Inclusive coding event hopes to encourage art, activism in the field

Lauren McCarthy wanted to bring coding and activism together in a way that is interactive and accessible.

To do so, she worked with Xin Xin, the director and lead organizer of Processing Community Day, and Casey Reas, a design media arts professor and the co-creator of Processing, a software that allows coding within the visual arts. Together, they conceptualized Processing Community Day, the first of which was held a year ago in Boston with the second installment taking place Saturday at UCLA’s Broad Art Center. McCarthy, an assistant professor within UCLA’s design media arts department, said the event aims to teach individuals about the basics of computer programming and help them integrate coding into the world of art.

“The idea of Processing Community Day was to think about coding as a way of creating media and bring coding into the visual arts, including design and architecture,” Reas said.

McCarthy said Processing lets users take classes on drawing, interactive media and software prototyping, but most of the work the program has done so far was only online. Seeing it as an opportunity to create a community in real life, Processing Community Day was born.

“We wanted to have a day to do it in person, to connect and share ideas, and to see what may come out of it,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the focus on art, code and activism during the event arose in an attempt to make the subjects more inclusive and accessible to the general public. For instance, around 2001, new tools like Adobe Acrobat, which were used to put art and code together, were only accessible to large institutions and were often expensive. The focus of Processing Community Day is rooted in the realization that such tools should not be limited only to those who have access to higher education and large budgets, McCarthy said.

Many other barriers halt people from pursuing their interest in software she said, including network access, disability and race. Open source software would benefit those who are interested in programming but feel out of place in this area. In addition, the in-person event will help those who feel unwelcome into the world of code by providing a welcoming environment for them to hone their skills.

“The activism part for us feels like the place that we need to start from if we really want to make these tools work for people, because it wouldn’t be very meaningful to be working in a space of art when only a small part of the population feels like they can participate,” McCarthy said.

The event will include workshops, demonstrations, art exhibitions and lightning talks, which are very short presentations about various resources that Processing can provide. Participants in the event will be able to choose one of four tracks, or courses, to follow throughout the day: “Accessibility, Disability, and Care,” “Radical Pedagogy,” “Epic Play!,” and “Under the Silicon, the Beach!”

The idea behind creating multiple tracks is that it allows flexibility for people to choose their own adventure. For example, noncoders, such as journalists and artists, might choose to listen into a lighting talk about coding to learn more about a field they haven’t had a chance to be exposed to.

“It’s the community’s day,” McCarthy said. “It’s less about us trying to impose a certain set of ideas, and more about making a space where people can bring their own.”

Leaders of Processing Community Day expressed their anticipations for the upcoming event.

“I’m interested in seeing what kind of sparks come out of having people who are all experienced in different fields attend this kind of event under a big umbrella of processing,” Xin said. “What is most exciting about this event are the different possibilities of people stumbling into lightning talks and stations that might open up ideas that are not present in their discipline.”

Professor uses his book publishing company to encourage social activism in art

This post was updated Jan. 23 at 3:38 p.m.

Lars Müller’s publishing company has released over 600 books.

Most of the books center around the artistic disciplines he enjoys the most: visual art, architecture, design and photography. However, Müller said he added societal issues to his company’s focus to move away from pure aestheticism and turn toward art that enacts change. Müller, a regents professor for design media arts at UCLA, will be giving a lecture Tuesday at the Broad Art Center. Trained in design, he hopes the publishing and spread of art with social messages will ultimately lead to policy changes.

“I was told by one of my teachers, (books are) the only printed matter that was meant to last,” Müller said. “I thought, as a designer, why shouldn’t I focus on … (books) if that’s the only thing that’s made to last?”

One of the socially conscious books his company published, entitled “The Face of Human Rights,” focuses on human rights and their effect on policy changes, Müller said. The book also uses photographs in an attempt to visually capture all aspects of human rights, from humanitarian aid to rights violations.

These include scenes of a protest and a photograph of a woman breastfeeding her child surrounded by other people. When viewing the latter, Müller said he feels a sense of hope and safety, yet encourages readers to reach their own conclusions about what each image evokes. The photos, he said, offer readers an alternative method to understanding the material – one that is not factual or academic.

