This semester ARTsySTEM is a newly offered class to Utah State University. It allows students to come together and learn how to form science into art, and art into science.
Two professors teach this class. Professor Mark Koven teaches the art portion of the class and Doctor Nancy Huntly teaches the science portion.
“We wanted to show that science needs to open up a little bit and not be so narrow,” Koven said. “Art can be more than just a painting on a wall so to speak, it actually has a purpose beyond visualization of information or communication.”
According to Huntly, the split between artists and scientists in the class is even. The class currently has eight students enrolled.
“We would like them to start recognizing the value of working with people outside your field, I mean way outside your field,” Huntly said. “There is everything from the conceptualization to the actual hard work of doing the experiment where an artist could be interval.”
According to Koven, the class is only one brick of the foundation for the overall system - ARTsySTEM. It’s essentially looking to integrate art with the branches of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
“The way I envision this happening is by having the multi-prong, just like I feel art does,” Koven said. “Art hits you on multiple levels and so the program hits you on multiple levels.”
The different levels include the course, the lecture series, joint artist/scientist residency, the creation of a public art piece and an exhibition with art donated by visiting scholars throughout the semester.
The list of visiting scholars for the class consists of artists, scientists and scholars that are both artists and scientists. A few of the visitors will be Allison Kudla on Feb. 19, Mark Dion on March 19, Brandon Ballengee on April 10, Andrea Lucky also on April 10, Rebecca Solnit April 16, Paul Vanouse on April 17, Bonnie Baxter also on April 17, Matthew Coolidge also on April 17 and Andrea Polli who appeared Jan. 22.
Polli visited campus for the ARTsySTEM class and for the school’s annual Arts Week. That evening Polli gave a lecture to the public and displayed an art piece on the side of the USU Performance Hall. The piece was called “Particle Falls.” A waterfall was projected on the side of the building. The waterfall changed color depending on the air conditions as well as showed particle elements that were currently in the air.
“Despite the invisibility of air, the modern sensors can detect tiny particulate pollution levels in real time,” Polli said. “Particle falls provides a real time visualization of particulate pollution.”
The art piece will be re-shown on the evenings that the other visiting scholars give lectures to the class and the public.
By the end of the semester the class will be broken into groups, including one scientist and one artist. They must come up with an art piece combining the two subjects. This semester the course will pay special attention to water ecology and therefor the final project/art piece will be centered on the Logan River.
“I would like the students to understand the connections between the two disciplines,” Koven said. “Break down the fear of crossing outside your comfort zone, being in the arts and not wanting to work with a scientist, as well as the necessity to understand the process.”
The next time this class will be available to students will be spring semester 2017, as it is only offered every other year.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Trivia Night
Utah State University Dining Services and Aggie Radio are teaming up to host Trivia Night in the Hub February 5 at 6 p.m. Planners for the event are Karli Salisbury, operations manager at Luke’s Cafe on the Quad, and Riley Thompson, an Aggie Radio marketing director.
“I am stoked to finally get a trivia night up on campus,” Salisbury said. “Trivia night is meant to bring night life to the Taggart Student Center and create another social outlet for those students who live on campus.”
According to Salisbury, this will be the first trivia night campus life has seen in five years. Rules for the game were created by Salisbury and the dining services retail marketing team. Six different question categories will be introduced that evening and five rounds will be played. During each round, one question will be asked from each category. Judges will walk around to check answers and keep score. Once a round is complete scores will be announced and the next round will begin. Winners are promised prizes, a trophy and bragging rights.
According to Thompson, Aggie Radio is creating a lot of buzz on this event with commercials and liners to play during their various shows.
“Many DJ's were excited to audition for the position of MC for the event,” Thompson said.
Dining services is planning a special menu for this event: buffalo wings; deep-fried veggie basket; spinach artichoke dip and nachos.
According to Jaime Bradford, the assistant director for retail operations, dining services hopes to utilize trivia night to help create an excellent college experience for students.
“We are excited to start a new tradition here at USU, and are happy to work with another organization on campus,” Thompson said.
“My hope is that we can do this more than once and turn this in to a monthly event,” Salisbury said.
“I am stoked to finally get a trivia night up on campus,” Salisbury said. “Trivia night is meant to bring night life to the Taggart Student Center and create another social outlet for those students who live on campus.”
According to Salisbury, this will be the first trivia night campus life has seen in five years. Rules for the game were created by Salisbury and the dining services retail marketing team. Six different question categories will be introduced that evening and five rounds will be played. During each round, one question will be asked from each category. Judges will walk around to check answers and keep score. Once a round is complete scores will be announced and the next round will begin. Winners are promised prizes, a trophy and bragging rights.
According to Thompson, Aggie Radio is creating a lot of buzz on this event with commercials and liners to play during their various shows.
“Many DJ's were excited to audition for the position of MC for the event,” Thompson said.
