Exit from the everyday
By Josh Wasbin
May 12, 2008 9:03 p.m.
In a world where people are constantly trying to escape the quotidian lifestyle, 11 graduate students in Design | Media Arts have found a way out: art.
The artists will display widely varying individual projects they have been working on for a year or more in “Exit Strategies,” opening Thursday.
The exhibit features numerous styles, including performance art, sculptures, painting, sound, software and video, among others. “Exit Strategies” is named for the departure of the graduating students.
“The show is very much a way for us to show that we’re not grad students anymore,” said artist and second-year Design | Media Arts graduate student Casey Alt.
Alt compared the show’s theme to the business practice in which investors plan a way out before they put any money in. However, while this idea is generally considered pessimistic, Alt said the students attempt to give the notion a positive connotation with this show.
“It’s knowing how to get out of something before getting into it that we found interesting,” Alt said. “Art allows new solutions and gets outside of old systems. We want the show to show ways to open up new ways of thinking for people.”
Alt has a performance piece titled “VacilLogix” for which he designed a computer program named “The Deceptionist” to keep track of lies told by the user. The work revolves around his attempt at software development via a company from his imagination dubbed “Slightly Sociopathic Software.” “VacilLogix” pitches “The Deceptionist” as a marketable program. “Exit Strategies” will display the advertising campaigns and beta software that Alt designed.
And although Alt was initially worried about the reception of “The Deceptionist,” his fears were unwarranted because there was demand for the actual program.
“People actually preordered (it). I did it as a kind of snarky program, but people came to me and said, “˜I want that,'” he said.
However, not all of the pieces are as business-oriented as Alt’s. Jacob Tonski, second-year Design | Media Arts graduate student, has created three pieces for “Exit Strategies,” among them a 6-foot, 120-pound spinning top. Tonski was inspired to make the top, which he will actually spin, to comment on balance in the world.
“There’s a lot we can’t touch and can’t control, most notably the people in our lives. Part of growing is learning to negotiate ““ learning to dance with them,” Tonski said.
Tonski also developed what he called “environment art” because the artwork changes the physical environment of the viewer. Tonski, who is 6-foot-3, elevates viewers with a wooden platform to change the way they see daily life. The piece is called “Everybody Comes Eye to Eye.”
“I’m taller than most other people I know. I’m just aware of it. It plays a profound role in our relationships with each other,” he said.
While the exhibit is called “Exit Strategies,” there is no overall message the students are aiming for. Jennifer Steinkamp, a Design | Media Arts professor, said that the show is a way for students to express and culminate their own personal styles.
“There’s no real theme,” said Steinkamp, who helped the students organize their own exhibit and advised them. “They’re all so individual; that’s something we try to foster ““ finding their obsessions.”
