The 11th annual Brown University Spring Thaw Pow Wow held in Providence on Saturday, April 14, as photographed by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.

Plus new military robot tech from iRobot

Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Massachusetts, is developing a humanoid robot that climbs stairs, can regain its balance after being shoved, and do pushups (see video above, which was posted Thursday) for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). This comes on the heels of the March announcement that a galloping robot dubbed “Cheetah” that Boston Dynamics is developing for Darpa broke the land speed record for legged robots.

Meanwhile, Darpa is also working with iRobot, the Bedford, Massachusetts, firm that developed the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot, to develop an improved suspension for tracked robots (see video below) that “improves the robot’s mobility over rough and uneven terrain. The technological enhancement enables faster transit speeds, climbing of very steep slopes, improved heading control, greater accommodation of debris entering the suspension and reduced impact forces on carried payloads.”

Previously:
March 6, 2012: Boston Dynamics’ new killer robot: “When is some local museum going to get around to showcasing the freaky, astounding stuff Boston Dynamics is producing?”

They say the Devil once set foot on the North Green of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and left his trace in a granite outcropping in front of where the First Church (Congregational United Church of Christ) in Ipswich now stands. Or as the Works Progress Administration’s 1937 “Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People” reports: “Deep in the rock beside the present Congregational [church] building (1847) is a cloven hoofprint left, legend says, by the Devil.”

Photos by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.

The “footprint” in front of the First Church (Congregational United Church of Christ) in Ipswich, built in 1971, (left) and the United Methodist Church (right).

Wednesday, April 18, 11:30 a.m.
Photo scholar and curator Leslie K. Brown speaks at Montserrat College of Art, 23 Essex St., Beverly, Massachusetts. Free.

Wednesday, April 18, 6:30 p.m.
Nathaniel Raymond, director of operations for the Satellite Sentinel Project at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, speaks about the project’s use of satellite imaging to monitor human rights abuses in Sudan and Syria. At Boston University Sargent College, Room 101, located at 635 Commonwealth Ave, Boston. Hosted by the Photographic Resource Center. $10.

Thursday, April 19, 5:30 p.m.
Patrick Lui speaks about his exhibit at Brown University’s Granoff Center, 154 Angell St., Providence.

Thursday, April 19, 6:30 p.m.
Montserrat College of Art teacher Martha Buskirk speaks about her book “Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museums & Marketplace” at Montserrat’s Odd Fellows Hall, 194 Cabot St., second floor, Beverly, Massachusetts. Free.

Friday, April 20, noon to 4 p.m.
Cambridge Mini Maker Faire at the Cambridge Science Fair at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Saturday, April 21, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Boston conceptual artist Jessica Gath presents “For You, [W]Rapper” at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Gath accepts, wraps and returns objects to visitors. “DeCordova invites you to bring a gift for a friend or a loved one so you may participate in Gath’s performance.”

Saturday, April 21, 2:30 p.m.
Photographer Jim Dow speaks at his exhibit at Robert Klein Gallery, 38 Newbury St., Boston. Free.

Saturday, April 21, 7 p.m.
Gallery 263 holds an art auction to benefit its programs at the gallery, 263 Pearl St., Cambridge, Massachusetts. $10.

Monday, April 23, 4:30 p.m.
Nancy Selvage speaks at UMass Lowell classroom O’Leary 222 somewhere around 71 Wilder St., Lowell, Massachusetts.

Monday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Michael Eng of Ohio’s John Carroll University speaks about “Sound and Semiocapitalism: Affective Labor and the Metaphysics of the Real,” at MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of MIt’s “Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form” lecture series.

Tuesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
MIT professor Hanna Rose Shell speaks about her book “Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography and the Media of Reconnaissance” at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, Massachusetts. Free.

The Massachusetts Tea Party Coalition held its “Patriots Day Rally” on Boston Common today. Gay rights activists stood at the back protesting the rally.

Photos by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.

The Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Massachusetts, is seeking submissions for its annual “Off the Wall” juried exhibit this summer. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, April 13. Details are here.

Monday, April 9, 7 p.m.
MIT professor Muntadas speaks about “Projects and Protocols: Conventions on Art and Technology” at MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of MIt’s “Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form” lecture series.

Tuesday, April 10, 6 p.m.
Photographer Todd Hido speaks at Harvard’s Arthur Sackler Museum lecture hall, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Free.

