Las Vegas, N.M – Highlands University media arts and technology students will showcase their work in the department’s Spring Exhibit May 9 at 5:30 p.m. with film screenings beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The exhibit is open to the public and is in the university’s McCaffrey Historic Trolley Building at 1183 San Francisco Ave.
“The spring show in media arts is always a significant event because it’s a milestone for our Bachelor of Fine Arts students who are having their first solo show,” said Miriam Langer, media arts and technology department chair. “All of the students in media arts put a huge amount of effort into producing a diverse exhibit on a grand scale that for many is the first time they have the opportunity to show their work to the public.”
Langer said the students will be presenting their creative work for multimedia and interactivity, animation, digital imaging, photography, cultural technology, software systems design, multimedia, videography and visual communications.
“Media arts uses emerging technologies throughout the program and this will be on display in the exhibit,” Langer said.
Media arts and technology professor Mariah Hausman supervises the Bachelor of Fine Arts portion of the spring exhibit.
“This semester’s graduating B.F.A. group from our Visual Communications program is small, but their narrative and inventive ideas pack a powerful punch,” Hausman said. “We will be showcasing a historical homage to cultural identity seen through a strong family legacy, an original illustrated fairytale book accompanied by a series of interactive activities, and a thematic exploration of human metaphysical energy.
Media arts Bachelor of Fine Arts candidates featured in the exhibit include:
Elizabeth Lynch is from Window Rock, Arizona, and is a member of the Navajo Nation Reservation. Her exhibit pays homage to the beloved patriarch of her family, Lloyd Lynn House, and includes personal family artifacts and illustrations that are designed to share her unique perspective as Navajo woman.
“I want people to understand that identity is not circumstantial, it is choice,” Lynch said. “My project is about honoring my grandfather and the things he stood for. I want people to learn a piece of history and to see how much one man can accomplish regardless of what label society throws on him.”
Desiree Ramirez is from Las Vegas, New Mexico. She designed an exhibit that encourages visitors to interact with characters from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and her printed, fully illustrated book shows her personal and creative process alongside the finished results.
“I want people to have fun with my exhibit, especially kids,” Ramirez said. “I want them to interact with my workshops and engage. I created a character design book influenced by one of the stories in the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This book shows how each character was hand drawn and converted into digital illustrations.”
David Rivera is from Las Vegas, New Mexico. He created a multilayered exhibit that includes elements of the ancient Sanskrit chakra system and features photography, design and sculpture that celebrates, beautifies and illustrates these powerful and sensitive regions of the human body, and how they are believed to both possess and release energy while connecting the psyche to our physical forms.
“I never want to stop creating beautiful, meaningful and thought-provoking art,” Rivera said. “As media artists we have the ability to reach a global audience and therefore it’s our responsibility to promote a more conscious mindset, and to try and change the world for the better.”