The photography of the book concentrates on the concept of human rights, but is complicated by different moral codes among cultures. The predominantly Western conception of human rights is precipitated by the United Nations, which does not allow for other traditions or practices, like the way women’s rights are different from men’s in Muslim countries, Müller said. The intention of this book is to bring awareness to all of the human rights violations in the world through photographs. One such photo depicts a woman walking away from a graffitied wall that reads “Death for Gipsies,” which invokes the threat of violence against a marginalized community in Europe.

“Human rights, as we discuss them today, are a Western construction and that’s actually where the world struggles right now, in some aspects of the human rights, which may have other interpretations in other cultures than the Western,” Müller said.

While he is a publisher, Müller also has a background in teaching. Design media arts professor and department chair Christian Moeller first worked with Müller as a professor in Germany and was instrumental in bringing in Müller as a regents professor to UCLA. Moeller said design media arts students might know how to design a book, but are unfamiliar with turning their designs into a tangible product. Müller offers students a glimpse of what it’s like to work in a design-related field.

Maya Rüegg, the head of Lars Müller Publishers’ editorial department, said working with Müller has taught her how to creatively tackle daunting challenges. When funding fell through for a book about an abandoned skyscraper with no elevator, Müller sought out an elevator company to sponsor the book.

Müller said the intention of publishing the book was to show how the abandoned skyscraper acts as a metaphor: When something designed for profit cannot fulfill its intended purpose, the community can still benefit. In this case, the skyscraper became a home for thousands of people who need one.

Müller said it is important to teach artists, architects and designers to recognize how design influences people’s decisions, like how product placement at a supermarket may determine whether consumers buy local products. Designers can choose to use their influence for the benefit of the community. As a result, artists, designers and creators must be more conscious of their arts’ physical structures. For example, architecture can create either an inviting, welcoming space accessible to a variety of people or enforce boundaries that discriminate against people with physical limitations, Müller said.

“(Artists create) art to explain the world, in architecture to accommodate all the different needs we have to shape the environment and the designers in communication facilitate interaction and understanding amongst people, or contribute to our set of tools which may ease our life,” Müller said.

Books are a tangible means to store information, rather than relying on the internet, but they also take on an additional significance: Each person’s collection of books offers an insight into that person’s life and values, he said.

“Your physical experience, your analogue experience, will contribute to yourself and to your ability to maneuver yourself through this crazy place we live in,” Müller said. “If I ask you what you read, then you already leave a trace of who you are.”

Alumnus merges math degree and melodies in budding songwriting career

Nick Marechal occasionally melds his mathematics Ph.D. into the blues-influenced music he plays.

The UCLA alumnus has played blues-rock music since adolescence, but only in the past few years did he decide to make music his full-time career. On Jan. 25, he and his band will perform at the Canyon, a music venue in Agoura Hills, California. With a blend of his musical and mathematical background, Marechal said he relies on emotion and analytical thought to guide his artistic sensibilities.

“In the case of songwriting, it might be more emotional or a commentary thing that I do,” Marechal said. “Other times when I’m songwriting, I think fairly analytical and my math background seeps in that way.”

Marechal, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, said he was heavily drawn toward music. He listened to FM radio, which played a variety of blues-rock artists including Jeff Beck and Johnny Winter, and started playing guitar when he was 14. He soon started jamming with others his age, formed garage bands and slowly transitioned to playing in bars, he said. When he turned 21, he began thinking of career opportunities that required a college education and eventually ended up graduating from UCLA in 1986 with a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Marechal went on to work as an engineer until 2013 before deciding to become a recording artist. His analytical nature never left him and allowed him to recognize patterns, especially with chords in music, he said.

The patterns Marechal noticed, however, weren’t just musical – they also applied to history. Analyzing the Japanese internment in World War II and the attitudes toward Muslim communities after 9/11, he said he noticed a concerning historical pattern of suspicion toward certain racial groups after national attacks. This gave him the inspiration to write the song “Land of the Free.” His lyrics reflected on that suspicion and the country’s response to the matter of national security, he said.

“You read things in the paper, you see things in the media and then you start to analyze it – what’s going on here? You see something happening today, and you compare it to prior events and what happened,” Marechal said. “It’s a bit amorphous, but my analytic thinking plays into how I look at current events.”

Grant Karamyan, a UCLA alumnus who Marechal mentored, said some of Marechal’s musical creativity can also be attributed to his mathematics degree. He said that mathematics is a discipline that requires imagination, and though mathematics and music are disparate, the creativity is translatable, allowing someone like Marechal to develop both mathematical ideas and musical melodies.

