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• Electronic dreams combine with the arts

Can you imagine earning a graduate degree in creating virtual worlds? Or how about Hollywood special effects? Digital gaming?

If any of these sound appealing, you may want to check out UI’s new program, edream. edream, officially known as the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media Institute, is a new UI division geared towards teaching students about the arts as they relate to digital media today. The program juxtaposes art and technology, helping students explore the relationship between these traditionally separate areas.

“We’re interested in promoting art that is socially relevant, diverse and has an important impact,” said edream's assistant director, Kelly Searsmith.

The program, Searsmith explained, will help facilitate degrees with other college units on campus. edream staff will assist graduate students in identifying faculty, sources and projects that relate to their specific interests, as well as trying to connect them with visiting artists.

Technology and arts can be combined in a number of ways, according to Searsmith. For instance, during performances dancers might be hooked up to sensory wires that will turn their movement into digital designs to be projected onto a screen. Artists like Thecla Schiphorst also employ creative digital technologies in their work. Schiphorst, a visiting artist at the UI, uses wearable body architecture installation employs computer gadgets to read a person’s physiological signals and creates pre-configured patterns.

In addition to art forms making use of digitally enhanced media, adding artistic elements to technology is also gaining in popularity. Digital dome shows, documentaries and interactive digital exhibits are being used at places like Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry to popularize science education.

“For things like global climate change, (collaborators) develop original visual simulations of what (global warming) will look like over the next 100 years,” said Searsmith. “(They) take the data and present it so people can get a sense of the impact.”

In today’s technology-saturated culture, digital media has gained popularity not only for educational and artistic purposes, but entrepreneurial ones as well.

“Creative industries are a major sector of the economy,” Searsmith said. “Entertainment software, digital design, electronic music, web design—(these) creative industries are dominated by the arts.”

Searsmith also believes society is moving away from an industrial economy and toward one where knowledge is becoming more valuable. According to her, graduating students need to be flexible and entrepreneurial, as well as innovative, global and diverse.

“Even workers like doctors and teachers are going (to be) expected to be media-savvy, to be able to communicate with the public and collaborate with designers,” Searsmith said. “It’s surprisingly everywhere.”