About the Studio
Design Studio 2010 is here! Check out our new site.
In July of 2008, the Westcott House Foundation and The Now Device combined forces to facilitate a two week, immersive, design studio in new media for students with an interest in arts and design and who wished to explore the potential of new and emerging media. This site is a small sampling of the process and work of the studio. Please use the navigation on the right to view student produced photos, student produced video, documentation of the studio and commentary from the participants. You can watch a short video about the studio here. Welcome and please enjoy this example of innovative educational programming at a living architectural treasure.
Our Goal
The intent of this pilot project was to give young students cutting edge tools, place them in an amazing location and encourage them to produce expressive works of art. We spent two dense weeks with a group of talented local high school students - bringing them up to speed on professional level photography, videography and installation technologies, as well as design-process thinking and basic visual art concepts. The studio introduced students to the use of contemporary audio and visual time-based media as a means of communicating ideas, expressing artistic themes and capturing and exploring emotional meaning.
Working in a Special Place
The immersion on-site at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House was a unique opportunity that inspired some impressive pieces focused on the students’ direct experience. Students explored, examined and considered the house on many different levels and as a result created some truly original, interpretive art.
The culmination of the studio was a public showing of student work on the evening of July 25th at the Westcott House. Visitors were able to watch video segments produced by the studio graduates and to experience a three-dimensional audio/visual installation in the house’s main stairwell.
The Next Step(s)
Elements of work produced in this studio will be incorporated into Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House: A Centennial Tribute, a collaborative production of The Now Device and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, which will be performed live on September 6th at the Kuss Auditorium in Springfield, Ohio. Graduates of the program will be invited to assist in the production of the performance. For more information on this unique media experience, please visit the Westcott House online.
