The Rose Art Museum promised some of college students' favorite pastimes this past Thursday: art and alcohol. The Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum, along with Student Events, hosted its annual dance, SCRAM JAM, in the Museum's Foster Wing, where Dor Guez's highly publicized "Sabir" video has been projected since September.
Guez's exhibit, except for his "Two Palestinian Riders" photograph, was closed for the night, but Brandeis' DJ Sensation (Johnny Wilson '13) put on a show. Well-dressed students celebrated the event as part of Student Events' Louis Louis Brandeis Spirit Week.
But dancing aside, it was hard to pry most students away from the Lee Gallery, where there was a beer garden for those 21 and older. The Gallery projected Bruce Conner's three-screen video installation "EVE RAY FOREVER" (1956/2006), which looks a little like the display on a slot machine, projected on a wall. Each of the screens loop black and white unsynchronized images, and never the same image twice.
As if this wasn't enough of a spectacle, there was also a "graffiti wall" where students pretended to graffiti over photos of themselves on a smart screen. After posing for a photo, they could draw mustaches, wigs and the like on their faces, and could then print the image to take home.
The photo booth offered another chance to remember the event. It was placed in the Reading Nook, linking the invisible path between Lee Gallery and the Foster Wing, which is located down the staircase. The placement of the photo booth between the two stations seemed like a faint attempt at linking together the event. There was hardly any traffic between the beer garden and the dance because most people hung around drinking.
Last year's SCRAM JAM had the same beer garden, but it was featured as a cocktail hour from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The dancing portion of the event started at 10 p.m. in the Lee Gallery; the Foster Wing was not used last year. The Lee Gallery is more intimate and less sterile-feeling than Foster. Lee had food and a black-and-white photo booth that offered "Andy Warhol-esque wigs and sunglasses" according to the SCRAM Facebook page.
There wasn't a "graffiti wall" in Lee last year, and in general, the event felt less commercialized than it did on Thursday. Last year, Students Events wasn't involved. In fact, this year marked the first time that Student Events partnered with SCRAM for the dance.
Since the event was during spirit week, it's no wonder that Student Events got involved. SCRAM JAM gained more attention and more money from the connection. But aesthetics clash when you partner SCRAM with Student Events, and what resulted in this case was a less intimate, less Rose-worthy affair.
Most students said they thought the night was a success, but most of them also hadn't attended SCRAM JAM last year, so they didn't have anything to compare it with. For some, this was their first time in the Rose.
SCRAM JAM is probably the best effort all year to get Brandeisians inside the museum. But attracting visitors doesn't need to sacrifice the character of the Rose. Where are the Warhol wigs hiding?
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