Idea Magazine by Henry Erdman

fall 2014

iDea

the magazine of the wisconsin academy of sciences, arts & letters

WATERS OF WISCONSIN AND BEYOND A New Era for the University of Wisconsin Center for Limnology

THINK LIKE A WATERSHED A new strategy for the waters of Wisconsin

DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD Wisconsin entrepreneurs fuse business sense with a concern for our climate and energy future

Contents

All materials present in this document are property of their respective owners.

Originally published Summer 2014 in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wisconsin People &

Ideas: The Magazine of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters.

This document was created for academic purposes as a rebranding assignment for the magazine. 2

table of contents SUMMER 2014

FEATURES 6 8

From the Director

READ WISCONSIN 43

Read Wisconsin

Grounded in Place and Story

Announcing the winners of our 2014 poetry

Editor’s Notes

and fiction contests.

Grounded in Place and Story

Poetry

Upfront

Peoms from our 2014 poetry contest winners:

Wisconsin Academy releases new report on energy

Dion Kemthorne, Jeanie Tomasko, and Judith Harway

and climate change 11 12 14

The first-place prize story from our 2014 fiction contest,

for those with memory loss

“The Walk to Makino,” by Karen Loeb

Edgerton literary festival boosts film component

Book Reviews

Wisconsin begins search for new poet laureate

Erika Janik reviews The Good Luck Girls

Fellows Forum

of Shipwreck Lane, by Kelly Harms

Thoughts and observations on the one hundredth

Brendon A. Smith reviews Marketplace of the Marvelous:

anniversary of the demise of the passenger pigeon

The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine, by Erika Janik 55

New & Recent Releases

Report

FIRST Robotics team mentor Erik Richardson introduces

us to the girls and women bridging gender gap in science,

technology, engineering, and math.

technology, engineering, and math. 26

Fiction

Penelope Project creates meaningful moments

by conservation biologist Stanley A. Temple 18

Local Bookshop Spotlight

Photo Journal

In order to better understand the state of the State,

In order to better understand the state of the State, photographer

photographer Carl Corey takes us on a walk along

Carl Corey takes us on a walk Along the Yellowstone Trail.

the Yellowstone Trail.

Essay Once he’s heard a song, Leslie Lemke never forgets how to play it. Darold A. Treffert shares the story of this man with an extraordinary talent.

Galleria What is iconography and how does it influence the way we understand photography today? Lewis Koch looks for clues in the life and works of archivist, photographer, and friend Paul Vanderbilt.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Contents

NEWS FOR MEMBERS

Update from the Council

Where does the time go? 2014 marks the 10th Anni-

This summer, our president-elect Tom Pleger left his

Overture Center, in the 3rd floor rotunda. Now a decade

dent of Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Ma-

versary of our James Watrous Gallery opening at the later, the Watrous Gallery is still providing a home in downtown Madison for contemporary Wisconsin art-

ists and Wisconsin art and craft history and also features exhibitions that bridge the arts, sciences, and humanities. If you are in town, please stop by for a visit.

Members in Southeastern Wisconsin are encouraged

role at UW-Baraboo/Sauk County to become the presi-

rie, MI. We enjoyed having Tomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership, friendship, and ideas during his service on Council. We wish him

the best. With his departure, Linda Ware of Wausau has been elected to the office of president-elected, slated to take the helm in January 2015.

to attend our Academy Evening talk at the Greenfield

Announcing new Council Members (terms to end

conservation biologist Stanley Temple. Stan will share

rington, Milwaukee; Tom Luljak, Milwaukee; Cathryn

Public Library with Wisconsin Academy Fellow and

the epic story of the extinction of the passenger pi-

geon and its consequences on science and society today.

2017): Bert Filicky-Peneski, Sheboygan; Art HarCofell-Mutschler, Appleton

We are pleased to welcome four new members to

The talk will be at 7pm on Tuesday, October 7th at the

our Council: Roberta Filicky-Peneski, Sheboygan; Art

event is free and open to the public. Visit wisconsinac-

Cathy Cofell-Mutschler, Appleton

Greenfield Public Library (5310 W Layton Ave). This ademy.org for more details. Hope to see you there.

Harrington, Milwaukee; Tom Luljak, Milwaukee; and

In the coming months, you will see a slight change

Over the last year we have been diligently working to

regarding our Council (in name only). The Council has

glitches. If you have questions regarding your member-

to a Board of Directors. It is the desire of the Council/

upgrade our data systems, and have experienced a few

ship, please give us a ring at (608) 263-1692 or email members@wisconsinacademy.org.

proposed and voted to change the title of the Council Board to be more transparent in their role in governing the Wisconsin Academy.

contributers Carl Corey has been exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group photography shows and featured in Camera Work Bicentennial Edition, Communication Arts, Columbia Journalism

Review, and Visual Communication Quarterly. Corey is the recipient of more than 100 awards from

the advertising, publishing, and photography communities, and his photographs have been the subject of several books, including For Love and Money: A Portrait of the Family Business (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2014), The Tavern League: A Portrait of the Wisconsin Tavern (Wisconsin

Historical Society Press, 2011), and Contemporary Photography in New York City, edited by Marla Carl Corey has been exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group photography shows and featured in Camera Work Bicentennial Edition, Communication Arts, Columbia Journalism

Review, and Visual Communication Quarterly. Corey is the recipient of more than 100 awards from the advertising, publishing, and photography communities, and his photographs have been the sub-

ject of several books, including For Love and Money: A Portrait of the Family Business (Wisconsin

Historical Society Press, 2014), The Tavern League: A Portrait of the Wisconsin Tavern (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2011), and Contemporary Photography in New York City, edited by Marla

Lewis Koch is an artist whose work has been shown in sites from garages to museums with solo exhibitions in New York, London, Brussels, Seoul, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Chicago. His photographs are in permanent collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the Met-

ropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Maison Européenne de la Photog-

raphie, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. As artist-in-residence at Copenhagen’s Fotografisk Center. Koch created the web project (2001) and

book (2009) Touchless Automatic Wonder, which provide a comprehensive overview of his work in Darold A. Treffert, MD, received

Erik Richardson is a science

psychiatric residency training

Menomonee Falls, a graduate

both his medical schooling and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He went on to

develop the Children’s Unit at Winnebago Mental Health

teacher at Aquinas Academy in student in counseling, and a

passionate mentor for FIRST

Robotics Team 1732–Hilltoppers.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

