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Technologic
I ns i de :Ea t i ng , El i t i s m, a ndEnc o r e s
02.27.14 VOL. XLV, NO. 17
02.27.14
Technologic
The Indy is apologizing for all the K-Pop references this week. Cover Design by ANNA PAPP
Inside: Eating, Elitism, and Encores
CONTENTS FORUM 3 Striking Up the Debate NEWS 4 A Party For a Billion 5 (H)PAIR-ing Up ARTS 6 That's What Makes It Beautiful 7 FutureScience/SpaceSounds 8 Art Games 9 Let's Opera(te) SPORTS 10 Melting Under Pressure 11 Claws Drawing Crimson
As Harvard College's weekly undergraduate newsmagazine, the Harvard Independent provides in-depth, critical coverage of issues and events of interest to the Harvard College community. The Independent has no political affiliation, instead offering diverse commentary on news, arts, sports, and student life. For publication information and general inquiries, contact President Albert Murzakhanov (president@harvardindependent. com). Letters to the Editor and comments regarding the content of the publication should be addressed to Editor-in-Chief Sean Frazzette (editorinchief@harvardindependent.com). For email subscriptions please email president@ harvardindependent.com. The Harvard Independent is published weekly during the academic year, except during vacations, by The Harvard Independent, Inc., Student Organization Center at Hilles, Box 201, 59 Shepard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Copyright Š 2014 by The Harvard Independent. All rights reserved.
President Albert Murzakhanov '16 Editor-in-Chief Sean Frazzette '16 Director of Production Anna Papp '16 News Editor Forum Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Associate Forum Editor Associate Arts Editor Associate Design Editor
Milly Wang '16 Caroline Gentile '17 Sarah Rosenthal '15 Shaquilla Harrigan '16 Aditya Agrawal '17 Joanna Schacter Travis Hallett '14
Cartoonist John McCallum '16 Illustrator Eloise Lynton '17 Business Managers Frank Tambero '16 Manik Bhatia '16 Columnists Joan Li '17 Christina Bianco '17 Senior Staff Writers Christine Wolfe '14 Angela Song '14 Sayantan Deb '14 Michael Altman '14 Meghan Brooks '14 Whitney Lee '14 Staff Writers Manik Bhatia '16 Xanni Brown '14 Terilyn Chen '16 Lauren Covalucci '14 Clare Duncan '14 Gary Gerbrandt '14 Travis Hallett '14 Yuqi Hou '15 Cindy Hsu '14 Theodora K. Powers '14 Chloe Li '16 Dominique Luongo '17 Orlea Miller '16 Albert Murzhakanov '16 Carlos Schmidt '15 Frank Tamberino '16 Michael Feehly '14 Jackie Leong '16 Andrew Lin '17 Madi Taylor '16 Shreya Vardhan '17
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Punishing Tactics What is the debate for corporal punishment? By ADITYA AGRAWAL
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couldn’t have asked for a better buffer to help acclimatize me to the awning gap between the public discourses of America and India than college-level parliamentary debate. Entire sets of values and beliefs underwent radical inversion between shore and shore, the outcome — no doubt — of fundamentally different past narratives, population demographics and cultural milieus at large. While I do recognize the implausibility of pointing to a definitive right or wrong value system in such cases of grey, there are certain deeply ingrained belief systems in the Indian discourse that — for all the visceral epileptic spasms they inspire in Americans — could only strengthen America were they to be embraced on this side of the planet. One of them is the cultural attitude towards school-going kids. If you happened to wonder just why I ambushed you with this specific belief set, let me place things in context. Having debated extensively in high school, the case for justifying corporal punishment was one that I’ve debated more times on the Indian high school circuit than I can remember and won as many times. Corporal punishment can broadly be put as the "intentional infliction of physical pain as a method of changing behavior”. Yet — for each time (three, to be specific) that I managed to sneak in this case (each time having to convince my American partners ad infinitum) on the North American Parliamentary Debate circuit — I lost by such large significant margins as merit self-annihilation for a seasoned debater. The judges’ rationales for awarding the case to the opposition veered less on the side of differences in argumentation, case flow and the like, but more on the side of the case being inherently flawed in its very conception; one of the judges even went on to use the analogy of corporal punishment being institutionalized torture, to draw home the point that there was no way that I could pull off this case on American soil. And it was then that I decided to look within — to reconsider with renewed skepticism the dynamics of the practice that has for so long been an accepted more in our cultural attitude. Yet, the more consideration it received, the more obvious and highlighted its stealthy benefits
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— especially for America — seemed to become. Presently, 29 American states prohibit corporal punishment in schools. At the very outset, before you begin to think of all the distinctly horrendous ways you could punish a school kid, we would like to make it clear what we mean by ‘corporal punishment’ here. I’m not talking of Dickensian caning, pulping kids or assigning them impossibly strenuous physical tasks. What we’re talking of here is corporal punishment in its regulated form: giving a teacher the right to sparingly deal a stroke on the behind or a slap on the cheek for only major transgressions committed in terms of behavior on the school property. Entrenching a natural sense of respect for authority is a necessary priority of education that exists largely to prepare young people to be effective community and state actors. To do this it is necessary to maintain the threat of, and to have the capacity to make recourse to corporal punishment. Coddling children and limiting the level of punishments that can be leveled against them too strictly does not prepare them for the real world in which infractions of the law have serious consequences. It is this "cycle of disrespect" between schools and home that leads to crime. The existence of scholastic corporal punishment hammers this reality home at an early age and better prepares children for their future as adult members of society. Corporal punishment assumes, however, great significance when viewed from the perspective of it being a tool necessary to preventing future transgressions. And it is here where the difference in attitudes begins to manifest itself in actuality on ground statistics. The American system sees a much larger rate of urban juvenile delinquency as compared to the Indian system. In cultures like the American one where corporal punishment is forbidden, there are no effective means of carrying out the functions of reform and deterrence. Once children encounter the criminal justice system, it’s too late: delinquents mingle with other delinquents and in many cases, instead of contemplating the wrongful act and its consequences, learn new tricks to game the system.
