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.
Engineering sophomore Michael Quinto has always had a bit of a creative mindset. In high school, he was into photography and channeled creative thinking into projects for his photography class. When assigned a nighttime photo shoot, he took it “next-level” and developed a project that involved the use of standard kitchen supplies and fire. Quinto and a friend grabbed steel wool, a cooking whisk and rope and headed to the beach under the cover of darkness. Quinto had heard that steel wool would burn and give off sparks which gave him the idea for this assignment.
“I lit the steel wool on fire and inserted into the whisk and tied it to a rope,” he said. “I spun it overhead so that the sparks flew off in all directions.”
Quinto and his friend were awed by shower of sparks in actual time, but by experimenting with different shutter speeds, they were able to capture the entire path of each spark in awesome photographs that were the perfect representation of dynamics. When Quinto heard about the Alkek One competition, he immediately thought of those images and felt he could put together a project for the gallery. Working with Alkek One experts, Quinto was able to create an impressive presentation of framed artwork.
“I learned a lot about large-scale printing and how to determine the optimum size to get maximum clarity,” Quinto said. “I am pleased with how the project came out.”
Quinto also learned a bit about what can be done in Alkek One and urges his fellow students to come see what they can create on the first floor of the library.
“I have used the maker space at Ingram, and it has great resources. But, I like the fact that the library’s MakerSpace is so accessible to all students and they make it easy to learn how to use the equipment and just be creative,” he said. “And it has longer open hours which makes it easier for students to access during their free time.”
Quinto’s project description includes his wish for others to find inspiration through his project. “The future of technology is often unknown, but I urge you to find a spark of innovation and spread your light.”
This article was contributed by Debbie Pitts, University Libraries Marketing and Communications Coordinator.