From The Director

GROUNDED IN PLACE AND STORY by Jane Elder

Executive Director

At the beginning of a recent retreat for our staff and board of directors, I asked everyone to describe their favorite place in Wisconsin. Responses were largely what you would expect: a beloved family farm that went back for generations, a treasured backyard garden, fields and woods steeped in childhood memories, and, of course, the familiar family lake cabin “Up North.” My choice was Julian Bay on Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. A few others mentioned enchanted natural areas like the great confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers at Wyalusing or the perfect place for bay side sunset viewing in Door County. There were even two votes for that magical combination of forest and stage that is American Players Theatre in Spring Green. The conversation was a great way for our directors and staff to better get to know each other, and it set a collegial tone for the retreat discussions that followed. But—and I only realized this a bit later—the conversation also affirmed for the group just how much the natural places we know and love define so much of what Wisconsin means to us all. Whatever our connection to Wisconsin might be, for most of us that connection was formed through a relationship with the landscape. It means that we care, either directly or abstractly, about the wellbeing of that landscape. In doing so, we become part of the memory of that landscape—and part of its future. The Wisconsin Academy is all about connecting people and ideas. And part of what shapes our ideas—indeed, what makes us human—is grounded in place. The celebrated writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry once said that, “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.” I think that his observation could easily have come from seeing the relationship we have with our lands, waters, cities, towns, and everything in between here in Wisconsin. We’re not just an amalgamation of addresses and zip codes. The places of Wisconsin that we hold dear help inspire and motivate us to sustain them, safeguard them, and make them better for those that follow. Earlier this year one of our Waters of Wisconsin Initiative working groups was challenged to visualize a place or experience that meant “water” in Wisconsin. The words and stories that emerged from this group of researchers and conservationists were rich with memory and meaning. There were comments about the sense of space that water provides, 6

the flat expanses of lake ice, seemingly endless horizons, and sunlight dancing across a lake. Others talked about water being a place where we gather and connect—on beaches with friends and families, with an uncle in the fishing boat, in a canoe with a paddling buddy, in a trout stream with other anglers, or with herons, frogs, fish, and other inhabitants. The groups noted that water was also a place for escape, contemplation, solace, and renewal. One person described water as a place to be “away” but still connected. We are, after all, constructed mostly of water. While our prompt was for visual images about water, other sensory experiences wove their way into our observations. The “zing and plop” of a well-cast fishing line and lure hitting the surface evoked countless summer memories for me. Someone else noted the background buzz of powerboats on lakes. We articulated various voices of water—from the slap of waves on a boat at the dock, to the babble of brooks and springs, to the way sound carries over water, to the silence at dusk and the hum of summer insects in the moist air. We talked about the smell of wet sand (and wet dogs), fresh snow, thawing soil in the spring, and the delight of rolling in sand as a kid (followed by co-mingled smell and grit of silica and Coppertone). Water also holds mystery and another world under its surface—spawning beds, shafts of light penetrating to lake and riverbeds or into dark unknown depths, the experience of swimming underwater and being submerged and suspended at the same time. I invite you to try this exercise with a group of friends or colleagues. I expect you’ll discover a tapestry of images that speaks to you in profound ways, too. While water is one defining aspect of Wisconsin, our state is distinct from any other part of the world in many other ways. Teasing out the attributes and experiences that make Wisconsin unique is part of what helps us understand why we value it so much—and what we need to do to safeguard places and experiences that are the essence of Wisconsin to us, some of which might seem commonplace, but are increasingly rare in a rapidly changing world. From its origins in 1870, the Academy has sought to explore, understand and share the lessons Wisconsin has to teach us through scientific investigation, artistic expression, and the observations of great writers. It all started with a fascination for the place we know as Wisconsin, which is still today—yes—a wellspring of imagination. This summer, I hope you can connect with a place or experience that is quintessentially “Wisconsin” and consider how that has enriched your life, your language, and your view of the world. Drop us a line if you want to talk. We’ll be listening.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Editor’s Notes

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT by Jason Smith Editor

Last February at the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development, UW–Madison School of Business economist Morris Davis raised the alarm about our “massive brain drain” problem in Wisconsin. In his presentation at the conference, and in subsequent media appearances since then, Davis described how from 2008 to 2012 Wisconsin lost 60,000 college graduates, most of whom were between the ages of 21 to 29. While some of these people moved to nearby urban areas like Chicago or Minneapolis, many moved out of the Midwest entirely. “You might say, Well, they’ll come back. [But] they don’t come back,” said Davis, adding, “I don’t think that’s good for the state.” The problem of brain drain—a relatively nonspecific term used to describe the flight of educated people from a distinct geographic area—isn’t new to our state (or any others in the Midwest for that matter). According to Jeff Sachse, a labor economist with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, we’ve been trying to address the problem since the 1990s through various economic incentives and student retention initiatives. But what’s different today says Sachse is that the carrot of a stable, long-term career in Wisconsin is no longer adequate enticement. “Quality of life issues are increasingly important for young professionals and new college graduates,” he says, and, as such, these issues need to be incorporated in any strategy to address brain drain. Step One to any good strategy is getting to know the players, and the brains draining from our state happen to belong to the Millennial Generation, those young professionals and new college graduates born between roughly 1980 and 2000. At 80 million strong— roughly 27% of the US population—Millennials are not only the largest age cohort, they are also the highest educated and most racially diverse in American history, according to the US Census Bureau. Born into the era of the Internet and Big Data, the Millennials are also the most-studied generation in American history. Indeed, study after study—probably the most important of which is the Pew Research Center’s Millennials: Portrait of Generation Next—reflect the central themes at work in the Millennial character: digitally connected, confident, self-expressive, socially liberal, upbeat, and open to change. And, while no group of 80 million people can be considered homogenous, studies suggest that these character traits drive 8

Millennial desires for their lives, careers, and families. Much has been written and said about the Millennials—some of it flattering, much of it disparaging. But I would remind readers that rarely has an older generation sought to point out the best qualities of a younger one (think of what your forebears said of your generation and you will know what I mean). While I’m not an expert in understanding the “Millennial mindset,” I do think it is important that I and others my age and older make an effort to try to get to know the Millennials if we truly want to court and retain the best and brightest in our beloved state. I bring this up because there was also something else that Davis said at the conference that caught my attention. He noted that, even though the state’s population is rising about 0.5 percent a year, most of the growth is in people age 65 or older. It’s true: Wisconsin, like my hair, is rapidly graying. While older are indeed migrating into the state, the elderly population is becoming proportionately larger as more and more young people leave. The Wisconsin Applied Population Lab at University of Wisconsin–Madison reports that by 2020, 24% of the state will be age 60 and older; by 2030, more than 27% will be 60-plus (Yikes, you might think, that’s me!). Projections from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services also reflect this trend, with a so-called “aging boom” concentrating the population of retirees in many northern and north-central counties as younger people depart, thereby placing further pressure on communities already suffering from a lack of smart, young doctors, teachers, public servants, and other civic and business leaders. It appears that we are heading for a perfect storm, a typhoon of “brain drain” punctuated by an “aging boom” with massive implications for both high- and low-tech industry, municipal and public services, even state and local tax bases. Millennials, then, might just be the proverbial life raft that can help us weather this storm. Why? Let’s return to what Sasche said about “quality of life issues.” While a largely objective concept, I think most of us can agree that quality of life revolves around larger, more interconnected things, the things that, well, make life worth living: good schools and safe neighborhoods, opportunities for lifelong education and meaningful encounters with the arts and culture, a healthy natural environment and a fair and equitable community in which to pursue one’s dreams and goals. The character traits of Millennials point to the pursuit of this higher quality of life. And they are willing to move somewhere to find it.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Upfront

MOMENTS AND MEANING IN THE PENELOPE COMMUNITY

that transcended generations. Penelo-

by Joey Borgwardt

return while fending off unwanted

pe was chosen as the heroine because her plight—waiting for her husband’s

visitors—is emblematic of the daily struggle of long-term care patients, es-

In the Fall of 2010 an unlikely group of actors set to

pecially those with memory loss: waiting for familiar faces

munity in Wauwatosa into an interactive venue for live

the play “recasts waiting as a position of strength.”

work transforming Luther Manor Senior Living Com-

theatre. Familiar facility settings—resident rooms, the

while being confronted by strangers. As Basting puts it, The performances of Finding Penelope sold out,

dining hall, the sanctuary—became part of a living stage

brought many audience members to tears, and drew rave

sional actors from Portland-based Sojourn Theatre, and

And, in many ways, the living stage they created became

upon which a cast of UW–Milwaukee students, profesLuther Manor residents joined together to re-imagine

Homer’s Odyssey. Focusing on Odysseus’s wife and her

refutation of 108 suitors during her husband’s absence, their original play, called Finding Penelope, debuted on March 15th, 2011.

