Photo by: Megan Westervelt
DU students will have the opportunity to be involved in Denver’s first Biennial of the Americas: In Good We Trust event, during summer 2010.
Laleh Mehran, an assistant professor in electronic media arts design (eMAD,) and Chris Coleman, assistant professor in Digital Media Studies (DMS), are collaborating on four courses for next academic year that will produce student work that will be exhibited at the biennial.
Students will build Web materials and models for the exhibition, while considering and working through design difficulties that they may encounter.
“They’ll [students] be building the real thing on site. The students can go and intern and actually help implement the things that they thought about,” said Coleman.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper proposed the biennial, a two-month, city-wide cultural event that will bring together scholars and entrepreneurs as well as artists working in a variety of disciplines.
According to Coleman and Mehran, students are presented with the opportunity to be associated with a massive project and be able to show their work in a real life situation. Students will also be working with acclaimed innovators.
Biennial organizers hope the cultural event and its exhibits will articulate, engage participants, produce experiences, build networks and launch new contributions in the areas of health, energy, environment, habitat, economy, education and technology.
Funds for the biennial come mostly from donations.
Coleman and Mehran were awarded the Public Good grant, which supports classes designed that enable students to be directly engaged with the community and contribute to the biennial.
“These students are going to have their work in one way or another present at this massive biennial,” said Mehran.
The funds from the grant are going to pay for students’ tech fees textbooks, any specialized software that may be needed and pay “to bring in a lot of really great thinkers and scholars to talk to the class about the ideas,” said Coleman.
“It’s about engaged learning,” said Coleman. “They’re actually making stuff or communicating with the community at large.”
Classes are not restricted to eMAD and DMS majors.
“We want people that are going to be really excited and engaged that they might have some kind of background that would be perfect for this, but they might not be a DMS or an eMAD major,” said Mehran.
In addition to DU, other universities in Colorado are also offering classes that will produce work to be shown at the biennial.
After the biennial in 2010, the intention is to have it every other year, with the next one in 2012.
Visit www.ingodwetrust2010.com for more information about this event.
