Experimental Art at Prentis Hall

One memory sticks out beyond others in my Columbia experience: a series of crazed, semi-unofficial parties in Prentis Hall on 125th St. Home to Columbia’s world-class computer music center as well as the industrial sculpture studios, these parties were filled with bizarre installations. Each artist would take a different room, fill it with goo, create a maze or install actors. An experimental music troupe even performed in the freight elevator! The partial autonomy of certain marginal spaces in university environments is a precious resource. After all, we don’t want everything too sanitized!