For playwright Anne Basting, Finding Penelope

reviews from its professional and resident actors alike. a living community. New relationships were forged between the UW–Milwaukee theatre students and Luther Manor residents and staff, setting a positive example for

intergenerational exchange that is hard to come by in a youth-driven culture that marginalizes seniors.

Basting explains that due to the shuffling na-

represented a community-based effort to create “activ-

ture of staff and residents in long-term care homes,

author, director of the UWM Center on Age & Com-

open-minded approaches to new activities like the

ities in long-term care [that are] more meaningful.” An

munity, and founder of Timeslips Creative Storytelling, Bastings has devoted her career to helping those living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. She has found

that by fostering a safe environment for storytelling and

this forging of trust is essential for facilities to take

Penelope Project. “Much of this work is about invit-

ing people to be open to creativity in an environment that too often stultifies it.”

theatrical improvisation one can “replace the pressure

to remember with the freedom to imagine.” Her Pe-

nelope Project seeks to create impactful moments and

connections through “open-ended creative storytelling,” which provides the backbone for the project’s engaging,

and often challenging, activities that incorporate poetry, movement, and visual art.

Basting chose Homer’s Odyssey as the foundation for

her play because she wanted the residents to feel as if they were a part of something bigger and older, something 10

(Above) De rernatem ulpa voluptatur, si que nonsed ullit alitemo lupisseque idi unt occuptateste porro et aliquo omnihil.

(Right) Elest quameni molupti buscipietur? Qui cor ma nis eum nonsequaeror reressima illoriatur? Qui core repudic te accuptatquae ipicaturendi ut verest ut es dignam eatur? Quia

Basting is currently at work furthering this idea of

creating a more connected community through a new

project called Islands of Milwaukee, which addresses the

performances and shares them with others—which is

other community members. “When we finished Penelo-

Penelope: The Documentary was featured on Wis-

social isolation that grips many homebound seniors and

very much in the spirit of the Penelope Project as a whole.

pe, we really felt like we had succeeded in building com-

consin Public Television’s Director’s Cut this past June,

live in care homes. 85% live in their own homes, and

both in Wisconsin and nationwide. For more informa-

munity. But then we thought: Most older adults don’t more than ever before, they are living alone.” Islands of Milwaukee will culminate as interactive performances

on September 20th and 21st at Milwaukee City Hall,

and can be seen airing at film festivals and screenings

tion on the Penelope Project and other related projects, visit thepenelopeproject.com.

with an exhibit running through October.

The Penelope Project and other endeavors like it set

an example that other care homes can follow. Given

the site-specific nature of Finding Penelope, program directors decided that their play would be “impossi-

ble to replicate exactly” but instead hope to share their approach and framework. Basting notes that several projects inspired by Finding Penelope have since been staged, including a musical in a Madison care communi-

EDGERTON BOOK & FILM FESTIVAL EXPANDS OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING by Merri Oxley

ty. A spectrum of educational tools and training options available on both the Penelope Project and Timeslips

websites allow for other care homes to use these materi-

Founded in 2005 to celebrate the legacy of Rascal au-

Aiding in the effort to share these materials is 371 pro-

the Edgerton Sterling North Book and Film Festival

als as guidepost for their own adaptations.

ductions’ Penelope: The Documentary, which follows the entire arc of Finding Penelope from its planning stages to

its Luther Manor performances. The documentary supplements the other Penelope Project materials, conveying

the emotional weight and joy experienced by resident-actors. By capturing the immediate, momentary connec-

tions and sharing them with a much larger audience, the documentary celebrates the achievement of the original

thor and hometown hero Sterling North (1906–1973), has expanded in recent years to include talks and read-

ings with local and national authors as well as “how to” sessions for aspiring authors seeking to publish new

works. Festival organizers and co-chairs Diane Ever-

son and Michelle Hamm stress the importance of offering festival programming that encourages community engagement in the arts and cultivates life-long learning.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Upfront

To this end they have incorporated a new “learning”

element to the film side of the festival this year. “We have

shown films in the past, but this year we wanted to have well-known authors and film industry persons tell our au-

diences “how to” take a book to TV, write a screenplay, write and produce a film, and do special effects,” says Hamm.

A build-up event in July premiered a stage adap-

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT WISCONSIN POET LAUREATE by Jason A. Smith

tion of Paul Fleishman’s award-winning book, Seed-

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, in partner-

Sun Prairie as well as in other cities across the U.S. This

Letters, recently announced an open call for applications

folks, which has recently been a “community read” in year’s Edgerton Sterling North Book & Film Festival in September will feature Elizabeth Ridley, Wisconsin

ship with the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & for the 2015–2016 Wisconsin Poet Laureate.

Beginning August 18, 2014, the call for applications

author and screenwriter of her first feature film, “Handle

is open to individual poets who are seeking to fill the

soner’s Handbook,” and the subsequent PBS program of

to people who wish to nominate a poet for the position.

With Care”; Deb Blum, well-known author of “The Poithe same name that premiered this last year; Sun Prai-

two-year Wisconsin Poet Laureate position as well as

The state’s leading poetic voice, the Wisconsin Poet

rie resident special effects creator, Alex Falk; and Bobby

Laureate is also an ambassador for poetry, encouraging

tors, and independent filmmakers from Milwaukee area.

Poet Laureate engages a variety of constituencies, en-

Schmidt and Mark Winter, two writers, producers, direc “They were asked to participate because they each

brought a different talent to the Film side and we were

delighted that they were happy to share their time and talents with our audiences,” says Ms. Everson.

the reading and writing of poetry across Wisconsin. The riching the lives of residents by sharing and promoting poetry through conversation, readings, public appearances, workshops, and digital and social media.

“It’s an exciting position,” said Commission chair

Expanding the film component is a welcomed ad-

William Stobb. “Our recent Laureates have really con-

stronger and broader community of writers, readers, and

this upcoming term, thanks to a grant from the Wis-

dition to a festival whose overall goal is to cultivate a

artists of all ages, and organizers hope the expanded festival will grow the reputation of Edgerton as a hub for literature as well as for film.

