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Wayne Boyer
alum (BS 1969; MS 1970) |
Educator and filmmaker Wayne Boyer is Professor Emeritus of film and animation at the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He received his BS degree in photography from ID in 1969, although the majority of his coursework was completed in 1955-59 under the school's influential director, Jay Doblin. He received his MS in photography from ID in 1970. In October 2009, on the occasion of the Class of 1959's 50th reunion, Mr. Boyer shared a few reflections on his experience with the school over the years.
There were three key “highlights” to my ID experience: 1.) I was warned to stay away from the Institute of Design. 2.) I found myself going to the ID anyway to study in a field that was an important part of the historical pedagogy of the Bauhaus and ID (and a major interest of mine) – only to find that it was no longer a part of the program. 3.) My decision to attend the ID was one of the best decisions of my life – it has made all the difference.
Two of our classmates who spoke at the reunion indicated that before they became ID students, their fathers had had some prior connection with the school. My father did also. He actually knew [ID’s founder] Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, not as an educator or artist, but as a client of his electrical contracting firm. In 1946 Boyer Electric Company was contracted to install lights and power in the school shops and classrooms at the then new ID location on Dearborn Street. He worked at Moholy’s residence as well. My dad liked Moholy – apparently they had interesting conversations about industry and the trades. However, I think Dad was somewhat mystified about what was going on at the school. Years later, when I was thinking about education beyond high school, he told me about meeting this Hungarian who ran a school of design – and how all kinds of strange structures were hanging from the ceiling at the school – how there were odd images on the walls and shops with lots of power tools that didn’t seem to be used for any “practical” purpose, etc. Not having an art background, he clearly thought what he had seen was pretty far out. He told me “You can go to any school you want when you graduate from high school – but don’t go to the Institute of Design!” After that, I became quite curious about this “forbidden” school.
I was interested in film and especially animation when I was a junior at Lane Tech High School in Chicago. It was there that I met Larry Janiak, whom you may remember at ID. His interest coincided with mine and we made several animated films together in place of regular art projects. Our teachers in high school encouraged us to read Moholy’s book “Vision in Motion”. This revealed the long history of film being included as a part of the ID educational philosophy, so both Larry and I were convinced that the ID was for us. At that time virtually no other art school offered filmmaking, so ID seemed like a good bet.
The foundation program at the ID was an enlightening experience for both of us, but we were disappointed to find that the film equipment was in storage, out of date, and in poor condition. Although on my own, I did make a film on Frank Lloyd Wright as an Art History project - fimmaking at ID was dead. Larry and I explored other educational options. This included a short stint at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (for drawing courses). We returned to the ID, but acquired needed fimmaking experience elsewhere by working part time at animation studios in Chicago. This provided us with an excellent technical grounding in animation and a revealing insight into the realities of commercial filmmaking. I think we were both much too idealistic to become interested in making TV commercials. At the ID we found higher ground for visual exploration. Ultimately, we hoped to pull the two areas together – that is, to be able to work with graphic filmmaking at a satisfying level of meaning and quality with our ID experience an integrated part.
Our opportunity to move in this direction came in 1958. Mort Goldsholl of Goldsholl Design Associates invited both Larry and I to help him set up a filmmaking facility and to expand his design work into motion graphics. He was keenly aware of the quality of the visual education at ID where his wife Millie had attended in the past. In fact, her work was documented in Moholy’s book “Vision in Motion”. Larry and I left the ID to join Goldsholl Design Associates. We were there for 5+ years.
Another important influence came in the form of Jim Logan who had been an ID student in 1946. He was Mort Goldsholl’s “industrial design department”. Jim also had an engineering background and was highly creative – he helped me hone my mechanical skills. A lathe and milling machine (strange as it may seem) became some of the most important tools that I have used for film production.
In the mid 60’s, media awareness had finally blossomed in the academic world and universities across the country were recruiting faculty to start film programs. Few candidates were available who had academic credentials in film, so most of the new people were drawn from industry. The School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) wanted to move into the media arts as well. The school’s faculty at that time included John Wally (Department Chairman), Robert Nickel (foundation), Martin Hurtig (painting), Don Dimmitt (industrial design), Tad Takano (typography) and others – all had been early students at the ID. In 1965 they invited me to join them. There was one basic photography course on the books and a new darkroom. Tad Takano had occasionally taught basic photography to Design students. My charge was to teach photography full time and to design and implement a new program in photography, film and animation.
I began writing the courses for the new photography program. Later, I recommended that Robert Steigler (ID’61) be invited to join the faculty. He and I completed the photography courses and we taught them all. Joe Jachna was then invited to join our faculty at a point where the photo program was well under way.
I was now able to concentrate on building our film/animation program. (Ultimately, the photo/film/animation program would become a major area of study at the School of Art & Design.) While continuing to teach at UIC, I decided to go back to the ID part time to finish my undergraduate degree and pursue a Masters. By then the ID had resurrected its tradition of filmmaking and had acquired an active cadre of graduate student filmmakers. The ID had arranged for its students to use the film production facilities of a local industrial filmmaker. Arthur Siegel taught classes in film history. For the first time, I found myself actually working with film at ID, and with classmates who were doing the same.
About this time Larry Janiak joined the faculty at the Institute of Design. For several years he guided a lively and successful design/animation program until one of those faculty leadership upheavals that periodically occur at the ID – occurred. The school took a seismic shift in another direction in the mid 70’s.
Former ID instructors Richard Koppe and Eugene Dana came to UIC. It was a special privilege to have Eugene Dana as a colleague since he was my first truly influential teacher at the ID. Eugene was a dedicated, articulate and brilliant teacher, as most of you may remember. He also was a painter and had made some films earlier in his professional life. Virginia Kemper Jachna would later join our Design faculty. Hans Schaal, an ID film/photography graduate, also came to our film program. After 34 years of teaching I am now Professor Emeritus in the UIC School of Art & Design.
Throughout my teaching career I maintained a film production studio in Evanston. My filmography includes experimental art films and documentaries as well as a wide variety of productions for institutions and organizations ranging from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The originality and importance of the “on again/off again” film activity at the ID has not gone unnoticed. A few weeks before the 50th reunion of our class, The Art Institute of Chicago sponsored a program of ID films at the Gene Siskel Film Center called VISION IN MOTION: FILMMAKING AT THE INSTITUTE OF DESIGN, 1944-70. The announcement for the program identifies the Institute of Design as “…one of the first American schools to develop an art-film program.” These showings included films made by various past ID students including works by both Larry Janiak and myself. I participated in a “round table” there that discussed filmmaking at ID along with Hattula Moholy-Nagy (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s daughter) and Elizabeth Siegel, Curator of Photography, Art Institute of Chicago. (Larry Janiak was also invited to be on the panel, but could not attend.)
Oh yes - I am happy to report that my father, long ago, reconsidered his misgivings about the Institute of Design and no family schism occurred.
From my vantage point now, as an experienced educator and filmmaker, if I were to identify the one factor that gave the most value to my ID experience and influenced me in the long term, I would say it was my proximity to both artists and designers as teachers during my early ID years. These artists & designers taught in a non-emulative way – encouraging open minded experimentation. This is the philosophy that was so important for the Bauhaus and was brought to America by Moholy-Nagy. In 1937 Moholy wrote “We know that art itself cannot be taught, only the way to it.” Students from ID who became teachers are well equipped to carry this effort forward.