Philly Field Trip: Stefan Sagmeister's "The Happy Show"

Sagmeister at work 

"I am usually rather bored with definitions. Happiness, however, is such a big subject that it might be worth a try to pin it down." 

Renowned designer Stefan Sagmeister has spent the last year working hard at being happy (and filming his attempts.) What's emerged is The Happy Film, a documentary about Sagmeister's three-pronged approach to finding the path to true happiness via meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy and prescription drugs. Through experiments and explorations “from the sublime to the ridiculous” loosely based on his pivotal book “Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far,” Sagmeister tests “once and for all if it’s possible for a person to have a meaningful impact on their own happiness.”

Now he's taking his show on the road with "The Happy Show," at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, running now through August 12, 2012. The exhibition, which spans the entire second floor gallery and ramp, includes a 12-minute sneak peak of the documentary as well as work from his 10-year investigation into the relationship between typography and happiness.

"To contextualize the maxims that appear throughout the exhibition, Sagmeister has gathered the social data of Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Steven Pinker, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, anthropologist Donald Symons, and several prominent historians."

Check out a quick preview of the the film's opening titles followed by glimpses of the show invitations being laser-cut from bologna (!!!)

Meanwhile: Want to see if design does in fact make you happier, enroll in one of 3rd Ward's many Design classes to find out.

UNIONDOCS // Williamsburg Documentary Center Gears Up For Another 10 Years & Needs Your Help

 

A couple weeks ago we expressed our excitement about the new Bronx Documentary Center (which is set to officially open on October 22), but we'd also like to highlight another great documentary center right here in Brooklyn: UnionDocs.

Founded in 2002, UnionDocs is a multifaceted endeavor, encompassing film screenings, seminars and workshops, online publishing, collaborative projects and more. The center has produced events at MoMA and the Camden International Film Festival and partnered with Harvard University's metaLAB and the World Wildlife Foundation. It also hosts over 100 events each year and offers fellowships for emerging media producers, theorists and curators, giving them the resources to explore and develop their work.

UnionDocs just secured a new 10-year lease for its space at 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg and raising funds on Kickstarter to upgrade the building to meet their growing needs. They're almost half way to their goal of $12,000, with a deadline of October 16, so help out if you can! Your donation could get you everything from an invitation to a private party celebrating the center's renovations to an Associate Producer credit on Looking at Los Sures, a major collaborative production that revisits Los Sures, a 1984 documentary film about the center's South Williamsburg neighborhood.

Check out a few of UnionDocs' upcoming events along with the video for their Kickstarter campaign after the jump.

October 8, 7:30pm: Moment of Impact - "Julia Loktev, the director of the critically acclaimed The Loneliest Planet (New York Film Festival 2011) and Cannes award-winning Day Night Day Night made her extraordinary debut with this sui generis documentary, an intimate family triptych. Loktev gets up close and personal with her parents after a freak accident immobilizes her father and renders her mother a full-time caregiver. What emerges, in carefully wrought 16mm black-and-white, is a candid, tough-minded, and moving portrait of individuals, relationships, and the crosscurrents of past and future in a difficult present."—Nicolas Rapold

October 9, 7:30pm: Three Artist Films with Albert Maysles - A screening of the short films Anastasia, about an American dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet, Salvador Dali's Fantastic Dream, a look at the surrealist painter, and Christo’s Valley Curtain, an Academy Award-nominated piece about the orange curtain that the artist hung between two Colorado mountains.

October 16, 7:30pm: No Bills: Stories of North Brooklyn - "No Bills presented audio oral histories about North Brooklyn through listening stations situated in construction fences and on the street to create serendipitous encounters for passersby, inviting them to engage with neighborhood’s history while standing at the sites of its developing future."

October 22, 7:30pm: Doxita: Inside/Outside - "Society has lines and boundaries that most people are expected to fit within. But many exists on the edge of those boundaries. Some try to fit in, while others embrace a unique path. These four films portray people on the edges -whether physically or personally – and while some might see them or the situation as “strange,” it is just the reality."

-- John Ruscher

OPENING SOON // The Bronx Documentary Center brings Film, Photo and Community Involvement to the Borough

The Bronx Documentary Center at Courtlandt Ave. and 151st St.

Next month, a fantastic new gallery and educational space will launch in the Bronx--though even before officially openings its doors, it's already been making an impact in the community.

Since early summer, the Bronx Documentary Center has been hosting screenings and lectures in its garden patio, presenting films like the Oscar-winning Born into Brothels and speakers such as war photographer João Silva. In October it will celebrate its grand opening with an exhibition featuring the work of the late Tim Hetherington, who co-directed the amazing 2010 documentary Restrepo and was killed this April while covering the front lines in Libya.

We spoke with award-winning New York Times photojournalist and Bronx Documentary Center's founder, Michael Kamber to find out more. Read on after the jump.

The Hetherington exhibition is a natural first step for the center, as the space was a vision that he and Kamber shared. "Tim was involved in the early planning for the BDC before he was killed," Kamber says. "His death really solidified our resolve to create a documentary studies center in his memory. Since his death, we will be the first venue in the world to devote a solo show to his photo, film and multimedia work.  We are particularly excited about getting his work out to young audiences."

"Tim was, in my opinion, the greatest documentarian of our generation," Kamber continues. "He was also my closest friend—we worked and lived together for many years. Tim gave workshops throughout Africa and the Middle East and was deeply committed to spreading documentary photography and film into areas such as the Bronx."

The idea for the center had been brewing for some time, Kamber tells us. "I'd been thinking for years about starting a gallery and educational organization in a neighborhood where one doesn't usually see this kind of space," he says. "I've always been frustrated that a lot of journalism and documentary work is created in underserved areas, then taken out for consumption elsewhere. We want to change this equation."

"There is not a single gallery devoted to photography and film in the Bronx, a borough of nearly 2 million people.  We are very much focused on working closely with our community, in becoming a place the community comes to for stimulation, culture and education."

Kamber envisions the center as an integral part of its surrounding community, a role its already begun to fill with this summer's events. "Many neighbors have told us that there is the need for a community center like the BDC, focused on the types of cultural and educational events we have planned," Kamber says.

Stay tuned to the Bronx Documentary Center's website and Facebook page for more updates and the exact date of its opening exhibition. If you're interested in helping out, you can donate or get in touch about becoming a volunteer or intern.

-- John Ruscher