Tuesday, April 10, 6:30 p.m.
Andi Sutton presents a workshop, “Conversation in Memorial” on “how to make seed bearing lawn ornament sculptures,” as part of “The Garden Lab” project at MassArt’s Brant Gallery, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

Wednesday, April 11, 1:30 p.m.
Laura Ziman presents “Food Lab” as part of “The Garden Lab” project at MassArt’s Brant Gallery, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

Thursday and Friday, April 12 and 13, 7:30 p.m.
“Curious Magic: The Magic Lantern Slides of the Museum of Natural History,” a multi-media performance by Magic Lantern Cinema featuring the Museum of Natural History’s antique magic lantern slides plus live music by Blevin Blectum + Alexander Dupuis, at the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium, Roger Williams Park, 1000 Elmwood Avenue, Providence. In conjunction with the Museum of Natural History’s current exhibit “Curiouser: The Secret Lives of Specimens.” $3.

Saturday, April 14
MassArt holds its annual benefit art auction at 621 Huntington Ave., Boston.

Saturday, April 14, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Boston conceptual artist Jessica Gath presents “For You, [W]Rapper” at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Gath accepts, wraps and returns objects to visitors. “DeCordova invites you to bring a gift for a friend or a loved one so you may participate in Gath’s performance.”

Sunday, April 15, 2 to 6 p.m.
“Spring Zine Thing,” zine fair, at Washington Street Art Center, 321 D Washington St., Somerville, Massachusetts.

Sunday, April 15, 2 to 5 p.m.
Boston’s Hispanic Black Gay Coalition presents a book release party for “Shout it Out: Coming Out Black and Brown” at Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave., Boston. Free.

Wednesday, April 18, 11:30 a.m.
Photo scholar and curator Leslie K. Brown speaks at Montserrat College of Art, 23 Essex St., Beverly, Massachusetts. Free.

CALLS FOR ART:
Davis Art Gallery in Worcester, Massachusetts, seeks artists for its upcoming show “The Art of Fiber: Contemporary Fiber art from Traditional Techniques.” Deadline: May 4. Details: davisartgallery.com/Upcoming-Show.aspx

The Amherst Public Art Commission is seeking western Massachusetts artists for its second Amherst Biennial in October and November 2012. Deadline: May 1. Details: amherstma.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=824

They say that during the worst of the 1633 plague the residents of Oberammergau, Germany, pledged to perform a play recounting the last days of Jesus every ten years if God would spare them. So beginning the next year, after the illnesses had subsided, they began presenting their epic passion play. And they still continue it. Nowadays performances last five hours, with as many as a thousand performers on stage at once. About half the 5,000 villagers take part.

In 1980, Horace Hylan attended the Oberammergau passion play (see video below) and it knocked his socks off. When he returned to his home church of First Parish Congregational Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts, “He said we should do something like that,” Pamela Weisenbach Abkarian says.

Hylan organized the Wakefield church’s community productions each year for about a decade before handing over the writing and directing to Abkarian. Some years the cast has featured as many as 40 performers and sets that filled the front of the church. This year’s version, which will be performed at the church for free on Thursday and Friday night, is more spare, featuring a cast of 16 adults and children on the candlelit altar.

Abkarian’s script, which is accompanied with live piano by Don Hodgkins, is set on the evening of Holy Saturday, after Jesus’s crucifixion on Good Friday, and before his resurrection the next day, Easter Sunday. It is about being in this in between moment, this moment filled with doubts, after Jesus’s death, but before his miraculous return. His grief-stricken mother Mary (performed by Jo Lynn Foster, pictured above) says, “The God I know wouldn’t let it end like this.”

The future of First Parish’s passion play itself is in doubt because Abkarian is moving to Rhode Island. “Unless somebody wants to take it over, this will be the last year,” she says. “They might do something else. Somebody else might pick up the torch and start a new tradition.”

First Parish Congregational Church in Wakefield presents its annual “Passion for the Christ” Easter pageant at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, April 5 and 6, 2012, at 1 Church St., Wakefield, Massachusetts. Admission is free.

Photos of last night’s dress rehearsal by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.

Caiaphas (Peter Rearick) calls Jesus a “radical” and “impostor.”

“I was beyond saving. … Too many parties, too many lovers,” says the adulteress (Chandra Laboy) as Pilate (Andy Black) watches.

Mother Mary (Jo Lynn Foster) and Pilate (Andy Black).

“I’ve never felt so rotten in my life,” says Peter (Ish Laboy).

“I’ve questioned guilty men before,” says Pilate (Andy Black). “And even with his passive defenses, I knew he wasn’t guilty.” (Above, from left, Dom Mercurio plays Matthew and Jim Fosnock plays Andrew.)

Judas (Mark Hatheway).

The whole cast with director Pamela Weisenbach Abkarian in front, second from left, at last night’s dress rehearsal.

