The walls of the new first floor lobby of the Alkek Library are adorned with Texas State student projects that demonstrate how technology and creativity align in the new Alkek One areas of the library. Seven student projects were selected among entries to the inaugural competition for art installations to be featured in the Alkek One Student Gallery. Library staff partnered with the Common Experience team and selected the winners that depicted this year’s campus theme of Dynamics. Dynamics involves the consideration of forces or motion including physical, motiving, moral or historical forces that produce growth, movement or change. The article below profiles one of the participants whose work was selected for the gallery.
Madi Southerland knows a good opportunity when she sees it. The Texas State junior is a busy student double majoring in mathematics and art while also working on a teaching degree for secondary education. With all she has on her plate, she understands the value of a good shortcut. And that’s exactly what she found in the Alkek One MakerSpace when her project was selected for display in the library’s Alkek One Student Gallery.
Southerland’s work was originally created through a manual process of drawing lines on wood, but replicating that work using digital technology not only showed her another avenue for her talent, it also introduced her to the digital resources in Alkek One, many of which will make her work easier in the future.
“The original inspiration for the project I entered was a prompt from my teacher to integrate two things that don’t necessarily relate to each other,” Southerland explained. “I actually picked mathematics and western versions of magic and witchcraft because they use a lot of pentagrams and pentagons in their practices and its has symbolism. In math there are very rigid definitions and rules so I started thinking about the actual definitions for those shapes in the math world and then I started to blend them by exploring the definitions and then breaking them a little.”
But Southerland’s original piece was not produced using digital technology which was a requirement for the Alkek One competition.
“I had originally made it on wood with ink and graphite and then (the Alkek One managers) gave me the opportunity to remake it and to play around with the technology in the Alkek One MakerSpace,” she said. “I used the same ideas, just different materials.”
The result is an amazing set of art pieces produced on acrylic using the Alkek One laser cutter. Southerland didn’t know about Alkek One prior to entering the competition, but now that she has discovered the MakerSpace, she is excited to explore it further.
“I created the digital version using Adobe Illustrator. And then it’s kind of like just sending it to a printer. You print it to the laser cutter and instead of ink, it will carve out the illustration you sent on the acrylic, she said. “They gave me a little training and I was able to go in there and it didn’t take me long to understand it. You can do a lot with just your imagination working with this technology. I’m really excited that it’s here and I have another year at Texas State to use it. I want to get trained on a lot more stuff so that I have more freedom within the space.”
Southerland is eager to share her new find with her fellow art students and she plans to use the laser cutter more in the future to cut down on the labor needed to create multiples for her projects.
“I think all art majors in 2D or 3D design will benefit from getting training on at least one thing. This will help me cut down on the labor time that I normally would have to spend in the woodshop, sanding and cutting stuff down,” she said.
I’m excited that I got this opportunity!
This article was contributed by Debbie Pitts, University Marketing and Communications Coordinator.