“I’m talking about original research, developing new things in mathematics, developing new techniques – you have to be creative,” Karamyan said. “In music, you have to be creative as well. (Marechal) is an example of that.”

When recording in a studio, Marechal said he recognizes different mathematical concepts that are in play, such as the Nyquist sampling theorem. The theorem involves analog signals, a particular type of sound wave that may come from drums or vocals, and each signal possesses a max hertz, the highest frequency of the signal. To fully capture this sound wave digitally, the signal capture rate has to be at least two times the highest frequency. Though knowledge of the sampling theorem isn’t directly incorporated into a song, Marechal said it helps with creating a deeper understanding of how the digital recording process works.

Despite the years studying mathematics and working as an engineer, Marechal said his songs, for the most part, remain emotionally driven and of a commentary nature. In his song “Edge of a Ledge,” he recalls how his mother raised four sons alone against an impending house foreclosure.

John Ferraro, the drummer in Marechal’s band, said some of Marechal’s mathematical nature bleeds into his songs in the form of complex chord progressions, but Marechal’s songs are mainly groovy – following conventional music structures and not mixed rhythms – and friendly to listeners’ ears. In the song “Detour,” which talks about an individual who ignored a detour sign, the rhythm is upbeat and bouncy.

“It doesn’t require the listener’s attention to figure out, ‘Wow, what’s that? He did something weird,’” Ferraro said. “It’s more about creating moods and styles and emotions.”

For his upcoming show, he will perform several of his songs, some of which are analytically influenced, such as “Land of the Free.” However, other songs, such as “Son of the Blues,” tell the story of a young guitarist and his rise to fame. Near the end of the song, its main character learns to play music for himself rather than for the spotlight. Although the ending was not based on his personal experiences, aspects of the song including the guitarist’s youthful interest in listening to FM radios and playing in garage bands were based on his life, he said.

“I think that mathematics is more than just writing equations and whatnot. It’s a way of thinking,” Marechal said. “And that’s what I bring into the studio. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but other times you just want to bring the passion.”

The Quad: A guide to the wonderfully varied Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden

Jules Cooch’s K-12 students stared in awe at UCLA’s botanical garden, wondering why it didn’t look like any particular natural phenomena they had seen before. They saw a combination of seemingly mismatched elements from different natural sources that made the garden seem like a completely new phenomenon.

“The garden we’ve created here is not like any specific place on earth,” said Cooch, the Visitor Services Coordinator at the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.

Botanical gardens have long been the sites of wild weeds, foreign flowers and stunning shrubbery – each one an amalgamation of ecosystems near and far, textures sharp and smooth, and histories tumultuous and tame.

UCLA’s botanical garden reflects two major themes: plant evolution and biogeography. Plant evolution refers to how the plants are related to one another while biogeography categorizes the plants based on where in the world they occur. This organization allows visitors to feel as if they’ve traveled the world within the roughly eight acres of the garden, Cooch said.

“As you walk through the garden, you can be in what feels like the desert of South Africa, and you can be in a jungle in Thailand and in the Eucalyptus forests of Australia,” said Evan Meyer, assistant director at the garden.

It is only appropriate that the garden got its name from a lady whose love of natural diversity knew no boundaries.

Mildred Esther Mathias bashed through the boundaries of botany both by defying conceptions about the role of women in science and by dispelling the ambiguity around the poorly named New World Umbelliferae, which are part of the carrot family. She traversed the western United States, publishing scientific papers and describing new species, before accepting a staff position at UCLA, where she also served as director of the garden for 18 years.

First-time gardengoers might be interested in taking a look at the desert garden located up a hill on the eastern side of the garden. Dry, sunny and arid, the desert is home to plants that differ significantly from the lush flora in the tropical parts of the garden. For instance, the garden hosts a number of varieties of aloe; the Fan Aloe, with its pink flowers protruding out into a fan-like shape gives new meaning to aloe’s cooling properties. There’s also a vast South African Aloe collection, created by colors that look like those of an early sunset and leaves that curl outward and down into asymmetrical stars.

“It looks almost like a Dr. Seuss book – just this bizarre, otherworldly kind of garden,” Meyer said.

