Inaugural Clarvit Fellowship Winners Announced

The Department of Art announces the first recipients of the Clarvit Faculty and Graduate Research Fellowship

"The creation of new knowledge in the arts does not usually come from commonly sourced techniques; this is doubly so where technology intersects with the arts. Oftentimes, works of creative technology involve the invention of entirely new and novel visual media, which can create a significant barrier to entry for artists. This fund will provide opportunities for faculty and students in need of time and resources to create new works of creative technology in the arts and design and will help recruit graduate students to the Department of Art MFA program.” - excerpt from the mission statement for the Clarvit Endowed Fellowship Fund for Faculty and Graduate Research.

The Department of Art is pleased to announce the first recipients of the Clarvit Endowed Fellowship for Faculty and Graduate Research.  This award, the result of generous support from the Clarvit Family, aims to bolster new methods and modalities of research within the department and to allow our faculty and graduate students the necessary support to more deeply engage in new research trajectories.

This year's recipients are Professor John Ruppert, and MFA students Stephanie Mercedes and Charlotte Richardson-Deppe.

Prof. Ruppert's work will use support from this fellowship to create a new body of work:

"We find ourselves hurtling through space on the crust of a large sphere of molten rock and iron. We exist because of a thin veneer of cooled earth and water and an atmosphere protected by a strong gyromagnetic field created by the spinning molten iron core. Life as we know it is fragile and so far, we have been pretty lucky. [...] I will create a new body of work inspired by 3D models of celestial bodies and terrains. These models are created by N.A.S.A. using captured data from the actual object. Collaborating with the Terrapin Works Lab on campus and their rapid prototyping equipment to develop a series of objects inspired by these 3D models. The resulting objects will be integrated into future installations of his artwork combining video, audio and objects."

Stephanie Mercedes describes her project as follows:

"Metal boxes with printed screenshots of desaparecidos are filled with water. A subwoofer is attached to the underbelly of the box. Audience members move hydro-contact mics around the surface of the image submerged in water searching for the “heartbeat” of the image. As they do different sound loops are activated (because of the proximity of the contact mic to the subwoofer) causing the metal box to vibrate and different patterns emerge on the water’s surface. As the viewer moves the hydro- contact mic they cause strange sounds to be triggered from the subwoofer.

While imagining the work, I was thinking of the Vueltos de la Muerte (death flights) which characterized the Argentinian Dictatorship (1976-1983). During this period of time approximately 30,000 individuals “disappeared” for speaking out against the military state. Many of their bodies were dropped into Rio de la Plata. I have often imagined that their souls are still underneath the water, waiting to be remembered."

Charlotte Richardson-Deppe will conduct collaborative research into sculpture and performance with units across campus:

"In my written and artistic works I cultivate my contemporary voice in the lineage of feminist fiber and performance artists such as Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Ann Hamilton. My works are theoretically and conceptually rigorous, pairing text, sculpture, and the body in styles ranging from playful to haunting. My work is best described as embodied autotheory. I interrogate notions of queerness, womanhood, and familial legacy, building on the work of writers Jenny Odell and Maggie Nelson. At its core, my work is about interdependence: I explore the joints and disjoints intrinsic to relying, depending, and caring for oneself and others. [...] This proposal seeks to build on and expand my current artistic endeavors. My background in aerial circus arts and dance impart physicality and a preoccupation with bodies and sculptures into my works of sculpture, performance, and installation. "

Congratulations to the recipients of this year's Clarvit Endowed Fellowship for Faculty and Graduate Research.