Other featured presenters for 2014 include national-

ly renowned children’s author, David Wiesner, winner of the

nected with Wisconsinites all over the state, and during

consin Arts Board, we’re pleased to be able to provide some additional financial support for statewide poetry

programming. So, this is a great opportunity for a poet to have a big impact on the state’s arts culture.”

An all-volunteer board, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate

2014 Sterling North Literary Legacy Award for Excellence in

Commission was created by Wisconsin Governor Tom-

in-demand youth authors, Ben Mikaelsen Touching Spirit Bear,

31, 2000, and continued by Governor Jim Doyle. The

Children’s Literature; Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland, and Terry Wooten Stone Circle Poetry; Madison’s “Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler Mystery” series couple, Betsy Draine and Michael Hinden, and others. 12

my Thompson through Executive Order 404 on July

Commission conducts the Wisconsin Poet Laureate selection process, assigns responsibilities to the selected

Poet Laureate, and assists that individual in performing

official duties. In May, 2011, the Wisconsin Academy of

Sheri Castelnuovo has been re-

the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission to ensure the

ecution of public programming at

Sciences, Arts & Letters announced their stewardship of

sponsible for the planning and ex-

survival of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate after Governor Scott Walker eliminated state support for the position.

the Madison Museum of Contem-

porary Art since 1991. She overseas

Members of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commis-

all of the museum’s educational programming, including

consin Writers, the Wisconsin Center for the Book, the

sources, adult enrichment programs, online exhibitions,

sion include representatives from the Council of WisWisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the Wisconsin Human-

ities Council, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, as well as several at-large members.

The Poet Laureate’s term of service is two years. The

the docent program, school programs and learning re-

and fiilm and video series. She serves as co-curator of the Wisconsin Triennial Exhibition and collaborates with the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets to present interdisciplinary poetry events at MMoCA.

current Wisconsin Poet Laureate is Max Garland, who

Ching-in Chen is author of The

2015 and ends on December 31, 2016. The new Wis-

Revolution Starts at Home: Con-

lives in Eau Claire. The next term begins in January of

Heart’s Traffic and co-editor of The

consin Poet Laureate for the 2015–2016 term will be announced on January 5, 2015. The Wisconsin Poet Laure-

fronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. They are a

ate is awarded a $2,000 per-year stipend, managed by the

Kundiman, Lambda, Norman Mailer Poetry and Cal-

poet’s achievements and helps to defray travel expenses.

Foundation and Macondo writing communities. In Mil-

Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, which honors the Interested parties should submit complete application

materials to the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission (wipoetlaureate@gmail.com) no later than October 10, 2014.

laloo Fellow and member of Voices of Our Nations Arts

waukee, they are Cream City Review’s editor-in-chief and senior editor at The Conversant.

For application materials and additional information,

Mark Zimmerman represents the

visit wisconsinacademy.org/poetlaureate.

Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets on the

Commission. Since 2004, Mark has

Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission adds three new members The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission recently welcomed three new members to help conduct the Wis-

consin Poet Laureate selection process, assign responsi-

bilities to the elected poet laureate, and assist that indi-

vidual in performing official duties: Sheri Castelnuovo,

lived in Milwaukee where he teaches

humanities and writing courses at the

Milwaukee School of Engineering. From 1993-2001, he taught American literature at Ibaraki University in Mito, Japan, while also working as a journalist and edi-

tor. He has also taight at colleges in Russia, the Netherlands, and Poland.

Ching-in Chen, and Mark Zimmerman.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Fellows Fellows Forum Forum

a birD we haVe lost AND A DOUBT WE HAVE GAINED Stanley A. Temple Wisconsin Academy Fellow 2014

Stanley A. Temple is the Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology and former Chairman of the Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development Program in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsinâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Madison. For 32 years he held the academic position once occupied by Aldo Leopold. Temple is currently a Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and was elected a Wisconsin Academy Fellow in 2014. Temple has received many awards for his work in wildlife ecology and

14 14

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Fellows Forum

N THE MID-19TH CENTURY, THE PASSENGER PIDGEON WAS THE MOST ABUNDANT BIRD IN NORTH AMERICA,

numbering three to five billion, according to scientists

ry of the passenger pigeon, and to cramming as much

sin Academy President, Schorger wrote in 1955 what

outreach efforts will culminate this fall in a weekend of

and naturalist A. W. [Bill] Schorger. A former Wisconis still considered to be the definitive account of the

life and death of the species: The Passenger Pigeon: Its

Natural History and Extinction. In his book, Schorger described the passenger pigeon as “the most impressive species of bird that man has ever known.”

It’s hard to imagine today that the bird was once so

abundant that flocks darkened the skies for days as they

public outreach as I can into the centennial year. My commemorative activities in Madison (see page XX), hosted by the Wisconsin Academy. The weekend will

feature a diversity of pigeon-related events: lectures, a screening of a new documentary film, a staged reading of a play, a performance of a pigeon-inspired symphony, and much more.

My various outreach efforts over the last few months

passed continuously overhead or that one bird in every

have already given me a chance to interact with thou-

hard to comprehend that in just half a century of unreg-

ty and the general public. Several observations, some

four in North America was a passenger pigeon. It is also ulated overexploitation we killed them off entirely. The

last wild bird was shot in 1902, and in 1914 the last surviving bird, a female named Martha, died in her cage

sands of individuals from the conservation communiencouraging and others troubling, have emerged from these interactions.

I’ve discovered that most of the general public and

at a Cincinnati zoo.

even some dedicated conservationists don’t really know

story of the passenger pigeon needs to be retold—not

America’s relationship with wildlife. In 1947, the Wis-

Today, a century after the bird’s extinction, the tragic

only because most people have forgotten it, but also because it provides important lessons for the present and

the future as we confront an unprecedented mass extinction of species as a result of our actions.

To take advantage of this “teachable moment,” I

have joined with other conservationists in creating Project Passenger Pigeon (passengerpigeon.org). We are dedicating 2014 to the commemoration of the centennial of the extinc-

the story of the passenger pigeon and how it changed consin Society for Ornithology did something un-

precedented at the time: it erected the first-ever public

monument to a species that had become extinct because of human activities. For the dedication of the Passenger

Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park in western Wisconsin, Aldo Leopold wrote an essay, “On a Monu-

ment to the Pigeon,” in which he predicted this eventuality:

tion of the passenger pigeon. Already

the most impressive species of

helping lead the effort to tell the sto-

bird that man has ever known

I have devoted much of this year to

(Above) Bit, sequiatem sit reptaqu idemque consenis dolut quis

It’s hard for people today to empathize with the

volupta volessi tibera adia solorepuda es ressum esseque volorro

national mindset of the 19th century, a time when the

“Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons;

inexhaustible. It was also a time when the exploitation

trees still live that, in their youth, were shaken by a living

wind. But a few decades hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.”

