Remixing was already old when the Babylonians rewrote a series of earlier adventure poems into the epic of “Gilgamesh” around 1700 BCE. And we see that same strategy at work in the sampled bassline of the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight ” and in Glee’s peppy mashup singalong songs—combining familiar things to create something smart and challenging and undeniably new. And no place is better at illuminating the connections between ideas than LSA.

From alumni to professors to students, LSA Victors are combining dissimilar topics to astounding effect, our originality emerging not from some inborn perfection of character but out of the courage to step into the in-between spaces and figure out how the world really works.

Explore the fall 2015 issue of LSA Magazine.

Features

Animated Life
Sharon Shattuck spent years preparing for a life in botany before moving to New York City to make documentary-style films. Here's how she flipped the script.

Photos by Walling McGarity

The Case for Diversity
Diversity is good for you. Not just in a warm and fuzzy way, and not just for select groups of people. Diversity creates better outcomes for everybody, as LSA professor Scott Page (A.B. '85) has shown to be mathematically true.

Illustration by David Speranza

Mad Man
Thirty years before Photoshop, artist Robert Heinecken used scissors, paste, and Con-Tact paper to transform advertising images from popular magazines into arresting works of art. As the art world reconsiders Heinecken’s legacy, History of Art Professor Matt Biro is hard at work writing the first book-length treatment of his life and work.

Photo courtesy of the Heineken Trust

Adventures in Mathematics
Ignore convention! Use the element of surprise! Deny any supposed boundary between math and art! LSA graduate student Olivia Walch combines calculations with comics, not to explain a bunch of stodgy rules, but to illustrate why MATH RULES.

Illustration courtesy of Olivia Walch

To explore more stories of enlightening intersections and unlikely juxtapositions, take a look at this issue’s Table of Contents.