Art professors Lindsey Dunnagan and Francine Fox promoted interdisciplinary studies by inviting their students to sketch or paint in partnership with the sciences for first-hand experience with live, unique subjects.
Dunnagan’s class worked with science professors, including Jay Bauman, Elisabeth Hooper and Timothy Waston. Bauman taught students how to attach reflective nodes to their bodies and capture motion in 360 degrees by using special recording devices in the Piper Lab. Students painted how meaning is conveyed in body movements using the technology.

In another project, students painted plants and animals from the greenhouse using elements of a Japanese marbling technique and seed collections. Walston also set up a lab for students to investigate single cell organisms from pond water. The students also explored how other objects, such as dried plants, a cracked egg and clothes, looked when magnified a thousand times.

Teams within Fox’s class created multi-panel pieces of artwork centering on a given theme to render realistic representations of their subject matter. Later depictions also included distortions of their imagery to better communicate their concepts. Continue reading →