Now, as we observe the centennial of the passenger

pigeon’s extinction, Leopold’s prediction has seemingly come true.

wildlife resources of the continent must have seemed of wildlife resources was almost completely unregulat-

ed. I have been dismayed by how many Americans don’t understand what we did to the passenger pigeon and almost did to other species such as the wild turkey and Amer-

ican bison that were hunted commercially to near extinction. Each year, wherever they attempted to nest, passenThe Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Report

seeinG into the Future ONE ROBOT AT A TIME by Erik Richardson

magine what we might see if only we could build

Indulge me for a moment and try to visualize the

a warp field that would allow us to peer into the

groups of high school students swarm lazily around in

plished, and thereby bring back the knowledge gained

during the morning hours of the recent FIRST Robotics

future. Might we see what we will have accom-

from those accomplishments?

What would you say if I told you that even as you

read this article students are creating a kind of warp field that offers them a glimpse of their future selves and accomplishments?

This is the nature of a FIRST Robotics regional tour-

nament, like the one held at the Cellular Arena in down-

the pit area at the back half of the sports arena floor

regional tournament in Milwaukee. Their varied elliptical

orbits take them to and from their portable work booths to run tests and maintenance on their robots. And these are large, complex robots—the real thing, all rivets and

welds, pneumatics and electronics with gears and belts and appendages of all different sizes and shapes.

Look closer at the frenzied pace of midday competi-

town Milwaukee each spring and in cities around the

tion in full swing and try to keep up as whole groups of

in 1989, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and

includes the rollicking competition floor in the front

country—and, in some cases, around the world. Founded Technology (FIRST) is a nonprofit, international youth

organization that operates the FIRST Robotics Compe-

tition as well as FIRST LEGO League, Junior FIRST LEGO League, and FIRST Tech Challenge competi-

students pull their team robots into the orbit that now half of the arena. A team brings their robot to the game

field and a cheer erupts from the stands. Soon, another team and another uproarious cheer.

Controlled by their respective teams, the robots com-

tions. The mission of FIRST is to show students of every

pete in head-to-head games on the floor (and on the

only fun and rewarding, but are proven paths to successful

ferent sizes and shapes pass giant exercise balls to each

age that science, technology, and problem-solving are not careers and a bright future for us all. 18

JumboTron screen). In this year’s game, robots of dif-

other and over barriers while other robots try to prevent

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them from doing so and pass their own balls down field

trips back home (home for some being across town and

sics like Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”—bum, bum,

This is just a glimpse of what goes on at a FIRST

to score, all while the crowd sings along to campy clas-

for others across the country).

bah—and “YMCA” by the Village People, pantomiming

Robotics competition. Powered by the work of 130,000

crowd are groups of bouncing students in various lev-

competitions like this across the globe, from Hawaii to

the now-famous dance moves. Sprinkled through the

els of costuming to show their support for the STEMpunks, the Robo Chickens, or any of the other sixty or

so teams. During breaks in the competition, long lines of team mascots do the Macarena.

volunteers and 3,500 sponsors, FIRST Robotics hosts Israel and from Mexico City to the Netherlands, field-

ing teams from kindergarten on up, including 2,720 high school teams.

It’s worth noting that there are a number of young

The competition, randomly assigned three-on-three

women who participate—and have participated—in

phy as the Wisconsin Regional Champions, goes on for

ers in fields like science and robotics. For these young

matches to see which teams will go home with the trotwo-plus days (almost three if you include practice on Thursday). After awards are given out late Saturday af-

ternoon, and wins and losses are absorbed, the thrum and vibration begin to dissipate. Students and mentors

begin to break down their work booths and load up for

FIRST Robotics, many of whom go on to become leadwomen, FIRST Robotics is encouraging more and deep-

er participation in what are commonly known as STEM areas—science, technology, engineering, and math.

And this is a good thing, given the prevailing gender

gap in these areas.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Report

For instance, a 2011 US Department of Commerce

The Rocket Scientist and the Fangirl

report, Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation,

Amber Gell (below) is a hometown girl from Franklin,

rent STEM workforce. According to the report, men

scientist. Gell has flown home each spring for the last six

revealed that women represent a mere 24% of the cur-

are much more likely than women to have a STEM job regardless of educational attainment: one out of four math and computer jobs is held by a woman, while one out of seven engineers is a woman. Recent news head-

Wisconsin, with a successful career as a NASA rocket years to serve as a judge for Wisconsin’s FIRST Regional

Tournament, and she seemed delighted for any excuse to talk about FIRST Robotics.

While Franklin High School didn’t have a robotics

lines—“STEM Fields and the Gender Gap: Where are

team when she was there, Gell says she really wishes

Still So Few Women in Science?” (New York Times, Oc-

for success earlier in her career. Today Gell works for

the Women?” (Forbes, June 2012), and “Why Are there

tober 2013)—underscore the trend of low participation by women in STEM fields.

What are the reasons behind this low participation?

More importantly, how can we help girls to succeed in

STEM-related fields? Peer again into the warp field and I will show you how FIRST Robotics volunteers, mentors, and students are all creating a brighter future for women in STEM.

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they had because she would have been better positioned

Lockheed Martin as a spacecraft systems engineer for Orion’s Landing and Recovery Systems team, but she

has had to find her own way. The kind of experiences

FIRST provides could have propelled her along much more rapidly.

According to Gell, one of the ways the FIRST program

prepares students for real-world engineering is by helping them “learn to be adaptable, and to have a good attitude”

“I work on spacecraft, and stuff breaks all the time,” she

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For Gell, that young person was a high school se-

says. “These young men and women have a chance to get

nior named Rachel from FIRST Team 1714–More Ro-

ing with] that.”

somewhat crazed way we picture someone behaving at a

used to that, and to see the fun and the challenge in [dealGell points out just how important it is for students to

learn how to compete against and also collaborate with

other groups. Again, she notes that in many ways this

is how it is done in the real world where, for instance, Boeing may be bidding against McDonnell-Douglas on one project and on the next they may be teaming up.

Another key element Gell mentions is how FIRST

botics. Gell describes how Rachel went all fangirl—the boy-band concert—during the Milwaukee tournament, getting Gells’s signature and manically chatting her up. Gell was somewhat surprised when Rachel followed up

their conversation with remarkable maturity and confidence a couple weeks later, providing responses to Gell’s questions and outlining her own ideas and goals.

About a week after their follow up conversation, Gell

Robotics fills these kids with passion and confidence.

heard that Deep Space Systems, a major corporation

talking to a student from another team or a CEO from

summer. Gell connected them with her former fangirl

She says that it doesn’t matter whether the students are

a Fortune 500 company (or a NASA rocket scientist), they light up when they start talking about what they’ve

done and accomplished, how they solved this engineer-

that works with NASA, was looking for interns over the and, after several stages of screening, Rachel ended up with an aerospace internship.

Not a bad way to spend the summer before heading

ing problem or cleared that programming hurdle.

off to college.

FIRST Robotics adult volunteers almost always leads to

space industry, you can imagine that a rocket scientist’s

person’s future changed direction because of their in-

she commits three days to judging this competition ev-

In fact, a five-minute conversation with any of the

a story or anecdote about a moment when some young volvement in the program.

