Gloria Unti, Life and Work by Ann Wettrich, Wendy Bardsley (review)

Reviews 65 other site on the other side of the world or another sector of the CDROM . Immersion here is sequential, following the predetermined path around the virtual gallery’s hidden walls, which are formed invisibly into 10 rooms, or Zones—e.g. Eden Free Trade Zone, Republic of Sadness, The Military Entertainment Complex—that group each aphorism into an association with the reality of contemporary real-politik. And the way out of each room? Back to where you started. Is the metaphor complete? Well, no; remember we’re dealing with a figure of speech here that places its meaning clearly at your door. Stop? Well, not yet . . . Reproduced by kind permission of the publishers of Photofile 52 (November 1997). Photofile has been published since 1983 by the Australian Centre for Photography Ltd (ACP), 257 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW 2021, Australia . Subscriptions and Advertising: Tel: +612 9332 1455 Fax: +612 9331 6887. E-mail: (Australian Centre for Photography). Web: . References and Notes 1. In his book The Skin of Culture, Derrick de Kerckhove (associate of Marshall McLuhan and now director of the Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto) employs aphorisms to different ends. One of De Kerckhove’s concerns is to direct us away from the literate ear and toward the associative nature of the oral ear. Indeed, he uses an aphorism in doing so: “Our neglect of the ear may be one of the prices we have paid for literacy.” Georg Lichtenberg developed the art of the aphorism in the eighteenth century and devised one which shrilly warns: “There are many people who won’t listen until their ears are cut off.” 2. The contemporary clothing advertisement that features the photo-manipulated Yalta conference news photograph achieves what Stalin unsuccessfully attempted to do when he ordered Trotsky touched out of all known group photographs. Of course, the ad also demonstrates that exaggerated lies will succeed where slightly altered truth by concealment will fail. GLORIA UNTI, LIFE AND WORK produced by Ann Wettrich and Wendy Bardsley. CD-ROM. Legacy Oral History Project, 329 Montcalm St., San Francisco, CA 94110, U.S.A., 1998. Reviewed by Kasey Rios Asberry, 955 Delano, San Francisco, CA 94112, U.S.A. E-mail: . Dancer, educator and community arts activist Gloria Unti has worked in San Francisco since the mid-1950s. Through her work in neighborhood centers from the Beat era to the present, she has influenced many artists at the earliest stages of their training . Individuals who built the renowned San Francisco Mime Troupe worked with Unti; Ed Mock was an early student. She is also co-founder of the Performing Arts Workshop now based at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Unti was active in the movement that built the network of neighborhoodbased cultural centers throughout San Francisco, an effort that—in working against the concentration of resources downtown—has supported neighborhood character and prevented the homogenization of the arts so common in other cities. In this environment the concept of multi-culturalism was fostered. Her collaborative style of teaching has provided people who would not have considered themselves artists the tools of expression and selfknowledge to be creative in other aspects of their lives. Her work has profoundly and quietly supported a proactive current in San Francisco civic life. But in this time of reflexively committing every aspect of life to the World Wide Web (we may be tempted to think that something is not a real phenomena unless it is mirrored in a website), the evidence of the work of many artists seems to be disappearing faster than it historically would have. Even B.D.E. (Before the Digital Era), dance in particular has tended to evaporate faster than other expressive forms because the experience of it is so intensely time-based. Artifacts of the other ephemeral art form that Unti has worked in, community organizing, are erased almost without trace by changes in political climate. Current generations of artists and activists may well not know who to thank. The CDROM Gloria Unti, Life and Work tells her still-unfinished story transparently, often in her own voice or in the voices of her colleagues and through a cache...