Figment Boston 2012 is seeking submissions for its June 2 and 3 festival of performances and installations on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. We heard about “its mission to offer free, inclusive and participatory art to entire communities, removing the barriers of museum and gallery walls and entrance fees and blurring the lines between those who create and those who enjoy art,” and we think we have the perfect proposal:

A tent city (see planning renderings here) on the Greenway featuring live music, free food, American flags, and lots of signs about American economic inequality. Visitors would be invited to take part in interactive teach-ins, sign making, and standing with performers along the street holding signs describing how the American banking system nearly destroyed our economy, throwing thousands out of work. Project may result in some minor wear and tear on the grass, say $60,000 worth of repairs. Also perhaps $600,000 for monitoring by police officers working overtime.

The deadline for applications is April 7. Figment’s proposal criteria explains that “All projects will be reviewed by Figment Boston and Greenway officials to make sure they meet context and impact guidelines.” Uh, oh.

Monday, April 2, 9 a.m.
The John Nicholas Brown Center presents “Collaborative Communities: Why We Need Them and How They Are Created” with Christina Bevilacqua of the Providence Athenaeum and Amy Greer of the Barrington Public Library at Nightingale Brown House, 357 Benefit St., Providence. $15, includes breakfast. Register by March 27.

Monday, April 2, 7 p.m.
Gloria Sutton of Northeastern University in Boston speaks about “Playback: Broadcast Experiments 1970 and Now” with MIT List curator João Ribas at MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of MIt’s “Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form” lecture series.

Tuesday, April 3, 2 p.m.
Fazal Sheikh speaks at MassArt, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston.

Tuesday, April 3, 5:30 p.m.
Jan Edler and Tim Edler of realites:united discuss their kinetic light installation “2 x 5” in Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, 154 Angell St., Providence.

Tuesday, April 3, 6 p.m.
Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, speaks about “Studios of their Own: Boston Women Artists and the Fenway Studios” as part of the Friends of Fenway Studios Series Talks at the Lenox Hotel, Boylston at Exeter streets, Boston. $50.

Tuesday, April 3, 7 p.m.
Walead Beshty speaks at RISD’s Chace Center Metcalf Auditorium, 20 North Main Street, Providence.

Wednesday, April 4, 3 p.m.
Theatrical production designer Wendall K. Harington talks about “Video for Performance, Insight, Image, Imagination” at Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, 154 Angell St., Providence.

Wednesday, April 4, 5 p.m.
Reception and talk with Gillian Christy at UMass Lowell University Gallery, 71 Wilder St., Lowell, Massachusetts.

Wednesday, April 4, 7 p.m.
Leela Corman reads from her graphic novel “Unterzakhn” at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, Massachusetts. Free.

Wednesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.
Author and illustrator David Macaulay speaks at Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, 154 Angell St., Providence. Reserve free tickets via http://macaulay.eventbrite.com.

Thursday, April 5, 11:30 a.m.
Painter Matte Stephens speaks at Montserrat College of Art, 23 Essex St., Beverly, Massachusetts. Free.

Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m.
Lucas Foglia will talk and Forrest Gander will read in connection with Foglia’s photographs at Brown University’s List Art Center Auditorium, 64 College St., Providence. Free.

Thursday, April 5, 6 p.m.
Sue Johnson speaks at Harvard’s Carpenter Center, Room B-04, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Thursday, April 5, 7 to 9 p.m.
Painter Matte Stephens, teacher Fred Lynch and painter Mike Vance speak about “The Fine Art of Illustration” at speaks at Montserrat College of Art, 23 Essex St., Beverly, Massachusetts. Free.

Friday, April 6, 9:30 a.m.
Sylvère Lotringer presents a bus tour of Boston community gardens followed by a talk on the “Topology of Autonomy” at MIT, 20 Ames St., Cambridge, Massachusetts. Free, but RSVP: sberzof@mit.edu

Saturday, April 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Boston conceptual artist Jessica Gath presents “For You, [W]Rapper” at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Gath accepts, wraps and returns objects to visitors. “DeCordova invites you to bring a gift for a friend or a loved one so you may participate in Gath’s performance.”

Saturday, April 7, 2 p.m.
Artists Joe Wardwell and Ven Voisey speak about their musical influences at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Monday, April 9, 7 p.m.
MIT professor Muntadas speaks about “Projects and Protocols: Conventions on Art and Technology” at MIT’s Art, Culture and Technology Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of MIt’s “Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form” lecture series.

Tuesday, April 10, 6 p.m.
Photographer Todd Hido speaks at Harvard’s Arthur Sackler Museum lecture hall, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Free.

