|
May 2006
The
Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry enables
faculty and students to explore the connections
among the arts, humanities, science and technology;
then create a product and present it to the
community in a public forum. Four Ball State
University faculty members are chosen by the
Virginia B. Ball Center each year to teach
interdisciplinary seminars to fifteen students.
Throughout the project architectural installations
were constructed along the White River in Daleville,
Mounds State Park, Noblesville, and Indianapolis.
The
exhibit will be traveling to The College of
Architecture and Planning at Ball State University,
Minnetrista, and the Broadripple Arts Fair in
Indianapolis. |
Streams: Data
Driven Fabrications Connecting with Indiana’s White
River
“Can technology reconcile with nature? Can new
technologies develop in symbiosis with nature?” Ball
State University students spent this semester
studying those questions with Kevin Klinger,
Associate Professor of Architecture.
Klinger teaches
courses in digital design, design communication and
fabrication studies. He has published widely on all
aspects of digital technology, and currently serves
as vice president of ACADIA (the Association for
Computer Aided Design in Architecture,
www.acadia.org
).
Lori Herber, Media
Director for the Virginia Ball Center for Creative
Inquiry writes: “Collections of sticks, leaves and
stones fill the Ball glass jars that dot the
windowsills in Prof. Kevin Klinger’s classroom. Two
canoes rest at the front of the room, indicative of
a journey in progress. During his immersive-study
semester at the Virginia Ball Center for Creative
Inquiry, Klinger is navigating 11 Ball State
students in a seminar called ‘Streams: Data Driven
Fabrications Connecting with Indiana’s White River.’
Herber continues,
“Throughout the semester, students used
computer-aided design to construct architectural
installations along the White River in five major
stations: Daleville, Mounds State Park, Noblesville
and Indianapolis Arts Center. A major showcase of
the students’ work will be featured at the
Minnetrista Center on May 11 at 5 p.m.” As part of
the project Streams installed permanent platforms
and benches at Mounds State Park in February and
March. The Daleville iron bridge installations were
finished in January. |
|
“After all the
installations are completed,” Herber writes, “the
students will exhibit documentation, journals, and
artwork about the projects – along with thoughts on
the cultural significance and ecology of the White
River and ideas about how technology could improve
its condition. Along the way, their processes are
being crafted into a documentary, which will
eventually be viewable on the seminar’s Web site:
http://vbcseminar.iweb.bsu.edu/
‘When looking
through the lens of technology,’ Klinger asks, ‘Does
it alter our ability to interact with our
environment?’”
Back to the
complete list of monthly Regional Newsletters |
