Students' new media designs showcased in Digital Culture open house, gallery

A showcase of interactive digital wizardry is on display as part of the first exhibition in the new Digital Culture Gallery of the ASU School of Arts, Media + Engineering in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

The exhibition is part of the Digital Culture Showcase that celebrates the work of students in the School of Arts, Media + Engineering Digital Culture program and opens Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, from noon to 5 p.m. in the B-Wing of Stauffer Hall on the ASU Tempe campus.

“The Digital Culture program seeks to develop cross disciplinary proficiencies in students leading to interactive systems that provide experiential outcomes and have one eye on social impact and application,’’ said the school’s Interim Director and Associate Professor Garth Paine. “The projects presented in this Digital Culture Showcase are no exception. The breadth of the student cohort, who come from music, film, theatre, computer science, art, design and other disciplines creates a unique forum for collaborating across disciplines to find innovate approaches to the application of evolving new media systems to social, medical and entertainment applications.”

Students in the Digital Culture program showcase their work that ranges from robots that express emotions to animations projected on 3D forms. “Students will be there to talk about their creations, what motivated them to create them and how they designed them,’’ said Nicole Williams, a doctoral student in the School of Arts, Media + Engineering PhD in Media, Arts + Sciences program, who curated the exhibition in the Digital Culture Gallery and helped design the online gallery at gallery.digitalculture.asu.edu.

“The students’ work explores digital systems that extend beyond the standard computer screen and mouse experience,” Williams said. Included in the exhibit are an interactive candy bowl programmed with multiple messages that are triggered each time someone dips their hand into the bowl to a wall of LED Christmas lights that respond to the colors, movements and sound in the room.

“The works reflect the goal of the Digital Culture undergraduate program, which is to help give students the tools to take a great idea and bring it to a real space,” Williams said.

The Digital Culture Showcase opens at noon on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. Two class groups – Physical Intelligence in Digital Culture and Performing in Digital Culture and Hybrid Music Groups – will perform from 2 to 3 p.m. followed by the Digital Culture Gallery opening from 3 to 3:30 p.m. The showcase and gallery remain open until 5 p.m.

For more information about the Digital Culture program visit digitalculture.asu.edu.

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