Dining services is planning a special menu for this event: buffalo wings; deep-fried veggie basket; spinach artichoke dip and nachos.
According to Jaime Bradford, the assistant director for retail operations, dining services hopes to utilize trivia night to help create an excellent college experience for students.
“We are excited to start a new tradition here at USU, and are happy to work with another organization on campus,” Thompson said.
“My hope is that we can do this more than once and turn this in to a monthly event,” Salisbury said.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Campus parking get’s a facelift.
The Big Blue parking terrace and the Blue Premium parking lot have some new machinery that intends to speed up the payment process while exiting the structures.
According to James Nye, director of parking and transportation services, one would have the option to pay at the ticket reader, the employee booth or with the new stand alone parking booth.
“Stand alone parking allows you to pay in advance for either parking in the Blue Premium or the Big Blue terrace. You scan your ticket and pay. You have an allotted amount of time to get to your car and exit the structure. That should make it go more quickly by having alternate options of payment,” Rebecca Turner, a staff assistant in the parking and transportation office said.
This booth is located at the bottom of the South staircase in the Big Blue parking terrace.
According to the parking and transportation advisory committee’s new resolution, the Big Blue parking terrace and the Blue Premium parking lot are two of the most used parking lots on campus. These parking structures are important to the success of student life functions on campus. The Big Blue parking terrace has a capacity of 317 stalls. Currently, 100 permits are allotted to the faculty/staff of the university and the remaining 217 stalls are available to the public. The Blue Premium lot has 155 stalls; 15 are dedicated to service vehicles/disabled permits and 142 are left for students with a Blue permit.
Last semester these two parking structure’s work hours were from 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. Fridays. Once closed, the gates of the structures would open and let vehicles out without charge.
“People would park there all day and leave when the gates go up. We’d have as many as 125 - 150 vehicles leave when the gates go up,” Nye said.
The hours have now changed and parking in these two structures will be a 24 hour business. There will be no more raising the gate at 10 p.m. to let vehicles out. The gate will now drop at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and will raise at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Student functions will have free parking Friday night’s and weekends. There will still be a booth attendant to assist people from 7:30 a.m. - 11 p.m. week days. During off hours one will have to pay at the new ticket reader.
“It really encourages the students to be in there for the time they need to be. We’re not saying you can’t use it for an emergency place to park but just to pay for your time that you’re in there, rather than just having your friends bring you up at night to get your car,” Turner said.
According to Nye, some concerns have been expressed on how this 24 hour change could effect the student center and their functions on week nights. To offset this issue, the Aggie shuttle is now running until 9pm.
“You can pick up every 10 minutes and it’ll take you around campus or down to the stadium parking lot and that has really helped a lot,” Nye said.
According to Nye, campus might see a new parking terrace in the next 5-10 years.
According to James Nye, director of parking and transportation services, one would have the option to pay at the ticket reader, the employee booth or with the new stand alone parking booth.
“Stand alone parking allows you to pay in advance for either parking in the Blue Premium or the Big Blue terrace. You scan your ticket and pay. You have an allotted amount of time to get to your car and exit the structure. That should make it go more quickly by having alternate options of payment,” Rebecca Turner, a staff assistant in the parking and transportation office said.
This booth is located at the bottom of the South staircase in the Big Blue parking terrace.
According to the parking and transportation advisory committee’s new resolution, the Big Blue parking terrace and the Blue Premium parking lot are two of the most used parking lots on campus. These parking structures are important to the success of student life functions on campus. The Big Blue parking terrace has a capacity of 317 stalls. Currently, 100 permits are allotted to the faculty/staff of the university and the remaining 217 stalls are available to the public. The Blue Premium lot has 155 stalls; 15 are dedicated to service vehicles/disabled permits and 142 are left for students with a Blue permit.
Last semester these two parking structure’s work hours were from 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. Fridays. Once closed, the gates of the structures would open and let vehicles out without charge.
“People would park there all day and leave when the gates go up. We’d have as many as 125 - 150 vehicles leave when the gates go up,” Nye said.
The hours have now changed and parking in these two structures will be a 24 hour business. There will be no more raising the gate at 10 p.m. to let vehicles out. The gate will now drop at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and will raise at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Student functions will have free parking Friday night’s and weekends. There will still be a booth attendant to assist people from 7:30 a.m. - 11 p.m. week days. During off hours one will have to pay at the new ticket reader.
“It really encourages the students to be in there for the time they need to be. We’re not saying you can’t use it for an emergency place to park but just to pay for your time that you’re in there, rather than just having your friends bring you up at night to get your car,” Turner said.
According to Nye, some concerns have been expressed on how this 24 hour change could effect the student center and their functions on week nights. To offset this issue, the Aggie shuttle is now running until 9pm.
“You can pick up every 10 minutes and it’ll take you around campus or down to the stadium parking lot and that has really helped a lot,” Nye said.
According to Nye, campus might see a new parking terrace in the next 5-10 years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)