Professor Erin Johnson’s Introduction to Digital Media class partnered with the Ramp Gallery to exhibit student work created over the course of the fall semester. In the class, students gain the technical and conceptual skills, as well as the art historical background, necessary to create video art.
Every few weeks two different videos, accompanied by images from the videos, will be displayed from class assignments. The first assignment required students to make videos without any voice-over, while the second assignment required it. The third assignment is the outcome of a project based in Special Collections and Archives. Special Collections Education and Outreach Librarian Marieke Van Der Steenhoven and Prof. Johnson created a matchmaking quiz for students to fill out and find their “matching” manuscripts in the archives. Students then dug into their manuscripts, looks at drawings, read diaries, and researched photographs. These manuscripts served as the starting point for their subsequent experimental documentaries and short narrative works. The fourth assignment uses “Love and Information” as a theme.
Prof. Johnson is thankful to the Ramp Gallery’s student curator Naomi Jabouin for her incredible work, Academic Technology Consultant Paul Benham for assisting students throughout their projects, Academic Multimedia Producer & Consultant Kevin Travers for green screen, lighting, and crane demos, Art Librarian Anne Haas for her encouragement, and Marieke Van Der Steenhoven for her collaboration.