The American football field isn’t typically considered the turf of culture vultures, but the multimedia artist Jennifer Wen Ma collaborated with the Spartan Marching Band of Michigan State University (MSU) on a halftime show for a home game in East Lansing last Saturday (14 November). Wen Ma is no stranger to major manifestations—she served as the chief designer for visual and special effects at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008—but she says she knew nothing about American football or halftime shows before beginning this project last June. The result of her collaboration was The Art of the March: Cues from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, inspired by the ancient Chinese military treatise, which she says “naturally rose out of the back of [her] mind” as a guiding theme for the performance. The 12-minute multimedia spectacle—which mixed marching band culture with ancient Chinese tradition—involved over 600 performers, including 300 band members and a chorus of 220, a video, smoke and choreography. Wen Ma recalls the students’ dedication to learning traditional Chinese dance: “They were so game… I was just so impressed.” Perhaps she led the team to victory, as the Spartans beat the University of Maryland Terrapins, 24 to 7. The project’s partners included the Asian Studies Center, MSU Athletics and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum.