,” Waterstone said. “Even the action of being appalled is a worthwhile reaction.”

The production received part of its funding through a grant of about $3,000 from Ideas for Creative Exploration, a University multi-disciplinary initiative for research in the arts, Waterstone said.

Local artists and drama students have been collaborating for almost a year on the Athens production of the play, which was originated by former University comparative literature instructor Cal Clements.

James Simmons, a senior from Stone Mountain acting in the play, said that several separate aspects of the play attracted him to it.

“Aside from being very different, it’s very funny,” he said. “There’s a lot of humor and it’s sincere at the same time.”

In addition to having entertainment value, the show is very chaotic and intended to be thought-provoking, Morris said. It goes beyond being just a play to sit and enjoy, attempting to offer audience members something to think about afterwards, she added.

That lasting impression is what Daniel Lebow, a University alumnus acting in the play, said he hoped audience members would take from the production.

“I hope it expands their minds,” he said. “Not that they’ll just think about life in a different way, but that they’ll be different.”

© Copyright 2008 The Red and Black

July 8, 2004
Red & Black UGA student newspaper
link to original article 

E.L.I. poetry machine to hit the U.S. highways
ANNA FERGUSON

E.L.I. is his name. He’s a nomad. At least, that’s how his creator, Christian Croft, describes him.

When I visited the Web site, E.L.I. created this little number for me:
“The elite plans beneath fluffy publics traveling orgasmic US out of Iraq now tentatively turning down”

E.L.I., or the Electro-Linguistic Imaginator, is a traveling robot that learns words and phrases from the people he interacts with, and then generates poetry from the vocabulary stored on his database.
“E.L.I. is the first roaming poet of the ‘byte generation,'” said Croft, a recent University graduate.

Croft attended the 2003 Sidney Kahn Summer Institute at The Kitchen in New York. There, Croft, along with fellow artists Todd Shalom and Ben Coolik, a graduate student at the University, was assigned a project to develop a form of creative documentation that was reflective of current events.

Other students made things like videos, but Croft, Coolik and Shalom created a robot that learns words to create poems. Since creating E.L.I. last summer, they’ve taken the computerized poet on several trips to see how he interacts with people and to build up his word database.

The trio first went to Washington, D.C., in October 2003 for a “Stop the Occupation in Iraq” rally, where the robot interacted with demonstrators, generating poetry.

“Being (our) first road trip experiment, this trip was probably E.L.I.’s most awkward,” Croft said on the E.L.I. project Web site, (www.elinomad.us).

E.L.I. spoke poetry to many activists, tourists and locals, who in turn taught him more words to use, Croft said.

In November 2003, E.L.I. went to the Georgia-Auburn football game. Croft said this was one of E.L.I.’s most memorable experiences.

“All the Dog fans thought he was an instant reply machine,” Croft said. “We were like, ‘No, it’s a robot.’ He learned a lot of classic words, like ‘Bud Light’ and ‘Auburn sucks (expletive)’.”

Croft said Georgia fans, and people in general, have a hard time understanding E.L.I.’s purpose. He said it’s really just a creative way to see how people interact with computers and a new way of doing research.

“It has no purpose, there is no capital gain in it,” he said. “We are not trying to have a game show. It’s just a new brand of research.”

Croft said he later took E.L.I. to Miami, where marches and rallies were being held in response to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas negotiation meeting. He said E.L.I. learned a lot of words about political situations on that trip.

“(The) politically charged jargon he learns from rallies gives a reflection of current events,” he said.

While at the Miami rally, Croft said at times it was very chaotic, because sometimes the police officers outnumbered the demonstrators.”E.L.I. got tear-gassed at the Miami rally,” he said.

But when E.L.I. stopped at Fort Benning for a protest against the School of Americas, the police were much more accommodating, Croft said.

“Police officers searched demonstrators before allowing them entrance,” he said.

“Somehow, Ben and I convinced the officers of E.L.I.’s benevolence and he was permitted entrance while others were forced to leave behind batteries and pocketknives.”

E.L.I. and his creators will be heading out on a road trip this summer, stopping in cities across the United States to “engage in a series of impromptu performances,” Croft said.

“We aren’t ruining any surprises,” he said. “Only those who run into him along the way are lucky enough to know.”