Opponents might scream themselves hoarse about how ‘punishment’ might swiftly degenerate into ‘abuse.’ It is pertinent however to note we are talking of talk of regulated corporal punishment in the classroom and not domestic corporal punishment behind closed doors. In a class full of kids, a teacher is much more likely to be conscious of the magnitude and nature of punishment handed out to a person. Especially so when these kids are the proactive citizens of what could essentially be called the age of social media. Another standard opposition to the practice is that the punishment may shape a student’s views on violence, making them more likely to be bullies themselves — but once again, I would draw attention to the fact that a teacher should be enabled to evoke this right only in the most serious of infractions, and that this would be employed alongside softer enforcing agents like time-out or grounding. Yes, I do conceded studies have shown that positive reinforcements work better than negative ones; however, by introducing negative reinforcements, we are not cutting way the access way to positive reinforcements. No law dictates that the two can’t coexist. If anything, their coexistence will only provide more incentive to the school kids to strive for the positive reinforcements. America is a country that was built on the principles of inclusion and integration; it is time we interpreted these principles to look beyond our own sense of cultural infallibility and integrate lessons and attitudes that have worked in shores beside our own. I do however realize that this emulation of cultural tenets works both ways; much as America could pick up a lesson or two from India and other Asian nations in reassembling its sacrosanct attitudes towards child, India could do the same the other way around, with America’s help. Globalization works just as much on the basis of exchange of goods and ideas as on the exchange of cultural baggage. Aditya Agrawal ’17 (adityaagrawal@college) has an actual heart and may or may not have an unhealthy affection for babies, contrary to popular perception.
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H ap py N ew Ye a r ! H R C S A h o s t s a n o t h e r g r e a t C h i n e s e N e w Ye a r B a n q u e t . By MILLY WANG
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he Harvard-Radcliff Chinese Students Association (HRCSA) hosted their annual Chinese New Year Banquet to usher in the Year of the Horse last Friday, February 21st, at the Quincy Dining Hall. This is the Harvard-Radcliff Chinese Students Association’s signature event and over a hundred students attended this year. The Chinese New Year is a tradition centuries old and was a time for families to gather, feast together, and to sweep away the ill fortune to make way for good luck. This year’s holiday started on January 31st and lasted until February 17th. Some popular activities include fireworks and firecrackers, and giving red paper envelopes with money. This year’s evening Banquet featured Wonton Soup and Bang Bang Chicken as appetizers, Kung Pao Chicken, Kan Shue String Beans, and Spicy Salted Pork Chop as the first course meal, Beef Lo Mein, Sai Woo Crispy Fish and Yu Hsiang Eggplant as the second course, Yang Chow Fried Rice, Beef with Black Bean Sauce and Sweet and Spicy Crispy Shrimp as the final course before ending with Red Bean Tapioca and Fortune Cookies for desert. In between courses, students were treated to numerous performances including songs, dances and martial arts. Angela Yang ’17 started off the evening with a lovely rendition of the classical song Tian Lu (Heavenly Road), which tells the story of a Tibetan railroad. Reylon Yount ’16 followed that performance with a piece based on the music and dance of Uighur communi-
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ties in China called “Joyous Xinjiang”. After a brief interlude of delicious food, Harvard Taekwondo Club treated the audience to a thrilling performance that included showing off self-defense techniques in sync to the beat of the music, breaking multiple board with kicks, jumps and spins, and leaping over a chain of people. A graduating senior, Chi Zeng ’14 finished that round of performances with a melancholic good-bye song called Farewell. Soon, Mackenzie Lee ’17 and Luke Chang ’16 played an acoustic version of Tong Hua (Fairytale) arranged specifically for the violin and cello by Sam Wu ’17. And the Asian American Dance Troup showcased a K-Pop-like dance choreographed by students to One (Last) Shot. The Chinese Music Ensemble followed that performance with several pieces, both traditional and contemporary, written for Chinese instruments. Chris Eur ’15 beat-boxed and the Din and Tonics, an all male a cappella group, sang a few songs from their repertoire of jazz standards. Of course, the evening couldn’t end without the traditional lion dance, performed by the Boston Chinese Free Masons. This is a cultural dance that involves a lion animated by 2 people. The lion danced around the room to bless and grant good luck to students sitting in the audience. Milly Wang ’16 (keqimillywang@college) enjoyed every minute of the banquet.