To go back in time, one can take a walk in the ancient forest, whose spore-bearing ferns are some of the earth’s most primitive seed plants. The unique thing about these trees is that they’re flowerless – similar to the ones that existed more than 200 million years ago, before the evolution of flowers. The shade cast by the Montezuma cypresses is cool, but not cold; it seems to be balanced by the blanket-like qualities of the hanging leaves.

The stream that runs through the center of the garden is an interesting observation site for animal lovers. Turtles, koi and crayfish swim in the water, but don’t forget to look to the sky to see birds that fly overhead.

The animals in the garden aren’t just there for recreational observation – some are the subjects of studies.

Amanda Robin is a doctoral student working in the lab of Peter Nonacs studying how different social factors impact a squirrel’s decision to eat or store food.

Robin said the botanical garden serves as a place to pilot her experiment and practice the skills she will need when she studies squirrels in the wilderness.

“You have this living laboratory right on South Campus, and they’re extremely open to having student researchers running projects in order to learn more about the garden in general, so it’s a really big secret resource,” Robin said.

The garden also provides a space to expand the curriculum of some UCLA courses outside the classroom. For example, the outdoor amphitheater becomes the stage for theater performances. Biology students often observe interactions between the abiotic and biotic factors of the garden, and even literature students benefit from having an outdoor space for poetry readings.

“(The garden) runs the full spectrum of people who are just taking a scroll at lunch to people who are here every day documenting the plants and animals,” Meyer said.

Cooch said she wants the garden to inspire students to bring more nature into their lives. You don’t have to be an environmental trailblazer to vouch for its protection. The more we incorporate nature into architecture, business development, engineering and other fields, the more value we assign to it.

Nestled in the suburbs of the second-most populous urban area in the US, the garden provides an escape from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles life.

“When you’re in the city, you see these big buildings and you see steel and concrete, and everything is sort of these long, sweeping views; then you come in here and everything is intricate and intimate and idiosyncratic and organic,” Meyer said.

These idiosyncrasies provide visitors with the opportunity to find beauty in imperfection. The garden is a place to seek refuge from the stark geometry of the urban world.

There are a lot of universities that have botanical gardens located miles away at remote research stations, Meyer said. But ours is conveniently located at our doorstep.

Meyer wants students to take advantage of our “little oasis of biodiversity.” Students can get involved by becoming volunteer gardeners and doing hands-on work with the plants or by joining the docent program, where they will learn to interpret the different parts of the garden to visitors who don’t know much about them.

If for nothing else, students are always welcome to use the garden to escape writer’s block, to allow the breeze to turn the pages of textbooks forsaken in procrastination, or to bask in nature’s quietude.

“We have an opportunity to redefine what nature means,” Cooch said.

In an age where forests are being decimated and wildlife extinguished at rates that could deprive the next generation of their right to enjoy them, we must learn to take advantage of nature in a nondestructive way.

“Here’s a way you can do it in the middle of the city … being able to understand and appreciate nature is really important as the world is getting more complicated, more technological,” Meyer said.

Throwback Thursday: Fifty-year anniversary of ‘Bunchy’ Carter, John Huggins shooting

Tucked in between a couple of shrubs in the garden near Campbell Hall’s east entrance lies a large, gray stone. Barely noticeable to the hundreds of students that pass by every day on their way to and from Bunche Hall, it reads “Carter-Huggins 1969.”

Today, that stone bears extra significance.

On this day, 50 years ago, two black UCLA students, John Jerome Huggins and Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, were shot dead in Room 1201 of Campbell Hall.

The two Black Panther leaders were members of the Black Student Union, as well as a part of the High Potential Program, a program meant to increase opportunities in higher education for minority students.

Tension between the Black Panthers and the US Organization was at the heart of the shooting. The US Organization and the Panthers were, at the time, vying for control of black student organizations at the collegiate and high school level. Simultaneously, the FBI was attempting to stoke tensions between the two groups through efforts that included its largely illegal surveillance program, COINTELPRO.

In January 1969, the two groups backed different individuals for the role of director of the newly created Afro-American Center, now known as the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. The US Organization put forward a black psychologist with minimal background in academia as its choice. Chancellor Charles Young initially was willing to accept the choice, until a dispute arose over salary. Then, BSU announced it had reservations and wanted a different candidate, one with both an academic background and commitment to the black community.

