About the event
Monday, Feb. 26, 2018
Multiple Buildings
Monday, Feb. 26, 2018
Multiple Buildings
The 2018 festival Creative Imperatives: Revolutions will explore art and communication in a changing society and how technology and innovation have advanced the way we explore our world. Campus sessions and featured guests will highlight current trends and techniques and their interplay with the past and future of creative expression.
During his visit to campus, Festival Guest Michael Houston will work with printmaking students to create a temporary lo-fi installation that will be used to create a short stop motion video examining our relationships to smartphones and the internet through an analog lens. Stop by throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday to see the project grow and change.
Attend a demonstration of ceramic techniques and a tour of the studio. There will also be opportunities to work with clay and to see examples of ceramic work from around the world.
Join students in painting as they demonstrate their processes in a variety of painting mediums, including watercolor, oil, and encaustic. Experience the vibrant energy and creativity the painting studio is all about. Painting students are excited to talk about their work and invite you to get a closer look at color mixing, creating large scale paintings, and collage-based work. The open studio also includes opportunities for all to contribute to a large-scale collaborative painting.
A professor of composition at the Hartt School of Music, guest artist Ken Steen composes acoustic, electronic, and multimedia combinations. In this talk, he will discuss his career and how technology has informed his compositional style.
This demonstration will go into depth how costume designers and makers, using today’s latest technology, to make costumes that are better fitting and more capability of movement. The presenters will also talk about the different materials they have today that were not available for costumes of the past.
This panel will discuss bullying in a digital age. Following the case from this previous summer when an adolescent youth was bullied and goaded into committing suicide via text message and social media, our panel would discuss how bullying has changed and what can be done to stem its negative effects.
Using Advanced 3D Technologies to Communicate the Past to the Future
This session will demonstrate the use of advanced 3D technologies such as laser scanning, photogrammetry, and 3D printing, for documenting and preserving archaeological remains for the future. Live 3D printing will be taking place as well as the opportunity to explore the past through 3D virtual reality in a separate location across the hall.
The use of social media platforms, specifically, Twitter, are increasingly popular ways for athletes, teams, and sports media organizations to connect with fans and the public. Communication and Sport scholarship has been at the forefront of studying this interaction. This panel discussion will explore some of the current trends in Communication and Sport research focused on social media, as well as discuss a variety of current events topics part of the social media conversation, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, the National Anthem protests in professional sports, and a variety of other issues.
Faculty and Staff from Art, Music, Communication Studies, and Theatre Arts will offer insights about how advances in technology have shaped their process for researching and creating new works.
Members of the creative team for the UWL musical Big Fish will showcase how technology was used to create the production currently onstage. The designers will provide a brief history of the evolution of theatrical technology and then demonstrate its fascinating used in this production.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, this session has been cancelled.
The session will feature a screening and discussion of the documentary CyberSeniors. This film explores the use of technology by older adults. In particular, it captures the experiences of older adults first adopting new types of technology with the assistance of young adults. The experience builds intergenerational relationships and enables the older adults to maintain connection with friends and loved ones through current technology and social media. Technology is sometime discussed as a barrier to personal relationships - this film shows that isn't always the case.
Shawn Fredrick will provide an overview of how 3D printing technology works and demonstrate the real-world applications. The ability for individuals to produce prototype design objects from concept to 3D form opens new doors in design possibilities.
The Public Speaking Competition promotes and showcases student excellence in public speaking. Six finalists, narrowed down from a pool of over 2,000 students enrolled in CST 110 during Spring and Fall 2017, will present their persuasive speeches to an audience of community members and UWL students, instructors, and staff. This event is organized and supported by the Department of Communication Studies.
Imagine being able to walk through one of your own drawings or sketches to advance creative possibilities. With VR (virtual reality) technology participants are invited to interact virtually with their own sketch/ drawing using a virtual reality pen (Oculus Quill) and headset.
Guest artist Ken Steen has written a new multimedia work for the UWL Wind Ensemble. In this session, he and the group will work out the logistics of working with acoustic instruments and electronics. Come and see what the behind the scenes process of bringing a new work of multimedia come to life.
Come and hear the UWL Wind Ensemble with Dr. Tom Seddon in a performance that will include a multimedia work composed especially for them by Creative Imperatives festival guest Ken Steen.
During his visit to campus, Festival Guest Michael Houston will work with printmaking students to create a temporary lo-fi installation that will be used to create a short stop motion video examining our relationships to smartphones and the internet through an analog lens. Stop by throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday to see the project grow and change.
Join students in painting as they demonstrate their processes in a variety of painting mediums, including watercolor, oil, and encaustic. Experience the vibrant energy and creativity the painting studio is all about. Painting students are excited to talk about their work and invite you to get a closer look at color mixing, creating large scale paintings, and collage-based work. The open studio also includes opportunities for all to contribute to a large-scale collaborative painting.
session description coming soon
Using Art to Revolutionize Our Understanding
Students enrolled in EDS 206 will discuss the work on display which address the intersections of language, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity in 2017. Through media, what ways do future educators see complicated conversations regarding race, orientation, and gender? These art pieces attempt to understand and fight back against racist, sexist, heteronormative, and binary perspectives in current media narratives.
Actors have used stage makeup for generations to alter their appearance and create a new identity on stage. Instructor Joe Anderson will be demonstrating how technology has enhanced the way stage makeup is applied. Come watch actors change their physical appearance and get a peek at some "behind the scenes" work and techniques.