02.27.13 • The Harvard Independent
News
A n I n t e r n a t i o n a l P re s i d e n t s D ay H PA I R p r o v i d e s a n e x c i t i n g a n d i n t e r e s t i n g c o n f e r e n c e . By SHIRLEY CHOICER
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ver Presidents Day Weekend, from February 14th to the 17th, while Harvard students enjoyed an extended weekend, over 185 students gathered at CGIS to attend this year’s Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations conference. In the midst of a snowstorm on Friday, the international students journeyed from over 38 countries ranging from Sweden to Tokyo. HPAIR is an entirely student-run organization that focuses on organizing student conferences that provide a forum to discuss issues between Asian and American relations. This year’s conference theme, “The Many Faces of Asia: Shaping Identities in a Dynamic World” provided a window for many discussions covering seven different areas: technology, entrepreneurship, security, media, business leadership, finance and health. Headed by Whan Lee ’15 and Eric Li ’15,
HPAIR has been establishing a dynamic forum for intellectual dialogue between established leaders and top students since 1991. This year delegates were welcomed at the Ritz Carlton, with keynote speakers Kathleen Molony of the Director from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Greg Marinovich, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, and Jared Matthew Weiss, founder of Overture. The slew of notable keynote speakers is just the beginning of a weekend of speakers and seminar panel experts from the seven panel topics: notable speakers included serial entrepreneur Wolfgang Xaver Merkt, and founder of The Yankee Group, Howard Anderson. While some of the delegates found housing, most of the 200 delegates stayed in the dorms of Harvard students. At a university so commonly critiqued for the “Harvard Bubble,” many students found the experience of hosting international
students refreshing. The same can be said for the international students, many of whom found the experience to be an enlightening, albeit cramped experience. For many, the chance to come to this Harvard Conference served a dual purpose: mainly, the conference offered a place for experts in the field to convene and allow for dialogue that would continue beyond the three-day conference. A second motive, for many, was the chance to visit Harvard’s campus. The delegation this year had varying commute times: the shortest being the short walk for one freshman living in Thayer and the longest possibly being the 30-plus hour flight for one Nepalian delegate. In order to add to a full immersion experience, the organizing committee was keen to include excursion trips into Boston, meals that incorporated much of a Harvard and American student’s experience (this means Uno’s, Bolocco, Crema and Felipe’s), and even an organized party at a Harvard fraternity. Saturday night may have seen a record number of international songs played at any given party. However, the conference also sought to add color to the component that distinguishes the conference most: diversity. With so many delegates from so many backgrounds, the conference’s defining factor certainly stemmed in the varied opinions and contributions. To this end, the speed networking event and talent show were resounding successes. Harvard is an institution that prides itself in diversity — his weekend, if even only for a threeday weekend, conversations were most certainly tinged with greater international dialogue. With the Harvard Conference complete, HPAIR looks forward to the Asia Conference to be held in August 2014 in Tokyo Japan and the organizing committee encourages you to apply today! Check out HPAIR’s website and HPAIR’s facebook page for more photos from the Harvard Conference, and be sure to apply to have a chance to travel to Tokyo this summer! Shirley Choicer ’17 (shirleychoicer@college) was glad to burst the bubble.
Photo Credit: Lance Katigbak
02.27.14 • The Harvard Independent
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How Dost Thou Feel? The problem of elitism in contemporary art. By CHRISTINE WOLFE
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am not an art historian; I am a museum-goer. I am the person who stands in front of a sculpture, a painting, or a photograph, seeking to form a connection to what is in front of me. I am a reader of novels and poetry. I am a viewer of film. I am the audience. I would like to think that the audience’s relationship to a work of art matters, that art is an exercise in interaction between the human and the (usually) non-human. This is not to say that if I dislike a particular work, the artwork is “bad.” Rather, I would hope my ability to have a significant experience with a piece is integral to the philosophy of artistic production. This has less to do with opinion than it does with reaction, contemplation, and connection. But what is it within art that allows this interactivity? Until the last century, art’s primary relationship was with beauty. I use beauty here not as a strictly delineated visual ideal — the role of beauty in human experience and artistic production is too broad to fit an inherently exclusive aesthetic category. For my purposes, beauty is the combined experience of perceptual input and intense, acute emotional output. It is the dizzying rush of fundamental connection to that which we perceive. Beauty can remove us from our individual biases into a conceptually neutral space we share only with the source of beauty. This separation from ourselves may even go so far as to render beauty an objective experience. As a student of neurobiology, I’m tempted to ascribe the rush to hormonal release and the feeling of fundamental humanity to neural circuitry. Of course, as any humanities or social sciences concentrator knows, our experience is largely modified by our environmental and social conditions. Only so much comes from our anatomy. But there must be some part of beauty that is physiological; how else could it exist outside of the intellect, often as reaction, instinct, or passion? And if beauty were in part biological, it is that much more intertwined with all of humankind — after all, the only thing we all have is DNA. Critical studies of the arts have in part moved away from individual reaction, questioning the significance of how a piece makes us feel. Poetry is one field in which the immediate emotional reaction of the reader still plays a role in academic discourse. While a scholarly article usually neglects these instantaneous receptions of the work, poetry classes, at least at Harvard, often ask students to voice them (though this might just be a test to see if we’ve done the reading). Perhaps this is due to poetry’s reliance on tone (the so called “emotional climate” of the work), but it’s also possible that art
