Beauty Comes From Movement Interview with contemporary filmmaker Daniel Conrad Daniel Conrad, a filmmaker and writer, has Masters degrees in cinema and molecular immunology. He makes dance films and documentaries. His dance films look at the human organism confronting the alienated modern city and the natural wilderness. His documentary films focus on the aesthetic response, one of the most universal human traits. What awakens our sense of beauty? My personal response: Everything that makes life “beautiful” involves movement. The seasons, the tides, growth, development, aging, change. This coming Fall at the Centre, we will screen some of his dance films, followed by a discussion. So come and meet the director and stay tuned for the film screening! ~ Editor-in-Chief  To watch movie trailers: http://www.rhodopsin.ca/films_en.html   Q: When did you first start getting into films? Does your science background help you make films (and how so?)? A: I started life as a wilderness photographer. I wanted to understand life, in the broadest sense. When I had accumulated more questions than answers, I went to graduate school to study molecular immunology. This gave me a sense of the structures of emergent systems. I then went to a second graduate school to study cinema. This was not such a change for me: I had been studying all my life, and these formal periods of specialization allowed me to look more deeply. In film school, I studied Eisenstein, whose first training was in architecture and civil engineering. There is biology in all of my films, sometimes explicitly. Q: To what extent your movie comes from a very personal place? How did you get the idea to write the scipt for “Accdent by Design”? What sparked your creation? A: I wanted to know what makes things beautiful. It’s a question that should be easy...

  About Artist Noriko is Japanese born, and moved to Canada in 1990.  She took up photography in 2009, beginning with an SLR camera.  Noriko has studied under and worked with different photographers including noted local photographer, Yukiko Onley.  She has worked taking photographs for a series of events.  Noriko currently lives in Vancouver with her husband and daughter. My Photography  I have used digital cameras in my photography.  Modern digital cameras are very easy to use for taking technically good photographs.  However, as my interest and understanding of photography has grown, I have begun to appreciate how photographs can capture the feelings and thoughts of a photo’s subjects.  I find that a camera can create images that are very interesting, and the viewer can have a deeper understanding of the subject.   Daily life, Chinatown Vancouver, 2011* *This photograph appeared on the National Geographic website as an editors choice as one of the top photographs submitted to them that day.     Rememberance day, vancouver, 2011     Vancouver fashion week, 2011     From street, Harajyuku, Tokyo, 2011       Untitled, Vancouver, 2011     Untitled, 2011     Joy, Vancouver, 2011   Flow, Wakayama, 2011   In the dust, Wakayama, Japan, 2011   Harvest time, Wakayama, 2011   Musician, Vancouver, 2011   Noh performance, Vancouver, 2012   Noh mask, 2012   Untitled, Vancouver, 2011 Untitled, Vancouver, 2011   Hot afternoon, Maui,...

“An action-packed year has taken Creativity and Innovation Expert, LINDA NAIMAN aroud the globe consulting key business leaders. Using art-based learning and coaching, her insights and methodologies are drawn from the multi-disciplinary perspectives of business management, art, design, and social science research. Here, an acoount of her last 20+ years. When people do something for a long time, there’s reason.”  ~ Editor-in-Chief~ Linda Naiman is a long-time resident in the Kerrisdale community and founder of CreativityatWork.com and co-author of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work. She has been featured in theGlobe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and Canadian Business Magazine. To find out more about coaching for creativity and innovation: visit Creativity at...

‘Bridging the Gaps’ An Interview with Ph.D student Hana Al-Bannay By Trina Moran When it comes to improving the lives of fellow community members, the story of Hana Al-Bannay outshines the rest. Hailing from Qatif, Saudi Arabia, Hana is pursuing her Ph.D in rehabilitation sciences at the University of British Columbia. Her dissertation focuses on improving the health of Saudi Arabian Muslim women through education related to lifestyle conditions with special reference to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Hana began her academic career at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, and finished her first degree with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English Language. Shortly after finishing her English degree, Hana worked at a military based hospital as an interpreter. It is here that Hana became interested in the medical field. In addition, working with a large number of international employees inspired her to study abroad, leading her to Canada. In 2003 Hana completed a BA in Sociology at the University of Victoria and went on to pursue a master’s thesis at Royal Rhodes University focusing on the B.C. Arab community experiences with the Canadian health system. Aiming to finish her doctoral thesis by 2013, Hana hopes that the impact of her research at UBC will aid in designing health education programs suitable for the lifestyle of Muslim women in Saudi Arabia, empowering Saudi and Muslim women to pursue healthy living, and decreasing the prevalence of lifestyle conditions including type 2 diabetes mellitus in Saudi Arabia. A recent medical study notes that since the late 1980s there has been an increasing trend among adult Saudis of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, the rate being one in five. Other studies have concluded that a rise in obesity, hypertension, and coronary artery disease are the most...