During winter break, students involved in the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology (CAT) returned to campus early to engage in a week-long intensive academic workshop. The workshop centered on physical computing, or “using the body to interact with computers,” through the use of “a color sensor, motion sensor, light sensor, pressure sensor, etc., to trigger a reaction, such as a motion, a screen project or a change in video speed,” said Annie Rusk ’15, a member of the Center for Arts & Technology.
The workshop’s emphasis on integrating movement, design and technology exemplifies the center’s dedication to creative innovation. Established in 1984 with a grant from the Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, the Center for Arts & Technology originally set out to fund studios focusing on Computer Music, Computer Art and Motion Analysis. Since then, the Center continues to foster interdisciplinary student research that explores the complex and innovative relationship between arts and technology. Students accepted in to the competitive certificate program have the opportunity to design individual integrative projects that combine their interests in digital, visual or performing arts with computer science and programming to explore the ways in which arts and technology influence each other.
Led by Professor Kate Sicchio, a visiting professor from Parsons School of Design in New York City, the 12 CAT students worked to “bridge the gap between computers and the physical world” by writing code “using arduinos (open source processors) that make motors move and LEDs light up,” said Drew André ’16. Sicchio, who specializes in “interactions between computer and human movement,” also designs sewable circuits, which involves installing LEDs in wearable clothing, said André. The opportunity to work with Sicchio proved to be “an irreplaceable experience.” Said Annie Rusk 15’, because the professor’s work focuses on dance, taking “the dancer’s movements and creating wearable technology that responds to the dancer’s actions.”
In addition to attending classes and workshops taught by Sicchio, the CAT students also had the opportunity to connect their presentations for this workshop into their individual work for the certificate program. Rusk’s Senior Integrative Project (SIP) focuses on interactive poetry in which a kinect tracks people’s steps and “triggers phrases to be projected” using her own poems. Rusk said that Sicchio’s workshop helped connect her SIP to the larger world of physical computing. Although her project requires little interaction, Rusk said, “it was interesting to explore the opportunities.”
For André, who also incorporated material from the workshop into his own individual project, the weeklong experience affirmed his dedication to the Center and helped forge new, non-academic connections. The students “became really close and hung out all week during the day, and at night,” André recounted, and all the time spent together even generated the nickname “the CAT Frat.” Ultimately, however, the physical computing workshop provided a space to continue cultivating creativity and exploring the new possibilities that the world of arts and technology hold. Said André, “Learning computer code language, learning how to build circuits and learning how to interact with the environment through a computer medium can become magic in a way.” For students at Connecticut College, the Center for Arts & Technology certainly offers opportunities to capture that magic. •
