Design | Media Arts graduate student David Wicks combines landscape art and programming in his work mapping water flow in the US

As American frontiersmen and pioneers pushed farther west in the late 19th century, they forged their way through some of the most inhospitable regions on the continent. When they settled, many adhered to the belief that rain follows the plow.

This now-defunct meteorological theory is what Design | Media Arts graduate student David Wicks described as the kernel of misconception that inspired his most recent work, “Drawing Water.” While Wicks’ art critiques the notion that resource availability and industry are bedfellows, his own portfolio works to pair creativity and diligence as he explored design, programming and visual arts during his two years at UCLA.

“He has a really good relationship with landscape and his environment. He’s very mindful of his own environment, whether it be urban or more natural,” said Pete Hawkes, a fellow Design | Media Arts graduate student who has collaborated with Wicks on projects.

“His work is so much more than just pretty. There’s a lot of real thought, research and personal experience behind it. I think that’s what really makes it powerful.”

Wicks recently presented “Drawing Water” at the 2011 Design | Media Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition “Tell Them Nothing of the Things I Thought About and Created While I Was Sleeping.” Wicks combined and interpreted two data sets to create his project, which trails water usage in the United States from where it is most abundant to where it is most consumed. The end result is a series of map-like images covered in broad blue rapids and wispy rivulets, representing water flow in the United States.

“There’s a lot of poetry in the way he combined the water flow and the usage and created imagery from that. It’s a … way to think about the issues he’s seriously interested in,” said Jennifer Steinkamp, a Design | Media Arts professor and member of Wicks’ graduate committee.

Wicks came to UCLA with a degree in architecture from Miami University and work experience in creating software. He said he knew that programming would be an integral part of his studies, but also valued the experimental work he was able to do with physical media, such as ceramics, cast concrete and large quantities of salt. He even made a wearable piece: a jacket that plays woodland sounds as it gets zipped up.

Wicks said that the department focuses on process over product and that, while he improved technically over the past two years, he grew the most conceptually.

“(The focus on process over product) allows us to take certain risks, … seeing how those can work with your conceptual ideas,” Wicks said. “What can you do with contemporary technology that addresses landscape in a way that you couldn’t necessarily with just photo, video and drawing?”

Katie Ammons, a first-year Design | Media Arts graduate student who shares Wicks’ interest in landscape and natural systems, said that the Design | Media Arts program’s breadth is one of its greatest strengths.

“You can get different kinds of professional training based on where you want to head,” Ammons said. “(Design | Media Arts) isn’t focused on creating super programmers, and they’re also not just interested in creating fine-artists.”

Steinkamp said that her role was that of a guide, helping individual artists in the program, including Wicks, pursue their own individual agendas.

“They’re all so completely different, and it’s not like we’re creating a die-cast for some kind of industry. We’re helping people figure out what they need to do,” Steinkamp said. “David has this profound interest in landscape, and I think that’s just going to follow him the rest of his life.”

According to Wicks, because his skills as a programmer are in high demand, he had little difficulty getting a job lined up after graduation. Although a nondisclosure agreement limited what details he could divulge, he said that he is already set to work at a Los Angeles-based company in collaboration with Design | Media Arts professor and graduate committee member, Casey Reas.

Unlike the westward frontiersmen whose labors rarely met the expected rains of heavenly providence, Wicks’ diligent exploration of media arts has resulted in praise from both peers and professors, as well as post-graduation work opportunities. Looking toward the future, Wicks said he wants to continue investigating data collection methods as well as visual, oral and interactive representations of that information.

“That’s my mission,” Wicks said, “to keep working with landscape and information around it.”