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UCLA professors take a spin as DJs for student audience at Hammer Museum event

Professors and Ph.DJs from top: George Baker, Stephen Deters, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Anthony Seeger and Joseph Teran. (Credit: Hammer Museum)

“Ph.DJs”
Wednesday, 7-10 p.m.
Hammer Museum, FREE

By Lenika Cruz

May 17, 2011 12:09 a.m.

Correction: The original version of this article contained several errors. Joseph Teran’s name was spelled incorrectly in one instance. Marisa Lemorande said the Hammer Museum is neutral ground separate from the notion of student or teacher territory. Tiger Trap, Ride, and Sourpatch are bands.

Wednesday evening, five UCLA professors will abandon their podiums for the turntable at the UCLA Hammer Museum’s “Ph.DJs,” an event at which professors will get to spin and share the stories behind some of their favorite songs with a student audience.

Professors were each asked to design a short set of four tracks to introduce and play in the museum’s Gallery 6 annex.

Sarin Cemcem, a fourth-year art history student and the MC for the event, said the Hammer Student Association wanted to find a way to bring students and professors together in a fun, nonacademic context for HSA’s final event of the school year.

The “Ph.DJs” will include art history Professor George Baker, architecture and urban design lecturer Stephen Deters, anthropology Professor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, ethnomusicology Professor Anthony Seeger and math Professor Joseph Teran, who will be the only DJ representing South Campus departments.

“You’ve got these five professors you see in lecture all the time, but you’d never know what kind of music they listen to,” Cemcem said. “Students can get to know their professors on a completely different level.”

Professors were asked to select songs with interesting associations behind them, like a song from their high school prom, Cemcem said. She added that, while some songs will have lyrics, others will be purely instrumental, which will provide texture to the evening’s sounds. The tentative set lists for the evening will range in genre from house to ’90s grunge to folk music, and professors will be bringing a mix of CDs, vinyl and iPods.

Cemcem said that, while HSA events usually attract students from art departments, when it came to selecting disc jockeys, HSA aimed to represent a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Marisa Lemorande, academic programs assistant at the Hammer Museum, said HSA sought professors who were, most importantly, good storytellers who would also be enthusiastic about spending time with students.

“We wanted these professors to be people you’d want to hang out with at a party,” Lemorande said. “There’s this way of revering professors that’s appropriate and expected, but this event is a chance to show they have other things going on in their lives.”

According to Lemorande, the purpose of “Ph.DJs” is to open up a floor for not only dancing, but for conversation. She said the Hammer Museum provides neutral ground away from notions of student or teacher territory, which equalizes both groups to allow for easy discussion and the comfort of grabbing a drink with one another.

While “Ph.DJs” were not necessarily picked for their mixing skills, some do have ties to musical performance. Baker, for example, occasionally guest DJs at Mandrake, a Culver City bar. Seeger, who is a well-known musicologist and music archivist, is also the nephew of folk singer Pete Seeger.

To most of his students, Teran is a young professor who teaches graduate classes on continuum mechanics and techniques in scientific computing. According to Teran, however, only a few know he spends much of his free time playing lead guitar in an indie pop band called Sweater Girls that has performed at venues in Los Angeles, New York and Athens, Ga.

“There’s not much overlap between the band and school,” said Teran, who has been in Sweater Girls for about a year and a half. “The two don’t really interact.”

According to Teran, while deciding to DJ was easy, narrowing his choices down to four songs was difficult. He said he thought of using Morrissey’s “Interesting Drug,” but, after deciding it was too long, settled on an indie pop set list including bands Tiger Trap, Ride, and Sourpatch.

While HSA’s original plan was to have two professors engage in a DJ battle, Cemcem said the idea evolved into an event with less competition and more collaboration.

“These professors all come from different disciplines, ages and backgrounds, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what they decide to play and the kinds of stories they tell,” Cemcem said.

Lemorande said that while the possibility of dancing depends upon the kind of music the professors play, one thing is certain: There will be no sitting.

“This is a chance for students and faculty alike to be curious about music and get out of the daily grind,” Lemorande said.

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Lenika Cruz
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