Feature, Inc. Minnesota artist David Robbins brings his "Ice Cream Social," which has played from Des Moines to Paris, to the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University. Click photo for larger image.

The Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University serves up a fine feast this term: an array of appetizers by some of the most prominent names in new media, a main course by Israeli artist Michal Rovner, and, for dessert, an Ice Cream Social.

Today's a good day to visit because the gallery will host a reception for the Japanese art collective Maywa Denki following its 3 p.m. Wats:ON? performance in McConomy Auditorium, University Center, both free and open to the public.

Like an early valentine, David Robbins' "Ice Cream Social" sweetens the third floor with its strawberry, chocolate and vanilla color scheme.

Photographs of past socials -- from Des Moines to Paris -- are attached by magnets to four white mid-century-era refrigerators, echoing the modern family bulletin board. The pink, brown and white palette continues in stacks of bowls atop them -- which were commissioned by the artist and made by CMU students -- and on the walls in painted bunting and a cryptic poem that Robbins recites in one of two short films showing.

The other film is the seed from which all else sprouted. "The Ice Cream Social," patterned on an old-time variety show, was entered in a Sundance Channel TV Lab competition. It was one of four selected for further consideration from nearly 4,000 submissions; it may even evolve into a feature-length film, soon to play near you.

The film is nostalgic and wholesome, with a twist, somewhat like "American Bandstand" meets Pee-wee Herman, contemporized by its diversity of race and age. A band, The Ingredients, sings there's "always room for one more in the mainstream." A "stand-up poet" expounds upon pants, pockets and puppies. The camera catches sweetly delivered, if barbed, snippets of conversation:

"But plastic has its own integrity, turns out. That's what caught everyone so off guard."

You leave smiling -- and it's not just a sugar buzz.

For those who missed the opening party, a mini-Social will be held at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 24 when Robbins will be here to talk about his work. There is, by the way, no relationship between the artist and the well-known ice cream parlor chain whose name he shares and whose marketing symbology he's cheekily appropriated.

The visitor first encounters Rovner's work -- which appears courtesy of tony New York PaceWildenstein gallery -- twitching in Petri dishes on a clinical steel "Table #1." The experience is one of unease. Part of that is due to the mysterious realms of science and hospitals referenced, but it's helped along by the familiar yet indecipherable tiny forms moving slowly or frenetically on the plates.

PaceWildenstein gallery "Culture Plate," numbers 2, 6 and 7, -- projected digital videos -- are part of Israeli artist Michal Rovner's exhibition at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery. Click photo for larger image.

On the next floor, larger digital video projections, each titled "Culture Plate," yield answers that don't comfort. The snaking creatures comprise chains of humans, their antics appearing no more developed or individuated than those of bacteria colony.

Her black and white "Untitled New York" -- a dozen stacked bands of figures constantly coming and going -- is particularly unsettling. Regimented, formulaic, out of control of their destinies but seemingly unaware, or simply too routinized to think about it; whether in willful or willed compliance with their actions, they are a timeless commentary on the human condition.

For the 2003 DVD "Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image," the New Museum of Contemporary Art and Bick Productions commissioned a new five-minute work from each of 11 artists who are among the most significant currently working in film, video and digital imagery.

They range from Isaac Julien's thoughtful African Diaspora-inspired "Encore (Paradise Omeros: Redux)" to Paul McCarthy's gore-infused "WGG (Wild Gone Girls)." Seminal artists Joan Jonas and Gary Hill are represented by, respectively, the captivating and quirky "Waltz" and frame-at-a-time portrait "Blind Spot."

Also included are 2004-05 Carnegie International artist Francis Alys' "El Gringo," a tense walk into a dog pack; previous International artists William Kentridge and Pierre Huyghe; and David Claerbout, Douglas Gordon, Pipilotti Rist and Anri Sala.

This mini-course in new media also contains brief interviews with each artist by the New Museum's Dan Cameron, Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris or Richard Meyer of UCLA; other work by the artists and biographies ($1,000 at www.newmuseum.org).

The Miller is showing the artworks and interviews (they were in process of correcting a lip sync problem with the latter) in two parts. Ask the gallery attendant to change discs for you and also to increase the volume if ambient sound overpowers the DVD.

The exhibitions continue through March 13. Admission is free. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. For information, call 412-268-3618 or visit www.cmu.edu/millergallery.

International today

At 2 p.m. CI artist Kathy Butterly, ceramic sculptor, speaks in Carnegie Museum of Art Theater. Free with museum admission. Maurizio Cattelan's "Now" returns for viewing today and tomorrow in the Founder's Room near the Carriage Drive entrance to the Carnegie Museums. For information, call 412-622-3131 or visit www.cmoa.org.