On Friday, Jan. 17, 1969, about 150 BSU members met in Campbell Hall to talk about the qualifications for the director. After the adjournment of the meeting, Harold “Tuwala” Jones entered the room and Huggins confronted him about the harassment of a fellow Panther. As a fight broke out between the two, Carter tried to intervene. Then Claude “Chuchessa” Hubert came in and shot Huggins in the back. Huggins, who was armed, fired a couple of shots back as he fell, wounded.

Carter attempted to find cover behind a chair but was also shot by Hubert. “Chuchessa shot through the chair and killed him instantly,” recalled J. Daniel Johnson, a student who was present in the room, in 2008.

In seconds, it was all over and two men were dead.

After the shooting, university police worked in 12-hour shifts until Wednesday, Jan. 22. Police issued a bulletin announcing George Stiner and Larry Stiner as suspects, after witnesses had identified them at the scene of the shooting. George Stiner, who was also a BSU member and a part of the High Potential program, surrendered to police on Monday afternoon. His younger brother Larry surrendered later that night. The brothers eventually received life sentences based on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Hubert, the suspected murderer of the two men, was never caught.

In its private communications, the FBI reacted to the murders with some satisfaction. “It would appear that the above activity will even further split the factions of the US Group and the BPP,” reads a memo from an FBI special agent in charge office in San Diego dated Jan. 20.

Chancellor Young issued two statements following the incident.

“Personally we are deeply grieved by the death of these two young men who were our students,” his first statement said. “The tragic events of last Friday have in no way diminished our resolve to offer broader educational opportunities on this campus,” he added in the second statement.

Reactions from campus members were generally somber.

“They were doing well, they were capable and potential leaders … it was a terrible thing,” said Thomas Robischon, a faculty advisor to the High Potential Program.

Unsurprisingly, most students the Bruin reached out to, especially black students, did not want to speak to the paper so soon after the shooting. According to the an article from Jan. 21, white students largely wanted to keep themselves out of the matter, with their reaction being summed up by student Mike Shatzkin, in quintessential 60s fashion: “It’s none of my dad-gummed business.”

Huggins’ body was sent to his family in New Haven, Connecticut, while the funeral for Carter was held on Jan. 24. Among those in attendance were James Baldwin and Kathleen Cleaver.

The campus community quickly recovered following the incident, with BSU resuming meetings on Jan. 31. The High Potential Program resumed classes on the Tuesday after the shooting. Half a century later, the program still lives on. UCLA consolidated it with the Educational Opportunity Program in 1971 to create the Academic Advancement Program. The AAP currently serves over 5,000 students from underrepresented groups at UCLA. And Campbell Hall still serves as the hub for this program.

But for years after the shooting, there was no marking or sign to denote that such an incident had taken place in Campbell Hall. But the shooting hasn’t completely dropped out of the student body’s collective memory. Since 1999, family and friends of Carter and Huggins, and other students have gathered annually at Campbell Hall to remember the two. In 2010, students hung a plaque in front of Room 1201 in honor of them. And students have called regularly for Campbell Hall to be renamed Carter-Huggins Hall.

So far, UCLA administration has ignored such requests. After all, they were just activists, not rich megadonors filling UCLA’s coffers. So for now, the stone in front of Campbell Hall will continue to memorialize Carter and Huggins.

Westwood Village Improvement Association recap – Jan. 17

The Westwood Village Improvement Association is a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood Village. Property and business owners created the association in 2011 to provide the Village with functions the city of Los Angeles could not provide. Its board of directors meets monthly.

  • Andrew Thomas, the association’s executive director, said the Westwood Business Improvement District’s request to be excluded from new street vending policies in LA was not approved.
  • Thomas also said the application for a parklet on Glendon Avenue received support from the North Westwood Neighborhood Council, and the association is working to submit the parklet application before its due date, Jan. 31.
  • Thomas added the BID’s participation in a pilot parking revenue program for the city will go before LA City Council on Jan. 18. Once the program is implemented, 15 percent of the revenue from parking meters will go back into the association to improve the Village. Currently, all parking meter revenue generated by Westwood goes to the City of LA.
  • The Westwood Homeless Count is taking place Jan. 23 as part of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, hosted by the Westwood Neighborhood Council and the Westwood Community Council, Thomas added.
  • Jessica Dabney, board member and representative of North American Realty property management, nominated Brad Erickson, board member and executive director of UCLA’s Campus Service Enterprises, to be the association’s new vice-chair. The official role of the vice-chair is to fill in for Jim Brooks, current chair and president of TOPA Management, in case of absence. Dabney said Erickson was a resident of Westwood and provided unique experience to the board because of his UCLA background. The board unanimously approved Erickson’s nomination.
  • The board unanimously approved Brooks’ appointment of the executive committee as the ad hoc nominating committee to interview and nominate candidates to serve on the board.
  • The association approved reducing the number of regular board meetings per year from ten to six, including the annual board meeting when officers of the board are elected. Thomas said the various committees of the association and the board will still meet around 44 per year. The association also tentatively set board officer elections for their November meeting.

