Graduate Students

Lewis “Alan” Longino, a University of Chicago graduate student who studied and curated contemporary art around the globe, passed away on July 8 in Biloxi, Miss., after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 36.

A Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History, Longino focused his research on postwar Japanese conceptual art and global contemporary art. In particular, he examined the Japanese artist Yutaka Matsuzawa’s approach to a dematerialized practice, which was based upon a system of quantum physics, non-Zen Buddhism and parapsychology. In 1988, Matsuzawa (1922‒2006) published his “Quantum Art Manifesto,” which set out directions, instructions, kōan and other meditations for readers to consider their connection to art on a quantum level.

An Indian hip-hop musician incorporates Hindu messages into his songs. The Black Opry changes country music. Through time, space, and sound, the fates of the Yurok tribe and Chinook salmon on the Klamath River are interconnected.

Music and sound move through generations, different disciplines, and geography. At the Borderlands of Sonic Encounters Inaugural Symposium on Feb. 9 at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at UChicago, young scholars explored multiple topics centering on borderlands, where music and sound are the common denominators.

“This inaugural symposium gathered young scholars from different parts of the world, sparked remarkable conversations, and established the intellectual foundation for the Balzan Prize project,” said Bohlman, the Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Music at UChicago.