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based at least somewhat on narrative techniques, like poetry, can’t have the emotional distance of non-narrative visual art. Put another way, most of literature, even something as rooted in individual reflection as poetry, relies on storytelling techniques. Storytelling itself relies on emotional expectation, which, as people who live our own sorts of stories, we understand at a fairly widespread level. Some visual art has similar narrative properties: one thinks mostly of depictions of subjects, human or animal, but landscape portraits too demonstrate a kind of interactive significance. The experiential-emotional connection to such works of art is easy for most of us to make: we can imagine the circumstances of the person depicted, and we can transport ourselves to the imagined environment. We experience this displacement of consciousness every time we read or watch a movie. No matter how much exposure we have had to the particular art form, we know beauty through our inherent knowledge of how it feels to live. Great: art makes people have feelings. So what? Other than my firm belief that emotional aptitude is the most reliable measure of an individual’s (and a society’s) humanity, emotions are the great equalizer. All classes, ethnicities, and races have access to the same emotional reserve, at least more so than they do to intellectual resources (I believe the same is true of gender, but that’s trickier to parse apart). This is why art defines civilizations: art is of humankind. If art does function as a reflection of the culture of its production, what does much contemporary art say about our society? Much of the art of the last century has made a move away from the emotional and the aesthetic toward the intellectual. Many important pieces of contemporary art belong to the school of Conceptual art which, in non-art historian terms, classifies a piece as prioritizing the motivating idea (concept) of the work over the physical form of the work itself. Critique and philosophy take precedence over aesthetics, which gives space to ephemeral artworks (the work disappears in some way over time) and the use of everyday objects to communicate ideological significance (political, feminist, etc.). This school of artistic thought is certainly important as it concerns modes of contemporary expression and our understanding of our sociological identities. However, the concerns of these works diverge from what had long made art so relatable and so human. To observe Conceptual art, and to form a relationship to it, one must have a certain intellectual understanding of the ideologi-
cal concerns of the period in which it was made. I do not mean to argue against the value of academic study; there is much to be gained from intellectual engagement, as we college students know. But these works of art are, to a certain extent, elitist. Only those educated in history, philosophy, and art theory can have the profound interaction with these pieces people have long sought from works of art. In fostering a disconnect between perception and reaction, the audience can’t find the same resonance they might have in a work based on narrative and emotional understanding. And it is far from beneficial for art, which relies on humans and humans alone, to become isolated and exclusive. It seems likely that this move towards the conceptual was instigated in part by a desire for art to reject the extremities of feeling (happiness, sadness, hatred, love), which often tend to simplify human experience. The Indy’s Arts Editor, Sarah Rosenthal ’15, wrote an article for our February 6th issue on the importance of boredom and cynicism to art. She knows far more about art, contemporary and past, than I do, and I agree entirely with her conclusion that the inclusivity of boredom in art is necessary to address our honest reality. I think boredom is a relatively new state of feeling in terms of human history, reliant as it is on contemplation, which is only possible in social conditions permissive to study and extensive thought. In this way, boredom has only recently become important enough to us that its contribution to art is warranted and expected. I think the challenge to contemporary art interested in communicating something beyond obviously intense emotional states, such as boredom, is how to present them in ways that permit the interaction of a wider audience. Aesthetics and emotional significance are the time-tested paths to inclusion; however, there may be other means that creative producers have not yet discovered. In any case, the rejection of profound, fundamental emotional reactions doesn’t seem necessary for art to take complex stances on human experience. Beauty does not have to be blissful or joyous — there is great human significance in experiencing anything intensely, including fear and despair. Particularly in our contemporary world, as bereft of meaningful emotional connection as it has recently become, to feel something other than nothing could be a great gift. Christine Wolfe ’14 (crwolfe@college) isn’t an art historian or a VES concentrator, so she probably messed up some of the terminology. She doesn’t really care.
02.27.14 • The Harvard Independent
Pianos and Phasers: The Music of Science An exploration of the evolution of music within science fiction and speculative media By ANDREW LIN