The 2017 documentary The Last Laugh asks the question "Can a tragedy the scale of the Holocaust ever be the subject of comedy? Perhaps more importantly, should it be?" In the documentary, comedians pitch in with their own views on the boundaries of comedy. Star-studded, provocative, and entertaining, this documentary dares to ask these uncomfortable questions. After viewing the documentary, there will be a Q & A session discussing thoughts and reactions to the film.
A panel of faculty and others will join Festival Guest John Moe to discuss details about the content of his podcast The Hilarious World of Depression. The panel will explore questions about the nature of depression/mental health, the ways that we talk about it (and don't), and how we can use humor and frankness to cure ourselves as well as the stigmas surrounding depression.
This session will explore the creative design of religious mobile applications, specifically Catholic and Islamic prayer apps. Viewed through the lens of Social Shaping of Technology theory and set within the framework of Digital Religion, app designers are shaping religious perceptions and practices through three key design strategies: translating prayer texts and tools, building an interactive mobile app environment, and creating a multi-purpose religious design. App developers’ choices in these areas impact how users understand their personal prayer practice in digital spaces, and how users and religious authorities negotiate the definition of authentic prayer. These findings have implications for how creative design and technological innovation influence our very religious identities
A practicing metalsmith needs to explore the boundaries of his/her craft to forge new techniques and processes. These discoveries then become part of the contemporary dialogue with tradition. The promotion of these new approaches asks tradition to embrace innovations. In time, these novel approaches become part of the larger body of traditions and the craft evolves instead of remaining static. Art majors will demonstrate both non-ferrous metalworking skills and traditional blacksmithing techniques. Students will be available to answer technical questions, discuss creative influences, and guide visitors through the two studios.
Social media is changing the way we interact with one another in a variety of ways. This panel will present data from a larger study on social media and privacy to discuss the ways that social media has shaped political discourse. Specifically, we examine how social media and our conceptions of the space prevent meaningful political discourse, how social media has become a norm for political engagement for key political figures, and question the capacity for this platform to bring about meaningful exchanges of information and political movements/social activism.
John Moe and Scott Dickmeyer will discuss Moe’s history in radio and podcasting, and how the different media allow for different levels of creativity and exploration of identity and modern life. Additionally, the two will discuss Moe’s current podcast, The Hilarious World of Depression, which features interviews with famous comedians who have struggled with depression and how it shapes their comedy. Audience will be allowed to ask questions as well.
Festival Guest Michael Houston will speak about his experiences as an artist and provide insight on his process as a production designer, including his Emmy-Award-winning work on Mind of a Chef. The presentation will include video excerpts and behind-the-scenes details.
Michael Houston
Originally from North Carolina, Mike has lived and worked in New York since 1997. He is currently the Director of Design at Zero Point Zero Production, where he has won four Emmys, including one for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Mike co-founded and ran Cannonball Press, a woodcut and letterpress studio, for 17 years, and co-founded and ran the Prints Gone Wild print fair for nine years. For his work with Cannonball Press he was named a United States Artists Ford Fellow. He was also an original member of the Barnstormers painting crew. Mike works in traditional and digital illustration, animation, mural & studio painting, and woodcut, and has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in the U.S. for nearly twenty years, as well as in South Africa, Japan, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong, Germany, and Finland. His work has also appeared on PBS, CNN, and the Travel Channel. His work can be seen at mikehouston.website
John Moe
John Moe is the host and creator of the award-winning hit podcast, The
Hilarious World of Depression. The author of three books: Dear Luke,
We Need To Talk, Darth; The Deleted Emails Of Hillary Clinton; and
Conservatize Me, his writing has appeared in numerous humor
anthologies as well as The New York Times Magazine, McSweeney's, The
Seattle Times, and many more publications. He has hosted nationally
distributed public radio programs such as Wits, Weekend America, and
Marketplace Tech Report and his radio work has been featured on
Marketplace, All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He lives in St.
Paul.
Ken Steen
Ken Steen is a composer, sound artist and educator living in Glastonbury, CT. His music sits squarely on the frontier between the acoustic and electronic domains of musical expression; often combining traditional orchestra, chamber ensemble or soloist with electronic instruments or processed sound and noise. He has received numerous awards for composition including an ISCM Boston Composition Award, an American Symphony Orchestra League New Music Project with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, grants from The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, The Roberts Foundation, The American Composers Forum Continental Harmony Encore Project, The Margaret Fairbanks Jory Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center as well as fellowships to The Millay Colony for the Arts, the Artists’ Enclave at I-Park and The MacDowell Colony.
In addition to composing concert music in many forms, Steen has composed a wide variety of works both acoustic and electronic for sound installation, dance, theater and web-distribution. His music and soundworks have been featured on concert and radio programs throughout the U.S.A., Canada, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Australia, Cuba and Japan among others. His work has recently been part of: the Sonic Residues 02 Festival, Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music: Spring in Havana, the Currents in Electro-acoustic Music Festival and the 60X60 International Project. Recent premiere performances and sound installations in such diverse locations as Xi'an, China, Fortaleza-Ceará, Brazil, Spring in Havana Festival, Havana, Cuba, Merkin Concert Hall in NYC and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, Australia, confirm that his work is steadily attaining international recognition.
Steen's music can be found on the Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Auralit and CRI CD labels, as well as at www.kensteen.com, and is published by University of Arizona Publications, Harrock Hall Music as well as American Composers Edition. Some of his soundworks can be found at www.noisefarm.org.
Steen is currently Professor of Composition and Theory, and director of Studio D at the Hartt School, University of Hartford.
Get an advanced look at the program and see all that the 2018 festival has to offer! The campus map shows the buildings where events will take place.
