Revolt at Cornish

A breakaway group of seven Cornish design students calling themselves the "Salon des Refuse" [sic] pulled their work from an exhibition of graduating students last week. In Arts News found a viper's nest of bad feelings and recriminations between the students and Design Department Chair Amir Ameri. Through Tim King, de facto spokesman for the students, we learned that the tipping point was over the show's venue and build-out, for which students are traditionally responsible. The class of 32 students jumped into action months in advance, only to be told at the last minute that Cornish was leasing a building with an exhibition space that needed a lot of work. The budget for improvement and lighting was minimal, and according to King, turned out to be limited not due to real constraints but as a test--a sort of "this is a real-life design situation, so deal with it" scenario.

Ameri, when contacted, seemed quite genial and almost amused by the situation. "Part of the point of the show is publicity for students. These students chose a different kind of publicity, and it worked." The Salon Seven finally arranged their own two-day show--a classy affair, to their everlasting credit--in a corner of Consolidated Works. In Arts News suspects that these students will do very well in the real world, no matter how brutal it is. EMILY HALL


Reality Shows: Public Service...

In an attempt to refresh a public-service announcement subgenre better known for unintentional hilarity than effectiveness (D.A.R.E. leaps to mind), a new anti-teen-smoking campaign based in Seattle is incorporating a bit of reality. Reality TV, anyway. Unfiltered is a weekly Internet serial that follows a group of five teenage smokers who spend six episodes (over three days) in a hotel room together, suffering through life without nicotine while lucky viewers get to watch them jones. To twist the knife further, the teens are forced to go through things like line drills with the Seattle Storm and visits to the lung lab at UW Medical School. The visual and narrative style of Unfiltered is derived directly from MTV's The Real World, going so far as to employ much of the same crew and to play up the "drama" of petty interpersonal problems (caused, in this case, by nicotine withdrawal, not Lyme disease).

What is most surprising about the show--which for all its shaky cameras, false drama, and modern-rock soundtrack threatens to be a somewhat effective message to the youngsters--is its source. It's brought to you by the Washington State Department of Health. New episodes premiere each Tuesday at www.outrageavenue.com/unfiltered/ep1_lo.html. SEAN NELSON


...Or Exploitation?

While we here in America accept the benign ubiquity of reality shows--even in their role as "public service"--the Associated Press reports that, in France, scores of people were tear-gassed last Saturday by police as they protested the hit reality show Loft Story, which, like Survivor, offers a monetary prize to the last person not voted off. The protesters, who condemned the show's "humiliating" voyeuristic and competitive nature, were attempting to "liberate" the loft's 10 inhabitants, but were unsuccessful. TRACI VOGEL


Freddie Makes Good

Regular readers of this space will remember that it used to exist as Culture Wars, the arts column written by The Stranger's illustrious Eric Fredericksen. So illustrious was Fredericksen, in fact, that he was wooed away by Columbia University, where he resided as a mid-career fellow at the National Arts Journalism Program. Now, Fredericksen's fellowship is done, and we are proud to relate that our former colleague has been hired as associate editor at the New York-based magazine Architecture. He will be editing the culture section, which he describes as "the essays-and-oddities section of the book." TRACI VOGEL

artsnews@thestranger.com