Arts and Technology Come Together at Arts & Tech Night

 

Originally built in 1914 as a Model T Ford plant, UWM’s Kenilworth Square East building now houses classes in the Peck School of the Arts. These programs within the school came together on Dec. 16 for Arts & Tech Night.

The long, stretching hallways of studio, gallery and performance space on four floors were transformed into a dynamic and interactive gallery space for the night of the event.

The fourth floor also housed a satirical free bake sale raising awareness to the university budget cuts. The group figured each treat equaled $1 and would subtract a numeral from the large dollar amount displayed behind the counter. By the end of the night, they ran out and posted a sign over the dollar amount, which read, “Closed due to budget cuts.”

“People kept taking treats, but I don’t think people really understood the joke,” said Danielle Jurjevic, a student in Participatory Art and Social Practice.

In its fifth year, Arts & Tech Night is an annual exhibition of student artwork showcasing the Interdisciplinary Arts & Technology program, along with other major programs in Peck School of the Arts. The Interdisciplinary Arts & Technology program is a curated selection of classes in art and design, film, music and dance. Over 30 of those students showcased their work.

Previously, the show happened biannually during each semester but was moved to an annual event this year. At the beginning of the semester, there were talks that the event would not be happening this semester,  Junior and senior students in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology program banded together and decided to have a student coordinated event with a small budget of $2,000. Becky Yoshikane, an Arts & Tech senior, was one of those student coordinators. Yoshikane also had many different pieces and installations featured in the show.

“It turned out really great,” Yoshikane said. “Today, I know at least over 300 people have come.”

Each floor was split up into different areas. The sixth floor housed installations for Movement and New Media Collaborations, a class in the Dance program. Alycia Griesi’s work dealt with movement. Standing in front of a projector, the body tracking system would find you and illuminate your shadow, slowly illuminating city skyscrapers on the wall, which were small in size and behind the projector.

The fifth floor housed students work in the Arts & Technology capstone classes. Yoshikane’s capstone project entailed combing laser-cut acrylic construction with an iPad to create the illusion of small floating holograms illuminated on miniature sculptures inside a glass box.

The fourth floor housed many group projects from Nicole Ridgeway’s class, Participatory Art and Social Practice. After not being offered for many years, the class was offered this semester and new to the Arts & Tech Night lineup. Students study installation and eco-art, participatory art and social practice, and incorporate new concepts and strategies into individual and collaborative work. Students in this class collaborated together to create four projects.

The first was a large projection of a documentary honoring Grace Lee Boggs, a social activist who died recently. They set up a memorial for her on a table, while the documentary was projected onto the side of the building across the street. Austin Boechler, a graduate student in printmaking and sculpture was in charge of the projection.

“People on the streets were wondering why there was large projection,” Boechler said. “It was kind of funny.”

Another group in Participatory Art and Social Practice provided strips of paper for attendees to write down a wish they had. The wishes would get added to a paper chain link hanging from the ceiling. To make the wishes come true and set them free, they planned to burn the paper chain links after the event.

Down the hall from the “Web of Wishes” was the “Chorus Health Center.” Here, the group became a musical band. They encouraged attendees to write down a grievance on poster board hung up on the wall. With those grievances, the band improvised lyrics and a song about a particular grievance.

“I’m so pleased,” Ridgeway said. “Everything turned out.”

The third floor featured work from Nathaniel Stern and Frankie Flood’s classes. Nathaniel Stern teaches Interactive Art classes, showing students how to use computer vision and signal processing. Frankie Flood teaches classes in the Digital Craft and Research Lab. Work from Flood’s Industrial Processes and Fabrication class was on display. Students fabricated and manipulated metal into a letter opener, flatware set and glasses.

David Witzel, film lecturer in the film department, could be found walking about the show. He manages the Interdisciplinary Arts & Technology program within Peck School of the Arts.

“It’s really a student-centered event,” Witzel said. “It’s meant to showcase the students in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology program but also calling to attention to all of the different coursework these students do and the interests of the faculty in the respective departments.”