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Cornell University Lecture Tape Collection

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The Cornell Lecture Tapes Collection comprises 5,650 presentations (more than 8,500 individual audio tapes) of extra‐curricular academic lectures and symposia that took place on the Cornell campus from 1970 to 1995. These are fragile documents, subject to the instability of magnetic formats and difficult for today’s researchers to access, examine, and mine. Taken individually or as a group, the recorded presentations exist as historical documents, important to the study of political and cultural life in the late‐twentieth century. The Cornell Lecture Tapes Collection documents the ideas and policies of remarkable thinkers. It is a large archive of public lectures and symposia in which speakers articulate their ideas, clarify theories, debate issues, and respond to questions. Umberto Eco, Henry Louis Gates, Nikki Giovanni, Jürgen Habermas, Alex Haley, Timothy Leary, Edward Said, Isaac Bashevis Singer, W. D. Snodgrass, Nancy Spero and Eudora Welty are just a few of the presenters whose voices and ideas are preserved in this collection.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 236
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    Fish hooks, nostrils, and Nietzsche
    Ireland, Kirk (1992-04-25)
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    The pleasures and problems of filming the French: the making of "Biquefarre"
    Gilcher, William Harry (1985-03-08)
    Gilcher explains various aspects of filming the documentary, "Biquefarre", on location in France. Problems of remote location, the roles played by locals, the lack of film knowlegde of rural life, and the environmental message of film are discussed.
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    Ungers on architecture
    Ungers, O. M. (Oswald Mathias) (1978-05-07)
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    The scene, an uninhabited island (on The Tempest)
    Green, André (1995-05-01)
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    A discussion with Claude Lanzmann about his films
    Lanzmann, Claude; Murray, Timothy; Rodowick, David Norman; Weiss, John Hubbel; LaCapra, Dominick, 1939-; Furman, Nelly; Buck-Morss, Susan; Brinkley, Anthony (1995-04-27)
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    Bei Dao and contemporary chinese poetry
    Beidao, 1949-; Lazer, Hank; Gunther, Robin; Zhen, Zheng; Huang, Yunte (1995-03-31)
    After four local scholars read one poem each by Bei Dau in English, the author reads his work in the original Chinese. Huang discusses the acceptance and interpretation of this and other Chinese poetry in the United States. Gunther comments on the body as a metaphor both within and without poetry. Zheng speaks on the course of general trends in contemporary Chinese poetry. Lazer elaborates on the visual structure of Chinese poetry in its original characters versus English translations (see handouts).
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    The hierarchy of Islamic arts
    Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1994-09-22)
    In this second in a series of three lectures, Nasr first discusses the presence of calligraphy in Islamic art, as well as the extensive use of complex geometry in design. He then introduces the topic of hierarchy in Islamic art, noting that, as in the West, architecture is preeminent, while art that is closest to the individual, such as clothing, is secondary. He notes that Islamic architecture's primary function is to promote quiet or peace.
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    Modern architecture and the mass media
    Colomina, Beatriz (1993-10-26)
    Colomina examines the interplay between high and mass culture, and the influence of that interaction, along with the advertising techniques of the technological revolution, on modern architecture.
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    What is good design, and do we see any on the Cornell campus?
    Hascup, George (1993-06-12)
    In his seminar, part of the 1993 Alumni Weekend, Hascup discusses various locations or structures on the Cornell campus which exhibit good design principles. Some of these locations include the Arts Quad, the Johnson Art Museum, the McGraw clock tower at Uris Library, the Law School buidlings, and the Performing Arts Center.