SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION LIBERAL LEARNING SEMINAR

Communicating quantitative, technical data through the power of the image.

SciVis Class

This studio-seminar focused on the quantitative, artistic and technical aspects of communicating with the power of the image. Scientific visualization is about converting boring Excel spreadsheets into a beautiful piece of art that also tells a story. Students experienced the rich potentials in the fields of art and science. Projects involved the solution of problems using computer graphics, modeling, and 3D visualizations. Students learned to use state-of-the-art computer software to create engaging visual representations and sound designs that translate, interpret and explain real-world data.

By working in teams and displaying their creations publicly, students developed skills in collaboration and communication, aesthetics and numerical interpretation while gaining knowledge of the underlying visual and scientific principles.

Essential to the philosophy of the seminar is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of information visualization design. Students learned by making while interacting with peers and experts from diverse backgrounds. The relies on the principles of the design studio to engage in the study of quantitative and visual proficiency.

MoCap Class

How and why things move has long captured the interest of artists, researchers and the public. Motion capture, or MoCap, represents the diversity of techniques that enable recording, analyzing and describing movement for applications in entertainment, education, communication, health care and the general sciences. In studio-based MoCap seminar, offered for credit at WSSU, students interact with faculty and experts with access to state-of-the-art equipment and techniques like stop-motion stroboscopy, high-resolution technical photography, high-speed video and 3D reconstruction with multi-camera arrays in order to explore the research and artistic implications of this rapidly developing technology. They look at examples of athletic movement, dance choreography, the flight of animals and many others.

Exploration takes the class from the design studio setting to the MoCap lab at CDI to the Filmmaking stage and into the field.

Essential to the philosophy of the seminar is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of motion and movement. We learn by making while interacting with peers and experts from diverse fields. The seminar relies on the principles of the design studio to engage in the study of 3D motion and movement. Students, sometimes alone and sometimes in a small group, design and realize solutions to different motion capture scenarios.