Artist Talk with Animator Matt Derksen

Matt Derksen

Tuesday, September 27 at 4pm
358 Hopkins Hall

Join us for an Art & Tech alumni career talk with Matt Derksen!

Matthew Derksen is an Academy Award winning animation artist who works as Head of Rigging at Industrial Light and Magic, on feature film and television projects. He previously worked at Rhythm & Hues as the rigging supervisor on films such as Life of Pi, The Hunger Games, and Hellboy and he has also worked as a visual effects artist for many other popular films. He is an alumnus of the Ohio State University’s Art & Technology area in the Department of Art (1997, BFA and 2004, MFA).
Learn about Derksen’s career working in the animation/film industry. He will also answer questions you might have about getting started in this field. All are welcome!

Poster:

Alumni Snapshot – Sarah Hockman

Sarah Hockman, (BFA 2016) visited the Studio Practice course this semester to share her career path with us. After graduating, she researched jobs online while traveling to California in her van. Her first job was at Unity Labs in San Francisco, as a Virtual Reality Lab Assistant. Her creativity and working knowledge of emerging technologies were very helpful skills for this position.

Eventually, she sought new challenges. She had quite a bit of experience working in animation and video as an Art & Technology major, and she knew she really enjoyed it. She aimed her job search at smaller companies, which would allow her to have more creative control of projects and she found a great match as a Motion Graphics Designer at Avalanch Media in Salt Lake City, Utah. After a few years of working there, she decided to leave so she could go on a long bike trek in Spain.


With her work portfolio and a solid network, she is able to find clients as a freelancer now. Check out her website here.

 

Some of her advice to students included:

  • reinvent your brand regularly
  • maintain an up-to-date website
  • don’t get too fancy with your resume
  • make time for your own creative projects
  • make sure to enjoy your life, too!

Alumni Snapshot – Charles Hairston

Charles Hairston graduated in 2013 with a BFA in Art, focused in Art & Technology. He is a Producer and Motion Graphics Designer at the Ohio Channel, a service of Ohio’s public broadcasting stations. He is also the Creative Director and Founder of Faesis.

Charles recently presented his work and his career path at “Art & Tech Career Talk” for the undergraduate students in Studio Practice, taught by Amy Youngs. He discussed the work he does at his day job, how he landed that job, which began as a paid internship, and how he slowly, but surely, built his own creative content agency in Columbus, Ohio. He started before he even graduated from Ohio State University and, though he recently changed its name from Nuge to Faesis, the focus is still on producing visual storytelling content in the form of videos, motion graphics, branding, and illustration.

Charles Hairston shared his journey with the students, his philosophy of networking, and the importance of valuing – and getting paid for – the creative work one does.

An example of a video story he has made for the musician Andy Milne. His company’s list of clients includes The Columbus Foundation, Making Midwest Fest, Medical Mutual, Artfluential, and The Ohio State University.

 

Art & Tech student club hosts Multivarius Games event

Join the Art & Tech Student Club on Tuesday, Feb 25th at 7pm in Hopkins Hall room 250 to learn about Multivarius Games, a game creation company here in Columbus, Ohio. With Katie Hamill, BFA alumna of Art & Tech!

poster for multivarius games event

All are welcome and encouraged to join the Art & Tech student club. Come to the meetings each Thursday this semester at 7pm in Hopkins 180a, or contact Megan Wright wright.1945@buckeyemail.osu.edu.

Ruth Burke Visiting Artist

OSU Art & Tech Alumna Ruth Burke (BFA 2012) is visiting to present her recent artwork. Her work involves interspecies collaborations with animals; inspired by her relationships with them. Ruth’s visit is sponsored by the Graduate Student Art Club at Ohio State University.

Ruth Burke digital imaging art
Susurrus 2019, by Ruth Burke

More on Ruth’s Website.

Flyer for Ruth Burke visiting artist

Fuse Factory exhibition and workshops

3b8ee652-ed8a-47f8-84c4-a527b034dc83Exciting events going on this month with Fuse Factory, our local non-profit organization promoting electronic and digital arts. Check out the workshops (many free for OSU students) and the exhibition Anthropocene, opening Saturday, Nov 19 at the Pearl Conrad Art Gallery in Mansfield, Ohio. 6 – 9pm.

Art and Tech alumnus Doo-Sung Yoo directed the exhibition and brought in Internationally-known artists, Victoria Vesna, Paul Catanese, and Matt Kenyon to jury the show.

Big congrats to all the Art and Tech alumni involved!

·         Bill Randall, presenting artwork in the exhibition

·         Andrew Frueh, presenting a workshop on 3D printing

·         Jessica Ann, presenting a workshop on Electronic Art & Arduino

·         Christopher Summers, presenting a workshop on Virtual Reality

·         John Cairns, presenting a workshop on Video Projection Mapping

More info: http://thefusefactory.org/2016_ffe/

Machines Triggered by the Ghost of Thomas Eakins

Art and Tech MFA alum Fernando Orellana’s has a solo show at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), recently reviewed by Hyperallergic. To summon the ghost of Thomas Eakins to Philadelphia through art machines and nude models, robots are constantly sampling three different measurements: electromagnetic, temperature, and infrared. All three of these are what pseudo-scientist and paranormal researchers measure when they try to detect ghost activity.

 

Maker Faire Ottawa

selfie moment
Selfie Moment, by Ethan Schaefer

Art and Tech students and faculty and alumni presented work at Maker Faire in Ottawa Canada in a special art exhibition titled Preternatural, co-curated by Ohio State University Professor Ken Rinaldo and Maker Faire curator Remco Volmer. They invited artists whose works address the perspectives of animals, media and technological representations, ecosystems, futures, coevolution, symbiosis and friction between human and non-humans. These included 3D rapid prototyped sculptures, 3D animations, robotic artworks, performance and moving image art installations.

makemag
Makezine wrote a story about the Preternatural exhibition
Ada Fruit story on Simon
AdaFruit wrote about Jeremy Viny and Andrew Frueh’s project in the exhibition

Invited artists: Madeleine Rico, Jeremy Viny, Trademark Gunderson, Jordan Reynolds, Ethan Schaefer, Catherine Lee, Danner Seyffer-Sprague, Danielle Popp, Yoni Mizrachi, Sarah Goetz, Amy Youngs, Grant Parish, Casey Hamilton, Daniel Popp, Christine Rucker, Katherine Beigel, Drew Grigsby, Christina Howard, Kyler Holland, Maggie Barrie, Riley Patrick, Makayla Combs, Nick Cunningham, Hui Yang, Jayne Kennedy, Brandon Messner, Jacob Markusic, Brandon Ball, Michael Anderson, Leah Lafarciola, Gaopeng Chen, Jay Young and Ken Rinaldo.

Special Thanks to the United States Department of State for the generous grant allowing travel funds for these artists and to Maker Faire Ottawa for this generous opportunity as well as the Department of Art at the Ohio State University in supporting this international opportunity.

Alumni Snapshot – Gene Felice

Gene-Felice_300

Gene A. Felice II graduated in 2002 with a BFA in Art, focused in Art & Technology. In 2014 he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Digital Arts & New Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

genefelice
Gene Felice presenting his artwork at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA

He is a new faculty member within Intermedia & New Media at the University of Maine where he is also developing his Coaction Lab for interdisciplinary collaboration with an ecologically minded approach. He bridges his research and practice across:  Art, Science, Design & Education, developing a network of creativity, living systems, and emerging technologies. He has a hybrid practice at the intersection of nature and technology, developing symbiotically creative systems as arts / science research.

Visit Gene’s website here.