E.L.I. will be sending postcards, which will include some of his original poetry, from the places they stop along the way.

“The postcards are to show off his progress and to share his poetry from the road,” Croft said.

Anyone interested in receiving road-trip postcards from E.L.I. can sign up on his Web site.

While on the site, viewers also can see photos from past road trips, as well as read the poems E.L.I. creates.

April 29, 2004
UGA Amazing Students Web feature
link to original article

Kit Hughes has shown his conceptual art projects at venues throughout the southeast region since 1998, including the Fugitive Art Center in Nashville and the Murfreesboro Art Center, also in Tennessee. He is also a net artist who has received a grant from the UGA Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) for his Tagging project, an online tool for covering downtown Athens in virtual graffiti.

Expected Graduation: May 2005

Degree Objective: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media

University highlights, achievements and awards:
Hughes has won numerous awards and recognition including being named a 2003 CURO Summer Research Fellow, ICE (Ideas for Creative Exploration) Project Grant Recipient, and 2004 VIGRE Program Participant (Mathematics and Visualization Seminar). He is also a Presidential Scholar and on the Dean’s List.

Current employment:
I work as a design consultant for a high profile design firm in Atlanta. Our clients include the brands of Budweiser, Bud Light, Gillette, Lipton, and BPAmoco. In Athens, I work for a different firm that designs sports collateral for UGA and many other schools with successful sports programs. I also have freelance clients throughout the country.

High School: Lone Oak High School

Hometown: Paducah, Kentucky

I choose to attend UGA because…
…when I decided to return to art school I began by visiting the top art schools in New England. They all overwhelmingly suggested UGA because of its reputation with digital media. After I visited the newly formed Digital Media program, I knew immediately that UGA was where I belonged.

My favorite things to do on campus are…
1) Experience the Student Learning Center. Since I am a transfer student and have first hand experience at another school, I am especially sensitive to the university’s investment in its students. To me, the Student Learning Center reinforces UGA’s investment in the student experience. When a building of this magnitude-interior and exterior-sits in the landscape of a campus like the SLC does, we have something we can touch and say, “This is our university.”

2) Visit the galleries on campus. There are numerous gallery spaces on campus, not to mention the Georgia Museum of Art, that rotate exhibits, sometimes weekly. A lot of the work is from students so it is great to see a few fresh ideas as some of the artists are working through aesthetic issues for the first time.

3) Walk around campus at the busiest times. My first semester at UGA was abroad, so I didn’t go through a real orientation. During my second semester, I had class only on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. in the same room. For one full year as a UGA student, I essentially had no idea what the on-campus experience was like. Now I walk around and ride packed buses as much as possible.

The craziest thing I’ve done is…
…grow my hair out to donate it to Locks of Love. I’m about 3 inches away from having a 10 inch pony-tail. Two years ago I decided that I wouldn’t have much time to do volunteer work since I was trying to juggle a career, spend time with my wife and go back to school. So I decided to grow my hair out to donate it to children with cancer. I knew this was something that might make me a little uncomfortable but would bring joy to someone faced with so much more than me. It has been very tough dealing with long hair, but it has been worth it.

My favorite professor is…
…Mark Callahan, Laleh Mehran, and Michael Oliveri. I know I’ve listed three people here. However, I asked them to wrestle each other for the title of “Kit’s Favorite Professor” and they all declined. So then I told them I was going to nominate Woody Beck or John Morrow instead since I knew that they’d be willing to wrestle. Needless to say, these three are my primary professors and each has helped me out immensely. Word to Beck and Morrow, though.

If I could share an afternoon with anyone, I would love to share it with…
…Malcolm X. To have undergone such a dramatic transformation through one’s life is absolutely amazing; I want to know what that is like. I read his autobiography in high school and became fascinated with his tact and disposition.

If money was not a consideration, I would love to…
…create a Rural/Urban Design Initiative very similar to Dennis Ruth and Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio at the Auburn University School of Architecture. This initiative would connect architecture, design, and art students with communities in low-income urban and rural areas. These students would be able to offer low cost architectural and graphic design solutions to emerging businesses as well as enrich the community identity through aesthetics. Take this same idea and apply it to public policy and there is a chance that communities would flourish based on common principles united in a common direction.

After graduation, I plan to…
…attend graduate school for architecture.