Union, a small liberal arts college in Schenectady, N.Y. has been educating students for more than two centuries. But the private institution is anything but behind the times.
Union’s Visual Arts Department offers programs where students can use high-tech tools to find new ways to express themselves.
Three courses blend art and tech, and they’re not just open to fine arts majors. Courses Digital Fabrication, Physical Computing, and Real & Recorded Time are available to learners from different academic backgrounds, with few prerequisites.
Today, inside Union’s Visual Arts building, students are discussing sound art compositions they created from a listening exercise, part of the “Real & Recorded Time" course.
Juliette Richenthal, a sophomore Visual Arts student, spent 10 minutes with classmates listening to the ambient sounds in an academic building.
After returning to the lab, the group used a computer program called Linux Multimedia Studio to reproduce what they heard electronically. The goal is to condense it into a one-minute composition.
Richenthal says the exercise was difficult, but she took inspiration from avant-garde composer John Cage.
“It was a bit of a challenge to listen to everyday sounds but kind of interpret them in a more abstract way and that really, really resonated with me because I’m a dancer, I did modern dance,” Richenthal said. “And one of my pieces was to John Cage who really inspired me.”
The student groups then played all of their individual sound compositions simultaneously.
Another course, Digital Fabrication, is an advanced sculpture course. Here, students use machines to fabricate art.
Cole Belmont, Director of Union’s Makerspace Consortium and Digital Fabrication instructor, uses a laser cutter to precision-cut a sheet of material.
The cutter can create complex or irregular shapes that would be difficult to cut – or to even draw – by hand.
Belmont says he wants students to understand the role tech can play in visual arts, and to see the computer as a collaborator.
“I think that it’s important for them to have a full kit of tools for them to be able to not only work on the kind of analog and the more traditional methods of making art, but also to incorporate some of these more contemporary digital tools like laser cutters and CNC machines,” Belmont said.
The CNC, or Computer Numeric Control machine, uses a subtractive process to carve away material, like metal, to reveal an object. Students also use high-pressure water jet cutters to carve shapes out of a half-inch of steel.
In Physical Computing, students explore robotic and interactive art, kinetic sculpture and performance. In a hallway inside the Visual Arts building, small robots built by students are being presented and tested.
Computer Science major Spencer Schafer’s assignment was to present a robot built on a very short timeline. His build resembles a miniature space shuttle.
“…because you’re trying to make art that is very much entwined with robotics which is technology,” said Schafer. “So you have a lot of motors, you have to do a lot of programming for it in order to make whatever art you design actually move and function, so I mean it’s very much like one of like the best mixes of technology and art.”
Andrea Mullen, a senior studying Visual Fine Arts and Biomedical Engineering, used to think she wasn’t creative enough to study arts until she was introduced to digital arts.
“I think one thing I struggled with with the traditional art is I never thought I was artistic or creative enough and then I learned that you can combine art and technology and I was like wait…I actually am really creative. I can do this, so like it's allowed me to realize that I am an artist, just in a different way and I think it’s really beautiful too because it allows more opportunity for people to express themselves,” Mullen said.
Visual and Digital Arts professor Fernando Orellana says the students are learning skills that they will carry into the real world. Orellana says one computer program taught at Union that is especially valuable to students is Adobe After Effects, for motion graphics.
“Not a lot of people know After Effects, and it’s a really valuable commodity in a lot of applications, from marketing to graphic design to just full-blown animations to Hollywood, whatever you can think of. For instance, I have a student that graduated from here a few years ago, and she is now a graphic designer creating motion graphics for multi-screen displays on Times Square.”
Orellana says not everyone will go on to become a conventional artist. But he wants them to build the skills that could lead to a number of career paths.
“I think as a whole, this department prepares students to be generalists. You know, they could go into Fine Art if they’d like, but they also have skills that could be applied in the private sector to make money or to you know, to start companies, whatever it is.”
By keeping an open mind, administrators say artists will be able to keep up with time and technology.
WAMC National Productions intern Florinda Gjypi is graduating from the University at Albany with a degree in English and journalism.