Zoe

I’m studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Animation and Video, and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Science Communication. When the combination of those two particular degrees was opened up at the ANU for the first time at the beginning of 2014, I jumped at the opportunity. I haven’t looked back since.

A group of us from the ANU School of Art banded together and started creating and projecting digital artworks at events around Canberra. We projected material onto the National Archives building for a few nights during Enlighten and documented a lot of it using a camera on a quadcopter. Very cool. We also took turns essentially “VJing” (mixing visuals to music and projecting them) at Art Not Apart which was a lot of fun, too. Staff at the Photography and Media Arts workshop solicited for students interested in getting involved with the two festivals. I put both my hands up.

My Enlighten highlight had to be dancing in front of a Kinect to generate a projection of a pixelated digital silhouette on the facade of the National Archives building. I may have looked silly, but if you feel good whilst looking silly, that’s all that matters, right?

For Art Not Apart it was seeing the reactions of the crowd to some of the more distinct works, such as images of faces with mouths for eyes, electric jellyfish that flashed to the beat of the music, and so on.

After initially starting a single Visual Arts degree at the School of Art I decided I wanted to find ways in which to use art as a vehicle to communicate some of the complexities of some of these issues a little better. So after a year I transferred into a double degree with Science, enrolled in the Science Communication major and began exploring the possibilities.

Art and science have many similarities, but the kind that seems to really engage people is storytelling. The history of success and failure in the sciences makes for its own stories whenever a lecturer might want to explain the timeline for the development of a theory, for instance. In turn, art has been telling stories since time immemorial in every form from cave paintings right through to digital manipulation. Storytelling often engages people in ways that pure datasets in their rawest form just aren’t as capable of doing on their own.

It is my hope that in exploring the more creative avenues in communicating science that we might find better ways of helping people understand some of the more complex issues, be they politicians making key policy decisions, or be they children who are experiencing the world of science for the very first time.

It’s a tough call, but my favourite place on campus at the moment has to be University House. I have some nice memories attached to that place. At night time the courtyard has an ambience which is quite calming whilst the building itself has a heavy air of history about it. I also love the little library there, and occasionally enjoy quiet moments of reflection by the fish pond.

If I’m not spending my free time with someone then I might grab a sketch book, jump on my bike and head to a quiet spot to do some sketching or to brainstorm project ideas.