In another of the firsts that have characterized the inventive 2008 Carnegie International, the curator of "Life on Mars" begins a three-part public encounter tomorrow with visitors to his show's Web site.

"On-line and On Stage: Douglas Fogle and Living on Mars" is a live Webcast lecture/discussion from 6 to 7 p.m. tomorrow at Carnegie Museum of Art. Fogle will respond to questions and comments submitted to the site (blog.cmoa.org) as well as to those from the auditorium audience. The exhibition will be open until 9 p.m.

This is the time to talk about favorite or not-so-favorite works in the International. What is the artist trying to say? Why did Fogle choose particular works and/or artists? What materials were used in a particular piece? Whither contemporary art?

When asked last month whether a curatorial stamp was essential to a successful show, Fogle said he thought so.

But, he quickly added, "I want to make clear that you do it and then you step back and let it be its thing. They're not Legos in my Legoland that I'm building.

"But it is like writing a movie or something, where you put out a set of things, and then the actors get involved, and then the actors interpret what's provided, and they go off and do it."

Because of that autonomy, the exhibition has the potential to surprise even its curator.

"There are all these subconscious things," Fogle said. "When I start putting work in the gallery and all of a sudden different things are next to each other that weren't next to each other [in my planning book], I see connections that I never saw before.

"They were there. I maybe saw them and didn't see them. Or felt them. ... I don't want to get too outside of the rational on this and talk just about emotions. But there is a feeling you get from works.

"That's the wonderful part of doing the show, the discovery after you put the show up of connections you didn't see before as a curator."

Another opportunity for seeing an exhibition anew is when it travels and has to be installed to suit a different venue, as Fogle did for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where he was curator before coming to the Carnegie. "All of a sudden I'd see connections between artists that I didn't see the first time I installed it. And then the third time, the same thing happens. And I'd think 'Oh, my God, how could I not have seen that?'

"So, it's interesting. It's fresh. It's fun when shows travel like that. And it's fun like this, when you do a big show, and I'll be discovering stuff for I'm sure six, seven months while the show's up. Maybe even nine."

Yours might be the comment that prompts the next revelation.

A glassblowing demonstration by Murano, Italy-based glass maestro Afro Celotto and reception will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. today at Gallery G Glass Studio, 3710 Liberty Ave., Lawrenceville.

The event, sponsored by Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery, is free and open to the public, but because space is limited, reservations are requested at 412-441-5200.

"World in a Jar: War & Trauma," an installation by noted Buffalo-based artist, author and scholar Robert Hirsch, will be exhibited May 28 through June 6 at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in conjunction with the f295 Symposium. The installation comprises more than 800 black-and-white photographs, each presented within a 32-ounce glass jar.

Hirsch photographed portions of historical images to produce a "litany of horrors from the wars and traumas of the past three centuries," to convey "an endless tale about the human condition that exists outside of chronological time."

Hirsch's work has been exhibited at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; George Eastman House, Rochester, N.Y.; and Parsons School of Design, New York City.

Among books he's written is "Photographic Possibilities: The Expressive Use of Ideas, Materials, and Processes." His "Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age" is due out in October.

Other longer-running exhibitions to be held in conjunction with the symposium are "Alternative Focus" at Silver Eye Center for Photography, South Side (May 23-June 14), and "The f295 Exhibition of Contemporary Photography" at the 707 Penn Gallery, Downtown (May 31-July 5).

The symposium (May 29-June 1) will explore alternative methods used to produce photographs, as well as cultural influences on image-making. Hirsch is among the scheduled speakers. For information, visit www.f295.org/symposium2008.

Filmmakers is at 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. For information: 412-681-5449 or www.pghfilmmakers.org.