Visitors to the Erman B. White Gallery of Art at Butler Community College will experience a unique kind of art this month.
The gallery’s newest exhibit, titled “Cultivating Strategies,” is from Hack.Art.Lab.
The exhibit incorporates art, technology and “thinking outside of the box.”
The group who put the exhibit together is led by Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont. Their group is made up of artists, engineers and others who brainstorm ideas and then figure out how to create them.
Beal-DeGrandmont described the show as interactive works, which the viewer completes.
Among the pieces on exhibit is “Boil.” This is a projection of boiling water set to sound. It was created by Lisa Rundstrom.
Another piece of the exhibit incorporates a Web cam, computer and monitor. Visitors can walk onto a carpet where they are filmed on the Web cam. That image is incorporated with flashbacks of past images and ghost images into an ongoing presentation.
Another piece in the show uses three pieces of technology to display an image. It is a Web cam set up to film a computer monitor, and that image is then projected onto the wall. It was created by Aaron Vague and is titled “96.”
Another interactive piece is “A Few Small Steps.” This piece also uses a Web cam to track movements of people who walk by. That in turn determines the next note to be played in the ongoing musical score.
“The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees” is another part of the exhibit which incorporates a display with a poem being played on an ipod.
Hack.Art.Lab was formed about 1 1/2 years ago and meets in Wichita.
“The skills of many are better than your skills alone,” Beal-DeGrandmont said.
Their goal is “by connecting professional and nonprofessional artists, technologists and youth, we explore learning models, and then create projects offering new perspectives in art, technology and society.”
“It’s all about communicating and how deeply do you care about this thing,” Beal-DeGrandmont said.
“For me, it allows it me to make work I couldn’t do on my own. We get together, we have meetings and we just start brainstorming.”
She said they also have deadlines for the projects, which helps keep them on track.
This setup also forces them to process ideas faster than working alone, as well as be able to communicate them well.
