Envisioning and Enabling a Just Energy Transition in the Upper Valley

Sarah Kelly, Program Manager for the Energy Justice Clinic at the Irving Institute for Energy & Society and a Lecturer in the Geography Department | Maron Greenleaf, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
How can the transition away from fossil fuels be socially just in rural, cold and economically diverse regions like the Upper Valley? This project brings together anthropology, geography, the visual arts and community and student engagement. It pairs ethnographic research on the 'just transition' with the execution of a community mural in White River Junction, Vermont with the nonprofit COVER Home Repair. It also supports a linked student-led solarpunk art initiative on campus.

The Art of Conversation

Mark Thornton, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
A good conversation is a thing of beauty. This project will make that beauty manifest through a combination of visual and experiential art. Participants will converse while viewing art in the Hood Museum's collection. We will use machine learning to selectively play related comments from prior conversations over participants' headphones, thereby weaving past and present into a continuous social fabric. At the end of their experience, participants will receive procedurally generated visualizations of their conversations.

The Poster Performed

Tricia Treacy, Associate Professor of Print Media & Co-Chair, Department of Studio Art 
The poster, performed, is an investigation by Tricia Treacy (associate professor of studio art), and Arzu Ozkal (associate professor of graphic design, San Diego State University) involving digital media, computer algorithms and experimental print processes to critically rethink design processes in dialog with human and machine generators. They will collaborate with CS Digital Arts graduate student, Wylie Kasai. The project builds on the work of past artists/designers, who welcomed active audience participation to allow for chance and autonomy in the creation of the work.

 

The Art of Human Biology in Health & Disease

Lee Witters, Eugene W. Leonard 1921 Professor of Medicine, Medical Education and Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine
With the help of undergraduate students, Witters will assemble materials accumulated over five decades of teaching that bridge the intersection between art and biology useful in holistic teaching of how art can both inform and stimulate STEM students' engagement of and interest in molecular/cellular/physiologic details of human health and disease. Newly found material, in the Hood Museum collection and other sources, will be added with the intent to create a teaching resource for others.

TikTokBox: Improvisatory Embodiments of Sonic and Kinesthetic Memetics on Tiktok

Mac Waters, Digital Musics MA
In TikTokBox, composer/performer Mac Waters mutates the highly personalized content-sharing algorithm on TikTok into a motion-activated synthesizer. Investigating embodiments of digitally-transmitted auditory and visual memetics, particularly in the wake of a 2021 study that exposed a prevalence of movement disorders among young teenagers—a mass sociogenic illness of "TikTok tics"—TikTokBox is a duet between a user and their feed, the individual and the collective, the conscious and the digital subconscious.

Trazar sonido y luz // Tracing sound and light

Rodrigo Martinez Torres, Digital Musics MA
The Dartmouth MA candidate, composer and visual artist Emily Hass will undertake a collaborative visual and sound project based on Casa Barragán, the home and studio of Mexican architect Luis Barragán in Mexico City. The project will join architecture, visual art, music composition and performance. The approach is based on abstracting shapes and light inside a specific space—in the same way Barragán abstracted Mexican culture and materials—in order to generate a modern artistic and spiritual expression.

Cyborgs of Ukraine: Teaching English through Art in Ukraine

Caleb Newton, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies 
This initiative will use the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model to integrate Arts into English teaching in Ukraine. This English teaching program will not only help Ukrainians interact with their international partners, it will use the arts and new artificial intelligence tools to improve the outcomes of English teaching using a powerful teaching model that has yet to be used in wartime conditions. The art produced by students aids their retention of important knowledge (ex. avoiding IEDs and mines) and will contribute to the historical record while raising international awareness as students display the art they create.

 

The transmedial translation of the novel Amadoka: How text becomes clay and clay becomes music

Veronika Yadukha, Comparative Literature MA
The transmedial translation of the novel Amadoka: How Text Becomes Clay and Clay Becomes Music is a project about finding ways to perform a literary piece based on traumatic Ukrainian history by creating conditions to have a personal sonic experience of the fictional story. In collaboration with ceramic artists in Oaxaca, Mexico, Veronika will transpose the metaphors of the novel into musical instruments that she will make and present to the audience as the narrative sound translation of Sofia Andrukhovych's novel.

Triple Helix: AI-Artist-Audience Collaboration in a performative art experience

Xuedan Zou, Computer Science MS | Kyle Huang, Digital Arts MS | Ziang Ren, Computer Science MS
This research behind this project explores the potential for collaboration between humans and AI by developing an art installation called the "Triple Helix," in which artists, audiences and AI co-create a dynamic and collaborative artistic experience. The installation creates a cultural dialogue between the artist and the audience, with AI serving as the bridge that conveys the figurative voices of both sides. This project aims to provide insights into the impact and role of AI in artistic practice and the potential of computational creativity.

What is happening to the "Afro" in Afrobeats?

John Ejiogu '23 | Mark Gitau '23 
Recent increasing global recognition of Afrobeats, especially in the Western world, has ignited the inquiry: is Afrobeat changing to conform to Western Standards or is the Western world just beginning to learn more about Afrobeats (due to globalization) and therefore, appreciating it for what it is? Or is it a mix of both? In this project, we aim to take a research-based approach to exploring these questions and either solidifying or providing new perspectives on this discussion.

A Botanical Embrace

Erik Seigel '26
This installation features an ecological metamorphosis, exploring the complex relationship between humanity and nature. A synthetic dress covered in moss, ferns and vines examines the ability of nature to reclaim and consume man-made objects and our destructive relationship with clothing. Visitors will also be encouraged to engage with an interactive website that tracks the plants' growth and features a sustainability survey.

The body is permeable: human health in a time of climate change

Gaia Yun '25
This project is an immersive video installation with animated digital art that will portray how climate change affects human health, from changes in vector ecology to air pollution. The project aims to evoke a sense of immediacy regarding climate change by emphasizing our physical mortality and vulnerability in relation to the environment.
 

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