There is power in being the “guide on the side,” helping to foster inquiry for creative problem solving in any discipline.
As a faculty member Wichita State University’s College of Engineering (WSU), I worked with students to create and install a mini-golf hole as part of FIGMENT at Governor’s Island, NY in 2010. I also gave the keynote address that year for FIGMENT’s public art opening. WSU’s mini-golf hole was chosen from a juried selection. Our…
From 2006 through 2009 I taught Technology: Art and Sound by Design (TASD). In the course, Engineering and Art students explored new media art: they built circuits and interfaced them to computers. Final projects were installed in a local art gallery.
As founding Director of WSU’s Center for Research in Arts, Technology, Education and Learning (CRATEL) I hosted Build Day every Friday. On Build Day, CRATEL was open to visitors, volunteers, or anybody who wanted to come by, chat, or build something.
In fall 2006 I launched an initiative at WSU called Strings, Kansas! A distance-learning-enhanced program, Strings, Kansas! connected WSU School of Music string students with 4th and 5th graders in communities without string programs. WSU string students created, designed, and implemented the curriculum for the 4th and 5th graders.
I taught a course called Introduction to Audio and Video Synthesis which introduced a variety of classic synthesis techniques, digital signal processing, and audio production. Additionally, students were exposed to important class and contemporary electronic works.
WSU Students from complimentary disciplines submit ideas which integrate the arts with technology and have commercial viability. Up to $7,000 in prizes.
SoundBlocks is a tangible environment where youth connect blocks to describe network dataflow. The environment explores digital sound manipulation as a personal, meaningful and fun artistic endeavor, rather than as a venture into mathematical, electronic or networking relationships.
SoundScratch is a set of extensions I wrote to manipulate audio in a children’s programming language called Scratch. The environment emphasizes the expressive capabilities of sound through the act of creation and design.
I worked with a team of colleagues, community members, and urban youth. Our intention was to help the youth learn in a playful environment, find personal self-expression, and have their voices heard by communities in Boston. To do this, we adapted commercially available technology to provide a unique medium: digital puppetry.
In 2001 I founded Wichita State University’s String Improvisation Department and established WSU’s yearly String Improvisation Day each year, an introduction to string improvisation for string players who had little or no experience with improvisation. I then expanded our String Improvisation program with a new grant-funded initiative: Sharing Music Sharing Culture (SMSC) which connected The Irish World Music Center students and faculty with WSU.