With the pace of life in the highly competitive aero-

schedule is very tight. But when Gell talks about why ery year, you can hear the emotion in her voice. The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Report

“I’m in a position where I can positively change the

future,” she says. “I love helping FIRST prepare these kids so they can go on to do the same thing.” The Journalist and the Girl Who Failed

Maggie Rossiter Peterman, the Regional Director for FIRST Wisconsin, has been organizing robotics com-

petitions for four years. A newspaper journalist for over thirty years, Peterman first heard about the program and its impact on students—especially girls—from while researching a story she was pitching to the Wisconsin State

Journal. Peterman was drawn further and further into

FIRST by the inexorable pull of the people and their passion for the movement. When the opportunity came

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gional director.

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along, she made the jump from regional reporter to reAmong her myriad responsibilities at FIRST Wis-

consin, Peterman helps organize and run the Wiscon-

sin Regional Tournament every year. With around sixty

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Peterman always seems to have time to share why she

high school robotics teams competing and an annual

loves this program, adding that she would like to see it

Cellular Arena is a pretty massive undertaking. But it is

more work for her and the many volunteers. For her, the

budget of just over $200K, the Wisconsin Regional at

important to note that it is only one of 98 FIRST events just like it staged around the country every spring.

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keep growing year after year—even if that means even biggest impact of the program is not necessarily related to STEM at all.

“FIRST helps to teach students to become survivors

not victims,” she says. “They learn to celebrate 20% suc-

cess. That’s a good day. They learn to build on that success

so that next time it may be 40%. They learn to become resilient when things go wrong, which goes miles in

building their confidence. And they not only learn to

use power tools, they learn teamwork and Gracious

Professionalism [a key concept in FIRST]. Just think: If we all possessed these qualities, what a great world this could be!”

Of course, as you might expect, Peterman also

has a story about a young woman whom she met and talked with at the national championships in 22

The Wisconsinite

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Report

St. Louis this year. The young woman recounted how in her first year

I’m in a position where I can

was in 8th grade, her LEGO robot-

positively change the future

of FIRST competition, when she

ics team came in dead last—which

means their robot completed fewer of the small tasks

on the competition table than any of the other robots. The defeat tempted her to give up, but she told her-

self, “Well, we came in last, so we couldn’t possibly do

at the beginning of a tournament. She lit up like a spark, “Oh, no way, I still get completely excited; it’s hard to fall asleep the night before!”

During the tournament, Aly had a chance to share

worse next year,” and she decided to stick it out for one

with the judges what it has meant to her to publish sci-

championships in her senior year of high school means

high school—the results of an elective research proj-

more year. Obviously, having made it to the national

she did more than just “stick it out for one more year,” and the same young woman who “failed” will be attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the fall with a full

scholarship. She explained to Peterman that when she

added up all the scholarships that she was offered at the

schools to which she had applied, the total was almost half a million dollars.

The Girl Who Lost and Will Probably Save Millions of Lives The last story I want to share with you is my own. It’s about Aly from FRC Team 1732—the team I call

“our team” and for which I am the lead mentor for the

non-technical side. In addition to being a leader for the mechanical sub-team this past year, Aly was our team’s

nominee for the prestigious Dean’s List award from FIRST. This award is a recognition of how well a stu-

dent reflects all that is best about being part of a robotics team—from hands-on engagement with the design and

entific research in a medical journal while still only in ect—and how important it is for her to be a role model, the kind of person that she remembers looking up to when she first joined the team. Aly also shared her

post-college ambition: to create an organization that de-

velops network to better connect biomedical engineers, equipment, and resources in underdeveloped countries in the effort to save thousands or even millions of lives.

At the end of the tournament, Aly’s team was

one of the three members of the winning alliance

(robots compete in three-on-three matches, and each group—consisting of robots from three differ-

ent high-school teams—is called an alliance). But when the awards were given out, Aly was not called

to the stage as the winner of the Dean’s List award. For a young woman with a list of accomplishments like hers to not win says a lot about the caliber of

current and future leaders that FIRST produces year after year.

Her reaction when I talked to her a few weeks later

maintenance of the robot to role modeling for younger

says even more: “At first, I was obviously really disap-

community education and outreach.

hard work and accomplishments. But then I realized

members of the team and beyond that to their role in I asked Aly on the opening morning of the Wiscon-

sin Regional if she still gets excited every time or if, as a

four-year veteran of the team, it just feels a little ho-hum 24

pointed, because I wanted to be recognized for all my that I had been recognized for those things—by my

team-mates and the mentors who have worked sideby-side with me.”

She went on to say, “And when I reflect back, I really

don’t think I would remember the individual award— whether I won or lost. I’ll remember celebrating with

the team for winning the tournament, and the looks on their faces when we won the Chairman’s Award [the

most prestigious in FIRST, awarded for a team’s outreach and education initiatives] at the Midwest Region-

al a couple weeks later. These memories are way more valuable to me.”

These are memories she will take with her as she

heads off this fall to Boston University, having received an impressive scholarship package, to pursue her passions for medicine and biomedical engineering. Like

many of our team alumni, Aly will probably be here at

the regional again next year, taking a break from college, cheering at the top of her lungs for the students follow-

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ing in her footsteps.

A glimpse into the experiences of these women tells us

what stories of resilience and inspiration the thousands of other people who participate in this “varsity sport of the mind” might share. Anything that we can do, that

you can do, to help cultivate and nurture STEM oppor-

tunities like FIRST Robotics, helps to make sure that these glimpses of the future become the norm and that

these young people—especially young women—step

into positions that allow them to then push the next generation and their future even further.

For more information about FIRST and its range of programs, please visit usfirst.org.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Photo Essay

on the yellowstone trail PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL COREY

ver a two-year period and in multiple install-

ments I walked the 480-mile Yellowstone

Trail through Wisconsin. Established in

1913 as a cross-country tourist route for automobiles—

the first of its kind in the United States—the Yellow-

stone Trail connected Plymouth Rock in the east to Puget Sound in the west. Its construction was a largely

private enterprise, with mainly local citizens working

together to link existing oxcart trails, farm roads, and walking routes.

While the trail is rich in history, my decision to walk

it was based upon the contemporary cultural observations

I hoped to make as I moved from one established Wis-

consin town to another. I wanted to observe what these towns are like today, not only to get a sense of our current state of the State but also the state of the Union.

Some of these observations are shared here in my

walking journal, accompanied by quotes from various individuals and myself. — Carl Corey, 2014

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The Wisconsinite

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The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

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The Wisconsinite

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The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Essay

to creation anD beyonD THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF LESLIE LEMKE

by Darold A. Treffert

N A WARM SUMMER NIGHT IN JUNE OF 1980, LESLIE LEMKE GAVE A PIANO CONCERT IN FOND DU LUC, WISCONSIN.

That concert was my introduction to an extraordinary

of any length flawlessly after hearing it once. In fact that

a rare but remarkable condition called savant syndrome

played back Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 after

man and his surprising talent—a talent that stems from in which a person with an underlying disability such as

autism or other central nervous system illness or injury also has some extraordinary ability that stands in stark contrast to their overall handicap.