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powerful synthesized bass sonorously makes its presence known, grounding a surging rush of chords and discord, precisely tuned and calibrated to evoke images reminiscent of whatever is playing out on-screen. Choruses of treble-tuned synthesizers then join in, perhaps accompanied themselves by synthesized choruses chanting in strange alien tongues, all thoroughly cerebral and often thoroughly unlistenable. And whilst the events of this brave new future play out on silver screens in theaters and on televisions and laptops the world over, this music plays and plays and plays, a reminder of the auditory vision of a future as characterized by sci-fi slingers and composers alike. And yet, all these twanging chords and abstruse harmonies contrast past conceptions of the future of music with how it has played out, easily characterized by everything from the very existence of an artist named Futuristic (he’s a pot-smoking gun-toting rapper), to the nomination of hip-hop icon LL Cool J as the Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year 2014, to the rising popularity of bare-bones indie music featuring nothing but strumming guitars and shaky vocals. All this is most assuredly not to say that hip-hop, modern pop, or indie music exclusively, do not deserve a place in the here and now; rather, it is interesting to note how such nominations (and indeed such artists) would certainly not have been imaginable sixty years ago. That, however, is still an obvious enough statement, especially in light of the 1950s-era social mores and occasional racism unfortunately displayed in full force at the Harvard of that era. What is truly astonishing, however, is that very few managed to hazard predictions that would properly characterize what music would look like in the future, of which 2014 was certainly then a part. Such comparative fogginess on the part of everyone from sci-fi and speculative writers
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to record and music producers was not simply a fad of the Fifties either: even cultural institutions as storied in their technologically and socially predictive abilities as Star Trek have still managed to mangle the future of music. Indeed, the overall inability of science-fiction proselytizers and propagandists to determine what the hip and happening music of future times would resemble stands in stark contrast to their usual predictive onus in regards to technology. This is not for a lack of trying, however, and the results have ranged from horrific to hilarious, at least insofar as musical appreciation is concerned. As ever, the story begins with Jules Verne, that greatest pioneer of science fiction as a whole, and his vision of Paris in the Twentieth Century. Certainly the story begins in an interesting and decidedly pessimistic way, and not just by virtue of the musical tale therein: though Verne himself had written the novel in 1863, it was published only in 1994, just as the twentieth century itself was about to close. Verne takes the same attitude towards music in this regard: his Paris is one devoid of music or any artistic pursuits, and indeed is a decided non-beginning for the idea of futuristic music as a whole. Verne was indeed wrong within the context of music, and thankfully so, for the twentieth century instead saw a titanic explosion in the size, scope and diversity of musical forms and their availability to the general public. Much of this music was fueled by a single technology then regarded as futuristic, and indeed as a stunning manifestation of the way in which humanity had grown as a species: the phonograph. Indeed the phonograph helped fuel the rapid diversification of the musical spheres as it evolved and grew into radios blaring jazz, and then televisions broadcasting rock, and then Sony Walkmen playing back glam-pop and hip-hop and then finally the mp3s
and iTunes tracks floating in the cloud. Sci-fi, however, blazed an interesting path in the midst of this new profusion of music in both its depictions of futuristic music and its own incidental music. Insofar as the latter was concerned, string and wind ensembles were largely responsible for the comparatively gentle incidental music of early and mid-20th century serials. The 1960s and 70s saw the development of traditional futuristic music, largely made possible by the invention of the synthesizer and embellished with swoops and whooshes and all manner of other onomatopoeic sound effects. This was evidenced in full force in the then-new science fiction franchises of the era, with series such as Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek integrating these new sound effects with traditional yet discordant instruments. This approach reached its zenith in the late 1970s and 1980s and has continued on ever since, with composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner making their names by composing sweeping and grandiose orchestral soundtracks to blockbuster space operas such as 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which featured a blaster beam for extra gravitas during its space battles. Symphonic electronic soundtracks had reached television as well, with composers such as Ron Jones skillfully employing electronic aids to create genuinely memorable television music for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Indeed, Star Trek provides numerous examples of a future actively involving music, and not merely as an incidental dressing to frame some action on-screen. In the original series, musical expression was among the many skills that diverse crew brought to the table, with vocalist Uhura and Vulcan-lute strumming Spock. It was with Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, that music truly emerged into the forefront, and not only by virtue of the excel-
lent composing work of Ron Jones himself. From Data’s violin to Riker’s trombone to Picard’s Ressikan flute, music — specifically classical and jazz music — in Star Trek: The Next Generation was not merely represented, but actively employed as plot points and poignant reminders of the fundamental humanity behind each and every uniformed explorer. Indeed, this musical selection embodied a certain resistance on the part of Star Trek to modern music, at least as far as The Next Generation was concerned; while most franchises featured sleazy techno as the music of choice for their future-bound characters, Star Trek held firm to the belief that of all the variegated musical styles of the latter half of the 20th century would not endure into the far future. Nevertheless, futuristic music as envisioned in both the traditional sci-fi vein and the popular consciousness has existed and still exists in the world of contemporary music, and indeed has undergone a tremendous evolution as a niche sector of the wide, wide world of music. From the airy falsettos of Bee Gees-style disco to 80’s-era New Wave and on through to modern dubstep and K-Pop, futuristically synthesized sounds certainly have kept their place and their popularity in the modern era. The prevalence of computerized storage and online music databases has also lent the collective musical endeavors of humanity additional permanence, thus ensuring that future scholars may themselves look back and ponder. And with the sheer diversity of the modern musical pantheon, along with the astonishing perspectives on music offered up by science fiction, they will certainly have much to study. Andrew Lin ’16 (andrewlin@college) can be found navigating the soundscapes of the universe.
