Students, faculty to present interactive attractions at Momentum

September 12, 2018 | Events, News, UToday, Arts and Letters
By Angela Riddel



The University of Toledo School of Visual and Performing Arts faculty and students will participate in the 2018 Momentum arts and music festival.

Momentum is a three-day festival along the riverfront at Promenade Park in downtown Toledo. The free, public events will take place Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 13-15.

UT students and faculty will present several attractions this year during the Mini Maker Faire Saturday, Sept. 14, from noon to 6 p.m.

The family-friendly faire showcases invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and is a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making and share what they are learning.

UT attractions during the Mini Maker Faire are:

• All Together Now by Julia Labay Darrah and Yusuf Lateef, UT students. All Together Now combines aspects of play, sculpture, and installation using interchangeable life-size forms. These lightweight sculptures will feature a conglomerate of images of the human body and will be placed on a stage, inviting participants to interact with the forms to create a “family photo.”

• Dialogue With the River by Barbara Miner, professor and chair of the UT Art Department. This group project will enable hundreds of people to participate in the creation of an aesthetically engaging, temporary work of art. Based on Tibetan prayer flags, hand silk-screened flags with environmental information about the Maumee River and Lake Erie printed on colorful fabric will be created. The flags will be available for individuals to write on and create dialogues, wishes and pledges for the health of the river and the lake. The customized flags will then be strung on the tent-like uprights, creating a moving wind-driven sculpture. “The idea is that the wind will carry the good wishes and the promises out into the world in hopes that the newly gained awareness of the river’s plight will influence the choices each of us makes,” Miner said. Informational materials from regional and national groups such as Partners for Clean Streams, the Black Swamp Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy will be available.

Dr. Mass Foss showed a mask he created for the Eco Parade.

• Eco Parade by Dr. Mass Foss, UT assistant professor of theatre. The parade will feature large-format puppets and performance, live music, and community-created objects; the public will be invited to participate in the processional. “Eco Parade will showcase our community water source biodiversity, ecological need, and health with aims at improving our collective relationship and stewardship of the system as a whole,” Foss said.

• Bubble Butt by Sam Sheffield, a Baltimore artist, and Barry Whittaker, UT associate professor of art. Players will work as a team to explore a surreal and humorous landscape as a pair of sentient pants. Players must work together by bouncing on a convoluted, two-person, human-powered interface to control each leg of the pants avatar as it journeys through a series of obstacles and distractions.

• Stem by Matthew Dansack and Sebastien Schohn, UT students. This digital interactive media project uses multiple song stems — tracks of one or two instruments used to make a song — to allow participants a chance to create new song compositions. By interacting with an installation of amps, record crates and digital technology, users can arrange the stems to create and download a song.

• UT Biodesign Challenge Projects and Biomaterial Demonstrations by Brian Carpenter and Eric Zeigler, assistant professors in the UT Art Department, along with UT students. They will present biodesign projects by student teams that will engage with the greater public in a dialogue about real-world issues and potential solutions through biotechnology. Students will exhibit their prototypes along with their research. Many of the prototypes made use of a 3D printer and computer numerical control lasers and routers. Additionally, Carpenter and Zeigler will perform simple biomaterial demonstrations, which explore low-tech methods and materials that encourage playful interactions, to stimulate creativity, enabling the end user to tinker, design and build their own devices and realize the potential of imagination.

In addition, the UT Jazz Faculty Quartet will perform Saturday, Sept. 15, at 2 p.m.

More detailed information can be found at momentumtoledo.org.