Digital Salon Opens
The 7th annual Digital Salon is on display in Room 1250, Open Book, at College Library from April 10-17. The exhibition brings together students, both undergraduate and graduate, to showcase artistic and research-based projects that take digital form or rely heavily on IT in the production process.
Rosemary Bodolay, Associate Director of DesignLab, noted that, “This year’s Digital Salon is full of surprises. There are several projects that are truly out of the ordinary using new media platforms or containing several related elements. We’re excited to showcase and share this creative and thoughtful work produced by undergraduate and graduate students here at UW-Madison.”
Featuring work in a variety of media, the salon includes digital images, graphic essays, videos, collage, animations, blogs, and infographics. Some of the images incorporate technology that did not exist when the Digital Salon was established in 2010. According to Robert Walter, his photograph entitled (A/I)llusion was made, “using a Pixelstick — the text is stored on a memory card attached to a 6-foot rod of 200 LEDs. The camera took a long exposure photo as I walked by with the Pixelstick, and the letters appear to float in midair.” The words were all taken from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding” and for Walter “summarize the creative process.”
From cutting-edge technologies to documenting ancient traditions, the Digital Salon showcases an impressive range of subjects. In Wiigwaasi-Jiimaan: These Canoes Carry Culture, filmmaker Marcus Cederstrom, Co-Producers Colin Connors, Tom DuBois, Tim Frandy, and Editor Carrie Roy document a program designed to teach Ojibwe youth the art of birchbark canoe building on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Led by Wayne “Mino-Giizhig” Valliere, an Ojibwe teacher, artist, and community leader from Lac du Flambeau and building upon the ENVISION program, the film shows how indigenous methodologies and pedagogies, along with traditional exercise, traditional teachings, and a culturally-situated approach to leadership building skills, were used to help participants improve health and wellness.
This video was given the Best-of-Show Award for the 2106 Digital Salon. Honorable Mentions were received by Kristen Luckow for her graphic essay, Language Influences Culture, Thoughts, and Identity and by Grace Meurer for her piece Scary: Category Infographic.
To see these projects and more, please visit the online exhibition at: http://digitalsalon2016.blogspot.com/
The Digital Salon is organized by DesignLab and the UW-Madison Libraries.