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Virtually Art An assessment of video games as art. By MICHAEL LUO
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riting an article advocating for something as art in the arts section seems a little too meta. But meta might just be what this subject needs. Art is an amorphous term, and defining it may be one of the toughest jobs on the planet. Consequently, it seems people would much rather define something as not art, and that something happens to be video games. In the mid 2000s, the most popular villain of the gaming community was not an oversized robot or a horde of zombies; it was the late, great Roger Ebert. In a series of discussions and articles, Ebert did what he did best: tear apart what others thought was art. Ebert repeatedly claimed how games lacked the perception into humanity that other art forms so beautifully illustrated. It almost seems unfair to offer a legend like Ebert the home court advantage of answering questions pertaining to art criticism. I’m sure avid gamers don’t feel an irresistible urge to downplay the achievements of Spielberg or Scorsese. They’re probably too busy or too frustrated being stuck on the final level of your favorite FPS. Of course, the gaming community couldn’t take on the voice of a famed film critic by themselves, so instead they did what they did best: make more games. Since the start of the 21st century, video game developers have gone through three generations while humanity hasn’t even completed one. For instance, the Xbox was introduced in 2001, the Xbox 360 in 2005, and the ironically named Xbox One last November. During this time, technology has advanced, graphics have improved, and mechanics have diversified. With this continuous growth, the video game industry has garnered some critical attention. In 2008, the Writers Guild of America honored Dead Head Fred as its inaugural winner in videogame writing. Later in 2012, the Smithsonian even exhibited The Art of Video Games as a narrative display of video game evolution by era, highlighting the 8-bit days of the 80s to the rise of modern indie adventures that go against the grain of mainstream multiplayer franchises. Video games haven’t always received this level of respect, mainly propagated by the online forums of 14- to18-year-old boys. There are no video game halls of fame to walk into, no competitive collegiate tournaments of Tetris broadcast on ESPN, and definitely no Robin Williams to host the Golden Gaming Gourds live from the Hilton Hotel. When you search for video game museums on Google, the top result resembles something still stuck in the days of Yahoo! GeoCities. Yet video games have invaded today’s cultural space on levels often unnoticed. From recurring memes to popular lingo, games and their players create worlds that even those oblivious to the functions of a controller can reference. Sure, you may not have beaten all the secret levels of Mario, but you’d undeniably recognize a Luigi costume on Halloween when you see one. Or maybe you’ve never tried your hand in the classic arcade à la Wreck-It Ralph, but I bet that upon one beat of a chiptune, your first reaction would be to ask if that was from something, say a video game? This pervasive phenomenon of video games surely attests to its presence, but what of it as art? There are those who believe art is observed, not experienced. Well, I found myself perfectly happy watching 60,000 people play Pokémon simultaneously while writing this article, so there must’ve been something artistic to that effect. From a more serious standpoint, how can something
not be art if all its components are art? If composers, authors, and painters make art, then their combined efforts must be a culmination of art. Films have scores and scripts and so do games. There are writers and show runners behind every scene just as there are programmers and creative directors behind every level. Even at its most basic motive, video games give us, the audience, or the player, the opportunity to create. If it’s an original game, I can construct my own narrative; if it’s an adaptation, I can experience the source from my own perspective. Just as I can interpret composer John Cage’s 4’33” of silence as a brilliant concerto or a confused vacuum, so can I judge a viral clip of a Halo headshot as a skillful maneuver or a lucky occurrence. To offer a concrete example of the crossroads between gaming and artistry, take a look at Ken Levine. The creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games studied drama and started off chasing Hollywood for a career in film and screenwriting. As the man behind the universally acclaimed BioShock series, Levine’s knack for dystopian storytelling set in alternate histories has interwoven memorable characters exploring themes of desperation and desire. Praised for its visually stunning cityscapes — whether floating above clouds or submerged deep undersea —BioShock would qualify as art based on its graphics alone. With its additional innovative design imbued with questions on society and morality in an almost anti-Ayn Rand simulation, BioShock serves as a testament to the literary approach taken by Levine and his team. Nevertheless, not all games make it the level of BioShock. A creation doesn’t necessarily have to be “good” to be art, and that aspect of opinion is what encourages change and improvement. As Harvard students, we are molded to analyze the works of others closely, to pick out what parts are to our liking and what parts strike us as unexceptional. But we are also taught to keep an open mind. Rarely are we asked to take something at face value, so why should we see video games as only for children and shut-ins? Personal engagement was never a requirement to recognize and respect something as art. You might take a look at Barnett Newman’s Onement VI and cough up $43, but someone in this world went with $43 million. In other words, appreciate the time and effort people put in to produce something that someone, somewhere will see as art, because they might just see more of the artistry in it than you do. If you know little about games, and have not thought about what they really say or do on an artistic level, then perhaps you aren’t quite qualified to disqualify them as art. Video games have historically gotten a bad rap, but maybe ones made today are far different from older ones that Roger Ebert perhaps had in mind. No one is ever going to convince you to start playing video games every weekend if you’ve never lived your life like that, but someone can certainly convince you to take a few minutes to check out this witty, mesmerizing clip of computergenerated characters animated with the purpose of captivating millions. The reason you believe that is worth your time showcases that those virtual characters within virtual environments can have heart and motivation. Their story just needs a little help from you to get started, and who doesn’t want to leave a print on the tales of alien-fighting space marines? Michael Luo ’16 (michaelluo@college) prepared for this article mainly by interviewing his high school self on prom night. WikiMedia Commons
Illustration by Eloise Lynton
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02.27.14 11.21.13 • The Harvard Independent
