Provided

Artist/scientist Joe Davis visits Oct. 7 for a lecture and then a Q-and-A with the film "Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis."

10 minutes’ worth

Student playwrights, directors and actors will stage six original theater works in the Ten Minute Playfest, Oct. 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $5, available at the box office, online at schwartztickets.com or by calling 607-254-2787.

The event is presented by the Department of Performing and Media Arts in collaboration with Red Shadow Productions, a new student-run theater company at Cornell giving students experience in all aspects of theater.

Life lessons

C. Robert Logue ’90 will sign copies of his book “From the Top of the Mountain,” Oct. 4, 4-5 p.m. at the Cornell Store.

Logue learned the value of sharing fundamental life lessons while working for “The One Minute Manager” author Ken Blanchard ’61, Ph.D. ’67. Logue’s book, illustrated by his brother, Michael Logue, is a fable addressing how to successfully connect in today’s world.

A three-year letterman on the Big Red football team, Logue will be honored along with his teammates during the Cornell-Colgate game Oct. 5 at Schoellkopf Field, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their 1988 Ivy League championship title.

Folk concert

The Cornell Folk Song Society presents Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. in 165 McGraw Hall.

Rogers and Schmidt perform traditional and original folk, jazz and blues songs on guitar, banjo and dulcimer. They share a passion for social justice, education and the environment in their music; Rogers also is an award-winning children’s music composer. This is their first Ithaca appearance as a duo.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door; $10/$12 for Cornell students, free for children age 12 and under; $3 rebate for society members, senior citizens and teens. Advance tickets are available at Ithaca Guitar Works, Autumn Leaves Books, GreenStar and www.cornellfolksong.org/. Information: 607-351-1845 or online. 

Artist Joe Davis visits

Artist, scientist and philosopher Joe Davis will give a talk Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in 120 Physical Sciences, followed by an 8 p.m. screening of the documentary film “Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis” in Willard Straight Theatre. A Q-and-A with Davis will follow the screening; both events are free and open to the public.

Davis is a research affiliate in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School. Using such media as centrifuges, prosthetics, radios, magnetic fields and genetic material, Davis’ research and art encompass work in the fields of molecular biology, bioinformatics, bioart, “space art” and sculpture. He has taught in MIT’s graduate architecture program and at the Rhode Island School of Design.

His visit is co-sponsored by the Department of Physics and is part of the first Cornell Council for the Arts Biennial, “Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology,” April 7 to May 2, 2014.

Imperial orchestra

The Cornell Concert Series presents The Mariinsky Orchestra, with guest conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

Originally named the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera Orchestra, the group is led by music director Valery Gergiev. Their Cornell performance is an all-Russian program, featuring Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” Rachmaninoff’s “Isle of the Dead” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.

Tickets are $22 for students, $28-$40 for the general public; available at http://www.baileytickets.com. Information: 607-255- 5144 or http://concertseries.cornell.edu

Judith Butler lecture

Judith Butler, a senior scholar in residence at the Society for the Humanities, will give a lecture, “Plural Action,” Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the A.D. White House.

Butler has contributed to the fields of feminist philosophy, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics. She is the Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley; the Hannah Arendt Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, and a visiting professor in the humanities at Columbia University. 

Art films, home movies

Renowned filmmaker Bill Morrison pairs archival silent film footage with musical soundtracks in two works showing Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. in Sage Chapel. Admission is $5 at the door. Presented by Cornell Cinema and the Cornell Council for the Arts.

The 25-minute “Just Ancient Loops” features high-resolution scans of nitrate footage, new computer-generated renderings of space depicting a unique view of the heavens and a soundtrack by Michael Harrison performed by cellist Maya Beiser. Morrison’s feature-length masterpiece “Decasia” uses decaying found footage from the early days of cinema to investigate mortality and our attachment to historical material, even as it falls apart. An evocative score by Michael Gordon is performed by the 55-piece Basel Sinfonietta.

Also, Cornell Cinema hosts its first annual Home Movie Night, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Submissions are welcome (G or PG content only) in three- to five-minute segments on Super 8, 8mm, 16mm or VHS. VHS tapes should be cued to the desired segment or labeled with a time code indicating start times. Work (up to two segments per person) can be delivered to Willard Straight Theatre, Oct. 4 from 6 to 7 p.m.

Information: http://cinema.cornell.edu