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.
For the past year, our faces have been mostly hidden in public. We’ve missed out on the bright smiles and expressive facial features that resulted from casual conversations when we bump into friends unexpectedly. Social interactions have been distanced in more ways than one. To fill that void, Ethan Ramirez recorded his conversations with “Regular Ass People” and gave life to their full faces in his installation in the Alkek One Student Gallery.
“I just thought that it would be nice to get some people together who probably haven’t been having the conversations they are used to due to COVID and casually talk so that I could share them with people that they weren’t able to talk to,” Ramirez said. “It was always meant to be an art project, but I didn’t necessarily anticipate having the opportunity to show it.”
But as Ramirez gave life and color and dimension to his friends through his portraits, the artistry of this project became something very meaningful. So, when the call came for digital art projects to adorn the Alkek One lobby, the interior design sophomore knew his multimedia project was a perfect fit for the space.
Stretched across a long canvas above the large monitor are slices of the faces of 30 of his friends in a colorful array. Put on the headset that hangs on the monitor and you can hear their voices in conversations on topics that “aim to connect people of different backgrounds and beliefs through the commonality of being humans with wondering and creative minds.” As they talk, their faces are sketched on the screen and their features come into focus as their personalities bloom through their words. Different colors and patterns are applied and replaced on screen as the artist brings forth the depth and brilliance of each individual.
Ramirez discovered Alkek One on the library’s first floor around the same time as the competition was launched. He took a class in the MakerSpace. “It was pretty exciting. I’ve always been interested in technology and art and fusing those things together.”
As he developed his project, the expert staff in Alkek One helped him learn skills like how to edit audio, how to wrap the canvas and what is involved in the process of printing on large scale.
“I learned a lot about pixel densities and whatnot for print,” he said.
Ramirez estimates the entire project took about 350 hours to complete including the conversations, the portraits, the editing of the video and creating the display pieces.
“I used almost all of the tools that are available in Alkek One,” he said.
Ramirez wants people to know that Alkek One offers great expertise to help with creative projects.
“If you have the opportunity to utilize these resources it’s only going to bolster your portfolio and your ability to make connections and network with fellow creatives because there is this space here,” Ramirez said. “And it’s centrally located at the library. You don’t need a department code to get in, so everybody should use the resources because we’re paying for it. This stuff is cool and useful.”
This article was contributed by Debbie Pitts, University Libraries Marketing and Communications Coordinator.