I’ve been engaged in research on savant syndrome re-

is what caught May’s attention late one night when he

hearing it for the first time on the sound track of a mov-

ie he had listened to with his family earlier that evening. It was then the miracle of Leslie’s talent came into “full bloom,” according to May.

search since 1962, writing and publishing widely on the

Savant syndrome and innate talent

mentary productions, and even consulting for the movie

and his talent endless. Having once heard a piece, he

subject, participating in numerous broadcast and docu-

Today, Leslie’s musical repertoire seems bottomless

Rain Man. Today I’m a research consultant on autism

simply never forgets it.

at St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac. But I was work-

It seems incredible—until we begin to consider

ing in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of

how rare his talent truly is.

got to know Leslie and his story.

frequently than females, and skills typically occur in five

Because of his premature birth, Leslie developed ret-

matics or mechanical/visual-spatial skills. Whatever the

Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health when

Leslie was born in 1952 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

inopathy and had to have his eyes surgically removed

during the first several months of life. A profoundly ill

baby, Leslie was not expected to live more than a few months. He was given up for adoption by his mother

and placed in the care of May Lemke, a nurse-governess,

Savant syndrome affects males four to six times more

general areas: music, art, calendar calculating, matheskill, it is always associated with massive memory of a habit or procedural type—very narrow but exceedingly

deep within the confines of the special skill. In some cases massive memory itself is the special skill.

While admittedly based on a subjective scale at this

in a sort of hospice-type arrangement. But May Lemke

point, savant skills lie on a spectrum of abilities. Most

Leslie grew up blind and cognitively disabled. Yet,

preoccupation with and memorization of music and

was determined that Leslie would live. And live he did.

although he has never had a lesson in his life, Leslie’s piano skills are innate and extensive. While Leslie has spasticity in his hands, which makes it difficult to even

hold eating utensils, that spasticity disappears when he sits at the keyboard. Leslie can play back a musical piece

common are splinter skill savants who have obsessive sports trivia, birthdays, license plate numbers, historical

facts, train or bus schedules, navigation or maps. Talented savants are those in whom musical, art or other special abilities are more conspicuous not only in contrast to individual limitations, but also in contrast to peer group The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Essay

abilities whether disabled or not. Prodigious savant is a

than autism have savant skills. As such, savant abilities

in whom the special skill is so outstanding that were it to

persons are savants, and not all savants are autistic.

term reserved for those extraordinarily rare individuals be seen in a non-impaired person such a person would

are not limited to autistic disorder. Hence not all autistic Indeed, there are other savants like Leslie who have

be termed a prodigy or genius.

astounding musical abilities. About the time of the Civ-

reader of this article might recall hearing about or seeing

Tom”—traveled the globe and became the most highly

Such is the case of Leslie Lemke who, by now, the

along with his mother May on one of their many tele-

vision appearances during the 1980s. Some might rec-

ognize their marvelous story of love and hope from the 1983 movie The Woman Who Willed a Miracle in which Cloris Leachman played the role of May Lemke.

il War Thomas Bethune—known popularly as “Blind celebrated black concert artist of the time. His story is remarkably similar to Leslie’s in that Bethune was blind and cognitively disabled, but his musical genius exploded on the scene, untrained, as a child.

Like Leslie, Bethune also sang, had an incredible rep-

Leslie first gained national attention after his 1980

ertoire of over 7,000 pieces, and eventually composed

able son was covered on a special Christmas edition of

es. Separated by a century in time, their stories parallel

concert when the story of May Lemke and her remarkthe CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. A slew of

appearances and performances soon followed: 60 Min-

utes, That’s Incredible, The Oprah Winfrey Show (three

times), and subsequent rounds of many other TV talk shows. Leslie began to book concert hall appearances

and, during the 1980s and 1990s, he toured in Norway,

his own pieces, including some as long as twenty pageach other remarkably. What separates Leslie from oth-

er present-day musical savants is that he not only plays piano, but also sings in a beautiful baritone voice and creates his own songs and lyrics, all in the absence of any formal musical training.

I have had the privilege of seeing and hearing Leslie

Japan, and in cities throughout the United States.

for over thirty years now, and he is a continual reminder

phenomenon. It was Dustin Hoffman who put savant

of faith; the tenacity of belief from family, friends, and

At this time savant syndrome was still a little known

syndrome in the international spotlight. Moved to tears

by Leslie’s performance on 60 Minutes, Hoffman played the lead role of Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie Rain Man. While

of the beauty of music; the power of love; the strength

caregivers; and the depth of human potential—a potential sometimes hidden at first.

Rain Man was a marvelous movie—

...he not only plays piano, but

viewers with the impression that, like

also sings in a beautiful baritone

reality, approximately one in ten peo-

voice and creates his own songs

savant skill and approximately one out

and lyrics, all in the absence of

or central nervous system deficits other

any formal musical training.

accurately and sensitively done—it left

Raymond, all savants are autistic. In ple with autism has some degree of

of 1400 people with mental retardation

From replication to improvisation to creation Even today, Leslie can still play back—and sing—nearly any song that an audience member might provide as

They can improvise with originality and create something entirely new.

a challenge. It is almost impossible to “stump Leslie,”

The case for multiple intelligences

has never heard before, you will get a song anyway. He

one of several standardized tests designed to assess hu-

however hard people may try. But if it is a song Leslie

An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from

will make one up on the spot, lyrics included.

man intelligence. Leslie has a measured verbal IQ of 58.

If Mary presses Leslie as to whether in fact he per-

formed the requested song or not, Leslie will often answer with a confession: “I’m making it up,” he’ll sheep-

ishly say. So he composes on the spot, often in a very witty way. Leslie also composes his own songs, such as

Performance scales were not used to test Leslie because they heavily depend on performance that is impeded by his blindness. Other tests concluded he was functioning in the moderately retarded range of intelligence.

How does one reconcile these tests with Leslie’s as-

“Down on the Farm in Arpin” or “Bird Song” in which

tonishing musical capabilities? I have watched again and

ing their songs into his own.

to play a piece of music he had never heard before at

he imitates the birds he loves to listen to, cleverly weavIn creating these songs and incorporating elements of

birdsong and other localized sensations, Leslie demon-

strates a transition I have seen in other savants as well. Whether playing back a song just heard or drawing an entire city—building by building—after a thirty-minute helicopter ride, this process begins with remarkable

again a TV clip of a concert in which Leslie was asked the same time that another pianist was playing it (rather than after the pianist completes the piece). Leslie waited

(below) put caption here about the picture below that will go this far on the next column

memory repetition.

But savants become bored with such precise repeti-

tion, stunning as it is. So they begin to improvise. Les-

lie will play back a song dutifully, for example, but after

completing it will then launch into a five or ten minute

“variation on the theme” concerto, beautifully crafted. Other savant-visual artists might place a tree where

there was none in the scene, or remove a telephone wire that seems to interfere with the picture.

After improvisation comes the creation of something

entirely new, such as Leslie composing on the spot while sitting outside like he loves to do on his little farm—or

during his live concerts. In the case of artists with savant

syndrome, entirely new and creative paintings, drawings, or sculptures emerge. This transition demonstrates that

savants are not mere tape recorders or copy machines. The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Galleria

Paul VanDerbilt RECOMBINANT ICONOGRAPHER by Lewis Koch

The buildup of Answers took many years On Saturday, the band was stilled and Monday morning they tore it down leaving front and back of another question.