On A High Note Introductions to the World of Opera By CHRISTINA BIANCO
P
eople often ask me how I discovered my interest in opera, and in many senses, it was due to my environment. Growing up in an Italian family, the sounds of Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli were comforting and ubiquitous. But rather than detest the familiar sounds of “Nessun Dorma” on replay in my car, I instead began to discover my own personal interest in opera, and soon enough I was singing “O Mio Babbino Caro” in the shower and begging my mother for voice lessons. But until the fateful day of December 15th, 2007, when I was thirteen years old, I had never even seen my first full-length opera. On that day, when my mother told me she had tickets to see a live production of Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette at our local movie theater, I was eager and yet a bit suspicious of embarking on this three-hour extravaganza. My mom and I arrived at our familiar AMC movie theater and sat in our seats with various favorites from the concession stand, but when the lights went down we were transported to the great Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Romeo and Juliette began flawlessly thanks to conducting by the opera legend Placido Domingo. And between the lavish set, the inspired performances by Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna, Nathan Gunn, and Isabel Leonard, I sat for the entire opera completely in awe. And when I walked out of the theater, and my mom asked me what I thought, I hardly even knew what to say. We then went straight to our favorite Borders Bookstore and I bought Anna Netrebko’s album, and at that moment, my opera obsession had officially commenced. Here at Harvard I have been involved with a few opera and classical music organizations such as the Dunster House Opera Society and the Harvard Early Music Society. I had never been in a full-length opera until I came to college, but I had previously been involved in several different music programs, competitions, and masterclasses back in my hometown of Chicago. Although I admittedly still have so much to learn about opera and singing, my experiences as a soprano give me insight into the life of an opera singer as well as a deep appreciation for this artistic medium. And even though I am the writer of this column, I look forward to the fact that I myself am probably going
The Harvard Independent • 02.27.14 11.21.13
to expand my knowledge of opera just as I hope that anyone reading my articles will. Viewers of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” broadcasts are given the chance to see live interviews with the stars of the production, conductors, and directors, and they get backstage access to the set. Although there may be no experience equivalent to seeing a production in an opera house, there is no seat in the house better than the one provided by the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. And audience members from around the world are given the chance to see these productions for just a mere movie-ticket price. The Metropolitan Opera productions are now in their eighth season, and have only become more and more popular among growing audiences. The productions can be enjoyed by newcomers and opera enthusiasts alike, and they highlight the ways in which the technology and social media of our age can revive and reinvigorate a classical art form. The remainder of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2014 HD season includes Prince Igor (March 1st), Werther ( March 15th), La Boheme (April 5th), Cosi Fan Tutte (April 26th), and La Cenerentola (May 10th). In my columns, I am going to experience and review each of these operas, with the hopes that I may help convert even more people into opera fanatics like myself. But before I delve into the reasons why everyone should learn to love opera, I am going to outline my own personal tips to getting the most out of your opera-viewing experience. My first tip is to always read the synopsis and listen to highlights of the soundtrack of an opera prior to seeing it. Even though most opera companies have now started using subtitles in order to make operas more accessible, your operaviewing experience will be exponentially enhanced by a previous knowledge of the plot. Many operas have very complex plotlines, and this makes it very difficult to follow the opera’s story upon first viewing. My emphasis on the plot of the opera is not meant to diminish the importance of the music; rather, opera is meant to be enjoyed as a work of theater as well as a work of music. My second tip is to begin sampling different types of opera in order to find out which type may be most appealing to you. Opera is a very vast
music genre and it encompasses a wide range of styles. A person who enjoys light Italian opera may find some kinds of German opera to be synonymous to “controlled screaming,” and the person who enjoys the most intense German operas may find a light Italian opera to be too mild. My personal suggestion for any newcomer would be to begin with some of the opera favorites such as La Traviata, Carmen, The Magic Flute, or La Boheme (and incidentally, La Boheme is one of the operas which I will be covering). But there are a variety of famous composers such as Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Bellini, Donizetti, Massenet, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, and Britten that would all provide great introductions to the world of opera. And lastly, I would just like to impress upon any reader of this column the importance of an open mind. Opera is no longer just for the old and the wealthy. Opera companies have been investing much time and energy in social media outreach because opera is for people who are enthusiastic, curious, and enjoy entertainment. And my challenge to any skeptic who may be reading this article right now is to attempt seeing an opera with a completely open mind, because I believe that you may be surprised by what you see. Christina Bianco (christinabianco@college) is excited to be a new arts columnist!
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Sports
An Icy Feeling:
Men’s Hockey Falls to Yale
By DOMINIQUE LUONGO
M
