STUDENT WORKS

Life Among The Ruins: Mapping Systems of Growth and Decay Throughout the Great Lakes Region by Emily Scheider

graduate, MFA exhibition, wall installation

From Thesis Paper: Life Among the Ruins examines connections between a selection of cities within the Great Lakes Region, the man‐made structures and materials that comprise these cities, and the residue they leave behind. A series of 210 square vignettes focus upon systems of color, pattern, and texture to examine the intersections between historicized mythology and the reality of the physical space. The swatches… speak to the human condition in the content they present, the checkered historical narratives they reference, and the connections they push viewers to make with them. These structures are monuments to a complex series of ideals that have been heavily layered upon one another since the beginning of the industrial revolution when many of these spaces were first conceived to fill consumptive needs that have since been outsourced or made obsolete entirely. The resulting altered environments are a direct manifestation of a way of life that has been progressing towards extinction over the last half‐century; as the underlying framework falls into neglect, the layers are involuntarily peeled back and exposed as nature slowly reclaims the space.

Lineage by Josh Gumiela

graduate, MFA exhibition, site-specific installation

approx. 18” x 36” x 12” per module, 8’ x 12’ x 20’ as installed – programmed sound sculpture, wire, electronics, speakers

From Artist Statement: Lineage consists of several modules, which play voice recordings and digitally synthesized tones.  Each module has LEDs to emit light and light sensors that respond to light from other modules.  As the viewer moves around the modules, he or she inadvertently breaks the connections by interrupting the light flowing from one module to another. This changes the pitch of the synthesized tones or disrupts the playback of the voice recordings. In this way, the viewer becomes an integral part of the work.

Point of View by Robin Rogers

graduate, MFA exhibition, sculptural installation with participatory video

approx. 7’ x 7’ x 7’ – metal, palette wrap, electronics, helmet

From Artist Statement: A seven foot diameter geodesic sphere has an interior light that is wired to a switch. The switch is actuated when Viewer A picks up a helmet hanging on the outside of the structure.

The helmet has a camera mounted on the front. As the viewer experiences the inside of the sphere, everything he/she looks at is projected, from two directions, onto the outside of the sphere. Other viewers in the gasllery have the experience of seeing what Viewer A is seeing.  It is distorted by the fidelity of the camera and irregular surface it is being projected upon.

Sensor-Based Louver System by Daniel Sterner

graduate M-Arch, Beginning Electronics and Sculpture, Final Project, working maquette

approx. 8” x 12” x 4” – wood, cardboard, motor, hardware and electronics

This maquette and accompanying visual studies in Revit software were Sterner’s development for an architectural skin. It consisted of a system of wooden louvers programmed to respond to environmental conditions in harsh environments. The louvers would regulate sun and temperature within a building by opening and closing to change the amount of sunlight allowed into the building at any given time.

Mindspike by Sam Leto

undergraduate, ArtsTech Senior Project, Capstone Project

approx. 3.5’ x 2’ x 3” – interactive sculpture with hacked brain-wave game & ferrofluid

From Artist Statement: MindSpike is an interactive sculpture that uses EEG brainwave activity to control the flow of magnetic oil called ferrofluid. I modified the headgear of a kid’s game called Mind Flex to get access to the brainwave activity of the user. Participants put on this headgear and are asked to concentrate. As the EEG activity increases, the more electricity flows to an electromagnet.  This causes the ferrofluid to react with a spiky pattern unique to the material. The stronger the concentration level, the larger the spikes.

Sugar Work by Ramah Malbranche

graduate MFA, Experiments in New Media – participatory sculpture with video

approx. 6’ x 2’ x 3’ as installed – sugar cane, refined sugar, machete, plastic champagne glasses, silver tray, video projection and electronics

From Artist Statement: In Sugar Work, you are presented with a table.  On one side you find a silver tray of sugar, which you are instructed to taste with a silver spoon.  When you lift the spoon, a scene from the film, Soy Cuba by Mikhail Kalatozov is projected onto the sugar.  As you taste the sugar you realize that it is tainted with salt. 

On the other side of the table, you are given a machete and instructed to pull sugar from the raw cane, a task that may prove to be very difficult for the audience members. 

Sugar is a substance that has played a great part in the subjugation and enslavement of numerous peoples located and relocated in the Caribbean. In our world of refinement and packaged foods it is easy to forget how much work goes into producing sugar and what the costs are on a human level.

untitled by Jake Wells, Zoyah Honarmand and Maria P.

mixed graduate / undergraduate collaboration, Experiments in New Media – interactive sculpture about brain function

approx. 36” x 18” x 3” – etched mirror, cardboard, electronics, found materials

The artists were interested in educating people about brain function in memory recall.  There are questions to evoke memories affixed on the mirror.  As the audience answers each question, LEDs light up to represent the hippocampus at work.  The work was accompanied by a didactic on the topic.