Design media arts students put on rule-bending exhibit with mixed art forms

A flyer encrypted with a Snapchat code can unlock dancing bears on your phone’s screen. Using augmented reality, the project is one of the works that will be on display at the design media arts exhibition opening Thursday.

The exhibition, titled “Breaking the Rules,” will showcase works from undergraduates in the design media arts program and consists of over 50 student projects. The exhibition will run through Feb. 1 in the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center. This year’s theme, “Breaking the Rules,” is focused on work that transcends boundaries and limitations. Amy Fang, a second-year design media arts student and co-lead curator of the exhibition said the event pushed artists outside of their comfort zone by integrating new art forms.

“Design media arts as a major inherently is breaking a lot of rules. We do a lot of merging the digital with the physical and merging boundaries between design and art, which is sometimes seen as a distinct field,” Fang said. “There’s always these implicit unstated rules within each medium and we wanted people to step further beyond that.”

One boundary being stretched through the exhibition, for example, is that this year some of the pieces incorporated architectural models, Fang said, which is something normally done in the School of Arts and Architecture. However, she said design media arts has always been open to merging boundaries as the department’s philosophy is to synthesize and hybridize discourses and practices.

Professor Willem Henri Lucas, the undergraduate supervisor for the design media arts program, said in previous years the annual exhibition was more faculty-driven and showcased the curriculum of the program. Now, the art show is mostly student-run. He said students from all years came together and decided on a theme and name for the show. Everyone in the major was welcome to submit their work for a chance to be displayed, and over 80 submissions were received.

A key concept of the works on display at the exhibit is the amalgamation between art and technology, said Darin Buzon, a fourth-year design media art student and a presenting artist at the exhibit. He routinely incorporates technology into his projects whether it be through coding or web development. For his work in the exhibition, he is using Processing, a programming language developed by faculty in the department. This will allow his artwork to be interactive by using motion detectors to project the spectators’ silhouette onto his work. When creating projects, Buzon said he uses his art as a medium for people to reflect on themselves.

Lisa Chen, a fourth-year design media arts student presenting her work in the exhibit, also said art can reflect how people see the world and view themselves. But unlike Buzon, Chen will only utilize one piece of machinery for her display: a sewing machine. Using two sawhorses and one piece of plywood, Chen will construct a table that is typically used for sawing wood. Instead, however, she’ll be sewing dresses, using a pink fabric she said felt just right for the exhibit. Wearing a plain olive jumpsuit, Chen will sew live at the exhibition. Each day, she will hang up the new dresses and her project will constantly grow. She said the idea for this project came to her after she went to The Home Depot to buy plywood and the employees did not take her seriously. Through this work, she said she is exploring the idea of bringing constructed feminine concepts, such as the pink fabric and sewing, into a space thought to be masculine.

“I had to learn what art was for me, and how it helped me understand the world. In some ways, it’s almost like therapy and it’s not just therapy for yourself, but it’s therapy for your community and your friends and peers,” Chen said. “What I’ve been trying to do with my work is explore ideas that I’m still trying to figure out and put them out there by … opening up a dialogue and conversation with one another.”

Covering the plain white walls in the New Wight Gallery are colorful, innovative and diverse projects that venture outside the traditional arts and represent the different skill sets of the students, Fang said. Not only has this exhibit become an annual celebration within the department, Lucas said, but it also allows the department to invite industry professionals to attend the exhibit. This provides students with an avenue to meet with companies of interests. Chris Kim, co-lead curator and a fourth-year design media arts student, also said the showcase is an exciting time where, despite the multiplicity that is inherent in the discipline, the department gets to come together as one.

“Being different is great because each individual person is really unique. And if we have all these unique people in one room, the show becomes like a body,” he said. “The exhibition itself seems like a whole with all of these collections of different artists and their different mindsets.”