y involvement with the February 21, 2014 Crimson Men’s Hockey Game against Yale began on November 23, 2013. Why November 23rd? That was the date of The Game when the Harvard and Yale football teams squared-off against one another for the 130th time, amidst a tailgate that rivaled the size of several small villages. It was during these bacchian festivities that I stumbled upon a pair of Crimson Ray-Ban lookalikes that foretold the coming of the “Rivalry on Ice” and which now, incidentally, sit proudly on my bookcase among the other free treasures and miscellaneous bits of swag I’ve received from various campus events. Thus, the anticipation for this event had been brewing for a few months; knowing that the Harvard-Yale rivalry would continue on ice kept me going during the pressure of finals, the aimlessness of J-term, and the frantic pace of shopping week. Journeying to the Bright-Landry Center, I could feel my excitement rising as the Allston-Express Shuttle lurched forward towards the athletic facilities on the other side of the Charles. Arriving at the game, I was treated to the customary delights of the hockey arena. The smell of deliciously tempting concessions, the chatter of small children with their faces pressed up against the glass as they eagerly took in the sights of the Crimson gods of the arena bashing Bulldogs into the side of the rink, and the war cries of the band who played during the game decked out in hockey jerseys that matched their tangible excitement. I had a front row view of the team where I could easily seem them fill out their crimson and white jerseys with muscles and padding. The game itself proved to be disheartening. In the first period, no goals were scored, despite 9 shots on goal for Harvard and 11 shots on goal for Yale. Both teams were playing with hesitation, unwilling to sacrifice defensive ground for the prospect of offensive gains. Between the first and second periods, the 1989 Harvard Men’s NCAA champion team walked onto the ice. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the tremendous and unprecedented win by the ice hockey team, the 1989 team radiated a certain glory during their return to Cambridge and the school to which they brought honor. Dressed in suits and salt and pepper hair that spoke of wisdom and experience, it was hard to imagine that just 25 years ago they were pressed into a sweaty box like the one I was sitting behind, chewing on their mouth guards as they anxiously watched the movement of their teammates on the ice. Now they are on my side of the glass cheering on the Crimson in hopes of repeating history. In the second period, the Bulldogs were able to generate some momentum when Harvard junior defenseman Max Everson received a penalty for 10 harvardindependent.com
interference. Yale sophomore Stu Wilson was able to score on the power play after being assisted by Yale freshman Mike Doherty and sophomore Rob O’Gara. Yale sophomore forward Matthew Beattie was able to score again on Harvard junior goalie, Steve Michalek, with Yale leading 2-0. Before the second period came to a close, Yale sophomore defender Ryan Obuchowski was able to score a third goal against Harvard with an assist from Yale senior forward Kenny Agostino. Though the shots on goal were equal at 20 for Harvard and Yale, the Bulldogs were able to sneak three goals past the Crimson, who remained unable to score through the first two periods. With a little over fifteen minutes left in the third period, the Crimson was finally able to score, with freshman forward Alexander Kerfoot pushing the puck past Yale freshman goaltender Alex Lyon with assistance from Harvard freshman defenseman Victor Newell. The Crimson, working off of the energy of the goal, was able to score again. After the officials reviewed the tape of the shot, they ruled that Harvard sophomore forward Brian Hart’s goal was good, having just made it past the goal line. However, the enthusiasm begun by the Crimson’s back-to-back goals was short-lived, as Yale senior forward Jesse Root was able to score easily on an empty goal with 38 seconds left in the game, giving Yale a decided advantage in the final score of 5-2 Yale. Though the “Rivalry on Ice” did not end nearly as favorably for the Crimson as the rivalry on the field had, I am happy to have gone to the game and witnessed the culmination of the event that had been advertised since November. Though there was decidedly less fanfare as at the Game, it was still immensely gratifying to see Yalies
pushed full speed into the glass by the colossal force of the Crimson. Dominique Luongo ’17 (dominiqueluongo@college) wears her promotional Harvard athletics glasses at night.
Photos by Dominique Luongo
02.27.14 • The Harvard Independent
indy
Sports
Foul Play
Quaking Tiger, Crimson Draggin’. By CHRISTINE WOLFE
O
n Saturday, February 22nd, the Harvard Women’s Basketball team brought it all to the court. Led in points and spirit by the indomitable Senior Captain Christine Clark, the Crimson fought a tight battle against one of the two current leaders of the Ivy League, the Princeton Tigers. The stands at Lavietes didn’t do justice to the tension and passion on the court that night. Perhaps it was Friday’s hard loss to Penn, and the subsequent loss of the Crimson’s number one standing, that pushed the Crimson to Saturday’s aggression. Despite Clark’s, senior Melissa Mullins’, and junior Temi Fagbenle’s double-digit score counts, Princeton managed to eek out a close victory 69-64. It was a hard and fast loss on a gritty floor. The Crimson made sure to play the floor, utilizing the diverse strengths of their starters to run up
an early advantage of 15-7 in the first six minutes. Ali Curtis ’15, the starting forward, played a thoughtful counterbalance to the pure power of Mullins and Clark. Jasmine Evans ’14 scored five straight points in the middle of the half, and in concert with the Crimson’s tight defense, the Crimson managed to maintain a 31-28 lead as the half came to a close. The team was barely out of sight when Clark returned to the court, a determined grimace focused on the Crimson’s board. Harvard’s frequent fouls had given the Tigers 6 points, with no Harvard free throw attempts in the first half. And with high Princeton scorers like Kristen Helmstetter ’14 and Taylor Williams ’16, the Crimson would need to maintain their momentum to come out on the high side of what would inevitably be a close game. The second half saw some mistakes,
with frequent fouls by the Crimson giving the Tigers an additional 14 freebies. But each time the Crimson seemed to be losing their way, they would push back and surprise the crowd. The atmosphere clearly tensed up near the end of the game, with players hitting the floor and fighting for the ball on either end. Princeton dominated the rebound game, gaining its largest margin of the game 61-55, but that didn’t stop Harvard from trying, with a successful steal by Clark leading to a stunning runaway across the court. The crowd, lackadaisical for most of the first half, got to its feet, pushing the Crimson on as the Tigers took the lead in the last five minutes. A three-pointer by Clark would bring the Crimson to their final 64, but Princeton would take the win on their final free throws. It may have been an anticlimactic game, with the Crimson’s aggression
and floor-wide strategy being met by the Tiger’s 20 freebies, but the Crimson’s hard work wasn’t all for naught. Clark’s 23 point performance takes her to fourth place in all-time points at Harvard with 1,623 in her career. Elise Gordon ’14 and Erin McDonnell ’15 dominated the rebound game, second only to the offensivedefensive domination of Mullins and Clark. The ball made its way around the floor quite equitably, a relief in a game often dominated by two or three players. The Crimson came in, played, and walked out as a team, a strength they will no doubt bring to their matchups this weekend at Cornell (5-5 Ivy) and Columbia (3-7 Ivy). Christine Wolfe ’14 (crwolfe@college) hopes more people come out to cheer the Crimson at our next home match-up against, ew, Yale, on March 7th. #YuckFale
Photo by Christine Wolfe
The Harvard Independent • 02.27.14
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