Tuesday, April 10, 6:30 p.m.
Andi Sutton presents a workshop, “Conversation in Memorial” on “how to make seed bearing lawn ornament sculptures,” as part of “The Garden Lab” project at MassArt’s Brant Gallery, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

CALLS FOR ART:
Davis Art Gallery in Worcester, Massachusetts, seeks artists for its upcoming show “The Art of Fiber: Contemporary Fiber art from Traditional Techniques.” Deadline: May 4. Details: davisartgallery.com/Upcoming-Show.aspx

The Amherst Public Art Commission is seeking western Massachusetts artists for its second Amherst Biennial in October and November 2012. Deadline: May 1. Details: amherstma.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=824

Caldecott Honor winning author and artist Mo Willems of Northampton, Massachusetts, isn’t necessarily a great drawer. What makes him one of the great children’s book creators today is his feel for character. Which is what you might expect from the Emmy winning former writer for “Sesame Street.”

“I don’t like the look of that title,” the Pigeon squawks at the start of Willems’s new picture book, “The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?” (Hyperion Books for Children). It’s a brief, witty tale about the cute little Duckling who gets a cookie because he politely asks for it and the jealous Pigeon, who never gets what he wants (see “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!” “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!”). It’s all about the relationship between the two birds. Imagine them as siblings, or the Pigeon as a sort of young, sputtering Daffy Duck and the Duckling as a cool, suave Bugs Bunny type. “It’s NOT fair,” the Pigeon grumps. “Ducklings get everything!”

Ultimately it’s a witty primer on manners and sharing—the Duckling gives the Pigeon his cookie, and then politely asks for another. The punchline is that the cunning Duckling gave up the first cookie not simply out of generosity, but because he didn’t like the flavor.

Willems presents “The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?” at Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, Massachusetts, at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 1, 2012, as a program of Brookline Booksmith. Free, but tickets required.

Previously:
Mo Willems sculpture for Carle Museum.
Mo Willems’s pigeon is pissed.

Cesareo R. Pelaez, popularly known as “Marco the Magi,” one of the stars and founding producer of long-running “Le Grand David and his own Spectacular Magic Company” in Beverly, Massachusetts, died March 24 at age 79. Fellow magicians pointed out that he passed on Houdini’s birthday.

There have been rumors for months that “Le Grand David” show was winding down, and in February the theater ceased productions without any public announcement. An inside source told us then that the show was done, but The Salem News subsequently reported that organizers hoped to relaunch the show in April. The theater’s website lists shows for April and May.

Pelaez’s role in the performances had been significantly curtailed since he had a stroke in 2005. “It takes a genius to put on a show like that,” said Raymond Goulet, who runs a magic museum and art studio in Watertown, told the Salem News this week. “Very few people can do everything, but Cesareo could. I considered him a miracle man. There hasn’t been a show in the history of magic that ran so long and had such a successful run.”

More: Information from the funeral home. A remembrance. An obituary.

One of the newer traditions of the St. Peter’s Fiesta, the Catholic fishing festival in Gloucester, Massachusetts, each June, is the “Crazy Hat Ladies.” It began 18 years ago, Massachusetts state folklorist Maggie Holtzberg reports on her blog “Keepers of Tradition,” when sisters Robyn and Amy Clayton began constructing elaborate hats honoring the festival—Amy’s hats always depict the greasy pole, Robyn’s always feature the altar. You can’t miss them at the Fiesta.

“The old Italian women absolutely love these hats,” Robyn tells Holtzberg. “The Fiesta committee [which is made up of mostly men], they recognize us as the crazy fiesta hat girls. Here we come. By no means are we mocking the Fiesta; we love this tradition.”

Read Holtberg’s whole post here. She adds that she’s lined up the sisters to appear at the Lowell Folk Festival this July, “where they will join a variety of other hat and shoe makers in the folk craft area. They plan on bringing plenty of hats, some handouts, pictures of Fiesta over the years, and a huge cut-out of St. Peter for photo-taking opportunities. Their enthusiasm for hat making will be matched by their pride in representing Gloucester and St. Peter’s Fiesta. We’re honored to have them.”

Pictured above: The Clayton sisters at the 2011 St. Peter’s Fiesta, as photographed by The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.

MIT researchers have developed a camera that can see around corners, according to a paper published last week in the journal “Nature Communications.” Apparently it works something like active sonar, bouncing lasers off a wall opposite the doorway and measuring how quickly they bounce back. MIT reports: “The research could ultimately lead to imaging systems that allow emergency responders to evaluate dangerous environments or vehicle navigation systems that can negotiate blind turns, among other applications.” As with so many things at MIT, it’s probably best to read “other applications” as “war machines.”