“It’s really exciting, important research. The use cases are so vast. That’s how we arrived at our global picture of the future aspect of it.”

“EC Corps” is Morton’s interpretation of Michalec’s work involving what he calls "emotional contagion," which he describes as humans' innate ability to feel empathy, to “get inside” of another’s emotional state.

The EC Corps is a fictitious group created by Morton that puts Michalec’s research into practice, "reigniting humankind’s emotional resonance and interpersonal connectivity" to counteract a high-tech world of cellphones and emojis in which humans are losing their ability and willingness to connect.

According to the artist statement, the exhibition features objects that the EC Corps would use to get that message across and imagines a clandestine meeting place where the group could meet.

Combining the disciplines of art and science has helped Stecher think about his research in different ways. He said he would be open to the idea of working with Angel on other projects.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but I really feel like I benefited from seeing my research through James’ eyes,” Stecher said. “We’ve had many coffee conversations over the past nine months, and hearing his reactions and seeing what he interpreted from what I was working on has been really interesting. It’s definitely motivated some new projects and thoughts.”

Those future collaborations might not feature images so futuristic as the ones included in “Future Health Outcomes.”

“We talked about working together on future content for some of the interventions I’m going to work on,” Stecher said. “These images really help. (The images in the current exhibition) are a bit futuristic, but we’ve also worked on some images related to medication adherence — that’s a project I’m working on right now. Trying to integrate some of his images into those future studies is something we’re going to actively work on together.”

Weldon B. Johnson

Communications Specialist, College of Health Solutions