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[Slideshow, Audio] Art Students Engage in New Technology to Enhance Creativity

As technology advances, new pathways open in the artistic world. Digital animation gives artists and producers the power to take their audience on a virtual experience. 3D printing is being used to create prosthetics and human skin. Murray State University recently hosted its annual Summer Art Workshop, this year joining an initiative to convert ‘STEM’ - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - to ‘STEAM,’ incorporating Art. 56 high school students from seven states participated in this week-long camp.

Students gathered around a 3D printer to watch their creative designs slowly sculpt from the computer screen into solid objects, like castles and mountains, birds and horses. In an animation workshop, students created short sequences combining a series of photographs, pressed play and watched them come to life. Squeegees rolled, cameras clicked, and technology was the central theme in nearly every class.

Recent high school graduate, Eugene Lopez says he plans on becoming an animator or concept artist. He’ll be a Freshmen at Murray State University this fall. Lopez says the workshop was a great experience.

“[The workshop] shows definitely that our generation is changing and that we’re [delving] into all different forms of artwork that have yet to have been tried. It gives everyone a very good experience too,” says Lopez.

Graduating senior Josh Massey is looking to major in business with a minor in fine art. He was drawn to the workshop for the first-time experience. Massey says this was his first time ever seeing a 3D printer.

Murray State professor Nicole Hand Bryant has been involved in the Summer Art Workshop for 10 years. Bryant says the workshop gives students the experience to interact with a nontraditional form of art.

“We want them to enjoy Murray State University and would love for them to come back and join us as college freshmen,” says Bryant.

The number of STEM students enrolled at Murray State is on the rise. Murray State Dean of the Jesse D. Jones College of Science and Professor Dr. Stephen Cobb says the plan is to increase the number of STEM graduates by 10% over the next five years. The U.S. Department of Education projects a greater percentage increase in STEM-based jobs than any other occupation between 2010 and 2020. Biomedical engineers leads with a 62 percent increase, while the average occupational increase is only 14 percent.

Counselor Jacob Melvin is a Murray State alumnus. He attended the summer camp as a high school student for four years and now helps with the workshops. He says these days incorporating technology into the way art is made has become a necessity.

“...so of course we’re incorporating that more in the workshops. Whenever I was doing the workshop it was very simple, traditional, drawing and painting, and things of that sort. But now animation and web design and graphic design those things are becoming more prominent so we like to teach more of that now,” says Melvin.

Melvin says teaching the workshop has helped him understand the latest trends in art and the thought process in the minds of young people. He is also inspired by the students to become a better artist.

 

See the 3D printer in action and more photos from Murray State’s Summer Art Workshop on their Facebook page.

 

Ebony Clark is a student at Murray State University majoring in computer science. She was born in Brownsville, Tennessee. Ebony has served as a reporter for 4-H congress in Nashville, TN where she spoke with several state leaders and congressmen. Ebony enjoys writing poetry and spoken word and competed in Tennessee's Poetry Out Loud competition hosted by the arts council in Nashville,TN.
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