From his workshop in the Clifford Gallery in Little Hall, Adam Samuel Goldman ’94, this year’s Christian A. Johnson Artist-in-Residence, is launching a campaign of artistic chaos across the Colgate University campus.
Backed by six Colgate student interns, a medley of visiting artists, and his own wide-ranging research and experience as a writer, musician, filmmaker, and proud member of Gen X, Goldman is orchestrating a series of cross-disciplinary events, follies, and fopperies for the Colgate community.
“In a lull between war and plague in 17th-century Europe, the English unleashed a flood of young aristocrats on Italy. They called this the Grand Tour, which inadvertently gave rise to luxury tourism, a lust for ruins, and the birth of both the sublime and the souvenir,” said Goldman at his opening lecture in September. “Crossing the Alps on their way to Italy exposed them to nature at a scale that filled them with abject terror . . . the kind that fills you with horror and awe, but is also exciting.” According to Goldman, one of them described this experience as “an agreeable kind of horror.” But for short, they called it the sublime.
With the goal of exploring these concepts through interdisciplinary collaborations, Goldman and his student interns have transformed the Clifford Gallery into a bustling workshop, open to the public. There, they are playfully producing video games, writing film scripts, creating false artifacts, and exploring the intersections of authenticity, art, 1990s angst, and the sublime.
Events and performances are ongoing throughout the semester. Last weekend featured Carrie Clifford ’93 and the student improv group Charred Goosebeak performing a short comedy sketch reenacting an 18th-century grand tourist negotiating safe passage across the Alps (aka Peter’s Glen), complete with a mid-crossing reckoning with the sublime.
Alyssa Bleyl ’27, one of Goldman’s interns, says she worked on a project exploring the relationship between authenticity and performance. “I performed an improvised figure skating routine live, which was an incredible experience.” Bleyl is also building a video game based on the Italian architect and archaeologist Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons, turning two-dimensional prints into a 3D space where a player can walk through, explore, and get lost.
In addition to the video game, upcoming attractions include a dance performance in Bernstein Hall inspired by a forgotten moment in genderqueer history (in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance Hank Bamberger); a sham archaeological dig unearthing Colgate artifacts on homecoming weekend; a Gen-X lo-fi planetarium laser rock show; and a short disaster-genre film workshopped and written by students in collaboration with Goldman — which may or may not involve a fictional flooding of the Colgate campus.
An Agreeable Kind of Horror spans disciplines and departments, including collaborations with faculty and staff members from the departments of art, theater, and computer science; University Libraries; and Ho Tung Visualization Lab. Associate Professor of Art Margaretha Haughwout introduced Goldman at his opening lecture in September, saying, “Adam is a great collaborator and is always popping off with ideas. When I met him, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. He’d spent a lot of time in cafes having great conversations.”
My experience in the art department led me to the career I have today. I want to give that to the current Colgate student generation and help set the stage for them to follow the creative impulse and share in the chaotic magic of making a mess on the way to making something.
Adam Samuel Goldman ’94
Among others, the visiting artists, writers, and creatives involved with the project include experimental film director Courtney Stephens; filmmaker, producer, and writer Stephen Winter, who led a screenwriting workshop with Colgate students; Jenny Hollowell, founder and creative director of Witness Me, a communications and branding agency, who worked with students to develop branding for the project; actress, comedian, and writer Carrie Clifford ’93; and Jon Dolan ’96, editor, Rolling Stone magazine.
Upcoming events are featured on the Colgate events calendar and the Clifford Gallery website. All events are open to the public unless otherwise noted.
Artist bio
Adam Samuel Goldman ’94 is an artist, filmmaker, and television writer with a background in fizzy art-pop. For three decades, he has blurred lines between creator and audience — in museums, theaters, parks, and sweaty clubs across the globe — creating conditions for collaboration to thrive and surprise. He has presented work at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Machine Project, the Walker Art Center, Colgate University, DiverseWorks, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. His work in nonfiction film has screened at MoMA, the Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, LA Filmforum, and Other Cinema in San Francisco.
As leader of the art-pop band Fol Chen (2007–2015), Goldman wrote and produced three acclaimed albums on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label, remixed David Bowie, and — with the design collective Monome — created a limited-edition musical instrument called the Tetrafol. His two-album pop opera, The New December, earned praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, NPR, and art-pop legend David Byrne. Goldman also produced Andrew Bird’s Echolocations: River (2017) and art-directed visuals for the corresponding tour. Transitioning into television composing, he won an ASCAP Screen Award for his score for CBS’s The Code. Currently he is a television writer, most recently on the CBS medical drama Watson.
Goldman holds a BA from Colgate University and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles, Calif.