EXHIBIT SHOWS VISIONARY UH ARCHITECT ‘BEYOND
THE ANT FARM’
Michels’ Life and Career Display the Designer and Futurist
HOUSTON, Jan. 3, 2005—A visionary. An original. But, most
of all, a gifted architect and designer. The life and career of
Doug Michels will be on display during “Doug Michels: Beyond
The Ant Farm,” Jan. 14 – March 6 at the University of
Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. The exhibit tells
the story of Michels’ unconventional life and career through
photographs, sketches and drawings. “Doug Michels: Beyond
The Ant Farm” will be the first time many of the items have
been shown in public.
Michels, a former UH adjunct professor known for his non-traditional
designs, is best remembered for his work with Ant Farm, an art collective
he co-founded that created such works as the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo,
Texas, and Media Burn in San Francisco. But the scope of his life’s
work includes space-age designs and futuristic environments.
“Doug was hard to categorize,” said Stephen James,
gallery curator for the College of Architecture. “He was trained
as an architect, but worked in all forms of visual media. He made
his mark with Ant Farm, but that is only part of the story.”
One project on exhibit is the Allen Teleport. The futuristic media
room was originally designed and constructed for the Houston home
of E. Rudge and Nancy Allen in 1979. The design of the blue and
silver space-age lounge pre-dates the World Wide Web by 10 years,
but featured the first Apple personal computer to be purchased in
Houston. Its forward thinking design also included a device to project
computer images onto a large screen. After the death of Rudge Allen,
the room was relocated in 1998 to the UH College of Architecture
and renamed the E. Rudge Allen Media Center. It currently serves
as a media center and conference room for the students and faculty.
The room will be opened for limited showings.
Michels’ passion for dolphins is also illustrated in his
designs and commentaries on Bluestar, a space station for humans
and dolphins, and the Dolphin Embassy, an Australian research project
to communicate with dolphins.
“Ant Farm was based in San Francisco, but the group had
a long association with Houston,” said James. “Michels
in particular spent a considerable amount of time here, serving
on the faculty of the UH College of Architecture in the 1960s and
again in the 1990s. The exhibition is a chance for the college to
honor his memory and share his insightful, but irreverent approach
to design.”
Michels died in the summer of 2003 in a rock-climbing accident
in Australia. He had been serving as a consultant for an educational
film about whales and fell as he climbed to an observation point.
The College of Architecture acquired the items in the exhibit’s
collection from Michels’ family after his death.
“Doug Michels: Beyond The Ant Farm” is presented in
conjunction with “Ant Farm: 1968 – 1978,” an exhibition
celebrating a decade of visionary architecture and design by one
of the most innovative artists’ collaboratives to emerge in
the United States, on view at Blaffer Gallery, The Art Museum of
the University of Houston, from Jan. 15 – March 5.
For more information on the UH Gerald D. Hines College
of Architecture, please visit www.arch.uh.edu
For more information on the Blaffer Gallery, The Art Museum
of the University of Houston, please visit www.blaffergallery.org
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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