COLAB’s ‘Wired Space’ to feature interactive art and design installations April 16

COLAB’s ‘Wired Space’ to feature interactive art and design installations April 16April 06, 2009Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s COLAB will present “Wired Space,” an exhibition of interactive art and design installations, on Thursday, April 16, from 5-8 p.m. in the Case Supply Building, 109 Wyoming St., Syracuse. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

“Wired Space” explores the functional, conceptual and expressive possibilities of weaving together materials, technology and interaction. The installations include an interactive wall/musical instrument, a weeping willow tree that brings outside sounds into a rehabilitated warehouse, and a wall that opens into another country.

The installations in “Wired Space” were created by students enrolled in “Interactive Lab: Responsive Environments,” a COLAB-sponsored, cross-disciplinary course that explores the intersection of information, interaction and installation art. In the semester-long experience, students learned to program microcontrollers and use sensors and emitters to produce site-specific artworks using various data and information sources, video and sound. The course is taught by faculty members in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the School of Information Studies.

COLAB is an interdisciplinary initiative that encourages students and faculty to use their diverse skills and perspectives to solve complex, real-world problems creatively and collaboratively. Based in VPA and headquartered on the fourth floor of The Warehouse at 350 W. Fayette St., COLAB offers courses, programs and events in a nontraditional atmosphere that fosters innovation and imagination.

For more information, contact Michael McAllister, COLAB’s director of design and innovation, at mlmcalli@syr.edu or visit http://colab.syr.edu.