Paul Vanderbilt, prose/poem from Panel 297–303

urator, photographer, librarian, archivist, Monuments Man, teacher, philosopher, fla-

neur, iconographer—Paul Vanderbilt was all

these things. No matter what his specific role in life and work, primarily, and most distinctively, he was a prose-

lytizer for what he called “the notion of photography as

tion of FSA-OWI photographs was transferred to the Library of Congress in 1944, Paul went with it as Curator of the newly formed Prints and Photographs Division. He transformed this monumental photographic

survey into an innovative historical resource, today treasured as much for its ability to suggest surprising con-

nections and new directions for study as for the many indelible images the survey contains.

Paul remained at the Library of Congress until 1954,

when he left to join the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, where he established its Iconographic Collections. There, he continued his intuitive, unorthodox ap-

proach to organizing the enormous miscellany of visual materials. In the course of his remarkable career, Paul

revolutionized the way this miscellany can be seen and

understood—and, in doing so, turned the archival process into an art form of its own.

It was only toward the later part of his career that

Paul became a photographer himself. I came to know

him late in his life and early in my own photography

career. This was in the late 1970s and by then Paul had assumed legendary, if largely unheralded, status in the

realm of iconography (see page 34)—a field which he

helped to establish in his various roles as archivist, photographer, and teacher.

an alternative ‘language.’ ”

It was Paul’s talent as meta-librarian—organizing

vast troves of visual material and then parsing the ideas

and interpretations therein—that lead Roy Stryker of

the Depression-era Farm Security Administration His-

torical Section (later the Office of War Information) to hire him to arrange and classify the Section’s photo-

graphic collection. When the largely uncharted collec(right) Paul Vanderbilt, in his office at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 1986. Photo credit: Lewis Koch

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Galleria

This was a time when photography was achieving a

the beginning of its life as a picture; what follows

inence amongst an increasingly image-savvy public. Yet

ture and in the eventual collective, generative power

certain amount of fashionable acceptability, even promdecades before Marshall McLuhan and a slew of public

intellectuals began to contemplate a widening construct

more significantly is among those who see that picto which it contributes.”

Rather than making portfolios or work in series (as

of image interpretation, Paul had been presenting the

was current practice at the time, and still is), through the

portant as the prompting of questions.

ways in which photographs could interact with one an-

case for a photography where answers are never so im-

“I want to argue that photography is not just for pho-

tographers,” he wrote. “I claim that it is not necessary to produce pictures in order to practice photography. The

making of the tangible paper photograph is but its birth,

practice of iconography Paul demonstrated the diverse

other as metaphors for a wider understanding of the Velibus aut quam apiendus ad mil eatus, comni core expliquo beate et et, aut la nis sum es et res elia volute lati restio. Sus

Laut aut et qui nulpa doluptatiis apiditassit, tem. Ipis estiat.

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Galleria

world and things seen. Paul augmented this “generative

power” by using text in tandem with his photographic arrangements, creating thematic panels that suggested

Velibus aut quam apiendus ad mil eatus, comni core expliquo beate et et, aut la nis sum es et res elia volute lati restio. Sus

novel ways of considering large arrays of images.

many areas of our shared interests. His handwritten list

wrote that “We are all collectors of unnamable unities

something he had enumerated for one of his lectures

In the introduction to his unpublished memoir, Paul

both of the material things attached to our personalities and, more poignantly, of experience and the innumera-

ble details, originally disparate, that are joined to form our memories and take on a community with their association with each of us. … This reshuffling and re-cre-

ating does not lead to statistical knowledge, but, with or

of “What Went Wrong in Photography” (see above)— and which he bequeathed to me, as both a manifesto and, I suspect, an admonition—is for me a treasured

document and clear evidence of Paul’s incisive intellect. His list is revealing, as much for what it contains as for what it does not.

As a more extended testament to Paul’s convictions,

without incantation, it too is powerful magic.”

his posthumously published book Between the Land-

which he spoke his opinions was not to be taken lightly.

the fundamental and ground-breaking Paul Vanderbilt:

Paul was a quiet raconteur, and the assuredness with

He always gave me the impression that our friendship was one of mutual regard, though I clearly remember

feeling a respectful distance, being undeniably in awe of his years of experience and gained wisdom in the 42

scape and the Other ( Johns Hopkins, 1993) presents audacious in his claims, certain in his methods, and in-

novative in his use of the photographic image. In Be-

tween the Landscape and the Other, Paul describes how he selects and organizes photographs for display and

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014

Galleria

Velibus aut quam apiendus ad mil eatus, comni core expliquo beate et et, aut la nis sum es et res elia volute lati restio. Sus exerfernat estecerferis mi, simoditatum es magnatur solo ium quibus provit, eiuriossed quae nulluptame ipid

explains his own approach to landscape photography, all

sensorium of ideas, both visual and textual, for anything

tography, landscape, language, psychology, values, and

prescribed “meaning” and literal “truth,” I came to un-

the while providing ongoing commentary on art, pho-

much more. While Paul passed away during the final stages of the book’s production, it is an elegant summation of his lifelong convictions and a fine introduction to

more specific or connotative. Through his doubts about derstand that much of what Paul was advancing was driven by a strong sense of wonder and the sublime:

The capacity I most value of all my fortunes, the

his alternative language of photography.

constant I would be most grieved to lose … is the en-

are reproduced in this article), it becomes clear that

one of the myriad forms of possible enjoyment, many of

In looking at the thematic panels (a few of which

Paul was testing and refining the vocabulary for his new language. In these arrangements he was substituting a 44

joyment of almost everything I see about me, in some which are not allied to approval, but, philosophically, to the wonder of being, complete with all its illusions.

All of this was deeply resonant with incipient ideas

For Paul, in his recombinant approach to visual ma-

I was then—and still am today—working on, in pho-

terials, answers were never so important as the prompt-

the gravitational pull of Paul’s intellectual rigor was

back [open for] another question. … [As such] we may

to-assemblage and use of text with images. For me, an undeniable force.

Storytelling and its visual corollary—that of look-

ing around, making images—were the vehicles for what he called, a “fresh endowment of wonder.” In his own

ing of questions. He argued for leaving the “front and

have to conclude that meaning is by nature elusive, say ‘No’ to those who insist, and settle for whatever charge is felt from the original intuition.”

Paul realized that pictures happened in many and

photography, Paul was clear-eyed and present in the

various ways, whether by intention or happenstance, and

ment” so much as a still point, and his photographs are

obscure, reflective, neither mirror nor window, but per-

moment. Yet his single images were not a “decisive mo-

today highly regarded for their artistic vision. However, the radical nature of Paul Vanderbilt’s ideas has yet to be

that they in no way represented any one thing. Mutable, haps both—

The life of a picture begins when it is finished and

fully absorbed by image-makers and the viewing public

what happens to it at that point on out is both more

moments leaves open the possibility of engendering fur-

of its meaning coming into being.

alike: specifically, that the piecing together of disparate ther questions and new directions of thought.

important and more interesting than the circumstances

The Wisconsinite

Fall 2014