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An upcoming exhibit at UC San Diego’s Gallery QI, “Biosphere Dreaming” explores the “Dream Diary” of Mark Nelson, a participant in the closed-ecosystem experiment Biosphere 2. RSVPs for opening night can be requested through here by 12 p.m., Thursday, April 27. Summary “Biosphere Dreaming” is an audio-visual installation based on the “Dream Diary” of Mark Nelson, one of eight people who lived inside Biosphere 2, a closed-ecosystem complex located outside the little town of Oracle in Southern Arizona, from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. The installation features excerpts from Nelson’s diary and logbook, as well as a series of photos documenting life inside the complex. The material is presented as a 30-minute montage through three projections (two with texts from the diaries and one with the photos) and is accompanied by an exclusive music score written by Michael Garfield. In the hallway outside the gallery, a series of large photos of Biosphere 2 set the stage for the material presented inside. As the first public presentation of Nelson’s diaries, “Biosphere Dreaming” offers a unique perspective on one of the most visionary ecological experiments of the 20th century. Revisiting the experiment more than 30 years after it ended, the installation explores how inhabiting an ecosystem as Mark Nelson did is both an intimately physical and imaginary experience that opens up critical and inventive rethinking—through dreaming in the widest sense of the word—of how we humans are deeply connected to nature. Moreover, in the context of the contemporary climate crisis, “Biosphere Dreaming” engages with questions of new ways of inhabiting the Earth—“Biosphere 1”—that offer more hopeful futures for life inside it. Biosphere 2 was built between 1987 and 1991 by the Institute of Ecotechnics. From 1991 to 1993, this large, green-house-like complex served as an experiment in engaging with ecosystems through science and technology, and gaining new insight into their care and care for the life they hold, including humans. The structure hosted seven different biomes, including a rainforest, an ocean with a coral reef, mangrove wetlands, a savannah, a fog desert, an agricultural area and a human habitat. Though its original plan was to run “missions” inside Biosphere 2 for one hundred continuous years and generate deep data sets, the experiment was terminated less than three years after it began. Yet it still stands as one of the most visionary attempts to rethink the relationship between humans and nature for the better. Bios Mark Nelson was part of the first crew of eight “biospherians” who lived inside the Biosphere 2 for two full years. He is an engineer and the founding director of the Institute of Ecotechnics. He has published the books “Pushing Our Limit: Insights from Biosphere 2” (2018) and “The Wastewater Gardener” (2014). He lives in New Mexico. Michael Garfield writes music for which new words must be invented. Simultaneously tender and apocalyptic, intensely technical yet vulnerable, his tunes marry the singer-songwriter and electronic live producer, updating “solo artist with guitar” to suit an age of planetary renaissance. Committed to adventurous venues and collaborations, Garfield has played everywhere from Portugal to Australia, Canada to Costa Rica, Arcosanti to Moogfest, Synergia Ranch to Meow Wolf to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. His experience includes residencies in Austin, Santa Fe, and Black Rock City; concerts at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science, the Santa Fe Institute, and the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference; and features on PBS and in numerous acclaimed documentary films. Jacob Lillemose is a writer and a curator based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He recently curated the Danish pavilion at the Venice biennale and published the novel “Architecture Zero” (2022) which incorporates references to Biosphere 2. “Biosphere Dreaming” will be on display in the Gallery QI from Thursday, April 27 – Friday, June 9, noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Stay Connected on Social Media! Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

The proposed amendments include exemptions for a broad array of technologies, including fixed security cameras and police databases. Privacy rights advocates argue the proposal would water down the city’s robust surveillance oversight rules.

On Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved undertaking a study of existing renewable energy infrastructure as part of the proposed Regional Decarbonization Framework.

Israel's military said it had resumed combat operations in the Gaza Strip minutes after a temporary truce with Hamas expired Friday, blaming the militant group for breaking the cease-fire.

City and airport officials are preparing to remove street parking on Grape Street to increase the number of lanes from three to four.

They can write essays for students, create art and music, and even help with office work.

In his new biopic Maestro, Cooper was determined not to imitate the legendary Leonard Bernstein. Instead, the actor worked with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin to find his own rhythm.

The Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts is pleased to invite you to the Memorial Lecture on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023 at 5 p.m. at the Mosaic 113 Auditorium in the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood. RSVP NOW Abstract A flurry of articles appearing shortly after Black Panther’s release proffered different, even opposed, readings of its politics, all of which centered on its “villain,” Erik Killmonger. To understand the movie’s politics, it seems, one had to understand Killmonger — the pervading question was: Should Killmonger be regarded as representative, and if he is (or if he isn’t), what is he representative (or not representative) of? To think this through, though, one has to move beyond the script (what the movie says) to think about Black Panther as an aesthetic, phenomenological, and rhetorical experience (what it does). Identification is crucial to cinematic rhetoric, and performance is crucial to identification. T’Challa and Killmonger don’t just espouse ideological positions, they struggle to articulate or understand their place in the world, and Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan contribute mightily to our awareness of their struggles. Here and in his earlier roles, Jordan gives us gentle, fundamentally decent characters who can hardly catch a break, in stark contrast to the regality of Chadwick Boseman’s characters, who are confident, entitled. The first half of Professor Bukatman's talk will focus on these two performances and the ways they complicate simple dichotomies of meaning. Then, to fully appreciate Boseman’s contribution, Professor Bukatman will explore the body of Black superheroes historically, as well as the projection of presence that Boseman brings to the screen. The quest for role models that “look like me” usually refers to moral rather than physical strength; physical strength is generally valued as a manifestation of moral strength. But it’s possible to skip the “moral” part and still have something to identify with: a corporeal rather than a moral identification. There’s more at stake than “balanced” representation and moral positivity in the intersection of Black (and other Other) bodies with superhero bodies. There’s also the ability to display power in what might seem like the least radical of terms: the power to be seen, to be seen as you choose to be, the power to fight, the power to fight back, the power to imagine alternative ways of being, and embody new ways of belonging in the world. “As you can see,” T’Challa announces to Killmonger, “I am not dead!” Bukatman's talk will explore the stakes involved, ideologically and performatively, in that affirmation. Biography Scott Bukatman is professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. His work has long explored the alternative bodies popular media has produced in droves in comedy, animation, musicals, and superhero media. His books include Hellboy’s World: Comics and Monsters on the Margins (University of California Press) and, most recently, Black Panther, part of the 21st Century Film Essentials series (University of Texas Press). Location: The Mosaic 113 Auditorium is located in the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts at UC San Diego (Mosaic Building). Parking: The closest visitor parking is located in the Scholars Parking underground parking structure. Weekend parking is $2/hour. Questions: Email surajisranicenter@ucsd.edu. By registering for this event you agree to receive future correspondence from the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts, from which you can unsubscribe at any time.

To get a sense of how synagogues are celebrating the holiday, we hear from two rabbis about their congregations' plans to celebrate Hanukkah.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee will meet Thursday morning to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress. If approved, the full House would vote on the charge.