Arts At The U Get Technical

The University of Utah College of Fine Arts will celebrate the creation of the Center for Interdisciplinary Arts and Technology (CIDAT) with the presentation of META: Media Experiments in Technology and the Arts. The event will take place Thursday and Friday, April 19 and 20 in the New Media Wing of the Art and Architecture Building, 375 South 1530 East, at 7 p.m. General admission is $5.00; U of U students, faculty, staff and their families are free with university ID.

Gone are the days when artists sit behind a canvas and "techies” sit behind a computer screen. For two evenings META will blur the divisions between the arts and technology as faculty and students from the departments of dance, music, art and art history, and the Arts Technology Program present installations, live performances, visual art and screenings that were all created through the use of media and technology.

“META is a wonderful opportunity to feature the work of faculty and students from the College of Fine Arts who are exploring the intersections of media, technology and the more traditional art forms,” says Raymond Tymas-Jones, dean of the College of Fine Arts and associate vice president for the arts. ”It is our vision that the CIDAT will reach beyond the college, fostering interdisciplinary research between the fine arts and all of the sciences, serving to generate new creative dialogues on campus.”

Modeled after the Evening of Arts Technology presented in 2005, this season’s META focuses not only on technology but also presents works utilizing media in a variety of interesting and unusual ways. Each gallery of the New Media Wing will feature an array of media works, performances, objects, installations or visual art.

At 7:30 p.m. in the main gallery, electronic music compositions will be performed by internationally recognized school of music faculty members Morris Rosenzweig and Miguel Chuaqui. In addition, compositions by music students will be performed, a number of which include video projection and live dance performance. A sound installation will also be presented by music professor Mike Cottle.

Brent Schneider, professor of modern dance, will perform in a multi-media installation entitled Souvenir. Well-known visual artists Paul Stout, Ed Bateman, Ray Morales and Joseph Marotta will also exhibit their work.

Participating students are: Juan Carlos Claudio, Monica Campbell, Corinne Cappelletti, Emily Fifer, Marie Grudzien, Shannon Mockli, Brendon Moulding, Michael McGlothlen, Martha McLaughlin, Samuel Richards, Shawn Standing, Samuel Hanson and Tom Harvigson.